Truth Be Told..
Battles - What are they?
The only way I can describe it is when thoughts and ideas enter into your mind that do not reflect the desires that are in our heart. When the spiritual and the fleshly do not agree with each other. Paul tells us of his own battle between the spiritual and the flesh in (Romans 7:15-20) 15. "For I do not understand what I am doing; for I am not practicing what I want to do, but I do the very thing I hate. 16. However, if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, that the Law is good. 17. But now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me. 18. For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20. But if I do the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me."
Ohhh boy, we can take a whole whack of information from what Paul just told us! First, I want to point out that Paul is a very mature Christian as far as I am concerned and with that being said; we have to also understand he is talking in the present tense; Secondly I want to say that while even Paul knows he will never get to the point in this life where sin is no longer apart of him (as we should never say we do not sin or have not sinned), I feel we should TRY really hard to be as spotless as we can be! The closer we can become to pleasing God the better it will be for us. I have had a relationship with God and His Son Jesus for many years and can honestly say that I cannot think of one time when God was ever upset or disappointed with a servant of His trying with his/her whole heart to become stronger in His ways. Will we ever acheive perfection in this world? No. So should we just quit trying? Absolutely NOT! lol - this is just my opinion and I am sticking to it :)
Stop Blaming Satan For Your Decision
Everyone I know, including myself (I really think it is world wide) blames the devil for actions that we ourselves commit - "the devil made me do it!" Sound familiar? But what if I told you - this is a lie? Lets take a look at what the Word of God has to say about this! According to James 1:14 "But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.
Wow! if we really take a look at what was just said, we get a whole new way at looking at these "battles" and it gives us a very good clue on where we need to begin our fight! We were just told; these desires are not originating from our enemy, but rather desires that are deeply rooted in us; also known as "carnal nature." Think about this for a minute and maybe you will see what I am trying to say: We never had to be taught how to lie, steal, kill or cheat. All of these (and more) came naturally. We did them with very little to no resistance at all.
I remember as a kid, we did not have a lot of money. My mom was a single mom with 3 kids and it was not easy on any of us, as I am sure you understand. Anyway, I was about 9? maybe? and would get asked to make a store run (safer times back in those days), I would go to get what she wanted; but then I started to take other things that I would not pay for. It probably would have been a different story if I had taken stuff like a loaf of bread or a pound of meat, but I had my eye on chocolate bars, sweet stuffs - and without ever being taught, nor knowing anyone that ever did this; I already knew that I would have to hide the stolen chocolate. Well, I got away with it a couple of times and then I got caught. When I got caught by the store worker, I already knew to lie and try to claim I didn't steal it - even though, at least to my recollection, up to that point in my life I never told a lie either! This is because these things are in our nature.
It is these deeply rooted natural things in us that battle with the spiritual part of us, and it is the spiritual part of us that we have to learn. For instance; we had to learn how to be nice to others, we had to learn how to share with others, we had to learn how to love with the heart. Our enemy knows us very well and he and his dark minions will use our internal carnal nature against our spiritual new self; trying to get us to act on them, tempting us with whispering tickles that we so quickly accept; "its only a little lie", "its not a big deal", "God will forgive you - He loves you, right?" Does any of this sound familiar? Anyway, James1:15 tells us "Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it has run its course, brings forth death."
So, understanding that our enemy is only tempting us with our own fleshly, wordly desires just somehow made the whole battle a lot easier, and now would be an excellent time to replace the ungodly desires in us with what 1 John 4:4says: "You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world." What does he mean "overcome them"? This means that the desires that are in us that the dark spirits of this world are using to tempt us, we must conquer these desires; these ungodly forces with their temptation.
None of us can be "forced" to sin, remember, even the dark spirits in our world have rules. These rules are handed down to them from God; and one of those rules prevents these dark forces to "force" us to do anything we do not want to do. All these dark forces can do is entice us, tempt us and hope we react. Yes, they are relentless! No, they will not give up! But if we "overcome" or conquer these desires, then that particular desire is no longer a stumbling block for us, forcing them (the evil spirits) to find something else to tempt you with. LOL, as I said, they never give up! I keep hoping that they will run out of things to tempt me with..lol, but alas! that day has not come yet!
But Wait..I am A New Creation Now!
