Toe to Toe with my Enemy

Several months ago I abruptly left a public gathering of Believers in an emotional tizzy.  Several people inquired as to my spontaneous exit.  Here was my response to them.  I've added some new insights the Lord has taught me more recently.  I hope it is of encouragement to you.

Bottom line: The Enemy and I were already toe to toe last night before I even arrived at choir rehearsal and by the time I had heard all the wonderful praise reports and encouragement from others the devil and I were wrestling fiercely. As we started to sing his fiery darts were coming at machine gun pace and they were painful, viscous, pointed and aimed right at my most vulnerable places and I was succumbing....and fast.

When all the praise reports were being expressed I know there had to be some war-torn, battle weary souls in the room like me who were thinking, "But it doesn't always happen that way, does it?" "It sure ain't happenin' that way for me right now!" 

God doesn't always move our mountains is 3 months much less 3 days! (Praise God He does work quickly on occasion and I am rejoicing with those of you who testified of His power and expedience in your lives this week. Hallelujah!)

Sometimes bondage is broken over time. Sometimes God's answer to our prayer is worse than "No"

It's, "Wait"! 

Yikes!  Can I get a witness?

Anyway, I knew I needed to fight back quickly, loudly and with Scripture! I was under attack! I needed to get out of that room and fight The Father of Lies with The Truth!   And it couldn't wait.

I just want to encourage everyone (especially those of us still waiting on the Lord or journeying through our bondage breaking) to trust absolutely in the Presence and Love of God. His Presence is a fact. He IS with us as Believers in Christ. His Presence is unchanging but the EVIDENCE of His Presence is not. Sometimes God chooses to use less evidences of His Presence to grow us and stretch us and it can be downright painful.

That's where I find myself right now and I KNOW some of you are there with me. I've seen your prayer requests and I know you feel God may have "checked out" on you because the answer or relief has seemed slow in coming. But God doesn't always immediately quiet the storm. Often he chooses to allow the storm to rage and wants us to get to know Him on a whole new level.  A level we could never get to if there was always Peace and His Presence was powerfully evident.

There are some things that only grow in the valleys and never on the mountaintops! The vegetation is completely different on the mountain top than it is in the valley and in the life of the Believer those two places serve two distinct purposes and produce totally different fruit.

God often insists on a lengthy or prolonged process of healing/deliverance/freedom because He's looking for a relationship with us. He is pursuing us! He wants the Deliverer to be more precious than the Deliverance! Many times we forget that waiting on God forces desperation for God.  I don't know about you, but when I am desperate I become real willing to listen to whatever God has to say.  I think that's the point!  God considers the lapse of time between slavery and freedom criticial (Ouch!).  He patiently waits for us to be convinced of His faithfulness.  Faithfulness we are sure of.  Sure of....sometimes without current, real-time evidence in our present circumstances.

God's Love and His Presence are facts and they are perfect. Satan wants us to believe that God must not love us much or He'd answer our prayers quicker or deliver us instantly. But nothing could be further from the Truth. The most faithful Believers will be entrusted with trials. (Job, David, Peter, Paul.)

The Word of God uses the phrase "unfailing love" 32 times and not once is it attributed to people. Every single use of the phrase refers to God and God alone. He loves us with an unfailing love and He's the only one who does.

He loves you and He is with you. Reject any thought to the contrary! It's a lie!

"Then Jesus returned from the Jordan full of the Holy Spirit and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness."  (Luke 4:1)   Did you catch that?  Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.  Nothing about it was accidental or coincidental.  It was a test.  A test to see if Jesus would rely completely and totally on His Father.  As Believers you and I never enter our wilderness without the Spirit.  He IS with us, too.  And there is nothing "off the grid" or haphazard about our entrance there.  It has purpose. 

"Then Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread throughout the entire vicinity."  (Luke 4:14)  So Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit and full of the Holy Spirit but he returned from the wilderness in the power of the Spirit.  We have the opportunity to exit our wilderness experience in the power of the Spirit if we will rely on God and His Word as our sole sufficiency as Jesus did.

Wield your SWORD!  God's Word is at your disposal!  Use it!

That's what I was doing last night. I fought my enemy and eventually sent him scurrying having been whipped handily by the Word of God (not me). And then the Lord and I wrestled awhile over the spiritual places He has me right now. Of course, I lost that match!  But ultimately I won. Once again (and for the billionth time) I yielded to His absolute but Loving authority and Presence in my life.

I may not be out of the valley but I know He is with me there and I know He loves me perfectly. I hope and pray this has been an encouragement to some of you who are with me in the growing place of the valley right now. I am praying for you and I appreciate your prayers for me. May we be found faithful and more in love with our Jesus than ever when we reach our next mountaintop.

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith---of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire---may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." I Peter 1:6 & 7

"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." Ephesians 2:4-5

"Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast." Psalm 139:7-10