Oct 12, 2015

The Field (guest post by Lydia Thomas)

I want to thank Mary for sharing her online space with me today. I’ve enjoyed getting to know Mary through Vox Dei Publishing over our mutual passion for prayer and spiritual warfare.

Spiritual warfare has been a major theme in my life, and inspired much of my newly-released allegorical fantasy, The Fieldwhich deals with three women lured into a forbidden field with the promise of treasure and they get caught up in an age-old battle as a result.

When dealing with spiritual warfare, I am always reminded of Ephesians 6. In verse 12, Paul says, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities, and powers of this dark world and against spiritual forces of darkness in heavenly realms.” He goes on to describe how we should arm ourselves in order to stand against that darkness.

A few weeks ago I saw the movie War Room, and I was impressed with the thought that all great warriors have a strategy to defeat their enemies. An effective strategy involves knowing how your enemy operates. As Christians, we often know our enemy’s goal is to keep humanity from God’s good purposes, but what specifically does he use against people?

More recently, I’ve been reading John Bunyan’s Holy War, and when the usurper Diabolous hears King Shaddai is planning to take back the city of Mansoul, he arms his soldiers. He tells them to put on the helmet of peace to do what they want, the breastplate of a hard heart, the sword of a slandering tongue, the shield of skepticism, and a proud spirit that will not ask for mercy.

That was eye-opening for me. In order to defeat the enemy’s hold in a life or situation, I must confront the spirits of selfishness, hardness, accusation, unbelief, and pride, and in our society, they are formidable foes.

Think about it. We have the young man in a sexually immoral relationship because he’s bound by the spirit of what makes him happy. We have the young woman who’s had an abortion bound by the spirit of hardness toward a life cut short. We have the pundit bound by the spirit of tearing others down instead of looking in the mirror. We have the philosopher bound by the spirit of endless questions and no absolutes. We have the overachiever bound by the spirit of independence and never needing help.

It doesn’t take much to see that this darkness we’re up against is pervasive. It’s overwhelming. I’ve heard well-meaning Christian preachers say we shouldn’t confront the enemy because he’s too powerful and we can’t take his dominion. I respectfully disagree. Sure, if we try to take the darkness with our own abilities and methods we will create a bloodbath.

But.

Just as we’re not called to fight humans, we’re not called to use human abilities and methods. We’re called to stand protected with the resources God has given: The belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shoes of preparation in the gospel, shield of faith, helmet of salvation. Our weapons of offense? God’s Word and prayer. 

The Spirit in us is greater than any spirit sent by the enemy, and He will bring God’s Word to mind (John 14:26) and prays with us and for us (Romans 8:26). 

Let’s go out to meet and defeat the darkness in HIS power today!

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war the way the world does. For the weapons of our warfare are not physical, but mighty in God to pull down strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to make it obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NIV).

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I've read Lydia's book, and it's an easy read that makes you think - a wonderful combination in a book. The story and characters will challenge and inspire you. It's one of those books you can read more than once and learn something new each time.

For more about Lydia, visit her blog at Lydia Thomas, Author.

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