Yes, if you are "born again" and have been baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of your sins, you are indeed a new creation with a clean slate. But lets be clear, now that you have done that; you are literally in the scope of the deceiver! You have just done the one thing that Satan has tried so hard all of your life not to allow you to do. Lets get one thing clear, these evil spirits are not interested in attacking their own so much, but rather - their main goal is to attack God and Jesus, these spirits attack our God and our Lord through us, pretty pathetic, huh? Everytime we fall for the bait laid out for us, everytime we decide to do what is wrong instead of what is right - we are hurting our Heavenly Father, we are disappointing our Lord and we are letting ourselves down. Remember this above everything else; Satan and his puppet minions hate you, they hate God and they hate Jesus - His Son. What better way to hurt a Father but through His own children!
Anyway, Jesus tells us we can expect temptation and to think otherwise would really be a foolish thing to do. Even Jesus; who is without sin, righteous and full of love for His Father, God, was tempted by the devil! Matthew 4:1; this is only one place where the devil tempted Jesus, and he did this for 40 days and nights! There are actually a lot of times when satan tried to get Jesus to go against the ways of God but we only need to see ONE time so that we know that even Jesus was under attack and we should not ever think that we will not be.
What We Should Do
First of all, I want to say that it is not easy to win battles with enemies you cannot even see! Our enemy, Satan, as we already know - likes to try to use our fallen natured old selves against us, he most assuredly likes to draw out those deeply hidden desires that we are still holding onto in some form or fashion and he is quite good at it. And after he tempts us and we take the bait he laid out for us - then he stands as our accuser before God. What an evil butt munch he is, eh? But we have some very powerful, in fact the most powerful tools to use for our battles, armor!
God knew what we would have to go through every day of our lives and He made sure to let us know we have access to these tools. Take a look at (Ephesians 6:11-18) 11. "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15. and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16. above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; 18. praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints."
It Is Not Your Battle
Battles use to be very hard for me to conquer and that was because I thought I was suppose to stand alone and somehow overcome these unseen enemies. Brothers, sisters, this is so far from the truth it is completely opposite from what we are told to do and if we try to win our battles in this manner, we will fail. We must always remember that these battles are fought by Godand His army, our part of the battle is all covered in the Armor of God. If we obtain accurate knowledge, each one of the 7 pieces can be used to conquer our enemy, and above all remember that faith (The Shield) is the key to victory! :)
Brothers and sisters, please remember "GREATER IS HE IN YOU than he who is in the world." If this is the only verse you can remember, remember it and all through the entire battle - think nothing but this verse! over and over and over again. Do not stop thinking it, do not stop saying it - do not give the enemy even 1 second to try to manipulate your mind, and above this? constantly Thank God for the victory...even while you are still in battle! Call on the name of Jesus for support and just know that through Jesus, the battle has already been won! Some of my battles are still tough and I do expect to step into some whoppers in the future - but for now I am praising my Heavenly Father and thanking my Lord Jesus for allowing me to understand I am truly not alone on the battle field.
After All Is Said And Done
When we say conquer, this is huge! a heck of a lot bigger than the worlds explanation is! Have you ever just looked up every verse in the bible that uses the word "conquer"? We should, because "winning" a battle is different from "conquering." When we win a battle, that is great and is totally awesome - I will not be the one to ever downplay a battle won! I will however, tell you that the one thing that I have learned in my life is this: until the battle is conquered (dead, stomped on and put away into a "never come back" deep dark pit somewhere in the middle of no-mans land); it can and most times does come around again. Have you noticed that there are situations or desires that keep creeping back into your life? I mean, sure, there are times when we don't succumb to the desire or the temptation - that time! but winning the battle does not mean we won the war! We have to CONQUER; put them to death, our hearts must get to the point where that desire is not a temptation but rather a vile, ungodly thing that is hated through and through; something that no amount of love of money could ever make us act on it again. ever! And this can be expected to take your whole life to acheieve. Again do not get me wrong here, to acheive perfection in this day and time is not even possible (I think..), but that should never become an excuse not to give it our all and try to become the best we can be, amen?
The word "conquer" in most modern Bibles has been replaced with the word "overcome", but listen to what Jesus tells us in Revelation 3:12 "He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name." and also lets look at Revlation 2:26 "He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations; and one more Revelation 3:21 "He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne." Goodness!! Put on the Armor Of God be strong in your faith and send these evil forces running for the hills, shall we?! Praise God and thank You Jesus!