Stand and Fight

In my time with the Lord recently I was praying about our church. There are a number of good things going on and we have so many wonderful folks that are involved. Yet there has been a sense that something isn't quite right. Not something terrible, mind you, but just "off."

As I prayerfully pondered this I thought about Ephesians 6 and its section on spiritual warfare. I turned there and as I read I felt that the Lord was speaking to me. Paul writes

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

He says we are to do three things.

1) Be strong in the Lord. This reminds me of David when he and his men had returned
to Ziklag only to find that it had been raided. All their families and belongings had been taken away and the men were so distraught "they spoke of stoning David; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God" (1 Samuel 30:6). To be strong in the Lord is to put your confidence, your trust, in Him.

2) Put on the whole armor of God. We are in a battle and God has not left us without protection. But its up to us to use it. A few verses later Paul tells us about the armor: the belt of truth--truth and truthfulness have a way of holding things together; the breastplate of righteousness--the breastplate was also called the heart protector. Guarding the heart (its emotions, impulses, desires) and lining it up rightly with God is so important; gospel footware--this implies readiness to witness, but the footware also gave secure footing. My security is in the gospel, in Jesus, not anything else in this world; shield of faith--God's promises; helmet of salvation--protecting our minds and being able to think in a clear headed , God-honoring manner; sword of the spirit--the word of God. It is critical to this battle (see Matthew 4:1-11); prayer--but of course!

A person might use the armor of God as a prayerful check-list. As you walk through the list you may also find that the Spirit convicts you of things. For example, as you pray about truth he may remind you that you weren't truthful with a friend and need get that right. Or that you have believed a lie and need to reject it, choosing that which is true. Determine to do so, or your armor may have a chink in it.

3) Stand against the schemes of the devil. So many of the devil's schemes have to do with lies. It's simple. If he can get a person to believe a lie then he can influence their life in that area. Some of the schemes the devil uses include the lie of self-sufficiency and also "the optionals". For example, that church is "optional", or that praying together is "optional". You get the idea. It's not that these things give a person eternal life, it's that they are an important part of the eternal kind of life.

As I talked with the Lord about all of this I realized that a very real possibility for sensing that something was "off" with Cornerstone was the fact that we are in the midst of a spiritual battle. It may be that we aren't "off" but actually "on" and that the demonic forces are standing against us. If that is the case, then we need to stand against them.

Would you pray this way on behalf of Cornerstone? Put your confidence in the Lord, prayerfully put on the armor of God and then stand against the schemes of the devil. Asking the Lord to bind him and to bring his schemes to naught.

Pray on!