YOUR FOCUS – DEC 2, 2015

Well…let me just admit this last week has been a true test of remembering where to focus my anger. It has been very hard to remember that satan is responsible for the attack I’ve been under these last few days. Let me assure you I want to rip someone’s head off and I forgot for a day or two it was satan’s head I wanted to roll!

I did a pretty bad job of fighting this battle on my knees and probably did some damage to a valued key relationship in my life. So know I’m sharing this in a very human imperfect state myself. So that said, let’s talk about strategy #2 “Our Focus”.

“If I were your enemy, I’d disguise myself and manipulate your perspectives so that you’d focus on the wrong culprit– your husband, your friend, your hurt, your finances, anything or anyone except me. Because when you zero in on the most convenient, obvious places to strike back against your problems, you get the impression you’re fighting for something. Even though all you’re really doing is just…fighting. For nothing.”

I would stress to you to be careful. I’ve been very diligent in prayer. I recognized the first attack and I did hit my knees, grudge-fully in prayer. I did not want to let it go, I wanted to fight and place blame where I firmly believed it was deserved (not on satan). With God’s strength I did not attack. However, just when I was becoming pretty proud of myself and my ability to pray through it and not to jump square into that attack, Satan used that person to attack me again on a totally different front. You guessed it….I was not so successful with fighting that battle on my knees. I jumped with both feet and my BIG FAT MOUTH right at a person instead of satan.

Here is another warning in case you have not figured this out yet; Prayer for the person you are mad at is very hard. I wanted to hang on to that anger and judgement. I mean I was right and they were wrong! Not much except them admitting their utter and total WRONGNESS was going to make me happy. Believe me I wanted a pound of flesh!

When I began praying the first verse God drew me to was Ephesians 4:31-32 “Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander as well as all types of malicious behavior. Instead be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.” The next verse was James 1:19-20 “My dear brothers and sisters, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Your anger can never make things right in God’s sight.”

NOT the verses I wanted to read, let alone practice. I did grudgingly manage to get through this first episode though. I was not so lucky with the second sneaky attack!  My focus was entirely on the person who offended me. And it was twice as bad because I was still holding tight to the original offense too.

Our enemy–for his strategy against us to work–is dead set on being able to succeed in distracting us. On fooling us. On Faking us out. Pulling our eyes toward a side stage on the theatre platform, diverting our focus, trying to convince us that the main issues in our lives actually originated over there, anywhere, or with anyone except where they really come from. The devil wants us to focus on things that are physical and visible instead of him, the darkness, the evil spirits. “Pay no attention,” in other words, “to the man behind the curtain.”

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood [what you can see], but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places [what you can’t see]. Modified Ephesians 6:12

Now in the days of the Ephesians this was not hard for them to grasp. They lived in pagan times and the spirit world was very much alive in their cognizant awareness. They very much believed in the spiritual entities at play in the world. Today, we downplay the reality of this. In western culture, at least – our innate tendency is to underestimate satan’s power. We tell ourselves these things aren’t real for lots of reasons. One major reason is so we can watch shows and read books about these things and play them off as things that do not exist.
It is pretty hard to watch “The Exorcism” when you fully believe in demon possession.

At the risk of alienating some readers I’m just going to say this. Before I do you need to realize, I’m one of the most guilty here. But if we truly believe in demons, satan, and evil spirits we would not watch shows about them, allowing them an avenue into our daily lives. worries, and fears. We try to live our lives minimizing the daily encounters and battles we have as “life”.  While it is life, it is a life where we battle daily satan and all his demons. Do not give him any more ammunition to fight against you than he already has in his arsenal. When I minimize satan I give him room to scheme against me and I blame anyone and everyone except him. If I keep focusing on the visible symptoms I am doing two things 1) wasting precious time and energy that ought to be reserved and refocused on the real enemy, and 2) trying to fight ferocious spiritual forces by using weapons that do not faze them in the least–weapons that aren’t even designed to hurt them.

My focus is off. And that is just what satan wants is my focus on everyone’s role except his in my problems. I get mad at my husband, my child, my boss, my friend, my mom or dad. For you it could be your boyfriend, your finances, the driver at the red light. Quit letting the Enemy go unchecked while we stay focused on everything but him. In order to live in victory we have to open our eyes and see who the real fight is against. And then fight him with the only effective weapon at hand. Prayer and the Word of God.

Prayer is eye opening. It helps us recognize the enemy in our situation. When we take our problems, anger, and fear to the Lord, we are aligning our weak spirit with the full force of God’s Holy Spirit. We quit taking the battle into our own hands and to the wrong people, we join instead with the power of heaven to take the fight directly to the source of the problem.

