CHRISTIAN PARENTS of ESTRANGED ADULT CHILDREN Community Group
Estrangement makes it difficult to talk about with family, friends, neighbors and church members. Christians are NOT immune to broken families. Talk about your experiences with those who know how you feel and get positive support through your Christian faith...."In these last days difficult times will come, for men will be lovers of self...disobedient to parents,...
Ephesians 6 lists off the weapons/armor of spiritual warfare.
Even as a Christian it took me a couple of decades and a "chance enounter" with a dear woman to introduced me to that (as amazing, almost science fiction-like as it sounded.)
The first one who could have introduced me to scope of spiritual warfare was Granny on the Beverly Hillbillies. Periodically Granny would get het up over something...and she'd march around singing, I went to church weekly, Sunday school, too, but I had never heard these lyrics Granny warbled. But I thought the tune was catchy:
Refrain:
There is pow’r, pow’r, wonder-working pow’r
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is pow’r, pow’r, wonder-working pow’r
In the precious blood of the Lamb.
Irene Ryan as Granny periodically sang that on an episode of the popular TV show. Nowadays, clearly, that would NOT be allowed.
To digress that was the first I'd heard of POWER in the Blood of the Lord. Church then was abysmal. I played organ....and rather tuned out when the Pastor yapped about the Viet Nam war did NOT Preach Christ, and Him Crucified.
The woman who suggested I read the Bible and that leading to my salvation, when I inquired about this Satan that played heavily in scripture rather sniffed and said REAL Christians ignored Satan. He had been defeated after all...so to pay heed to Satan's shennanigans was somehow going counter to the Lord's Work on the Cross as if becoming aware of Satan's tricks was a detracting offense to the Lord's Accomplishment.
Fact is we ARE given directives in scripture in HOW to deal with Satan. And some of those have a very hands-on, proactive element to them.
"Resist the Devil"...there is more to this than hiding out, hoping the Evil One forgets about you. Scripture gives examples. And also that no one is immune from Satan's suggestions. Jesus faced that in The Wilderness as Satan applied all the logic and convincing words he could use to convince the potential savior of mankind to throw in the towel and quit without a skirmish so Satan would win by default and without a strong Spiritual Warfare Fight..
Christ knew what He faced when He was in the Garden with his Apostles after greedy Judas slipped away.. And He knew that Satan was not above using the beloved Peter,. the Evil One inspiring Peter with sweet and reasonable words, even outrage at the idea of his Lord and Friend meeting a horrible and humiliating death.
Peter stepped forward, going to somehow protect the Lord and told Jesus what HE KNEW was ahead must not happen. Jesus said, "Satan get they behind--" For HE knew it was not Petras speaking but Satan's influence emanating from his dear friend's lips. Peter didn't realize he was misled by the Evil One when he unsheathed his sword and whacked off the ear of someone present. His human violence certainly could not protect Jesus the Christ from humanities combined VIOLENCE of sin.
In both instances Jesus confronted Satan face to face, toe to toe, and HE used The Word and His Father's Power...given to Him, with Jesus giving it to US as our Savior. with us by our humble agreement by His Blood Shed took our sin upon Himself as He took our punishments for sin and bathed us in His Blood.
P'wer, p'wer INDEED. Althoughj understanding to me YEARS from when Granny/Irene Ryan warbled that before the TV cameras as she clomped and stomped around the CEE-ment pond in her brogans.
In the Wilderness and again in the Garden, Jesus did not cry out, like someone powerless and being hindered and tormented by the Evil One, "DADDY MAKE HIM STOP!!!! Please make him leave me alone!" No, the Lord, perfect in HIS understanding of the Word, the way we can never be in this world IMO, took matters into His Own Hands soon to be nailed to the Cross, and He flat-out USED the Power and Wisdom given Him by His Father to get Satan/influence to leave Him alone.
In doing so the Lord set an example for US...and IMO sanctioned WE use the same weaponry as He our Precious Savior did....to help us, perhaps, move up the ranks in the realm of Spiritual Warfare.
When one gets noted as an author one does no longer have to send in a completed manuscript to get the time of day (and a go ahead to do it.)
