Saturday, April 23, 2016

When It Just Won't Stop

Resistance from the demonic realm comes to all believers at one time or another. Usually it's purpose is to take us off our game. One thing our enemy knows is the mental warfare game. When we are young in the Lord, it might only take a few moments of resistance to cause us to shrink back from our assignment. God gives us a word in Ephesians  that is crucial to remember. 6.10 " Be strong in the Lord...." We are called to a walk of spiritual strength. That strength comes from the Lord. We must draw nearer in prayer, calling out humbly to our Father, and pressing in to receive from him our supply of strength. We must resist the temptation to gin up our own strength. No matter how formidable our physical stamina, we are small and frail in comparison to the Devils that attack us. Our strength must be spiritual in nature, and our faith must be in the Lord our God.

But there are also times when the attack is simply unrelenting. A constant bombardment, a thrashing of situation after situation, seeming defeat after seeming defeat, and a piling on that simply is overwhelming. We must ask ourselves if we still believe in the One who has called us. War is an exhausting and demanding effort. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar. Once again Ephesians 6 gives us direction. "“Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”V 13. AS the enemy comes with relentlessness, we recognize that we must be standing on holy ground that he wants back. We have somehow advanced, and gained a place of worth in the spiritual dimension. 

Shamefully, it is at this point that we often lose our patience with God's seeming slow response for reinforcements. We give up on the fellowship of believers, or we run off to chase a blessing somewhere else because we can convince ourselves that that is better than standing. Yet understanding the motivation of the dark kingdom should stir up a Holy Resistance, a Divine Refusal to release the territory that we have gained and the Savior has conquered by his blood. Do not give in, fight the fight. Stand your ground, do not give up! Even though doubts arise, even though the fire burns for weeks, even though it seems relentless, do not alter your course.

Just don't give up.