Spiritual Warfare

It is now five days in counting until I go to Africa. All the clothes are picked out coordinating to the days we want to wear them, which is a huge surprise because I am not an organized person.  We all are ready to go and serve. We are excited we are filled with the joy of the Lord and are ready to get on that plane!!! It is during these important weeks before the trip where we have all experienced something that I personally do not think I have experienced before. It is called spiritual warfare. in the dictionary this is what it says about spiritual warfare "Spiritual warfare is the Christian concept that the Devil and demons attempt to thwart Good and the will of God." I did not know before these weeks what it was. I knew the definition but, I had never experienced it. I really realized these past weeks that the devil does NOT want my family and Katie to go to Africa at all. I have been tempted more than I have in years to argue with and disobey my family. I have even thought at times "Am I even ready to do this?" and, now I realize that was the devil he wants me to think that I'm not ready for this, he wants me to argue with my parents and disobey them and fight with my brother.  Satan wants to create division between us. A couple days ago my mom was in a car wreck. He arm got hurt and so did her chest. Her knee is now starting to hurt as well and I know for a fact it is the devil. My dad is also having some issues with his health. Spiritual warfare is not just a thought, a definition. Spiritual Warfare does not just mess with you mentally it can mess with you physically. Through all of these trials we must still praise the Lord. I also did not understand this verse until now, "Consider it pure joy my brothers when you face trials of many kinds."James 1:2, That means that when these things happen that I am supposed to praise the Lord! And I do not have to be afraid! Because the battle is the Lords and He is on my side. So why do I fear? Through this God has encouraged me because, I know that He wants to do something amazing! and, he just happens to choose me. I am humbled at the fact! He chooses all of us as His warriors! I am very excited for God's plan! 

Abandon Yourself

God showed me something amazing a couple weeks ago. I was in my room after a long day of school and so I decided to turn my radio on. I have two radios so I walked to the first one and turned on my favorite radio station K-Love.  Then directly after turning on that radio I went over to my other radio and turned on a secular radio station. I didn't think twice about it. I just had two completely different songs with different messages playing at the same time. Then I stopped myself. Hold on I said. Why would I turn on two different radio stations? I couldn't hear either of them clearly and they both were so different. I guess I just could not decide on which radio station to play. That's when God spoke to me. He told me that is how I like to live sometimes. That is how a lot of us want to live. We kind of listen to God's voice and do what God wants us to but we still have the world on. We still have there influence on us and we still listen to it. I could step closer to God(or the christina radio) but, I could still hear a lot of the world (secular playing radio). There was no possible way for me to hear just the one radio station and not the other. I would always be under the influence of the other music or other way of living to. I had to turn one of the radio stations off. Because I cannot be Godly and of this world. Jesus tells us in John 15:18-19 that “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world". Jesus even tells his children that the world is going to hate you because, we belong to God. So, wouldn't we actually want to be hated by the world? Because we belong to God not the world. We all have to choose Do we want to belong to God or this World? Just like I could not have both stations on I can't be apart of the world and God. That's why I want to abandon myself. Because If anyone is in Christ He is a new creation the old has gone and the new has come 2 Corinthians 5:17. God wants to make us new. He has plans for me and every one of his children.  So abandon yourself find your identity in your heavenly father Jesus Christ.