PREPARING FOR WAR
By Kristie

Put on your armor daily as described in Ephesians 6:10-18

The schemes of the devil:
"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil." Eph. 6:10-11 Remember who the real enemy is: satan, not your spouse. (I also visualize putting the armor of God on my spouse, actually dressing him in it in my mind as I say the scripture. This is a scripture that I have memorized and use every morning before letting my feet hit the floor, over me and my spouse.)

The full armor of God.
"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day." Eph. 6:12-13. You must resist the fear that causes you to run away or give up; stand firm and, have done everything, continue to stand firm. Psalm 37 is good to pray if you are plagued with fear. (Again, this scripture states who your warring against..and it is not humans, it is the powers of darkness that inhabit the human form to do the bidding of satan. This is real folks, Gods word is not a lie, and demon possession or influence is not just a story line for the exorcist movie. It is real and in this world today. Most people who suffer mental illness are merely suffering from demon possession. Spouses that backslide and go off into adultery or whatever else evil that destroys your home and marriage, they are in captivity to these powers and they can be set free again with your help, with your working together with God to break them free. I promise this, my husband was captive to more the one, he went out and came back with the seven more evil then the first. I lived the exorcist movie. No, his head did not spin around and he did not spit pea soup, that is for movies, but yes..he did jump out of bed in the middle of the night and curse God for no reason, he did have a evil personna, he did totally turn away from God and could not even speak of Him, mocked God, taunted Him, and my husband was a Christian man mind you. He became cold as ice, violent, and he even became sickly looking, ashen and death like. He became something completely other then the man I knew, there was no resemblance of my husband left by the end of the three years he was captive to them. As I was told would happen, when I finally believed what was wrong with him and began seeking God for help, he also started getting up in the night vomiting, and could no longer sleep in our bedroom but slept in the van. The devil cannot abide where God lives. God had to remove him from our home, and then God got me busy and together with God, my husband was set free to be with God and me again. God will do the same for your spouse! Trust Him and work with Him!

Stand Firm:
"Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth..."Eph 6:14. People talk about "stepping out in faith". It may be best to stop moving and just stand firm! It may be the difference between trusting and tempting God. Sometimes we feel like we are taking a "step of faith", but we are actually throwing ourselves off a cliff, as satan told Jesus to do. Many times we should not be taking a "step" of faith but rather a "stand" in faith. Our convictions should enable us to stand for what is right and truth. If we move, we could be falling off a cliff. They say that if God brings adversity into our lives, our stand will be the testimony. I feel that God never brings adversity into our lives, He may allow it to come in though..as it is through adversity that we grow the most in the Lord. If things were always peachy for us, we would just stay lumps of flesh and never get tossed on Gods pottery wheel for remolding. God really does not have to bring adversity to us, we bring it to ourselves through sin and disobedience..He can pretty much bank on that from us humans. It is satan who brings adversity into our lives, but most times we let him do so. Sometimes we open the door wide open and invite him in even. This can happen by the things we bring into our homes, actions we make. The good news is, God will take up the battle for us to remove him from our lives and we will have a testimony to tell of Gods powerful love and might in saving His people. Sometimes we are asked to step out and walk on water, as Peter was asked to do. Discernment is needed here. One rule that may help is the amount of urgency. Usually our "flesh" brings about urgency; God usually says to wait. Gods time schedule is not like ours, and His seems like torture most times, but there is purpose for all things, even time, God knows what He is doing, just trust Him. His word is truth, trust what He tells you, He tells you that He will heal and restore, so do not analyse it to death, the time it takes, just use this time wisely and learn all you can and grow all you can in the Lord. You will need to be strong for when your spouse comes back..your battle does not end with his or her return, a new battle begins, the battle to keep the enemy out for good and it is a never ending battle, so get warriored up while you can.

His Rightousness:
"...and having put on the breastplate of righteousness..." Eph. 6:14. God is talking about His righteousness, not yours. He tells us in His word that our righteousness is nothing but filthy rags" Isa. 64:6

Walk in peace:
"And having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace...." Eph. 6:15. You can claim the promise in Matthew: "Blessed are the peacemakers!" Be peaceful with everyone at all times!

