What is Spiritual Warfare?
Our world is surrounded by opposites: black and white, yin and yang, good and bad. Without one, we aren’t able to fully grasp the other. For me, being a Christian means understanding and accepting that there is our heavenly God and on the opposite end of the spectrum, there is Satan. From the beginning of time, starting with Adam and Eve, Satan has tempted God’s creations. Till this day, the evil one continues to tempt us, enticing us with deceivingly empty gifts and false promises. In our personal lives, we witness Satan’s doing when we struggle with right and wrong. Evil also tries to ruin our relationship with God by hurting, breaking and sometimes even destroying us. He succeeds when we turn around and blame God for our mishaps and misfortunes.
What is spiritual warfare? In my humble opinion, it is a battle between good and bad. More importantly though, it is how faithful we remain in Him when things don’t seem to go our way. When blessed abundantly, Satan attempts to steal God’s glory by placing bumps and hurdles in our lives in an effort to instill doubt in our minds that ultimately turn us away from God. Recently, I have experienced spiritual warfare on a minor scale. Within the last month or so, I have been blessed by God in so many ways. After a year of being in an unhealthy relationship that deprived me of my self worth and security, I found a sense of freedom and peace that gave me the ability to live and breathe again (I will share this testimony in the future.) I graduated law school, took the bar exam and finally started to live the life that I studied so hard to attain. My dearest friends, one by one, started accepting Christ and opening up their hearts to God. In short, good things kept happening and I thanked God for each blessing. Then, the devil decided to do his tricks.
About a week ago, I got rear ended by a semi truck on the 91 freeway during peak traffic hour…[click “Read More” below to continue]
First of all, I planned to sell my car the following week, but for obvious reasons, that is no longer feasible. Secondly, and for a reason that is beyond my understanding, I was told that the accident could potentially be my fault. This would then subject me to an insanely high deductable, possible litigation and an increased insurance premium. As if the accident wasn’t enough, I got sick the following day. The third day, my sim card broke (this might sound like a small thing, but communication deprivation is hard for me to handle.) The fourth day, I lost all of the contacts, applications and photos on my cell phone, including the only photos I had of the accident proving that I was not liable for the collision. Two days later, my car refused to start and I learned that I may have a starter problem that requires a new starter motor. Today, I start feeling a cloud of depression and dissatisfaction over my head, a feeling that I had finally recovered from a month prior. Standing alone, these mishaps are tolerable, perhaps even acceptable. However, placed consecutively, I couldn’t help but think whether there was a meaning or reasoning behind this. After sharing these occurrences with my mother, she told me about spiritual warfare. This is when things began to make sense.
Although things haven’t exactly turned around completely, I understand that what has been happening for the last week isn’t of God; it is Satan’s failed attempts to steal God’s glory and fill my mind with all the negatives as opposed to the positives. The closer we walk with God, the more Satan tries to manipulate our surroundings and get us to shake our fists at our Father. It is in these times that we must trust God completely and remain faithful that He will never leave us or forsake us. Looking at my situation from a different perspective, I am grateful to be alive and well (I was hit by a semi truck!) As for getting sick, I recovered in one day and was able to enjoy labor day weekend. As for my cell phone, contacts, applications and photos of the accident, I learned the importance of backing up my information and am appreciative to be a part of the minute percentage of this world to even own a cell phone. As for my car starter, it seemed to have remedied itself and has been running as good as new. As for this feeling of dissatisfaction, I trust that if God got me through this hurdle before, He will get me through it again.
No one said walking with Christ would be easy. In fact, I have heard the opposite. The more in love you are with God, the more prone you are to experience attacks. What makes it all worth it in the end? We, as followers of Christ, ALWAYS prevail. God sees our faithfulness through these trials and tribulations and He will reward us greatly. My prayer to you is that you remember where you come from. Always remember that you are rooted in holiness and cleansed with His blood. Regardless of what struggles or sinful distractions you have encountered or are currently encountering, fall back on your roots. Don’t get caught up in the hype, fall victim to mishaps or give up on faith. God’s strength is in your blood, His power is in your soul and His love is in your heart. Remember where you come from and what you stand for. You are a child of God.
