The first thing I want to say is that while the enemy is not stronger or more powerful than God, it’s man’s choices and resistance to God that let the enemy have the victory. The Word doesn’t say that the enemy tries to steal and fails, or tries to kill and fails, or tries to destroy and fails. No, it says the enemy STEALS, KILLS, AND DESTROYS! John 10:10 This means that if a person allows it, the enemy is going to get what he wants. We want God to step in and intervene, and we see that happening a lot through beautiful testimonies. I was one of those testimonies. But God did not step in and intervene in the way we all want. I didn’t get the road to Damascus, bright light. I didn’t get the instant healing and deliverance that I have seen happen to many others. I had to FIGHT and keep fighting to overcome and get my victory.
I had to really dig deep, press in, resist, and put in the work to not allow the enemy to steal, kill, and destroy.
We are going to talk about some of the schemes of the enemy that I had to learn to resist and fight against. Things I had to come to recognize and press hard to be free from.
MY PRIDE!
There are so many faces to pride. So many ways that it sneaks in and interferes with how you perceive things, what you come to believe as truth, and that ultimately causes you to react. Pride can make you go against the very thing that God is trying to obtain in your life.
Through pride and presumption come nothing but strife, But [skillful and godly] wisdom is with those who welcome [well-advised] counsel. Proverbs 13:10 AMP
I found pride to be my biggest enemy and one that I could not EVEN blame the enemy for. It was ALL ME. While he does come to tempt and influence you to operate out of pride, it comes down to you making that choice, and it’s up to you to choose humility and Godly wisdom instead.
Pride is defined as “an over-high opinion of one’s self; exaggerated self-esteem or conceit, haughtiness or arrogance; self-esteem arising from one’s accomplishments or possessions; an exaggerated idea of one’s own dignity or importance.
Pride was how I overcompensated areas where I struggled to feel normal. Where I had fear, pride helped me self-protect. Where I had rejection and unworthiness roots, pride helped protect me from the pain by puffing me up, self exaggerating as a weapon against rejection.
The first step to dealing with pride is recognizing when you are operating in this place of “highness.” When you are going over the top as a way to self protect, or self indulges to make yourself feel secure or feel better.
Pride comes to the rescue until something more powerful can replace it. And that something more powerful is GOD. When we come to understand Him through experience, our whole life will change. We come to trust Him because He has gained our trust. We will no longer need pride to protect or defend us because we have something far greater that we have placed our belief in.
The more I came to know God, the more my pride didn’t satisfy me anymore. The same with the other schemes the enemy used to bring me down.
LIES and FEAR!
These two things go hand in hand. Never underestimate how fears, born out of believing a lie can shape a mold a person’s whole entire life. Where every decision, reaction, or planned move is controlled by fear. Fear will stop a person before they even begin. Judge something before they have all the facts. Or just outright make a determination based on what they have come to believe.
Fear comes because we believe in lies. Or we believe that what we see is impossible or too big for God to handle, which is a lie! Even when there is truth to something, we must work against the many lies that come at us to rob us and keep us operating in fear.
We can believe the lie that God is upset with us for our past sins, and because of it, He won’t help us. Or if we have rejection or unworthiness issues, we will reject Him first as a way to self protect. Fear of being rejected or feeling the pain of being unworthy because we have bought the lie will cause us to control the situation as a way to protect ourselves.
The only way to stand up to fear is to confront the lie with the truth. And the ONLY way to know that truth is by getting to know Him in ways that you have not been able to explore before.
So many things kept me from really getting to know God. My pride and fear born out of the lies I believed kept me believing that God was too hard to understand. To impossible to connect with. Unworthiness made me believe that I didn’t matter to God. My lack of self-confidence and low self-esteem made me rely on my pride to over-exaggerate accomplishments to overcome the pain of my flaws.
The enemy knows how to influence you where you are weak, gullible, and easily persuaded. He is there to take full advantage of the fact that you would rather spend the day gossiping or wallowing in self-pity, instead of posturing yourself in front of God for help.
And that is what it all boils down to. Anything you put beside or above God will be used AGAINST YOU to steal, kill, destroy you. If you wallow in self-pity, instead of opening the Word and choosing to speak out loud what God says about you, that self-pity will keep you bound in a stronghold of deceptions. Where the only option you have is to operate out of pride, lies, and fear.
I can’t begin to tell you how many years I wasted self-medicating through food and TV, sleep, and dark days of depression because I didn’t have the fight in me to stand up against the lies that kept me in a stronghold of defeat. I may not have believed I was worthy enough to fight for myself, but I sure did find my husband and our marriage worthy enough to light a fire of fight in me. And God used it to deliver and set me free from the prison I was in.
Each day I fought for my marriage, was a day I was being taught by God how to come to know Him. How to see how much He loved me. Everything I set out to do, God used to help me. While I had my own plans, my own agenda, and purpose for what I was doing in my “Stand for marriage restoration,” God had His. And He used what I was doing to open my eyes to my blindness, my hard heart, and the way I kept choosing to believe the lies that unworthiness and rejection kept presenting to me.
I found the lie that “this is too hard to overcome.” and “You will never have the strength or energy to overcome,” were very powerful lies, and the depression I was in helped keep me from having a desire to try. God will use that very thing you want more than anything in your life to HIS ADVANTAGE. God used my love for my husband as a way to save ME. As a way to push me past my struggles and make me want to fight.
You have to believe that is exactly what God is doing in your spouse’s heart too. Using that very thing that your spouse is in bondage to, to help get them free of the REAL strongholds of lies they have come to believe. If they are bound in selfishness, rebellion, unforgiveness, or the sins of the flesh, the enemy will take advantage, but so will God! What the enemy meant for harm God will USE FOR good!
While the enemy does steal, kill, destroy with his schemes, God saves, heals, delivers. And that is where you must come to decide what you want to put your hope, faith, trust, and BELIEF in.
Standing with you,
Sheila Hollinger
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Please lift me and my husband Joshua in prayer. I haven’t seen in him almost two months, much as been revealed by the spirit..childhood abuse and so much more. We’ve texted for what it’s worth, but lately I’ve been sensing he was in trouble. I stalked (lol) by his mom house where he stays already knowing I’d be seen & sure enough he was outside, relapsed on cocaine. He gave a gift he bought me, cursed at me in so much shame and went to get more cocaine.