The shield of faith:
"In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one." Eph. 6:16. You must have faith - not in yourself or anyone else - but faith in God, in Him alone! Circumstance has nothing to do with faith. Believe His word alone for the truth about your situation. If He said it, you can bank on it! He said that He hates divorce and there is no acceptable excuse for it, He states what a husband should be to his wife, and how he should behave in his home, how he should raise his children, and the He did the same for the wife, He set the preceps, and He will readily transform spouses into what they should be if we only believe. Every single thing He says in His word, it is for you and you can stand on it with faith that it is, not that it will happen, but that it already has even if you do not see it manifesting in the physical earthly world as yet...it is done in the spiritual world, in the Heavens and it will come to be in the physical. If you have that faith, that shield of faith before you, the enemy cannot stand against you, he will fall away, flee from you and your spouse, your home, your marriage. Nothing he has done or will try to do will proper against you, he is defeated!

Helmet of Salvation:
"And take the helmet of Salvation." Eph. 6:17. You must be saved; you must be one of His children to really win a difficult spiritual battle. It's easy as talking to God right now. Just tell Him in your own words that you need Him, now. Ask Him to make Himself real to you. Give Him your life, a life that is messed up, and ask the Lord to make it brand new. Tell Him that you will do whatever He asks, since He is now your Lord. Ask Him to save you from your situation and from the eternity that is waiting for all those who do not accept His gift of eternal life. Thank Him for His death on the cross, the death that He died for you. You can now believe that you will no longer live alone, God will always be with you and will help you, and you will spend eternity in Heaven with Him, when your time comes to leave this earthly world. Know that now you will prosper in Him because He wants all good things for His people. Seek Him diligently and He will answer and provide for you all good things.

Sword of the Spirit:
"Take the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God." Eph. 6:17. This is exactly what we are doing here, teaching you to use the word of God in your battle..it is your greatest weapon against the enemy. He cannot stand up to Gods word, which is the absolute truth. Use His word for a battle that will be won. The enemy may say that your marriage is over, destroyed, that your spouse loves another, that it is hopeless, but God says otherwise and when you speak His word over your circumstances, the enemy must let go and flee, those chains he put upon your spouse, the chains of cold heartedness, of adultery, of divorce, they will fall away and your spouse will be set free. Gods word never comes back void, speak it and it will win the battle against the enemy. This is exactly how Jesus dealt with satan on the mountain top those 40 days of temptation. For every thing satan said to Jesus, Jesus quoted Gods word back, and satan had to move on to something new..he could not argue against Gods word. He finally gave up and left Jesus be. He had to flee. You see, when you are a child of God, then your battle is the Lords battle..He takes it from you and it is no longer yours to fight..you lay it at the foot of the cross, giving it over to Him, and you leave it there, and He fights the battle for you. When the battle is the Lords, the victory is ours, because we all know that satan never could defeat God, he was totally defeated 2000 years ago once and for all when Jesus died for us on that cross. It was over then, he just goes about trying to convince human flesh that it is not over, that he has a chance...but if you know Gods word, if you know the battle was won back on the cross, if you trust Gods word, have faith in it, then it is truely over with your circumstances..they are already won, have been won, he never had a chance! If you need to, write down on 3x5 cards scriptures that you can use in your battle, the promises of God in your situation, so when the enemy tries to attack you, you can quote the out loud, just as Jesus did, and he will flee from you.

