HCC Monthly Harvest Seed
1 Peter 5:8 - Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
Every one of us have had bad days. Every one of us goes through seasons that are difficult and hard. Sometimes they feel like they will not end. All of us go through life’s ups and downs.
There are other times that are like the others. You know something is unusual about what you are going through.
There is a sinisterness about what is happening that you cannot put your finger on. You know that this is not like it was before and it seems like something is orchestrating the circumstances in a way that is not just making your life hard but is determined to either change you, ruin you or kill you.
In the past you didn’t necessarily like the difficult but you knew that life is not easy and so you were able to roll with the punches.
But this is different there is a spiritual component to it. Sometimes it feels so subtle yet so intense you can’t ignore it, but something keeps whispering in your ear that you are just imagining things.
The truth is you are not imaging things you are under a spiritual attack.
These attacks can come when you are at the top of your life, and everything is going ok. Job had it all when Satan went after everything. Job had success in finances, business, family and health and Satan went after all of it.
A spiritual attack can come when you are at the bottom and working your way up, Joseph had been sold into slavery. Finally, he is working for his master, running the house having favor and Potiphar’s wife puts the moves on him. He refuses to give into her advances, and she gets angry and lies about him and he winds up in prison. – Satan has no problem kicking you when you are down. The Bible says that we are to be alert and self-controlled because we are not ignorant of the Devils schemes.
I want to mention that word self-controlled -- You see God gives us understanding, skills and information and then it is up to us to implement His strategies against the enemy’s schemes. With the power of God to help us and our willingness to live a self-controlled life we can overcome every attack of the enemy.
Spiritual warfare is more common than we think or than we like to acknowledge. We are made to think that demonic attack or oppression is a wild and crazy thing that happens. The reality is that it is something that will happen with regular occurrence in our lives.
This month we are going to look at a few specific signs that you are under a spiritual attack. I want to look at two those right here.
You know you are under attack when you feel physical fatigue and unexplainable tiredness.
After Elijah’s great victory with fire coming down from heaven Elijah was physically and emotionally exhausted because he came under attack by Ahab and Jezebel.
There are times we just feel drained we have no motivation and no energy. Our get up and go got up and left and we don’t know if it’s ever coming back.
I cannot emphasis enough how real this kind of thing can be. This is a kind of tired that is deep. You have heard of bone tired. This is soul weary. You are not in sin. You have been faithful. You have done what God has asked. You have even seen some cool things and you think you would be on top of the world. But you are tired.
God’s answer was to feed Elijah and have him sleep.
1 Kings 19:5-8 - Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6 Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So, he ate and drank, and lay down again. 7 And the angel of the Lord came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.” 8 So he arose and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.
Do you realize that sometimes the most spiritual act of self-control that can do when you are under attack is to eat well and get a lot of sleep.? God still had a long way for Elijah to go. He had a great deal for Him to do. Elijah was so tired that he couldn’t go on. He was so tired that he just laid down under a tree in the middle of nowhere. He was so tired nowhere, was good. Your nowhere is somewhere to God! He will make you comfortable enough there in nowhere, so He can get you rest and filled again. You just have to do what He says. Satan will try to wear you down so that even your greatest victories feel like a defeat or not even worth the effort. Satan counter attacks after our greatest victories so we do not get to enjoy the fruits and the thrill of victory. Sometimes we get weary. But God will bring refreshing, we just need to take the time to rest and eat.
You know you are under spiritual attack when you begin to question God’s goodness. You know you are under attack when you begin to question the God you have trusted. When you start getting angry and even believe that God is letting you down. Satan is whispering in your ear that God is a liar.
How can you ever heal if the one who is supposed to be good let this happen to me? Satan will tell you that the good God is not really all that good and all that holy and all that caring. If that is true, then He really is not all that powerful.
If Satan can cause us to doubt the character of God, then everything else that God does is meaningless.
Our trust stems from the goodness of God. When Satan tells us things that contradict the character of God, we need to discipline ourselves to remember what we know about God.
Psalm 27:13-14 - I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living. 14 Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!
There are times we need to have the self-control to remember what we believe and then wait for the character of God to show up. Wait on God. David said I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. The land of the living is now, not when we are dead and go to heaven. God will allow us to see His goodness in our lifetime. Don’t sit there tapping your fingers in impatience –
look at the Devil and say “I am waiting on God…. just you wait.”
2 Timothy 1:12 - For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.
We can trust God with our everything. Many times, the most spiritual thing we can do is wait and trust in the goodness of God. When we do, we resist all of Satan’s lies. Do you realize that waiting patiently on God is one of the ways to make Satan flee? Just because Satan gets impatient doesn’t mean we should get impatient with God. Resist by being patient and watch as God brings victory and Satan flees.
There is so much more to this. Remember He who the Son sets free is free indeed.
You are loved. Have a Great July
Pastor Marvin & Dawn