RAW Spiritual Warfare!

Last Saturday evening, as I prepared dinner for my family, I began to have an excruciating pain in my lower neck and right shoulder. Eventually, I could not move my neck or upper body. Sunday morning was spent at the family physician’s office instead of at church. My husband was left to care for all of our children without help from me. This meant he was in charge of making sure all 5 kids ate meals, got to sports camp, had bathes, brushed teeth etc. He couldn’t even sleep in our bed because the slightest movement he would make had me screaming out in pain. His Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were spent the same way. Although I was up by Tuesday, I was still in severe pain, on pain medication and steroids which prohibited me from doing very much. Wednesday evening, he and I had a pretty big argument. Tension surrounded our home. Even though it was hard, every night, before he went to sleep on our floor, he knelt beside me and prayed.

What does this have to do with spiritual warfare? On Thursday, my incredibly reserved husband was set to give his heart wrenching testimony at a church block party to a crowd of over 200 people. It is my belief that Satan used me to try to attack him. Make him over tired, worn out, exhausted, possibly even angry after sleeping on the bedroom floor for four nights. He already was arguing with God (and with me) about sharing his life with these strangers, wrestling over his testimony’s legitimacy, calling his sister to confirm certain events truths, even questioning his own motives in sharing. Convinced he absolutely could not stand in front of this crowd, he decided he was not going. I simply said “Okay, Jonah! Enjoy the belly of the whale!” But then I prayed and I had my prayer warrior friends on the task, too.

    

This is a perfect example of the “wiles of the devil.” I firmly believe that Satan knew how many hearts my husband’s story would touch and souls that were going to be turned from him and to the Kingdom of God. Satan will use whatever is closest to us to blindly attack our faith. My husband began to believe the lies he was being fed that he was a ‘nobody’, that no one would listen, that he was against God by seeking self-gratification, that he simply could not do it, and that God would never really use him. Glad he decided to put Satan under his feet, by the power and blood of Jesus Christ!

This is also a perfect illustration for the power of prayer! “Evangelism is often a battle fought on our knees.”  Lesson well learned, as he spent those nights kneeling by the bed.

We know there were some saved that night but we have no idea how many seeds were planted or watered. That is up to the Holy Spirit. The big thing is that he was obedient to Christ and not to Satan!

Romans 8:37 "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him who loved us.”