Spiritual Warfare: What's Going On Here?

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy...  John 10:10 ESV

On Wednesday nights we have been studying Scriptures on spiritual warfare. Ephesians 6 tells us that "... we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places." (v.12, NLT) The battle is real and the enemy is real. In John 10:10 Jesus tells us about the nature of the enemy and what his primary goals are in fighting against us; "The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy." (NLT) Our enemy is a thief, and he wants only to steal, kill and destroy.

Because everyone is different, the enemy attacks in different ways, and through different means, but his goal is always the same - steal, kill and destroy. Last Wednesday I shared how I have experienced his attacks in my life, following those three purposes.

1. He wants to steal our joy - joy is an incredibly important component in the Christian life. Jesus tells us in John 15:11 that He gives us His joy so that we can be full of joy. Nehemiah 8:10 reminds us that the "joy of the Lord" is our strength. We draw spiritual strength when rejoice in the Lord. That's why we are told repeatedly in the Bible "to rejoice," "to count it all joy" or to "rejoice in the Lord." Spiritual strength comes from rejoicing in the Lord.

So, in my experience, one of the primary ways the enemy attacks is to create situations, in my life where I am tempted to lose my joy. Sometimes these are big things like the loss of a job, the loss of a loved one, or a broken relationship. But often they're smaller situations like having a flat tire when you're late for work, losing your keys, staining your favorite shirt, or an argument with your spouse over something stupid like which way the toilet paper roll goes on the holder (BTW, the correct way is "over"). These are not major catastrophes, just little irritating episodes, and often one right after another; anything to cause us to become frustrated, unhappy or react with a negative attitude, anything to steal our joy, because the joy of the Lord is our strength.

2. If the enemy can steal our joy, he makes an easy transition to killing our peace. Once I've lost my joy, I become unsettled, anxious, worried and maybe even fearful. Peace is another wonderful gift that Jesus gives us (see John 14:27, and Romans 5:1), but when we've lost our joy, we almost always lose our peace as well. For me, a lack of peace is manifested in chronic worrying - I start mulling over negative situations in my mind, usually creating "worst-case-scenarios", wondering why "bad things" are happening, and how am I (emphasis on me) going to fix things. I stress, and fret, and overthink situations to the point where I become discouraged ore even mildly depressed. If I continue down that road, I start to withdraw and cut myself off from friends and family, which is just what the enemy wants - isolation, which makes it easy for him to transition to the next phase of attack...

3. He wants to destroy our confidence and trust in God. This is his ultimate goal. If you are a follower of Christ, he can't destroy your salvation (because your salvation isn't based on what you've done for Christ, but on what Christ has done for you), so he wants to cause you to doubt or question God's goodness, His love for you, or His sovereign grace in your life. You begin to think, does God love me? Have I done something wrong that has made Him made at me? If He is good, then why are these bad things happening to me? Can I really trust God? Does God even care about me or my situation?

Again, I'm speaking for myself, but in reflection this is how the enemy has often worked in my life - he causes or creates situations where I allow myself to become unhappy - sometimes big events, but usually a series of smaller, irritating episodes in my day or week. His goal is to cause me to lose my joy and when that happens I become anxious and unsettled (worried and stressed); and from there I begin to lose my confidence and trust in the goodness, love and sovereignty of God, and I become a pretty miserable person. He hasn't destroyed my salvation (because he can't) but he has stolen my joy, killed my peace and destroyed my trust in God. I've moved from unhappy, to unsettled to uncertain.

Unfortunately, I've allowed this cycle to repeat too many times in my life as a follower of Christ, but in the last few years God has been revealing the enemies strategies and showing me how to defend myself against his attacks, which I'll talk about next time ... but for now, "Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour." 1 Peter 5:8 (NLT) AND if you are experiencing spiritual warfare in your life right now and needing someone to pray with and fight alongside of you, please reach out to me, you can comment on this blog or email me at glmiller1965@gmail.com ... I'm not from the government, but I am here to help ( I know... not everyone will get that joke, 😁).

Don't Lose Your Joy

I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! John 15:11 (NLT)

   This past Sunday I preached on "Complete Joy" from the verse above, John 15:11 (you can listen to the sermon here or watch the service at our FB page here). Part of the sermon is about what are some of the typical reasons people (including Christians) give for being "unhappy" or what I would call "joy-less." Here is part of my notes from the sermon on reasons we "lose our joy."

1. We look more at our problems than we do at Jesus. 

    John Piper gives this definition of joy - "Christian joy is a good feeling in the soul, produced by the Holy Spirit, as he causes us to see the beauty of Christ in the word and in the world." Notice in Piper’s definition of joy - it is a good feeling in our souls, “produced by the Holy Spirit as He causes us to to SEE the beauty of Christ in the word and in the world.” Seeing Christ produces joy from the Holy Spirit, but in like manner, NOT seeing Christ causes us to lose our joy.

Have you ever been discouraged? When you experience discouragement, what is usually on your mind? Are you thinking about how great God is and how glorious it is to know Jesus? Or are you thinking about how bad your problems are, how much your job sucks, or how your life never seems to get any better? When you are discouraged are you focusing on Jesus or on your problems? Discouragement doesn’t cause us to focus on our problems, focusing on our problems causes discouragement. But Likewise focusing on Jesus causes joy, it causes us to be encouraged.

2. We have unmet expectations.

We lose our joy when our expectations aren’t met - when things don’t go as we think they should or as we plan for them to go. Have you ever experienced disappointment because something you planned didn’t turn out like you thought it would? Maybe a person didn’t live up to your expectations, or maybe an event or an experience - those things happen to all of us. But how we respond to those unmet expectations makes all the difference in the world.  

