For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
The One Step Daily Devotional is intended to provide just one step each day for your journey with God. Every journey requires water breaks. Here is a water break for you.
2 Corinthians 10:3-4 explains what our weapons are and how we should fight. Often in life, because we experience difficulties in different forms, it’s hard to determine where the battle should be fought.
When hit with difficulty, is the enemy coming against us, or did we just choose a more difficult path? When sickness hits, are we encountering the fiery darts of the enemy, or are we just living in a broken world plagued with sickness? When we experience pain, hardship, loss, or discouragement, does rebuking the enemy relieve this hardship?
Not knowing how to navigate these questions threatens to place us as disciples of Jesus in a difficult place on one side of a spectrum or the other. On one side, we can find ourselves either calling every difficulty the work of the enemy. On the other side we can find ourselves completely ignoring the enemy and becoming victims of ongoing, unnecessary hardship or oppression. How do we navigate this?
First, verses 5 and 6 provide some insight for us:
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
A little bit of examination of the Greek paints a plain picture from these interesting word choices that tells us that when the enemy comes with a message, we are to take that thought captive and ask Christ what He thinks of it. If it doesn’t measure up to what He says or who He is, we do away with it. Verse 5 and 6 encourage us to involve Christ in the fight! We are asked to battle, but not alone. We must ask Jesus, “Lord, what’s really going on here?”
Second, we have to understand that the attack isn’t always the attack. What do I mean by this? Sometimes the fruit of the attack is sickness. We see Jesus cast out a spirit of infirmity that results in healing (see e.g., Luke 13:10-17). Sometimes, sickness is sickness in a broken world awaiting renewal, and the attack comes in the messages that we receive while vulnerable and hurting.
My wife and I have been going through some attacks. Some of our difficulty may come from this natural world, and some from direct effort of the enemy, but there’s a lot going on right now, and the enemy is sending us messages as often as he can.
When we are vulnerable and hurting, the real attack begins. Whether the sickness, difficulty, loss, or pain comes as a result of the direct work of the enemy or of the fruit of this broken world, the enemy will come and tell us lies about everything including ourselves, others, and God. In this space, we find the real battle. In this space, God has given us weapons. In this space, unchecked, these attacks become strongholds, or defensible towers of the enemy lodged into our soul. We must allow God to build truth into our souls during these times of difficulty by quieting ourselves enough to hear Him.
Today, take a water break.
Maybe today God wants you to take is to take time to hear Him speak to you about times of pain where you received messages from the enemy but didn’t know to submit them to Him. Perhaps there is a difficulty that you are going through right now that God wants to speak to you during, but He’s waiting for you to pause and hear. Maybe it’s time to tear down some strongholds in your life. Perhaps it’s time to pause, worship, and listen.
Consider this prayer today:
Lord, I’m going through/have gone through ________________.
This experience has left me feeling _____________________.
Because of this, I believe that You are/are not __________________, that I am/am not __________________, and that this person in my life is/is not ____________________.
Lord, are these things true?
Lord, what is true about You? What is true about me? What is true about this other person?
I receive Your truth today Lord. Heal my heart and my soul; I can’t heal it myself.
Not sure how to fill the blanks? Ask the Holy Spirit to help you.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a water break… we all get thirsty.
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