Don't Attack Yourself!
by Pam Clark
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:12
Have you ever been close to a heater in a room? I am sure you have. Have you noticed that as you get closer and closer to that heater, you get warmer and warmer? You don’t actually see the heat in the air, but you feel it, you sense it.
Wicked spirits are the same way. We don’t see them, but we can sense and feel the evidence of them. Like it or not, we are in a spiritual warfare. Even though we can’t always see what we are fighting, we are still in the fight of good and evil.
Many fight the battle everyday not even realizing that it is a spiritual battle they are fighting. Sickness, disease, poverty, uncleanness, afflictions, heartbreak, discouragement, cruelty, death--these are all spirits of the enemy.
In our own strength, we cannot fight the overcoming fight without the help that comes from God. We cannot fight and win a battle that we cannot understand. For all human flesh, we are in a battle for life.
Some realize they are fighting for physical life, but an even greater battle is going on and that is for your eternal Spiritual life. Many in America are blessed to have the basic substance of life--food, shelter and clothing, but are fighting for quality of life and that can express itself in many different ways.
Christians are blessed for two major reasons. One, they know the laws of God to live by, and they know who to call on for redeeming help and mercy. Psalm 147:19-20 says: “He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and His judgments to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any nation; And as for His judgments, they have not known them.”
For some, ignorance is the biggest part of the problem. If they only knew how to get it right, they would! But if you start with the Name of Jesus and ask His Holy Spirit to help you understand His will and His Word, you are on your way to many, many victories in your life.
Living righteously under the Commandments of God closes the door to many evil spirits. That’s why they were given to us--to help us understand God’s ways to quality life. But many do not realize that they are opening the door in different areas of their life for defeat when they do not move to know the will of God for themselves.
Without pressing in to this understanding, not only does quality life diminish, but the purpose for life is not known nor understood, and so mistakes are made that can have long reaching effects.
The enemy is a being. Satan is a fallen arch angel with many fallen angels under his power. Remember that heater and the unseen warmth it puts out? There are evil spirits who move about and while you do not see them, sometimes you sense them and don’t even realize their effect until it is intense. It pays to be Spiritually sensitive!
Living right, while challenging, can preserve your life and those around you, but Jesus taught us that we also must bind the enemy and then fill that space that he had in our lives with Holy Spirit activity and mindset. If not, the enemy will see an empty place he once had and come back in with his buddies to a territory he once had, and the last condition will be worse than the former. (See Matthew 12:43-47)
A large tree must have a good root system to stand up to the storms of life. You must grow deep into God to stand up the to challenges of life, including life eternal.
Many people feel very guilty for sins they know they have committed and attack themselves in many different ways. You are here because God wants you here. He knows your weaknesses, and He knows you have failed, but He provided His Son on the Cross so that you don’t have to attack yourself but receive your deliverance by the attack that was placed on Him so that the precious thing He created--YOU--might live your life in the fullness of life.
We can stop the viciousness of the enemy’s attack by turning to Jesus and His Love for us by giving Him the problem and letting Him take the shame that He already has already taken on the Cross. And then we must determine that we will live the life He would have us to live--a life of blessing not only ourselves, but others, and living righteously in Him, now and forever! He is the only Way.