Be on the Lookout for Satan…He’s on the Warpath!
With all of the wonderful and miraculous breakthroughs and restorations FAM Fellowship members have experienced and witnessed in the past couple of weeks, and continue to witness even today, we KNOW Satan is not a happy camper and he WILL be on the warpath! So we all need to put on our armor and be on the lookout for his attacks…which we can be pretty sure will come through deceptive thoughts intended to create doubt and discouragement; thus the absolute necessity to take EVERY thought captive and make it obedient to the Word of God, as the last two SOF posts have focused on.
Fortunately for us, Ephesians 6:1020 tells us exactly how we stand strong against Satan’s attack in the power of our Lord by putting on the FULL armor of God as follows:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
Since this is such an important message, I checked out the Charles Stanley video archives today, and found the following message about winning spiritual warfare and the armor we need to win the battle, so listen to Winning In Warfare, from March 30,2003.
Then the following message was shared by one of the fellowship members yesterday, and since faith is a vitally important component of our armor as we stand against the gates of hell for the restoration of our marriages, Dan’s message is also very important as we’re on guard for the devil’s attacks. So here’s the message Dan shared with us yesterday about some of the things he “pondered” over the weekend concerning faith.
“After a Covenant Keeper’s meeting this weekend, a seminar about Ministering Like Jesus, plus my regular two church services, and of course, our Friday night chat and the various sermons I watched on TV; after processing the information gained from it all, and doing my weekly pondering, I have these thoughts to share.
First of all, I truly do believe that behind every broken marriage is a heart hardened against God which in turn is then hardened against their mate. Looking back at my own marriage now, I can certainly identify estrangement from God. Satan searches for the tiniest crack in a relationship, and the covenant of marriage, because it is an earthly representation of the spiritual relationship between Christ and the church.
(Covenant Keepers’ Book One) He hates that relationship so he is there to pounce. As part of the marriage covenant though, we are afforded all of God’s resources and power to bring restoration and reconciliation.
In Bayless Conley’s message this week, and most of you know I am a big Bayless fan, he continues talking about the Seven Faiths. Today I want to focus on “Great Faith”. He states that Great Faith rests on God’s Word alone, because God’s Word is authority. WE need to find a promise in the Word that covers our need – in our case, the restoration and preservation of our marriage covenant, proclaim it and then be tenacious in praying for it. Great Faith does not give up.
Even when there is silence or when God delays in answering our prayer, it does not mean He is denying it – He simply has a plan that is much better and complete than ours. We may need to ask God to help us so our prayer will be answered or perhaps spotlight our heart and reveal obstacles within us. God has brought His kingdom to the earth for us through Jesus’ life on earth and the Holy Spirit living in us now.
He continues that Great Faith is unselfish. Reaching out to God, praying and ministering to others is essential in growing in our faith. The worse that can happen in reaching out to others is that they know we care! God will take care of the rest.
The final component of Great Faith is praising God in advance for His answer to our prayers. Claim it – God has heard me instead of God is going to hear me – we know God hears our prayers as soon as they are spoken! This sets us in agreement with asking according to God’s will.
As I look at what is happening in the marriages of our partners, there seem to be some consistent threads:
Faith, trust and obedience to God
Letting go and praying for healing and restoration of our spouses to God – for God’s promise; not our marriages – that will come!)
Maintaining a sensitive heart
Our words and actions becoming examples of unconditional love
Strong, genuine, consistent relationship with Jesus Christ
So I pray for all of us to always cling to God’s promises of the marriage covenant. Praise Him for the healing and restoration of our marriages, pray and read the Word consistently, love our spouses unconditionally, minister (share) to others and let God do what God does! Blessings and many more restorations and healings this week!!
I have included the scriptures below: (and taken the liberty to highlight what I have stressed)
Revelation 19:7-9 (NLT)
7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honor to him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself.
8 She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.” For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people.
9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he added, “These are true words that come from God.”
Hebrews 10:35-36 (NLT)
35 So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you!
36 Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.
Matthew 17:20 (NLT)
20 “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.[a]”
Isaiah 55:10-11 (NLT)
10 “The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry.
11 It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.
Hosea 2:19-20 (NLT)
19 I will make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion.
Malachi 2:15-16 (NLT)
15 Didn’t the Lord make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his.[b] And what does he want? Godly children from your union. So guard your heart; remain loyal to the wife of your youth.
16“For I hate divorce!” says the Lord, the God of Israel. “To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty, c]” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “So guard your heart; do not be unfaithful to your wife.”
Isaiah 55:9 (NLT)
9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
Mark 10:5-10 (NLT)
5 But Jesus responded, “He wrote this commandment only as a concession to your hard hearts.
6 But ‘God made them male and female’[a] from the beginning of creation.
7 ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife,[b]
8 and the two are united into one.’[c] Since they are no longer two but one,
9 let no one split apart what God has joined together.”
1 Corinthians 13 (NLT)
1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.
3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud
5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages[b] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!
9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!
10 But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.
11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.
12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.[c] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.”
And then the following message was posted by Dan last week, and since it was something so encouraging to our members, I thought I’d share it here to remind everyone just how important the word of our testimony is as we stand for the restoration of our marriages, because there’s NO doubt we’ve all been exceedingly blessed and encouraged by them over the past couple of weeks! And since God is enthroned on the praises of His people, as long as we keep praising the Lord, Satan doesn’t stand a chance, because he can’t come near us! And here’s Dan’s message about how that works from last week:
“Thanks for sharing the incredible stuff God is doing! Christy, Diane and Robin, thank you so much for sharing the way God is working in your lives and that of your loving spouses. It is incredible how not very long ago these very things that are happening seemed “impossible”!! And they certainly were through us, but we worship the most high God, who, like we have heard before, does not lie and keeps His promises. As I told Linda, it is so cool to be part of this sweeping restoration, because it isn’t just someone we read about and think “Well, that is “just” a story.” We all know each other and what has taken place to get where we are today. We know the pain and agony – we know the little bits and pieces that our Lord has put together – some in over years of time. We know it didn’t just happen; it was painful; it was discouraging; it was a nightmare at times; but God never left, even, and maybe more so, when we didn’t see anything happening. This is real life, baby!! God is real – God is working – and it is us – not somebody else!!! We know it is fact; we know it is exciting. WOOHOO!
Bless you all, Love ya!”
So we have to put on our heavenly armor, keep praising the Lord and using the word of our testimony to defeat the devil, and just as Revelation 12:10-11 promises, WE WILL WINN THIS BATTLE AND SEE THE RESTORATION OF OUR MARRIAGES…AND BE VERY BLESSED AND ENCOURAGED!!!