I Will Rise!
Cindy Hyde
Our battles are not fleshly ones, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephesians 6:12.
Our greatest battlefield is our mind. Our greatest weapon? The Word of God. Our greatest assurance? Jesus Christ has fought and won the battle for us. He overcame the world, the flesh, the devil, death, and hell for us. The battle is already won! Glory to God!
Every good soldier has battle gear. Since our battles are not flesh and blood our instruments of warfare can not be made of natural materials. Shields of metal or wood would do little to protect us from the onslaught of fiery darts. The strongest metal is to weak to protect our minds from the perversions suggested to us from a dark world. Our gear must be of supernatural origin.
Ephesians 6:13-20, "Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak."
Notice that the first piece of armor to wear is truth girding our loins. We all reach the place in our lives when we have to accept or reject the simple gospel truths in God's Word. The breastplate of righteousness is next, and comes when we accept the truths God gives us, that Jesus Christ is His only begotten Son, that He was born of a supernatural virgin birth, that He lived a sinless life and that He suffered and died, paying the price, the death sentence for our sins. That He rose again after three days in the tomb, and sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven, praying for us daily.
We must then shod our feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. It's not enough to accept the truth, or to become righteous, but we are to go forth and take this truth into all nations. To walk in peace with all men every where. Peace is one thing the world can not offer you. Jesus gives us peace, He gives us rest. This is what we are responsible to share.
The shield of faith is our most important defensive weapon. It encompasses us with a powerful invisible shield that the enemy can not penetrate regardless what his tactics are. God gives each of us a measure of faith whereby we can believe in the Son of God, but faith is something we must grow ourselves. The stronger our faith, the bigger our shield. Those who have great faith allow those with little faith to come behind and receive protection from their shield but this is only temporary. We must all work our faith.
Helmets of salvation for the saints. This is such an important part of our gear. Our heads, our minds are in essence what we function with. Without our mind we are vegetables. It is of the utmost importance to protect. Salvation must be utmost in our minds. The price Jesus paid for us was a high one, we must keep an attitude of gratitude. We must protect that which is sacred, that which we have received from the Spirit of the Lord.
It is a struggle to keep
this armor on at times, but it can be done. The complete armor
of God is given to us for our protection, but it is something that we must
choose to put on. God will not put it on us. He will not dress us. We
are not infants.
When we're in the heat of a battle and we're fighting with all our might
our helmet of salvation can get knocked around, bent up, and even the
worst possible scenario, it can get knocked completely off. Our helmet
of salvation is a very important piece of our armor. We need clear minds to fight with.
Our shield of faith can get bent or slung out of our hand, our breastplate of
righteousness can get dented, and we can loose our grip on it. Our feet shod with the Gospel of
Peace can get kicked off when we kick at the enemy, and can get
stuck in quicksand or get muddy from the trenches.
We can get knocked flat on our backs and get the breath knocked out of us. We can get
bruises, abrasions, cuts, scrapes, contusions, concussions... and yet we
must fight on. If our girdle of truth comes loose our breastplate will come
off. The armor all works together to protect those areas vital to
life.
The fiery darts seem to be equipped with devices that allow them to penetrate the very weakest areas of our armor. When they bombard the same spot continually it will weaken, and eventually give way. Even a constant steady drip of water can eventually make a hole in a rock.
The attacks can seem incessant.
We can get so battle
weary. During times like this the desire to 'get away and regroup' seems
almost overwhelming. There's nothing wrong with going back to the fox holes
and regaining your strength, but to many Christians determine to stay there.
They throw the towel in, ring the bell for some corner time and never
enter into the fight again. It's during times of discouragement,
when we want to quit the worst that we must fight the hardest. The onslaught of the
enemy will be there until we overcome him by the blood of the Lamb and the
word of our testimony. How can we have a testimony if we never overcome? We stand and fight,
rest, call in more troops, fight some more, win a
little, loose a little and fight even more.
We grow weaker and and loose our fight if we do not keep ourselves
healthy. We run out of energy, we get tired, even exhausted. When we have
little strength left we begin to get discouraged. As the
battle continues the darts of discouragement will intensify. The enemy has gained "a
foothold" in an area and that's where the rest of the fiery darts will surely
hit.
The discouraged will soon turn into the depressed. The depressed will
become the defeated, ready to give it all up. We want
to take a white flag and wave it as high and as hard as we can and scream to the
top of our lungs "I can't take anymore!" Then run to the bedroom, jump into the
haven of our bed and cover our heads in utter disgrace and defeat. But remember: God is strongest when we are the weakest. When we can't fight
anymore that's when He can fight for us. We are weak but He is strong.
The enemies run when our Father comes to our rescue. When the enemies hear
the name of Jesus they tremble with fear. Why wouldn't we ask Him to fight our
battles for us? Because we are still fighting our flesh and think we can do it? Because we
think we are strong enough? Yeah right! We are defenseless except for the Word of God. Do
you realize that the Sword of the Spirit is the only offensive weapon we have?
Then why wouldn't we use it? When Jesus was in the
desert being tempted of the devil for 40 days, He used it. He repeatedly said, "It is written...". That's how we win battles. We do as
Jesus did. We use His authority.
Do you remember when we were kids? Your sister came and told you to clean your room. And
you did? No! But if she came and said, "Dad told us to clean our rooms." Did
you? You had better or you would suffer the consequences of disobedience. The same with
spiritual warfare. The battles are won by saying what the Word says. By wielding our
Swords. By speaking forth the Word of God with power and with authority. By saying... "It is written...".
And where is the battleground? Our mind! That's right! It's not your body, your heart, your soul, your circumstances... All the battles start in our mind. Watch your thoughts. See how the enemy comes to manipulate, dominate, and intimidate you. Has he got you gripped with fear? Fear of dying, fear of cancer, diabetes, growing old? Take an inventory of your thoughts. Do you think because your mom dies when she was 58 of a heart attack you will to? Do you think because your mother fought depression you are cursed with it as well?
Many of our spiritual battles come from generational curses. But they even began with the thoughts of our forefathers. In our souls we are tied to people. We transfer our spirits to others. Ever enter a room full of critical people. What happens? Soon you become critical to. Enter a room full of irritable, grouchy complaining co-workers? What happens, that spirit transfers itself to you and you have to fight the pull of it in your mind. Or give in and begin to complain with them.
It's the job of your enemy to cause strife, dissension, confusion, and trouble everywhere, especially in the body of Christ. He has purposed to convince you that you're useless, ineffective, unforgivable, unlovable, defeated and so on. After all he wants to kill steal and destroy all that you have, are and will be.
The devil hates you. He hates God. He is deceptive. He is the father of lies. He is sneaky, and tricky and trips you up every chance he gets. He causes us to fall. But I say this day, "Though I have fallen, I will rise." God will turn and is turning my darkness into light! Hallelujah!!!
Why is it we'll stand up and fight against the enemy until we have no more fight left in us before we let Jesus get involved? We know we can't win except through Him. We are hardheaded sheep! And we prove it every day!
We aren't guaranteed that we will win every battle that we fight, but we know who wins the war because we know 'the rest of the story' as Paul Harvey says. The battle is already won. So why do we struggle so hard?
I've been in so many useless battles that I can't begin to count them all. I resolve this night just as little David did, that "the battle's not mine!" I can say unto the Lord, "Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up." (Psalms 71:20)
