How do you wage war in the spiritual? How do you fight things you cannot see? What does that even mean?
Those are great questions, and I’m glad you asked.
First and foremost, I believe that we are spiritual beings in physical bodies. It’s why you and I resonate so incredibly much with movies and stories that talk of power, of movies like the Matrix, and of why religion has been a key part of every society since the foundation of the world.
Since we are spiritual beings, what I have found is that our physical bodies are affected by the spiritual (and vice versa, but that’s a topic for another day). In a practical sense, the physical things we see in our bodies have roots in the spiritual. It’s why most diseases are caused by stress – which is the medical euphemism for the mental/emotional/spiritual states of being unwell.
Where am I going with this – mainly that our spiritual life has a bigger impact on our physical life that we realize.
As a Christian, I know that the physical world was created from the Spiritual: the Spirit – God – created the physical with His words.
So what does that have to do with you, and the struggles you are dealing with.
First off, the same God that created the universe also has a lot of promises that are out for you and for me. These promises vary from things like, “I will never flood the entire world again,” to “I have plans to prosper you and not to harm you.”
The cool thing – there is a promise from God for every struggle you are facing. A few examples:
Are you searching for a spouse? God promises and states His desires throughout scripture.
– Delight in me and I will give you the desires of your heart.
– I have set the lonely in families.
– It is not good that man should be alone.
Going back to my last post, that God is on your side – realize this – if you want a spouse, God wants you to have a spouse. Even more, he has a plan and a desire to get you exactly where you want to go. How do you get there?
For starters, it begins with accepting a promise as available to you and then laying claim to it as yours.
Are these promises for me?
One of the biggest struggles I shared in my book, “For This Child I Have Prayed: 6 Heart Surgeries, 18 Months,” was trying to figure out if all of the promises of the Bible are for me. Does the promise made to Israel in Deuteronomy 28 apply to me? Especially since I’m not following the entire law of Israel?
Does the promises God made to David apply to me? Or to Abraham?
The answer is yes. You, like me, may be asking why. There are two reasons, one is biblical and the other is a reflection of God’s character
Biblical Reason: 2 Cor 1:20 states that all promises that God has ever made are Yes and Amen in Jesus. In simple terms, this means that – because of Jesus, we have access to every promise that God made.
Character Reason: God is good. If God is good, He can’t be a tease. He states that He is better than the good father’s we know. As such, we know that if a father were to tease his son with gifts he gave to one son, but didn’t make available to his other sons, that it would be evil and wrong. So why would God do that to us. No, God is not in the business of withholding. If He has something good, He wants to share it with you.
If you believe in Jesus, and you in relationship with Him, then these promises are for you. If you are not yet a believer in Jesus, then the promises are not yet for you. The Bible states that we are made righteous through our faith in Jesus.
What does it mean to lay claim to a promise? That sounds weird
Laying claim to a promise has always sounded weird to me, until I started doing it. The best example would be a gift card. A gift card is a promise that the store will give you $20 worth of merchandise for a $20 card. But to get that, you have to go to the store and grab the stuff, take it to the register, and act on their promise that they will give you $20 in merchandise.
So how does that apply to God and His promises? When we find a promise we want to lay claim to – it is ours. When Samuel was going through his surgeries, I laid claim to the promise in Psalm 112 – that the children of the righteous will grow strong in the land.
I told God in my prayers that Samuel would live long in the land because God promised that. I reminded God of His promises out loud every night. But God wasn’t the only person I reminded. Every time Samuel had a bad health scare, I reminded everyone else of God’s promise. I reminded my own self of God’s promise. I reminded Satan of God’s promise. I confessed God’s promise over Samuel. God’s promise became the island in the distance my boat was heading toward. God’s promise became my weapon to fight off the spiritual attacks of the enemy. God’s promise was my rudder and my shelter.
Laying claim to God’s promises are simply this – rather than passively sitting back and hoping that God’s promises will come to us, it means actively showing that we believe in God’s promises. It states in the Bible that faith needs an action component (Faith without works is dead).
What about the people who didn’t see God’s promise fulfilled
First off, and I attempt to address this in my book – my heart aches for the destruction that Satan wrecks on us. When children are killed, when people don’t heal, or when we don’t get what we are praying for – both my heart aches and God’s heart aches.
However, God’s word states this – Let God’s word be true and every man a liar. This is the crisis of faith we all come to – are we going to believe someone else’s circumstances, or even our own – or are we going to believe God at His word. As for me, I knew people who had lost children – Christians who had lost children, even. But I was not going to let the sad end to their story affect my battle. I had to believe that, due to my laying claim of God’s promises and not letting go, that God would bring about the healing and long life of my child.
The great news, God did. Samuel is now 7 years old. For his age, he is taller than most, and very solid. I feel like I’m picking up a statue when I grab him and lift him. He is growing mighty in the land. God is actively fulfilling the very promise He made so long ago.
Wrapping up
God’s word is called a double edged sword. It’s stated multiple times throughout the Bible that it is our weapon. Grabbing hold of a promise of God, and speaking it out of your mouth in faith, are one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal.
Speaking of our words – next time I w plan to tackle the topic of how powerful our words are and why they are a key to winning our spiritual battles.
Make sure to check the next post here: Principle 2: The Power of Your Words
You can catch the prior posts here:
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