Back in 1994 my publishers wanted more books. I laid out the idea for one, THE DARKNESS AND THE DAWN, and it almost caused the publishing committee to cough up a hair ball...because it was very different even for ME. i wanted to hit hard: The Occult, Horoscopes, Intergenerational Bondage, Family Curses and other aspects I'd learned about...and in the novel focus on the power of The Blood AND the combined prayers of fictional strooooong Christians to deliver another Christian from the chaos the Evil One presented.
I told them I wrote historical novels, but that stuff had gone on in the old testament AND applied to "today" as there were the Psychic Hotlines and occult stuff really sluicing into modern society.
They agreed to let me do it.
In the Spirit Realm the applesauce really hit the fan for me. Terrifyingly so. But God IS GOOD and I didn't even know what to DO about it, although I prayed a LOT...but on par with the "Wah! Wah! FATHER MAKE IT STOP. MAKE HIM LEAVE ME ALONE. ALL I'M TRYING TO DO IS SERVE YOU AND ALERT OTHERS TO SATAN'S EVILS."
Satan didn't like it. And the God I think decided it was time for me to REALLY pick up ALL the armor...so I would know that HE was always there for me, BUT to drive home the point that HE really HAD given me His Power and Authority.
With even beloved Peter used by Satan to deflect the Lord from The Cross, let us not kid ourselves that anyone in our lives in Satan's view is FAIR GAME to hinder us. Family included. Perhaps especially family, blood of our blood, flesh of our flesh that our agony may be most acute leaving us limping instead of marching in Cadence to the Lord's moving us forward.
Think on these these.
I'll be back with more as I have time to meditate and let it write itself in my mind.
Feel free to comment if you desire. Time, brothers and sisters, to really take the gloves off and become adept, even comfortable, with the heavy duty spiritual gunnery we've already been given...
Even as a Christian it took me a couple of decades and a "chance enounter" with a dear woman to introduced me to that (as amazing, almost science fiction-like as it sounded.)
The first one who could have introduced me to scope of spiritual warfare was Granny on the Beverly Hillbillies. Periodically Granny would get het up over something...and she'd march around singing, I went to church weekly, Sunday school, too, but I had never heard these lyrics Granny warbled. But I thought the tune was catchy:
Refrain:
There is pow’r, pow’r, wonder-working pow’r
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is pow’r, pow’r, wonder-working pow’r
In the precious blood of the Lamb.
Irene Ryan as Granny periodically sang that on an episode of the popular TV show. Nowadays, clearly, that would NOT be allowed.
To digress that was the first I'd heard of POWER in the Blood of the Lord. Church then was abysmal. I played organ....and rather tuned out when the Pastor yapped about the Viet Nam war did NOT Preach Christ, and Him Crucified.
The woman who suggested I read the Bible and that leading to my salvation, when I inquired about this Satan that played heavily in scripture rather sniffed and said REAL Christians ignored Satan. He had been defeated after all...so to pay heed to Satan's shennanigans was somehow going counter to the Lord's Work on the Cross as if becoming aware of Satan's tricks was a detracting offense to the Lord's Accomplishment.
Fact is we ARE given directives in scripture in HOW to deal with Satan. And some of those have a very hands-on, proactive element to them.
"Resist the Devil"...there is more to this than hiding out, hoping the Evil One forgets about you. Scripture gives examples. And also that no one is immune from Satan's suggestions. Jesus faced that in The Wilderness as Satan applied all the logic and convincing words he could use to convince the potential savior of mankind to throw in the towel and quit without a skirmish so Satan would win by default and without a strong Spiritual Warfare Fight..
Christ knew what He faced when He was in the Garden with his Apostles after greedy Judas slipped away.. And He knew that Satan was not above using the beloved Peter,. the Evil One inspiring Peter with sweet and reasonable words, even outrage at the idea of his Lord and Friend meeting a horrible and humiliating death.
Peter stepped forward, going to somehow protect the Lord and told Jesus what HE KNEW was ahead must not happen. Jesus said, "Satan get they behind--" For HE knew it was not Petras speaking but Satan's influence emanating from his dear friend's lips. Peter didn't realize he was misled by the Evil One when he unsheathed his sword and whacked off the ear of someone present. His human violence certainly could not protect Jesus the Christ from humanities combined VIOLENCE of sin.
