Night Vision - Strategies of God
We would like to say the amount of hatred, violence, and persecution of those of faith is new, but history tells of a far different story. Regardless of the country or era, we have seen all three: hatred, violence, and persecution. That's why Jesus' life, death, and resurrection are still relevant today. We were born into a world at war, God vs Satan – good vs evil – hope vs despair.
For Jesus' followers, we need not despair, for this is not our home. We are sojourners here, just going through for a small amount of time. Our home is in heaven, spending eternity with our Heavenly Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. It is seeing our loved ones who have gone before us cheering us on with the cloud of witnesses. That is where we place our hope.
While we are here, we have work to do. God created us with all the gifts and talents needed to accomplish God's plans and purposes for our lives.
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
It is not about how good we can be but about how we can make a difference, for good or evil, about being a reflection of our Heavenly Father to a world that is in pain and conflict. In the Old Testament, we have the Ten Commandments given to Moses. In general, regardless of your faith tradition, the Ten Commandments are compatible, and the principles are consistent with the tenets of faith for each. They provide a standard for all to follow.
Jesus said the two greatest commandments are to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and the second is to love others as He has loved us. When we break that down, the Ten Commandments fit right in, but Jesus goes even further by telling us in John 13:34 NIV, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." He chose to lay down His life so that we, all of us, would have the freedom to choose to believe in Him and follow Him or not. He gave us an example of how to love even the unlovely because He loves them, too.
Over the years, I have had the easy-to-love and the not-so-easy. I have faced great joy, love, and extreme pain: whether circumstances, family, heartache, abuse, health challenges, and the death of loved ones; I have been a widow twice.
Through it all I have learned that God is faithful, and our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with rulers, the authorities, the powers of this dark world, and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
God has given us the tools to fight the enemy of our soul; here are a few:
Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. James 4:8a
Jesus spent time with His Father. All four Gospels speak about how Jesus would go and spend time with his Father. Matthew 14:13, Mark 1:35, Mark 6:45-46, Mark 14:32-34, Luke 4:42, Luke 5:16, Luke 6:12, and John 6:15.
How much more do we need to spend time with our Heavenly Father, sometimes to be with Him needing nothing but His peace.
Know who we are and whose we are - 2 Corinthians 5:16-18
Remembering God's faithfulness in the past – He will be faithful in the present and future. His love never changes.
God's mercy and grace - Hebrews 4:15-16
Sitting a while with Jesus, He is always there waiting for us to come and sit a while with Him.
Jesus understands our pain - Hebrews 4:15
Weapons of warfare
The Name of Jesus - Philippians 2:9
Armor of God - Ephesians 6:10-18
Fruit of the Spirit - Galatians 5:22-23
Jesus' Robe of Righteousness - Isaiah 61:10
The Blood of Jesus - John 1:7
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit was with Jesus when He came up from the water and was being baptized by John and went into the desert when Satan was tempting Jesus. The Power of the Holy Spirit rose Jesus from the dead.
That same Spirit is with us in our spirit when we invite the Holy Spirit to come into our hearts. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Trusting the Holy Spirit, who speaks to our innermost being, guides us and gives us what we need to go through what we face, good times and hard ones. / Isaiah 11:2, Micah 3:8, Luke 3:22, John 3:6-8, John 14:15-17, John 14:26, Acts 2:38, Romans 8:5-6, Romans 8:26, Romans 15:13
I don't subscribe to the notion that the devil is responsible for every bad thing that happens to us. I'm not willing to give him that much credit. He is not behind every bush, but even if he were, that doesn't mean we should engage and try to defeat him. That is exactly what the demons want. Their job is to kill, steal, and destroy any he can, and he is good at it. If he can't destroy, then he is content to neutralize us and get our focus on him, not on God. Ours is to do the will of our Father in Heaven, and that alone.
Jesus gave us the two commands: Love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love others as He has loved us. When we do this, we bring light into the darkness, strength to the weak, hope to the hopeless, and healing to the broken-hearted. That is doing the will of our Father in Heaven. Is it easy, probably not, but He loves us so much that He wants us to have everything we need to fulfill our God-given purpose and His plan for our lives.