Pray at all times:
"With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit." Eph. 6:18. Have designated times daily that you will get on your knees before God. Start out praising and worshipping Him, as God inhabits the praises and worship of His people..meaning praise and worship bring you into the very presence of God, bring you into His throne room. You can accomplish this best with music. Know that there is a diffence between praising and worshipping. Praising Him is songs of thanks and gratitude and it comes before worship. Worship is just basking in Him...giving oneself completely over to Him, feeling His glory, honoring Him, loving Him with all your heart and soul, giving Him the glory. In Gods music, praise is usually the faster beat music and worship is the slower music that reverences Him. This is the best way to make offerings of praise and worship, it is how King David did it and set the example for all of us. This will also bring the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to you. Many have wondered what it means to pray in the Spirit. Praying in the Spirit is something that happens only after you receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised the disciples that He would send a comforter to them when He was gone. On Pentecost, while in the upper room, the disciples received that comforter, which was Jesus's Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Receiving the Spirit of Jesus enabled the disciples to go out and perform miracles and signs in the Name of Jesus, doing just the things Jesus Himself did when He was with them. So the Holy Spirit coming into them empowered them with Christs power, it is how Christ gives us His power within ourselves. There is no special instructions on how to receive the Holy Spirit, it is something that comes by getting as close as you can to God. Putting yourself into God more and more, becoming one with Him, and He in turn will put Himself into you, meaning His Spirit. Praise and worship in music to the Lord is a good way to bring the Holy Spirit upon you, again it brings you directly into the presence of God, and it opens you up for the Spirit of God to come in. Once you receive the Holy Spirit within you, He will never leave you, He will be with you 24-7, and when you pray, you will hear Him take over and pray for you. He does not pray like we do, He prays in a language that is of God. This is important because when we pray out loud to God, satan hears every word we say, and this lets him in on our convos with God, letting him know our worries, our fears, our hopes and desires, our feelings, our requests of God, and he can then use them against us. He is the enemy, and like with any enemy in a battle setting, you do not want to give away your stategies or give the enemy ammunition to use against you. Therefore, until you have the Holy Spirit indwelling within you and He then is praying for you in tongues, you need to pray silently in your mind..because God is omnipotent, but satan is not. God can hear your thoughts, satan cannot. Is it not ironic that satan cannot hear our thoughts but he sure is busy putting his thoughts in our minds! Once you have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you, He will pray for you in the special language of God that satan cannot understand. You will not understand it either, but the Holy Spirit will give you the interpretation as well when He prays for you.

Be on alert:
"And with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints." Eph. 6:18. Pray for another person or persons that are going through the same trial that you are. The saints are the children of God, like yourself..you are one of the saints. The greatest thing that you can do to bring a breakthrough in your situation, is to pray for someone elses. This is a offering of sacrifice to the Lord and to your brothers an sisters in Christ. To be able to lay down your own problems and worries long enough to show a compassion and pray for someone else's, means a great deal to God, and you will find that your own situation has taken a turn about for the good without you even thinking about it or noticing. It is also important that if you hold anything against anyone when praying, that you forgive them. God says this, you must forgive all who have harmed you, as unforgiveness will hinder your prayes and block Gods movement in your situation. If you find you cannot forgive on your own, then seek Gods forgiveness for them, cry out to Him to give you something to help you to forgive, that you cannot do it on your own, and He will give you what you need to be able to release that forgiveness. You must forgive the other woman or the other man, if you cannot, God cannot help you with your situation. Seek Him and He will give you what you need to accomplish the goal.

Pray for those who persecute you:
God asks that we pray for our enemies, every one of them. This again goes with what I said above about forgiveness. This could be the other woman or the other man. Pray for them and ask God to show you what He wants you to do to bless them. It was not until Job prayed for his so called friends that God restored to Job what he had lost. "And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased all that Job had two-fold." Job 42:10. Could you stand a two fold blessing to come upon you in your situation. How about not only the return of your spouse, but they come back a new person in Christ, and ready to serve Him and be a Godly spouse to you! "But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you." He goes on to tell you why: "in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in Heaven." Matt. 5:44-45. Like Father, like son so they say. We have to put off our old selves and put on the mind of Christ if we want to serve the Lord and find His favor. God says that if we cannot forgive others, then He cannot forgive us. Sometimes the only way to find forgiveness for others is via praying for them. I had a problem with the forgiveness thing until I got on my face and begged God to help me with it, to give me something, anything, that would help me to forgive the woman who slept with my husband, and right there on the spot, He gave it to me. Since that moment, not only do I forgive her, if I saw her on the street I would run up and hug her and let her know how much God loves her. Since then, as she was the first OW, another came after her, I have no longer had that problem. When the second OW came along, I was able to walk right up to her and tell her that I forgive her for what she has done and will be praying for her, that she find the Lord and let Him into her life so she can live right and be free from the bondage she is in. I never had a negative feeling for her in my heart, not once. I also called the last OW, the one he is with now and told her I forgave her and hoped she finds Jesus. She called me for three days after that wanting to talk. She committed that adultery again with him this trip, but I can be sure of one thing, I planted the seeds, and now is going to make them grow in her as well.

