48. Another good read! What dragons are you up against? Are you using the full armor that is given to you, or are you expecting to slay these dragons half dressed? It’s going to take every piece of the armor to slay your current dragon and each one after that. Don’t pick and choose what works and what doesn’t. Don’t run toward your dragon with a helmet and shoes leaving the rest behind; expecting a successful outcome. You need the full suit of armor to protect you and help you succeed in beating the dragon.
Here’s a scary thought. Are you your own dragon?
I feel led to add that as a 3 part being of Spirit, soul and body, many people in today’s time are chasing what “feels good to my soul”. This is a dangerous path. The Soul itself is made up of the mind, the will and the emotions of a person. If you constantly indulge the soul (the mind, will and emotions), your Spirit can suffer. The Spirit is eternal and has an eternal destination in either Heaven or hell; like it or not. I can say for certain, the closer we get to our Savior Jesus returning, the greater the attack of the enemy and the larger your dragon will be. I feel that believers marked by the Lord to do the work of His Kingdom here on earth are often attacked the hardest. The enemy wants to destroy your salvation.
Is your soul your dragon? Let’s first look at the mind. Are thoughts in your mind keeping you from connecting to The Lord? Are thoughts in your mind keeping you from believing in His existence? Wouldn’t you know that the enemy is succeeding through that doubt and through those thoughts! The enemy is being successful in keeping your Spirits eternal destination marked for his torture.
What about your will? Does your will fail you when Sunday morning comes around and it’s time to go to church? Do you become frustrated and defeated before you even set your feet on the floor? Does your will fail you when you know you should read the Bible, but it’s all the way over there on the other side of the room; leading you to shrug and say that you’ll just get to it tomorrow? There again is the enemy succeeding through your lack of willpower.
What about your emotions, your feelings? Are your emotions getting in the way of your relationship with the Lord? Do you just “not feel like it” when your friends go to church? Do you not feel welcome at church so you stop going all together because the one or two churches you’ve tried to attend didn’t give you the feeling of joy you wanted every single Sunday? Do you turn away from the Lord when you feel convicted by the words of your Pastor or words of those in your church? Do you let your emotions and your emotional reactions destroy the relationships the Lord puts in your life? Do you turn away from the Lord because you don’t “feel” that he’s there for you? Those are additional ways the enemy can attack through your emotions.
The enemy is desperately clawing at whatever he can in order to condemn your Spirit for all eternity.
Thankfully, the Lord our God is also desperately reaching out to all of His children (including you) through the death of His only Son, Jesus. The Lord has sent both Jesus and the Holy Spirit to guide us to our eternal salvation in Heaven. Our Spirit recognizes His Love, His Presence, His Word and draws us near to the Lord through the the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Our mind can easily be deceived, our will is only as strong as we decide that it is, and our emotions, well, to be honest, our emotions can cause us a lot of trouble if we aren’t careful to exercise self control. Don’t chase what makes your soul feel good. Don’t feed that dragon. Slay it with the promises you KNOW to be true from the Word.
Chase what makes your Spirit come alive!! Now more than ever, The Lord is desiring a connection to his children. A connection to your Spirit through the Holy Spirit is what the Lord deeply craves from His children. Each and every one of His children. Yes, even you!
Slaying dragons
There are things in my life that have presented themselves as immovable objects. These are things that I have prayed about, only to find that the more I pray, the worse they seemingly become.
At this point the enemy will whisper in your ear, “curse God and die”.
Yesterday in prayer, God gave me a powerful revelation. I began thinking about video games that I’ve played. Every time you are about to advance to the next level, there is always that dragon or other creature that you have to defeat.
Most of the time, the first time you attempt to fight him you immediately die. You go at him again, and again you die. After awhile you learn how to avoid his attacks, and begin to fire on him. However, despite all of your dodging his attacks, and numerous perfectly placed shots on him, he seems completely unaffected.
Then finally you land that shot and suddenly he begins to blow up, and you move on to the next level.
This is a perfect picture of what it looks like as we pray about our immovable object. When it first appears, it knocks us back on our heels. We come at it from a place of fear, Instead of attacking it from a place of authority. The more we try to go after it, the more we get smacked down.
Finally we get tired of cowering to this thing, we grab a hold of Gods promises and go on the offensive. We hold up our shield of faith, pull out our sword and begin hitting it with declarations of what God promised. As we hit the enemy back, he ramps up his attack. Soon weariness hits and discouragement attempts to settle in.
What you don’t realize is that the enemy has ramped up his effort because you are having an effect on him. Keep swinging your sword, keep declaring Gods promises. Your enemy is getting weaker. He’s losing his hold! Don’t lose heart, cling to faith! You may be one swing of the sword away from killing the dragon.
Ephesians 6:13-18 “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. “Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,”
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