Now, let me caution you about thinking every uncomfortable bad thing that enters your life is automatically oozing up from hell. Remember that sometimes we have consequences to our own bad decisions. Consequences to our own rebellion. Remember that sometimes the reap-what-we-sow consequences of our own actions can put us in some tough and uncomfortable situations. God is sovereign. That means he knows EVERYTHING from the beginning of time to the end of time to the right now. He’s not surprised by what you did yesterday or today or what you are going to do in 10 years. He know it all and He will use it all to draw our hearts back to him, EVERYTIME. God uses our circumstances to uncover hidden sins in our lives, teach us to trust him more, refine and prepare us for what is coming next. Contrary to satan, God uses every circumstance to measure us and help us grow and prepare for every situation. Sometimes that means temporary pain for success at a later time. We can trust him even in difficulty and discipline. Our kids are not always happy with us and sometimes we let them fall on their faces so they are able to learn from their mistakes. God promises to work all things together for our good and his purposes.

Satan knows me intimately. He knows my weaknesses, my insecurities, my frustrations. He knows just how to slip in and get my goat every single time. He knows if he can keep me angry at my family, my husband, my child, my church, my coworker, my friend then the discord keeps me from seeing him and fighting him.

Paul instructs us to “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might” by putting on the
“full armor of God” and thereby becoming “able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.”

Truth – Know and use God’s unchanging, objective benchmark of the bible
Righteousness – right living, the process by which we apply this truth to our lives and, by His Spirit, produce conduct honoring and pleasing to God.
Peace – the deep inner eternal stability we possess by virtue of relationship with Jesus. A sense of balance not subject to external circumstances.
Faith – the application of what we believe. the process of putting feet to our beliefs and living in light of it.
Salvation – this is our eternal security with Christ, as well as the full inheritance we’ve been given because of our relationship with him. This includes our blessings, status, and identity all these things enable us to live victoriously in Him.
The Word of God – is his present, relevant, personal Word to us for today. The Bible may be an old book, but God’s Spirit is made fresh and new and alive for us TODAY. (please just give it a try. As I have read and studied these last few months, I’ve been reassured that we have not shocked the Lord. He is able to bring us back in alignment with his will. He has done it so many times in the past. Over and Over again. He does hear our prayers and when his people find their way to their knees he will act!)

Resolve to use the weapons that are “not of flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction” of the enemy’s plots. The one weapon that ties this whole ensemble together, the one that activates and infuses our armor with the power of God himself……. (Need I even type it?? Shirley you know by now!!!) is PRAYER! Pray at all times in the Spirit. Priscilla says (yes I know I say Patricia ALL THE TIME! Sorry!) that the “at all times” translates into specific times, precise occasions and particular events. In spiritual warfare, as we detect enemy activity and deploy the various pieces of armor, our prayers need to be fervent and specific, strategic and personal tied to the specific needs arising at that specific occasion.

Let me just say here, I’ve never been one for a journal. In this day of everyone’s perfect facebook lives, I’m not so keen on documenting my imperfect one. I do not want my kids to one day read that I wanted to MURDER their Dad or even worse…..THEM! But I do not know how else to get specific with God. If I do not write down my specific need and pray it with precision and detail, I can not expect God to answer it. I have to quit shooting up these generalized cover it all prayers, and start getting down and dirty (HONEST) with my Heavenly Father. And one day when my prayer journals makes it to my kids or my grandkids they will know that MY GOD got specific with his answers and His resolutions to my requests! And through the bold, mighty name of Jesus, pray that we’ll live with our armor on and not let Satan’s otherworldly forces wreak their havoc in this house, on this heart, on this day!!! That is what he means by being focused and strategic in prayer. Do not kid yourselves we are not in a physical battle. We are not going to win it based on our own ability or intelligence. We are in a spiritual war and we will only win it with spiritual weapons.

Satan can’t have any kind of lasting victory over you now that you have your eyes open.
The Word tells us he is disarmed and embarrassed (Col 2:15) overruled (Eph 1:20-22) mastered (Phil 2:9-11) rendered powerless (He 2:14) all his hard work destroyed (1 John 3:8)

I am asking God to take my attention and emotional energy off the people and circumstances where I’ve been directing them up till now and refocus them. I am asking this using the following passages from the Word! Romans 8:38-39, Eph 1:21, Phil 2:9-11, Ps 30:1, Mic 7:8, Ps 138:7, Ps 41:11, Ps 68:1, Matt 6:13 and 2 Thess 3:3

Please write your prayer using these passages or others you may know and hold dear to your heart to help you keep your focus on the true enemy. I hope you have been reading the prayer you had written for returned passion in you prayer life up until now each and everyday. Do not disregard that prayer keep it and refer back to it often especially if you feel your passion waning.

We did not meet last week so you have not missed a lesson. I continue to pray for each of you. Please get your prayer journals out if you have not already! They really do help with your get specific and stay focused prayer life. I am so excited for what God is going in our lives and in our world! Fight the battle the only way you can win!