Know Gods Word!
His word will not come back void!
You must know and learn God's word. You need to set out to find the blessed promises of God. These principles are from His Word and when we speak His Word to Him in prayer, it will not come back void. That is His promise to you! "So shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void (empty), without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it." Isaiah 55:11. His desire was that you may overcome the evils in this world. You must do what is guaranteed by God Himself. Accept no imitations or counterfeits. So what am I saying here? I have tried to impress on people that whatever your circumstance might be, broken marriage, sickness, financial trouble, God addresses it in His word, most things He addresses way more then once. He tells us His will on the subject, His desires for you concerning the situation. So lets take broken marriage since this is where we are posting catagorie wise. God makes it clear what His will is about marriage & divorce. Mal 2:16; Mt. 19:3; 1 Co. 7:10, 7:11, 7:27, 7:39.

It is one of the subjects that He goes into many times and does not allow room for misunderstanding. God hates divorce, Mal 2:16. He intends for married couples to stay that way until death do they part. He even goes this far on the subject: God tells us to not marry a unbeliever...2 Co. 6:14, yet if we have already done so, He says do not divorce them either., 1 Co. 7:13. He only gave one outlet to obtain a divorce without it counting as sin, and that is...some will say here loudly..ADULTERY! Go back and restudy that because you are wrong. God says that even with adultery, He wants forgiveness to be given and restoration of the marriage relationship. What He said is, He will only allow it because of the hardening of hearts...meaning if there is adultery committed in the marriage AND there is a hardening of hearts. Break down hardening of hearts...this means that both partners, both the husband and wife have hardened their hearts to one another, then He will allow it. Why has He made the exception in this case? Because if both spouses have hardened hearts towards one another, then there is no one to seek God for restoration, no one will be praying for that, asking God to intervene and heal the marriage. But...if one of the spouses still has a heart for the other and seeks God to help change the heart of the other spouse back to them, God will do it, because He hates divorce, does not want it, and anytime He is sought out in prayer for something that He wants to happen, His will, it will happen, guaranteed. God will reach inside the spouse with the hardened heart, take out the heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh and renew their spirit. He will turn that spouses heart back to the wife or husband of their marriage covenant. This is guaranteed friends. He even speaks the guarantee in His word... "So shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void (empty), without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it." Isaiah 55:11....." shall not return to Me void (empty), without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it." Your guarantee that what He says will happen if you seek Him to honor His word. Now back to what I was saying that I try to impress on people to do for victory in the battle...the key to winning without a fight..the key to driving the enemy right out into the outer darkness and away from your spouse and marriage... "So shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void (empty).." Pray His word on the situation over your situation. He promises that His word returned back to Him, will not return to Him void. In other words, He spoke it, and when you declare what He spoke back to Him about your situation, it will happen just as He said and you are reminding Him of. God says He hates divorce, so when you speak Gods word over your situation, divorce will not happen. But what I want you to do is actually speak Gods word. Gods scripture, not your own condensed version like I am doing here just to teach this, but His word just as He spoke it. So open up your Bible and find Gods word on divorce and speak it in prayer over your marriage.

