Footsteps To Freedom

Ephesians 6:10-17- Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. ¹¹ Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. ¹² For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. ¹³ Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. ¹⁴ Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, ¹⁵ and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; ¹⁷ and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, I read this over and over again because it is apparent that we all need something to keep us covered in the hard times, and in the times we cannot fight for ourselves. But just think about this; What if the belt of truth, buckle is broken? What if the breastplate of righteousness has a chink in it? What if the shoes have holes? What if the shield of faith is bent? What if the helmet of salvation does not fit? What if we don’t read the bible? Then there is a crack in the armor.

The feasible thing to do every day before we leave the home would be to put on the full armor and make sure it is secured with a prayer. But what if, what if, the devil you are wrestling against is in our own home?

 One of the good things about having a personal relationship with Christ, if you ask, He will give you the gift of discernment and the gift of the Holy Spirit. We need both of these to fight the enemy. When we don’t have this, it makes it very hard to stand in the battle.

We all would like to think our relationships are good. We all would like to believe that we love one another and that love will withstand all things as long as we work together. And I believe that to be true unless we are dealing with spirit and not flesh.

People get married and divorced all the time. We cannot be ashamed of this because most times we learn something from the breakup and then we grow. We accept the termination and grieve the death of relationships. It is not easy but needs to be done to move forward in life. Some marriages end in divorce because of infidelity. And sometimes after that infidelity, there is no respect. Sometimes when we forgive people for the unthinkable, they assume they can continue with their disrespect. We have to work on historical forgiveness and not hysterical forgiveness.

A hysterical forgiveness is when you tell yourself you forgive someone but the pain of the betrayal still affects you.  Historical forgiveness is when you forgive someone for their offense and it no longer affects you. They are truly forgiven.

Take ownership of the demise of marriages. Take ownership in order to grow. We have to learn from our experiences. We cannot place blame. We must be honest with ourselves in the demise of the relationship even it is just saying no to the reconciliation. We have to unpack our luggage.

Even when we spend time alone and grow, we can still find ourselves in relationships that have a crack in the armor. This can happen when we are not evenly yoked.

Marriage or any relationship takes work. And it can work, as long as both parties are willing to compromise and communicate effectively. Most important, we must be willing to accept that we may need to change and apologize at times. This is difficult when you are married to someone who takes no ownership and no responsibility for their actions. We start to look at them differently and what we thought we knew about them; we realize it is not the person we thought they were. This is where you find that you are fighting against spirit and not flesh. When the person you were or are in love with starts to demean you, ridicule you, take no responsibility for how they speak to you or treat you, be careful, you may be entertaining a spirit. I can attest to this because I used to love someone deeply. I found myself in a place where I could not wait to get home and spend time with him. I wanted to hear his voice and cuddle with him at the end of the evening.

One day, we argued. I am not sure what the argument was about. But I saw him change before me. Their demeanor and attitude were not the people I knew anymore. The language changed and the raw anger and emotion behind that anger was something new to me. It was at that moment, because of whose I am, I realized I was entertaining a demon and not the person I fell in love with. And from that day forward, I no longer respected him.

He allowed a crack in his armor and the enemy was able to take over. I watched and prayed. I did not entertain the demeaning words. I did not entertain the nastiness and the belittling. I understood who I was dealing with. And the best thing to do was pray and allow God to fight for me. We wrestle not against flesh and blood but rulers against authority. We cannot ever expect to win against spiritual warfare with flesh. We will lose every time. We must pray and fast and give it ALL to God.

While we are waiting for God to move on our behalf we must fast and pray. Not allow the words or their actions to destroy our self-worth and self-esteem. We must draw closer to God and move according to His will and His way.

God is faithful and just. He will ALWAYS be there for us. He will never leave us or forsake us. He will remove the enemy from our lives. He will do exactly what He said He will do. But we must believe.

Cracks in our armor always allow the enemy the opportunity to prevail. And cracks can be anything; pride, arrogance, unresolved mental illness, or drugs. Any of those things will put a chink or a crack in our armor. It does not take much, the enemy does not need much. Our thoughts can cause a crack. Being negative, negative self-talk. Being called stupid, dumb, and weak, all can cause cracks in our armor. Those words cast self-doubt and can bring on depression, and we all know depression is a spirit. All the enemy needs.

Put on the whole armor of God. Don’t leave anything open, follow the scriptures of Ephesians 6:10-17. Leave nothing to chance in this world today. It is not kind. I don’t know if I will ever look at my life the same again. But I do know that with God, all things are possible if we believe.