“He’s brought me here, where things are clear
And trials turn to gold
He shared with me, His victory
He won in days of old…
He’s brought me low, so I could know
The way to reach the heights
To forsake my dreams, my self esteem
And give up all my rights
With each one that I lay down
A jewel’s placed in my crown
Cause His love, the things above
Is all we’ll ever need
He’s brought me here, where things are clear
And trials turn to gold.”
– Keith Green, from his song Trials Turned to Gold
“But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.”
– Job 23:10
Recently I’ve been asking God to make me stronger in Him, strengthen my faith, and give me more discernment, wisdom, and understanding. In the past He has done this through His word, prayer, trials, time in silence and solitude with Him (including solo trips to the desert), fasting, watching Him come through in difficult circumstances, and when I obey Him.
God may also place us in a red-hot furnace of affliction and torment and allow the enemy to have at us, within the parameters God sets, like what happened to Job in Job 1. In the furnace our faith may be rocked and tested; it can be a dangerous place. Job lost 10 kids in one day, his business, his health, was left with a bitter wife who told him to curse God, and three friends who wouldn’t shut up and repeatedly hammered him with doctrine. Job must have felt utterly alone. Maybe abandoned.
Last week I wrote about the intense warfare we were experiencing. It hasn’t let up. Last Sunday was hard, then the first part of Monday was brutal.
However, during this process God began to answer my prayers mentioned above, starting with discernment. He opened my eyes so that I saw where the enemy was hitting me and how. Many of these attacks had to do with fear. The assaults felt like getting hit with a dart had been tipped with fear-toxin, soaked in gasoline, set on fire, then sent flying. Some of these fears had to do with decades-old wounds I had worked on before but still needed healing at a deeper level.
In the first days when the assaults began I got hit hard with fear from different angles, including the fear of suicide. As a teen I wasn’t far from suicide at one point; around 2007 I had more struggles in that area.
Before I go any further, I wasn’t and am not thinking of suicide, the enemy was planting those thoughts in my mind and assaulting my emotions. There was force behind it. The enemy is quite adept at attacking our mind. After bearing a child, some Christian women have reported hearing horrifying thoughts of hurting their newborn baby. Some believers have heard thoughts cursing God. If you’re going through this, God knows your heart and these attacks are not you.
As the Holy Spirit began to open my eyes and increase my discernment, I saw the battlefield clearly and how to fight back. I prayed into each attack, one by one, renouncing them as they came and asking God to cleanse and heal. For example, my prayer against the fear of suicide looked like this: “In Jesus’ name, I renounce all fear of suicide, including any agreements I might have made with fear at any time. I confess all fear as sin. Lord Jesus, please come and heal my body and my emotions in this place, and seal it off. I pray the blood of Christ over this area, including my body, soul, and emotions. Please strengthen me now in this place of my heart.”
After I prayed through each point of attack, I started noticing that I wasn’t getting hit in those areas any longer. Brute force warfare that attacks the senses is physically and emotionally draining and can shake up the nervous system, yet, I started getting a sense that those soft spots had been resolved, strengthened, and even healed. My faith muscles began to grow. Just as I had asked God to do.
“He trains my hands for war,
so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.”
Psalm 18:34
While running the gauntlet, one of my prayers was that God would cause the spiritual arrows I shot to hit the target with force, as if I was using a spiritual bow of bronze. In the beginning I was doing what I normally do when hit with warfare but wasn’t making much progress. When the battles are fierce it’s important that we ask God how to win each battle and listen for His answer. Our program-addicted church culture likes to give people “5 steps for overcoming spiritual warfare” and expect it to work. This is relying on a man-made program, not God. You need not look further than the long trail of wreckage in the church to know that programs fail in this arena.
Wednesday morning of this week I got hit again. I asked God for how to win the battle; His answer was “praise.” So I started praising Him, and moved forward. Later, after I arrived at the office, I asked for prayer with our team here at office. Game over.
Yesterday (Thursday) morning I was awakened at 4am with a physical attack. After spending time in prayer, God took me into another old wound. It was a hard process to walk through, but the end result was more healing.
As soon as I woke up this morning another all-out battle began with anxiety and the crazy on my mind. God gave me one word: Persevere. I prayed for strength, against any possible attacks of desolation, then prayed Scripture out loud. The battlefield quieted. Then I got into the office and got hit again; it just so happened I had a call scheduled with a friend. We prayed and again there was peace. I feel a bit weary, but hey, I’ll take the win.