I want to recommend something to all here as one of the best tools you can have for battling the enemy in any situation. Go get yourself a Holman Bible Publishers NIV Disciple Study Bible. I got one back in 1988 and it has been a God send. I have many Bibles, some would say I collect them even, but none that I have found compares to this Bible, and I literally would be lost without it. It went out of print for a long time, but I recently did a search and found that they have just reprinted because of the demand for this one. I have looked forever for one for each of my kids and my husband has wanted one of his own. The difference in this Bible from others is it leaves nothing to question. For every scripture verse, there is a explanation of the meaning, but more importantly...In the back is a index that contains every word in the Bible, and this is the main reason I say to go get this Bible. Here we are in this teaching and to implement this teaching in your situation, you need to find everything God says in His word on divorce so you can pray those scriptures over your marriage. With this Bible, all you have to do is go look up the word Divorce in the index and it will give you a list of every scripture in the Bible that contains the word divorce. Same with adultery, same with healing, or whatever your need is. So when it comes to praying scripture over your situation, no matter what it is, this Bible is a God send. When it comes to counciling someone on a given topic and you want to be sure to quote them Gods word, you can look up the situation word and you have before you quickly everything God says on the situation. The index not only gives you the chapter and verses..it gives you a good portion of the scripture itself, so if you are trying to remember a particular scripture, you can find it easily by browsing the list and finding the exact scripture you are looking for..you do not have to go look at every scripture pertaining to the key word to find the exact one you need. It has been a blessing to me with my husband when I have been in discussion with him on Gods word and the sin he is committing (when he is). When I am trying to drive home a point...Gods word on the matter, I do not like to give a condensed version of what He said in my words...I want to give His exact word so it cannot be questioned. I want to say "Here, look, read for yourself, there it is in black and white, His word on it, not mine." I can do that quickly with this Bible, and usually when those opportunities come up in dealing with someone who is backslidden or struggling, you need Gods word quick, you do not have time to hunt through the Bible hoping you will come across it before they get away from you. :-) I am pasting here the direct link to Holmans site for this Bible, where you can buy it directly....the new reprint they are doing by popular demand, which I found this last time that I set out to try to find this Bible for my family members. http://www.broadmanholman.com/produ...isbn=1558199489

Search for His Principles throughout your Bible. Seek understanding.
God says that if you seek, you will find. God's word gives wisdom. Looking deeper into the meaning gives you a better understanding. "And I say to you, ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you," Luke 11:9. And once you know what to do, then you can apply it to your life. "By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; and by knowledge there rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches." Prov. 24:3-4. God speaks to us via His word, and we must read and ponder His word in order to grow and mature in wisdom of God. Even the old testament. Do not think that the old testament is just a story book, it is not. I have gained more wisdom about my circumstances and battles in the old testament then I have the new. The old testament is true accounts of real life situations, just like today we have situations. God used the book of Esther to let me know my husband was coming back from the wilderness. At the time I was not sure what exactly God was telling me, but two days after He gave me the book of Esther and I had read how Queen Vatashi had riled the King and his advisors told him to ban her from the kingdom and take a new queen, which turned out to be Esther, my husband called me, a broken man, asking if we could talk and try to restore our marriage. It was in this phone call that I learned he had moved in with another woman. I had been praying the adultery scripture over him, the other woman becoming like bitter gall to him, just for good measure, as I figured he was at least messing around out there in the wilderness, but I never would have imagined he had set up house with another woman. We laughed for some months over the Queen Vatashi thing, (that is what we ended up calling this other woman when we spoke of her). So God does speak to you through scripture and will let you know what is going on, what is going to happen and so on, but you have to open yourself up to Him. Seek Him and He will answer, He will give you understanding of His word. Just know that sometimes you have to wait on Him, as His timing is not our timing, but His is the right timing! :-)

Read His Word with delight. Mark the verses in your Bible.
"Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." Ps. 37:4. Take the time to mark verses for quick reference in times of distress (or when leading another to the truth). In Luke 4:4-10, what did Jesus answer when satan was trying to tempt Him? "And Jesus answered him, 'It is written....It is written....It is written....for it is written....." Jesus did just what we are talking about here, He quoted scripture to satan, because satan cannot stand against Gods Holy Word, he has to flee because he has no defense against Gods word. This is the principle of praying scripture, to fight the devil the way Jesus fought him for a fail proof winning situation. Scripture is just as available to you and it was to Jesus. Know Gods word just as the Son did, and use it to drive the enemy out of your life, your marriage, your home. It works! Use a yellow highlighter to mark verses in your Bible. Mine is a mirage of colors as I have read the Bible through three times front to back, and each time used a different color. Know Gods word, all of it from front to back, they are our weapons in this life against the attacks of the evil one.

Memorize, Meditate day and night.
Memorize the promises you find so that the blessed assurance of them may sink into your mind, heart and soul. You must learn and know God's promises if you ever want to depend on Him alone. "But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he propers." Ps. 1:2. The more you study and get to know Gods word, the closer you will get to God, and the more levels He will move you up in relationship with Him. The higher in levels you go up, the more fruits of the Spirit you will bear, which the more fruits you gain from God, the more invincible in Him you will become.

God bless...