Prepare For Spiritual Warfare!

Have you ever awaken in the middle of the night with something on your mind?  Not the interrupting kind of awakening. I mean you went to sleep peacefully, going over a great day and nothing-really-on-your-mind kind of sleep.  You might have had a slight irritation from someone but you dismissed it like a gnat.  But in the middle of the night, you awake because you heard something/someone say “Prepare for Spiritual Warfare.”  So, I wrote it down.  Yes, I keep a pen and paper on the nightstand to write down thoughts or whatever I might think of throughout the night to pursue those thoughts later.  I know that the enemy will do what ever can be done to keep our focus off of God.  The Devil knows that to control you he needs to control areas of the mind.  If you continue to build a relationship with the Lord and attach yourself around like-minded people, prepare for battle.  We all crack and get distracted, so we will have to build some strong roots to get our selves together.  We have the armor and the tools to do battle.  Here are some verses from Ephesians 6:10-18, New International Version (NIV).  “¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  ¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”  After all, we are conquerors.  Mark 11:24 “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” We must have faith in God and strengthen ourselves within that faith.  We believe in it, act on it, and never doubt it!  Look around you, we need all the help we can get.  We've been fighting and arguing against the wrong people.  We are fighting against an unseen enemy who uses friends and family to fight against us.  And we end up hurting the ones we care about the most as they do us.  It's a continuous battle and struggle, no one said it would be easy.  We must be tolerant and loving of each other even when they do offend us whether they are aware of it or not.