My pastor many years ago had preached a topic that tells us when God wants to remove things from inside us—such as bad habits or negative traits, he uses people to poke us. Like many people, I thought that word was well received into my understanding but it was standing on the outside of my spirit, dwelling in my flesh as the word is right now doing in so many of us.
Until the word of God gets into our spirits and not just dwell in our flesh, we will never really understand its true meaning. We will always be interpreting it based on our flesh.
For those of you who have read a few of my posts already and know of my nephew who was used as a thorn in my side for a couple years after I wrote my second book-The Path of the Chosen Warriors, you would have known how much he was being used by the devil to even weary me to the point of even giving up. Here is one that I wrote where I learned to use the Shield of Faith through one of those encounters.
But over the course of those three years, I have learned a few things:
1. To change the directions of my prayers from the physical man that is being used against me to the spiritual forces using that person. For when you study the word you will learn that God said in Ephesian 6:12, ‘we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness and spiritual wickedness in the heavens,’ which will remind you that the person you see doing the physical act is only a vessel because he has the qualities that will rile you up the right way to bring out the things God wants to comes out of you.
2. I take note of what happens when I come under attack. By this I mean, my own attitude or actions that arise when under attack. When my nephew used to come against me, I used to get angry and shout at him in attempts to silence him—which never worked by the way. I would find myself thinking negative thoughts of things I wanted to happen to him to free me of him and I wasn’t even a negative person by nature, but sometimes we have things in us that we never know about until we’re faced with a certain situation and sometimes this is how God reveals them to us. I even went to the police to have them lock him up because of frustration.
3. Then I prayed for transformation in myself, when I realized that I did not act in ways that would have caused me to past the test, but instead acted impulsive and allowed satan access into my life. I prayed hard asking God to help me not be the person I saw manifest when I faced my nephew. I felt bad thinking to myself, how can I represent God to anyone like this, if I have no self-control and so, I slowly started to respond less to his negative words, watched myself when I got tempted to not utter something negative about him-remembering that our words have the power to bless and curse others. And because I had now started to pray against the forces using him; transformation came not only in me but also in him.
It wasn’t until this morning while reading John 6 and getting to verse 70 that everything that happened with my nephew made sense.
God allowed the devil to work through my nephew to prepare me for ministry.
This was what Jesus said in that verse: “Did I not choose you and one of you is a devil?”
You need to read the whole chapter to get the full meaning of the post but in that verse, Jesus was saying—He chose a devil to be among him.
You might be saying but why would he do that? The answer is even the devil has a purpose.
In order for salvation to come to us someone had to betray him and so, Judas was chosen. It’s the same way for God’s plan to be fulfilled in our lives or to prepare us for ministry, the service of the devil sometimes is required. My pastor used to tell us that Satan thinks he is the one in charge when he comes against me, but in fact, he too has a purpose.
Think of it like this:
God has a plan for you—He uses Satan to strip you of everything that doesn’t reflect Him—in order for transformation to come to you—preparing you for every good work that brings glory to his kingdom.
So in order for us to be ready for the master’s work, which we all have been born to do, we all have to be purified like gold through the fire as described in 1 Peter 1:7. Don’t think you are here and have no purpose. We all do, even if it’s small.
Here is my checklist of 4 things you need to do while in the midst of your storm:
First, ask yourself what God wants to change in you or strip from me. Or is this a test or trial?
Then check if your prayer life is stagnant—we are told that we are to pray without ceasing meaning we should be praying every day? And that doesn’t mean 5 minutes each day as if it is a chore. We should pray in and out of season not just to ask but offer thanksgiving to God as well.
How much time do you invest in reading the word? Knowledge of the word strengthens your prayer life. Psalms 119:130 says, “The entrance of thy word giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple.”
If you find that there are things in you that needs transformation and you begin to pray for change, also pray for change to come in the life of the person fighting against you. Ask God to fill you with his faithful love to love that person—that’s what I did with my nephew. When you feel that love coming through in you, tell that person you love them, and if they will allow you to give them a hug-do that too. After three years of praying, change came for both me and my nephew and just a few days ago, I told him I loved him and hugged him and asked him to hug me back, which he did. I was so surprised that after he left the room I cried because I finally felt like I was seeing the nephew I loved all along.
Are you currently in the midst of a battle that you feel like you’re alone in? I hope this post will encourage you to see from my experience and the scripture that you aren’t. Just remember to pay attention to things that negatively come out of you when faced with a crisis and see what God is showing you about yourself or the one being used that needs shedding.
Would you do me a favour and leave me a comment if my post has helped you in any way or if you have a question?
Check out this short video snippet from my book Life's Journey our Great Test about having faith when God seems far. You can subscribe to the YouTube channel as well to grow more on your spiritual walk.
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