Fruits That Remains: Lessons from my journals. These are excerpts from journals over the years.  Some are more current than others. I love going back into my journals because I always get refreshed and re-learn the lessons that the Lord has taught me and that I have faithfully scribed.

Strategies for spiritual warfare and for staying refreshed under pressure:

I must sing worship songs and make melodies in my heart to the Lord in the midst of spiritual warfare.  The Lord will speak to me and peace will come over my soul.  Worrying won’t change my situation so I might as well feel God’s peace while I’m going through it – and He may speak to me solutions and strategies.

Forgiveness is another weapon; no matter how feeble my prayers start out, God won’t turn me away.

My body, mind, and spirit must be united.  If my mind is worrying, my body wants to sleep, and my spirit is not leading, I will be divided, my prayers won’t be fervent and I won’t get results.  During spiritual attacks chaos hits.  I must be led by my spirit and bring myself back in line.  Wounds left unattended attract evil spirits.

Goals:

• Speak the Word to keep my faith level up. Keep doing it until there is light in the darkness.
• Pray until I hear from God. God can raise dead things to life, but we cannot consider the deadness but put our focus on the One who can resurrect the dead to life.
• The person who will consistently get alone with God will never go under. Trials will come, but this person will never be overcome! I will continue to be faithful to my time with Lord even when I’m so tired that I want to stay in bed.

Now you:

• Are you engaged in spiritual warfare right now?
• Do you have questions about what spiritual warfare is?

Let me unpack it this way: We are a three part being: we are a spirit, we have a soul (our mind, will and emotions) and we live in a body.  There is spiritual realm that we cannot see with our eyes but is real, nonetheless.  Sometimes, the hardships we face are easily explained through natural means – i.e. we run out of gas because we neglected to check the gas level.  The fact that we were late for an important appointment because we rushed out the door and didn’t check the gas level is most likely not because of a demonic influence.  But when losses and crises and illness start mounting up or when someone we love begins to act in a strange way that is self-destructive or destructive to us, we are told in the Bible to find out the source.  Paul says in 2 Cor. 2:11, Don’t be ignorant of the devil’s devices.  So it’s not that we look for a devil under every rock, but we’re also not going to ignore demonic influences when it’s in our power to stop it.

Ephesians 6:10-12 says: ¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² 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.

Further, there are issues that we deal with in our minds that have their root in our fallen nature.  Now that we are children of God, we have the power to renew our minds and find freedom from spiritual and emotional hang-ups.  But those issues don’t die easily and as I recorded in my journal, the person who spends regular time with the Lord will not be destroyed by sin, by trials or by their own flaws.  Being in God’s presence is healing, cleansing and eye-opening!

The battle is not yours but God’s. (2 Chronicles 20:15)  If you are engaged in warfare and feel like all hell has been unleashed against you, be encouraged.  I have been there and you will come through.  Stay close to the Lord so He can lead you to your Shouting Ground!