In both instances Jesus confronted Satan face to face, toe to toe, and HE used The Word and His Father's Power...given to Him, with Jesus giving it to US as our Savior. with us by our humble agreement by His Blood Shed took our sin upon Himself as He took our punishments for sin and bathed us in His Blood.
P'wer, p'wer INDEED. Althoughj understanding to me YEARS from when Granny/Irene Ryan warbled that before the TV cameras as she clomped and stomped around the CEE-ment pond in her brogans.
In the Wilderness and again in the Garden, Jesus did not cry out, like someone powerless and being hindered and tormented by the Evil One, "DADDY MAKE HIM STOP!!!! Please make him leave me alone!" No, the Lord, perfect in HIS understanding of the Word, the way we can never be in this world IMO, took matters into His Own Hands soon to be nailed to the Cross, and He flat-out USED the Power and Wisdom given Him by His Father to get Satan/influence to leave Him alone.
In doing so the Lord set an example for US...and IMO sanctioned WE use the same weaponry as He our Precious Savior did....to help us, perhaps, move up the ranks in the realm of Spiritual Warfare.
When one gets noted as an author one does no longer have to send in a completed manuscript to get the time of day (and a go ahead to do it.)
Back in 1994 my publishers wanted more books. I laid out the idea for one, THE DARKNESS AND THE DAWN, and it almost caused the publishing committee to cough up a hair ball...because it was very different even for ME. i wanted to hit hard: The Occult, Horoscopes, Intergenerational Bondage, Family Curses and other aspects I'd learned about...and in the novel focus on the power of The Blood AND the combined prayers of fictional strooooong Christians to deliver another Christian from the chaos the Evil One presented.
I told them I wrote historical novels, but that stuff had gone on in the old testament AND applied to "today" as there were the Psychic Hotlines and occult stuff really sluicing into modern society.
They agreed to let me do it.
In the Spirit Realm the applesauce really hit the fan for me. Terrifyingly so. But God IS GOOD and I didn't even know what to DO about it, although I prayed a LOT...but on par with the "Wah! Wah! FATHER MAKE IT STOP. MAKE HIM LEAVE ME ALONE. ALL I'M TRYING TO DO IS SERVE YOU AND ALERT OTHERS TO SATAN'S EVILS."
Satan didn't like it. And the God I think decided it was time for me to REALLY pick up ALL the armor...so I would know that HE was always there for me, BUT to drive home the point that HE really HAD given me His Power and Authority.
With even beloved Peter used by Satan to deflect the Lord from The Cross, let us not kid ourselves that anyone in our lives in Satan's view is FAIR GAME to hinder us. Family included. Perhaps especially family, blood of our blood, flesh of our flesh that our agony may be most acute leaving us limping instead of marching in Cadence to the Lord's moving us forward.
Think on these these.
I'll be back with more as I have time to meditate and let it write itself in my mind.
Feel free to comment if you desire. Time, brothers and sisters, to really take the gloves off and become adept, even comfortable, with the heavy duty spiritual gunnery we've already been given...
My little Irish Granny also had a saying, "That person talked on as if someone put a nickel in him!":
As a poster I've felt like I had a bag of nickels dropped down a lot but know I won't always be mouthing-off to these degree.
The Evil One doesn't like "bad press". I knew I most certainly WOULD have trouble uploading this, so printed out a hard copy and because I hate copy-typing I did a copy/paste as a backup. (Not my first rodeo giving Satan bad press and him trying to make it disappear....) So with backups I hit the "submit" button and it sat and spun and DID NOTHING.
I was not surprised. Just availed myself of what yet existed in other forms.
Satan loves tech-toys.
I am literally praying/rebuking that he won't crash my computer. That's how he operates and I've dealt with it for YEARS as a Christian writer so learned Military Like Evasive Actions...and after Satan's feeble accounts start anew, copy/paste back IN and TRUST in the Lord to get/let the message through in the tech world if it Glorifies His Name.