Did I mentioned we have our next night of prayer tonight?
I share these stories with you because there might be an area where you’re getting hit and God might have something here for you. Or maybe you need the whole thing.
Trials turned to gold. It’s a difficult, dangerous path, but God is there, strengthening, leading, teaching, healing, cleansing, refining, blessing. He is the source of our strength, power, and life. This isn’t mere talk. My team and I are walking it out. So are others in the body of Christ. I’ve heard from other believers who make prayer a priority and/or are involved in front line ministries that they’ve been going through the same intense battles we are.
My friends, we are in a time of unprecedented darkness where evil is on rampage, everywhere. An unequipped, lukewarm Christian will be at risk of getting hit hard one time and collapsing. The numbers of people walking away from the faith bear this out. You don’t want that to be you. Unfortunately, many churches are lukewarm mills and won’t touch the topic of spiritual warfare, let alone equip their people in this critical area.
Some who are in the furnace might be tempted to go to a psychiatrist for help. They might diagnose you as schizophrenic and put you on a heavy-duty cocktail of psychiatric medications, blowing your mind into a coma in the process. The enemy keeps attacking until the person wilts under the assault; some commit suicide at this point. I’ve been in that place and know how dangerous it is. Stories of believers who have committed suicide are commonplace today.
Occasionally I’ll hear a Christian say they “feel strong.” We all like to feel good, this writer included, but in the spiritual realm feeling strong often means your flesh is alive and well. You may not be stronger spiritually than when you are beat up, worn out, scarred, and taking incoming fire in spiritual warfare. At that point we rely on God heavily while crucifying the flesh, or we don’t make it. Spiritual firefights create warriors. And deserters.
“So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
The demonic torment Paul was afflicted with was so intense that Paul begged God three times for relief. Then Paul boasted of his afflictions when God showed Paul that he had it backwards – that spiritual power comes from suffering and weakness. We rogue Christians call this living the crucified life. Being strong spiritually doesn’t mean you feel well. This runs against the grain of a culture that is addicted to comfort and isolation.
An effective, consistent prayer life, knowledge of the Bible, discernment, knowing how to walk with God, and the support that comes from other praying Christians are crucial. Without a strong prayer life your discernment level will be close to the bottom of the scale.
“As a pastor, I could tell you countless stories of people who have walked into sin or even walked away from God, and it always starts with drifting away from community with other solid followers of Jesus.”
– John Mark Comer
I wouldn’t want to walk this road without my tribe and their support and prayers. Isolated believers are easy prey for an enemy who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Many of our churches encourage isolation and prayerlessness by design. Hard to be devoted to fellowship and prayer when everyone is safely tucked away in their nice, soft, compartment of isolation on Sunday morning and we don’t pray during our church services as they did in the book of Acts.
Have you ever noticed how hard it can be to ask for prayer when you’re going through a hard time, particularly with spiritual warfare? Part of the enemy’s plan of attack is to keep us cut off from others. If you need prayer and help, ask someone, or reply to this email if you want one of us to pray for you.
Prayer and spiritual warfare should be at the top of every church’s list of priorities for equipping their people, followed by sexual issues. A message on the armor of God once every three or four years is like being in the middle of a firefight and singing kumbaya while bombs are blowing up everywhere. Keep that up and your unit will get slaughtered.
Yesterday I was at a coffee shop with friends. Seated near us were two young women who were talking loudly. They had tarot cards on the table and were talking about witchcraft. The occult is in everyone’s face and yet most of our comfort and performance-driven churches are playing ostrich. We must equip our people to be overcomers and prayer warriors.
Do you see how rogue a message like this is?
It shouldn’t be.
Every believer needs to understand that if they want the abundant life that Christ offers and to be an overcomer that they will have to fight for it and go against the grain of the status quo.
Stay strong in prayer and Gods word. This is the wrong time to play church or worship at the altar of pleasure and entertainment. DO… NOT… ISOLATE. You need a tribe. Participate in prayer meetings. We have eight support and prayer meetings going during the week. Contact us to get plugged in. As always, focus on making your life count for eternity.
The enemy will often attack with fear. Don’t back down if he does. Stand firm. Ask for prayer when needed, ask God how to win, and keep going.