Do you know why things don’t always go as you plan for them to? Because you are an imperfect, sinful, finite person living in a sin-filled imperfect world with other imperfect finite people. With all the imperfection in us and in the world, there is no way everything is going to go as planned all the time. That’s just reality. But how we respond makes all the difference in the world. Most people respond to unmet expectations with disappointment, frustration, anger - and if you do that enough it becomes a way of life and there is no joy in your life at all. You will lose your joy if you get mad every time things don’t go your way.

3. We have a Root of Bitterness in Our Heart

    In Hebrews 12 we read: 14 “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: 15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled…” The word translated “bitterness” means a harsh, resentful of acidic spirit. Describing someone who has become resentful or bitter because they have been hurt - a person who refuses to forgive and let go.
     As young boy we lived in the country and the neighbor had cattle. In some places his fence was electrified. There were always older kids around and one day we were all playing and one of the older kids convinced some of us younger kids to join hands and have one person touch the electric fence - telling us that the current would just pass through all but the last person and only the last person would feel the shock - guess what… that weren’t true. We all felt the shock and it was the person who touched the fence that felt the most intense shock, it passed through all of us but decreased with intensity as it went.
     So get this in your mind, because this is how bitterness works. Think of the person who you refuse to forgive, and you have them by the hand and then you grab the electric fence, thinking they are going to get the shock… and they do, but guess who gets the worst of it - you do, guess who gets blisters on their hands from holding onto the electric fence - you do. Unforgiveness, resentment, bitterness hurts you more than anyone else and it will cause you to lose your joy faster than anything else. Most Christians lose their joy because they are holding onto some anger, resentment, or unforgiveness and a root of bitterness has taken hold in their lives and it is robbing them of their joy.

 The good news is that God wants you to be joyful and He has plenty of joy to give you. He speaks to you through His word so that His joy may be in you and that your joy will be complete. We'll talk more about what this means later (or you can listen to the sermon), but for now, think about whether the things I've listed are some of the reasons you may have lost your joy.

J.O.Y. at Christmas

This past Wednesday we re-read the story of the angel making the announcement of Jesus' birth to the shepherds in the fields of Judea (Luke 2:8-20). The angel prefaces the announcement of the Messiah with the words - "I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people..." (v.10, emphasis added). Our group discussed how a missing element for many people during the Christmas season is "great joy." For a lot of people, including many Christians, Christmas is a time of great stress and frustration, much of it self-induced by trying to have the "perfect Christmas." The celebration of this glorious event has been overwhelmed by commercialism, perfectionism and a lot of other "isms" that distract us from the main message of Christmas - the Messiah has come!

I shared, using the acronym J.O.Y. and the story of the shepherds, how we can get back our Christmas joy. This isn't original with me, and it is a little cliche, but here is the truth if you want to experience the "great joy" the angels were talking about.

J - Jesus first
Again, it is cliche, but He is "the reason for the season." Christmas is about Christ and if you want to experience great joy at Christmas, your focus has to be on Him. Jesus was a priority for the shepherds - after the angel gave them the good news that the Messiah was born in Bethlehem, the shepherds left their sheep and went to Bethlehem to find the Messiah. Think about that - they were shepherds, but they left their flocks to find the Great Shepherd. Tending those sheep wasn't just their jobs, it was their livelihood, it was their lives. But they "laid down their lives" and left their sheep in the field to go find the Messiah. They didn't let their jobs, or anything else keep them from Jesus. He was their focus, and they didn't stop when till they found Him. And after they found him, they returned "glorifying and praising God for all they had seen and heard..." (v.20) Yep, when they focused on Jesus, they got the JOY, JOY, JOY, JOY down in their hearts!

So what is your focus this Christmas season - getting your work done, buying gifts, decorating the house, cooking the food, planning the family gathering?  None of those are bad things, and they do need to be done, but none of those things should keep us from Jesus. He is to be the focus of all that we do. Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and everything else will be added unto you." Whatever you are doing this Christmas season, keep your mind on Christ, and Christ on your mind.

O - Others
The good news of great joy wasn't just for the shepherds, it was for all people. And after the shepherds had come to Jesus they "they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child." (v17). They didn't keep the good news to themselves, they shared it with others, everywhere.

The Great Commandment says we are to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, AND to love others like we love ourselves. Christmas is about Jesus, but it is also about letting others know about Him as well. You probably already have people in your circle of influence that need a "squirt of joy" for Christmas - what can you do to make that happen? Bake some goodies and take to emergency workers who can't be with their families during the holidays? Buy a few pair of socks and visit some elderly people in nursing homes? Invite a neighbor to join in your family celebration of Christmas? Ask the Lord who you need to reach out to, He's pretty good at communicating those kind of things.

Y - You
The angel made the message personal for the shepherds - "I bring YOU good news of great joy..." (v.10) Shepherds weren't generally well thought of in those days. They spent a lot of time with sheep and probably smelled a lot like them. It's kind of remarkable that when it came time to announce the birth of the Messiah, the angel didn't go to the priests, the rabbis, the Pharisees, the kings or any of those in authority; he came to the shepherds who were generally ignored or looked down upon. They may have even felt like they were the forgotten ones of their culture, but God doesn't forget or overlook anyone and He sent a personal message to them - a message of good news of great joy!

If God didn't overlook the shepherds, it's not likely He will overlook you either. His message of good news of great joy is for you also... so receive it, internalize it and let the good news that the Christ has come for YOU saturate your mind and infect every area of your life this Christmas season!
Jesus loves you and He has come to bring you great joy!