Rise Up and Face the Real Enemy!

Ever have one of those years when everything is a struggle and you fear every corner because all the ones behind you have lurked with demonic attack? That’s where my family has been this year, in the throes of a year like that. God loves to redeem times like these. He does not take it lightly when the enemy attacks His kids!

There are many scenarios we could all throw into a bucket, take a pick, and they’d all be great tales of deep impact and great victory. One of my contributions to the bucket would be this one that begs for retelling for it tells of something I most desperately needed to learn, which means someone else needs it too.

We put our house on the market in August last year. That’s only after the stress of all the circumstances that led us to that decision and then all the preparation to get the house market-ready. It’s been a waiting game ever since. In the meantime, we bought a house, moved, and have been paying the second mortgage and all the debt that comes with the old life.

We were coming to the very end of our savings with one more month of payments in our account. With many decisions hanging in the balance, we felt we had no choice but to quit homeschooling and put the kids in public school so I could get a job and help with the bills. We told God that if we sold the house the day school started, we’d still keep them in it because apparently it was His will for it to work out this way. Until He moved us back to homeschooling, we’d stay put, but just PLEASE, Lord, sell the house by the time school starts!

 

Well, the first day of school came and my husband was home sick with strep throat and pneumonia. But since he was home, he wasn’t going to miss riding with me to drop all three children off at their respective schools and picking them up. That day, while the kids were at school, I signed the final papers to release my book to press. A lot was happening this very emotional day. Letting go of ten years of homeschooling wasn’t coming easy for this Mother Hen. Our prayers were answered, we thought, when we were sitting in the pick-up line to get the children after school. Our agent called to say we got an offer on our house and by day’s end, we had a contract with the buyer. It appeared God had answered our very specific prayers to sell the house the day school started.

The buyer turned out to be dishonest and gave false testimonies against us and our property in order to get out of his contract. It was total deceit. I made a huge mistake at this point, however. I blamed God! I really struggled with why God would do such a thing and trick us like this, by answering our prayers and giving us false joy, false hope, and make it look so good only to rip it out from under us. I’ve been down enough roads and learned enough in the past several years that I knew I couldn’t stay here in this awful place of abandonment and betrayal. I didn’t want to go to church that weekend. I was hurt and angry, but I also know enough by now to know the best thing I can do in times like these is to not cut myself off from God, even if it means staying mad; I can still stay open to listening.

At church, I opened my Bible and began reading in Isaiah 59:15-18 (NASB) where God looked around and could find no justice and no righteousness so He had to do it Himself, make a way to Himself since no one else was putting forth any effort.

“Yes, truth is lacking; and he who turns aside from evil makes himself a prey. Now the Lord saw, and it was displeasing in His sight that there was no justice.  And He saw that there was no one to intercede; then His own arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness upheld Him. He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle. According to their deeds, so He will repay, wrath to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; to the coastlands He will make recompense.”

When I read that, my coldness melted. God spoke to my heart at that moment and said, “Lisa, that’s how I feel about what happened to you this week.” Long before Jesus came to earth as a living sacrifice for us, He was fighting for us, not against us. Furthermore, God took up these weapons of warfare, these garments of vengeance and told us in Ephesians 6 that these same tools are intended for US. He gave us garments of vengeance, too, and specifically identified the enemy so we would know who to fight.

The next day, I took care of business. I fell to my knees with the weight of what I’d done by accusing God of lying to us and setting us up for disappointment, when really, it is His arch enemy that had come as the deceiver, an angel of light to steal (hope), kill (joy), and destroy (reputations). Kneeling, facing Him in the posture of my spirit, with my arms raised up and my heart crying out in repentance, God boldly responded, “Woman, rise up and face your REAL enemy!” From there, I got another sermon.

I rose to my feet and turned around. If I was going to face my enemy, I would need spiritual armor. I wrote in my first book Healing Letters that our spiritual armor doesn’t cover the backside because we must resist the devil and he will flee from us. There’s no mention of us tucking tail and running away. But this day, I learned another part of the lesson. When I was at the King’s feet and stood up in place and turned around right where I was at, I realized who had my back!

Throughout scripture, God shows Himself as light, sometimes a light so blinding that He cannot be looked upon at all. In Heaven, there is no need for any light source besides Jesus who lights up the entire place. So stand with me if you will in this place where God has had me ever since. I’m standing right in front of Him with my back to Him. I am wearing His garments of vengeance against the real enemy dressed in the helmet of His salvation, the breastplate of His righteousness, holding the sword of His Spirit and His word, with the belt of His truth, and marching straight forward toward the enemy in shoes bearing His Gospel message. With God all over me and towering high and wide behind me, how in the world can the enemy even possibly see me with all that blinding light shining at him?!?! It doesn’t matter what a spiritual giant I am or am not, it matters how bright Jesus is the closer I am to Him.

It also strikes me that, because the shining armor is on the front, when in fear I turn back around to burrow into my Father’s proverbial chest, the enemy can see my dark side. No longer is my armor reflecting the light outwardly, but my darkness becomes obvious in the black silhouette it creates. Sometimes, it really is ok to turn you back on God when you know He has your back and it’s a team effort. You stand, face your enemy, and know Jesus is that giant light surrounding you. God will do the rest. He’ll do your fighting for you. He’ll defend you because you’re His child, not because you’re always right. He is the power and strength to defeat the enemy. He is the light that blinds the enemy to make you invisible. Just face the real enemy, then be quiet and wait for your next command.

Are you mad at God? Does it truly feel like He has abandoned and forsaken you against all His promises not to do that? These very real feelings are part of the deception. So how can they be so real if they’re a lie? Well, the feelings are real, but they are based on a lie. Don’t cut yourself off from God because things don’t seem fair or right. You can be mad at Him, but also remain open to the idea of learning something in the process. When we’re angry, we put up walls built with bricks of doubts and accusations. Be careful. It’s not the outcome the situation that matters, rather it’s how we handle ourselves in getting there. I’m one stubborn chick! I’ve sat in God’s throne room with my arms and legs crossed, refusing to speak or listen. But I also refused to leave so that when I calmed down enough, I’d be right where I needed to be to get things turned around and in proper perspective.

 

“Vengeance is Mine, says the Lord, I will repay!” These garments of vengeance are His which He has put on us so that we may “stand.” Yes, Ephesians tells us we are to STAND and wield the weapons of our warfare. These weapons are God’s, therefore the vengeance is His. God doesn’t like how we are treated a lot of times, and He rises to the occasion. We should too!

 

PS – We got a new contract on our house TODAY. It is an honest and fair contract and all parties are excited to see it through. Very different than the last time. We are praying it all goes smoothly.