Spiritual Warfare

Ephesians 6:12: For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Satan has been at work in our family the last two weeks.  We are under a violent attack right now, and we feel that Satan is working overtime to destroy our faith and our family and to keep us from seeking God's will in serving Him in Bulgaria.  We leave for Bulgaria in two days, and we feel as if we are being pressed in by every side with intense difficulties.  We are facing Spiritual Warfare!

God used many things to confirm His will for our family as we started praying about serving in full-time missions.  Two ways God clearly opened doors was the improvement of David's health and immunoglobin/antibody levels and the tremendous progress Joshua was making in his autism/Asperger Syndrome therapies and the very positive prognosis he was given by all involved in his care.  Now, within these last 2 weeks, we have been told by 2 of David's specialists that they are really concerned by his current immune responses and levels and want to do further extensive testing to see if there are more serious conditions underlying his immune deficiency.  Joshua, who has been doing an amazing job using coping skills to help combat anxiety and frustration had 2 complete melt-downs yesterday which led to fits of rage and aggression leading to having to be restrained by the child crisis intervention team at school during his melt-down there.  The other melt-down happened last evening.  In processing these events, we have realized he is being driven by his anxiety related to our trip.  We have left him before and never had this drastic of behaviors to deal we.  We are obviously very concerned and our faith has been shaken.

As we reflected last night about these issues as well as some other intense issues we are working through right now, it became clear to me that we are under attack of the devil himself.  In a way, the way he is fighting to shake our faith and our commitment to serve God, it seems like God is using Satan's actions to confirm to us that He wants us to serve in Bulgaria.  Our desire in taking this trip is to know for sure if that is where God wants us to serve.  Could it be that we are receiving our answer before we even leave?  It's an incredible thought.

Please join us in prayer as we seek to stand against the schemes of the devil (Ephesians 6:10-18).  We rejoice that we don't have to fight this battle alone.  The body of Christ can surround us with love and prayers, and we fight in the name of the Lord.  His grace is sufficient for us (II Corinthians 12:9)!  We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8:35-39)! We desire to be able to say with Paul: 2 Corinthians 4:7-9: "But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. [8] We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; [9] persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed."

As we have processed with Josh about his anxiety and the details related to our trip, we have driven Him to rest in God's promises from His Word.  We are encouraging Josh to read Philippians 4:6-7: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" and I Peter 5:7: "casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you" and Psalm 55:22: "Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved." As we leave for Bulgaria not knowing how our son will be or how all of our family struggles will play out, we recognize that these promises are for us as well.  We can give our anxieties to God and allow Him to fill us with his unfathomable peace!  May God receive glory in all we do! Amen!

Below, I am sharing with you 2 videos that Josh is really enjoying right now in light of these verses we have shared with him.  These videos take these passages and put them to music and animation to help children learn these verses.