The Invisible Battle

I had read the words a hundred times. “Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

Those are fighting words. And when you really think about it they are pretty dramatic! Spirits of darkness? Come on…is it really THAT bad?

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We went into the battle completely unprepared. In fact it took several months before we realized that we were indeed in a battle and it was a vicious one.

When we began developing The Amazing Collection, it seemed like a great adventure. We were enjoying seeing God open some doors and got excited over the possibility of actually helping women see the whole of the Bible. But war? It truly never occurred to us.

It started with a hit to our financial security We were four women whose husbands had great jobs, we had money in the bank, comfortable homes and a future that included some monetary perks. And it was that area that took the first shot.

Eleanor’ husband’s highly secure job was terminated. Linda was next as her husband lost his job and I followed. The company that we co-owned was devastated when a trusted VP left with a contract that would have put us on solid footing. The devastation was so great we could not recover. In the end, we lost everything… the company, most of our retirement funds, the equity in our house, all security for now and the future. Margi was next as her family took hit after hit.

But the battle was just beginning. As Eleanor sat at her computer writing her script for her first teaching, she seemed to black out. Her husband found her moments later in a heap across the room with a broken nose and a bruised body. It looked like she had been literally thrown across the room. A few months later as she was teaching Deuteronomy with the cameras rolling, she suddenly lost the sight in her right eye. By God’s grace she was able to continue. Later surgery would follow with weeks of necessary immobility.

These are only a few of the incredible hits we all took during the next five years. The battle that raged all around us was more vicious than we could have ever imagined.

One day we were sitting around the “command center” dining room table and all of us were suffering greatly. As we shared our current pain (and it was excruciating!) it suddenly occurred to us that, hey…we were at war! The interesting result was not retreat, but on that day we united together, put on the full armor of God, drew our swords which is the Word of God and entered in with courage and strength.

What made the difference? We realized that day that we were on to something good and it was worth fighting for while even suffering loss! Instead of feeling defeated, we gained strength. The battle was on, we were now armed and ready and above all we knew that in front of us, encouraging, protecting and guiding…was our Valiant Warrior who would win this raging war for us. And in the end, that is just what happened.

The Lord your God is in your midst,
A Victorious Warrior!
Zephaniah 3:17