The other night I was lying on the floor with worship music playing. But I wasn’t lying on the floor worshipping. I was wondering. The day had not been a great one. I was exhausted from travel and too many conversations and I thought the answer to my physical and emotional state would be found in pizza and chocolate ice cream. I chose to spend the entire day in old patterns of living that have never proven helpful but harmful. Lying on the floor, listening to the music, I began to ask God, “Do you really love me now? Here? How can you possibly love me in this low place?”
But I knew he did. Jesus died on the cross for all of my sins even the ones I have committed over and over and over again. There was a battle going on for my freedom all that day as well as those critical moments on the floor; a spiritual battle. And it was raging where it almost always rages – over what I would choose to believe.
In Waking the Dead, my husband John wrote, “You won't understand your life, you won't see clearly what has happened to you or how to live forward from here, unless you see it as battle. A war against your heart.” Jesus has won our freedom in a heavenly, spiritual showdown with Satan. But our enemy, the devil, still refuses to go down without a fight. He knows he cannot take down Jesus, the Victorious One. But he can still wound his heart by wounding ours. Jesus has won our freedom. But we need to receive it, claim it and stand in it. That is our good fight of faith. Believing God is who he says he is and believing we are who he says we are in the face of damning evidence surrounding us that screams the opposite. In order for us to live in freedom and become the woman we are to become, we need to receive God’s love even in our lowest places.
You know that spiritual warfare is designed to separate us from the love of God. Its goal is to keep us from living in the freedom that Jesus has purchased for us. And just like worship, the focus of spiritual warfare is the Truth. Satan whispers to us when we have failed or sinned or are feeling horrid that we are nothing and no one. He is a liar. And our fight for our freedom involves exposing him for who he is even when the lies feel completely true. The battle is waged and won in our thought life.
What do you think about God? What do you think about yourself? Who are you? What do you think life is about? What do you think is true? Because what we think about ourselves, God, others or a circumstance informs how we perceive it which informs the way we experience it. Our thoughts play out in our lives. What we think is true, plays out in our day to day, moment by moment existence. What are you thinking? And if you are in this moment, like I was that evening, basing your thoughts on your feelings and experiences rather than the Word of God…then, darlin’, stop it. Let’s fight our good fight of faith and bring our thoughts into alignment with what God says is true!
“Surely you desire truth in my inmost being.” Ps 51:6
“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Col 1:13,14
“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, (Spiritual powers and spiritual authorities) he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Col 2:15 – 17
Romans 5:10 “For if when I was your enemy I was reconciled to You through the death of your son, how much more, having been reconciled shall I be saved through his life.”
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,” Eph 2: 4-6
Mtt: 28:18, “All authority in Heaven and Earth has been given to Me.” - Jesus
Luke 10:19,20 “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
And Romans 8:37-39 ”But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
We are loved. We are held. We are seen. We are chosen. We are forgiven. We are HIS! Oh, let’s think on that!
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