Today I received an email from a friend and a subscriber, who has been asked to lead a class at her church that relates to spiritual warfare. A concerned friend of hers told her that when you teach on this topic, the enemy Satan comes after you that much harder. My friend emailed to ask me if this is just something Christians say or if there are any scriptures that back this up.
I wanted to share an excerpt of my email answer with her here for you, since this is an important topic. This doesn’t include all that we discussed in our emails to each other, but it is the gist of what I shared. This email is much longer than I normally write, because I wanted to address it thoroughly.
God doesn’t want us walking into things blindly. Today I was doing some writing and shared on the importance of preparation and being ready for God’s anointed, appointed time for us.
We are going to experience spiritual warfare whether we want to or not, because we are believers in Christ and Satan hates us because of that. As the thief, his job is to steal, kill, and destroy. He hates believers because of Jesus in us.
When you step out to teach this kind of material, there definitely IS spiritual warfare and what I call backlash from Satan. It just comes with the territory. When God has a high calling on your life, you will be attacked.
No, it is NOT just something Christians say. When you teach on warfare, it gets the enemy’s attention because then he is being EXPOSED. Every time my husband Ray and I have preached or taught on spiritual warfare, we experienced more warfare. As I was writing my book on women and spiritual warfare, I experienced more warfare. When I did a webinar two years ago on spiritual warfare, I and the other two speakers experienced incredible warfare.
By now you are probably thinking there is NO WAY I AM GOING TO DO THIS NOW!
But hold on! I want to encourage you. As I said, we will have spiritual warfare no matter what we do -or don’t do. The question is this: what is God telling you to do? And will you obey God?
You can choose to wait to teach the class until “next time.” We can always “wait until the next group.” But you’ve already been in the battle. God has trained you already in the trenches of previous spiritual warfare.
I have such a sense of urgency in me right now, that I don’t want to wait to do anything. I believe time is so short and we need to be about the Father’s business TODAY.
That is not to say you SHOULD do this…only not to let anything hold you back from what God may be wanting you to do. 🙂 Don’t let Satan stop you!
Your friend who cautioned you about teaching the class might have been operating either out of experience and genuine concern for you, or out of fear. If it’s fear, fear is not from God. His perfect love casts out all fear. Sometimes, though, we have to do things even when we FEEL afraid.
The first thought that came to mind regarding if there’s scripture backing this is up was Jesus being in the wilderness with the devil before He launched into ministry. (John 4:1-11) Satan was attacking Jesus – spiritual warfare.
This is the same scripture my husband Ray thought of when I asked him about it. He also thought of the scripture in Acts.16:16-40, when the female slave with the spirit of divination followed the apostle Paul and his companions, shouting after them that they were the sons of the Most High God.
This doesn’t seem like much warfare, but it really got on Paul’s nerves and its purpose was to distract him and others. Distractions can keep you from God’s plan. Paul cast out the demon of divination in the girl. After that, things got hotter with Paul and Silas being stripped, beaten and thrown in jail.
Not a comforting thought for you, I know. But God’s glory showed up after that with the earthquake, everyone’s chains were loosed, and the jailer and his household were saved.
It doesn’t really matter whether Satan will attack more…God HAS already won! Satan is a defeated enemy.
That doesn’t mean we should take the battle lightly. We should be alert, with our armor on daily, and keeping our eyes on our Commander Jesus, following every order and walking in obedience.
We all battle with fear. But GOD IS GREATER! We can’t let Satan intimidate us. He’s a liar and he’s defeated by Jesus.
How do you know if this is what God wants you to do? My first response is this: from His still small voice. Get to a place that’s quiet, away from everyone and everything. Pray. Ask Him to tell you what He wants you to do. Also as Joyce Meyer says let peace be your umpire. God’s peace will accompany the right decision.
That doesn’t mean you won’t feel a little afraid….but ultimately you will know in your heart this was God. There will be an inner witness.
>Sometimes God will confirm the decision through other people’s confirming words, through nature, through signs in a variety of ways…but mostly through His word and through you hearing His voice in prayer.
My thoughts are just JUMP! I know you can do it! GOD IS BIGGER THAN SATAN! And God will lead! Of course, I encourage you to pray to hear God’s voice yourself.
If you decide to do the class, I encourage you to have your pastor pray over you and your family beforehand and ask intercessors to pray over yall during the length of the study, specifically praying for God’s protection against any of the enemy’s strategic plans and from any backlash.
Don’t be afraid, dear friend. God is with you and your family, watching lovingly over you.
Love, Beth
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