Spiritual Warfare: A Very Real Battle

Today I am going to share another camp story. This one is different than the rest in that this was something we dwelt with all summer. For some, it may be a challenging story to read. Please read this post with a sense of seriousness.

 

The story I am going to tell you revolves around the topic of spiritual warfare.

 

Before I begin, I would like to first define what spiritual warfare is. The short definition is: Spiritual warfare is the very real battle that goes on between good and evil.

 

Ephesians 6:12 says, "For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places."

 

Bluntly put: As long as God exists and Christians actively seek to serve Him, evil will exist. Satan is against anyone who is for God and he will use any means (people, circumstances, our weaknesses, our emotions, etc.) against us to detour us from serving God.

 

The primary purpose of man is to bring glory to God and those who pursue that frustrate the Devil's ploys. Revelation 20 talks about how God will ultimately, at the end of time as we know it, win against the Devil. Good will overcome evil and God gets the last word. However, while we live in a fallen world, where God is not worshiped by all and where Satan has some degree of power, we have to fight against spiritual warfare.

 

I have always had a strong belief that spiritual warfare existed, but never had I seen it as evidently as I did this summer.

 

Prior to campers arriving in Copperhill, we had a set up week. Each day we would work long hours to prepare for campers to arrive the following week. Our camp is one of the largest TEAMeffort camps and hence we had an awesome opportunity to be a light to hundreds of campers and show them Jesus.

 

One night we were up late at the chapel practicing songs and getting the media all set up. It got to be about ten o' clock and some of us decided to wrap it up and call it a night.

 

I volunteered to go to the tool shed that was nearby to put something away. Due to it being dark and I being unfamiliar with the area, I ended up going the wrong way and wandering around a bit before I realized that I had gone the opposite direction of the tool shed. I found the tool shed and put what I needed away and headed back to the chapel.

 

Once back at the chapel, about half of the staff loaded into one of the cars to go back up to the house. The other staff stayed behind to finish wrapping up a few things. I was in the car headed back up to the house.

 

We got only a little ways down the trail when we realized we had forgotten something. The driver went to back the car up and as we were doing so, the entire back half of the car collapsed. It was like the ground had been pulled out from underneath us.

 

When we got out of the car (very carefully) to see what had happened, we saw that the car had fallen into a gigantic sink hole. The back half of the car was completely in the hole and the front end was sticking up on the edge.

 

The entire time, all of us staff were pretty shaken. I was shaken, but it had little to do with having been in the car when we fell into the sink hole. Where we had fallen in was the same ground I had walked on earlier when I got lost. What is more, the minute before we fell in, I had this sense of intense evil around us. That feeling only intensified when I got out of the car.

 

We ended walking back up to the house because there was nothing we could do about the car that night. The entire time, I was shaking. I could feel the presence of evil so vividly that it scared me. I started to pray.

 

James 4:7 says that when we resist the Devil, he will flee. Ephesians 6:13 talks of us putting the armor of God in order to resist the Devil. Luke 10:19 says that God has given us authority over the Devil because of Christ within us. 1 John 5:4 says that our faith has overcome the world (and Satan is a very real part of this world). 1 Timothy 1:18-19 talks of Paul commanding Timothy to "wage the good warfare." Finally 1 Timothy 6:12 commands us to "fight the good fight."

 

I believe that one of the biggest weapons against spiritual warfare that we have is prayer. All night and into the early hours of the morning I prayed. Around four a.m. I finally felt that the battle had been won for the time being and that I could rest. It was then that I slept.

 

That was probably the biggest example of spiritual warfare that I experienced all summer, but it certainly was not the only experience. All summer the Devil tried to frustrate, cause tensions, interrupt, and destroy. Some days it felt like he was winning. Ultimately though, I can look back and see how God ALWAYS had the final word.

 

God had the victory.

 

God showed up and showed off.

 

God was and is always faithful!

The Meditations of my Heart

As I said in my last post, I have learned a lot of things this summer. Today I want to tell you about a boy that we will call Jacob and how his story changed the way I looked at the importance of my thoughts and words.

One week of camp, I had this phenomenal group. They were on the younger side but extremely hard working and more than willing to learn. They came from a poorer community and many of the youth were being fully funded by their church to be in attendance. This really spoke to me and how the body of Christ is called to support each other.

There was one boy in particular that stood out to me in this group. From the minute I met him, I knew something was off. He seemed distant and almost off balance. As the week went on, this pattern continued. I would ask him to go get me a hammer, telling him where it was. He would come back fifteen minutes later empty handed saying that he couldn't find it. I would go looking and the hammer was exactly where I had said it would be. I would give him some nails to hammer in and it would take him at least fifteen minutes to get in just one nail.

As this continued, I became frustrated. I didn't say anything but in my head I wondered what was wrong with this child? Why was he not getting it? I wondered if he was mentally handicapped or perhaps just lazy. My frustrations would occasionally rise near the surface and I would consider saying something, but I never did.

The group completed the week incredibly well, but Jacob still miffed me.

As the group was packing up that Saturday, I had the chance to talk with one of the chaperones as we waited for the youth to bring down their luggage. Somehow we got on the topic of Jacob.

The chaperone revealed to me a story that both stunned and convicted me. 

 

Just over a year earlier, Jacob had seen his father shoot his mother in cold blood. A month later, his brother was killed in a freak accident on a motorcycle. The boy was currently living with his grandparents, but they were not well.

After the group left, I went back to my room and fell to my knees. All week long I had assumed this boy was handicapped or lazy. Some might say I was being too hard on myself; how could I have known Jacob's story?

 

That isn't a valid excuse in my mind though. Every person we meet is fighting some kind of battle or had been through something that changed them. We don't always (usually) know those battles. While I may have never said anything directly unkind to Jacob, my tone was certainly not always patient and my thoughts were certainly not always kind.

 

Psalm 19:14 talks about, "the words of our mouth and the meditations of my heart being pleasing to God."

 

Our thoughts matter, as much, if not more than our words. What is in our head and heart comes out in our actions and words. We don't know the battles people may be fighting. That is why it is so important to be patient and kind. God's command to love is not limited to action, but in word and thought.

 

God used Jacob to convict me of the fact that my thoughts (the meditations of my heart) are important. Even if no one else knows the "meditations of my heart," God does. May my prayer be the same as the Psalmist.

A Life Changing Summer

We all have had experiences that are forever etched in our memory. Experiences that changed us, humbled us, and brought us face to face with our fears. This summer was packed with those kinds of experiences.

 

If you have been following me on social media, you know that I have been working for a Christian mission's camp called TEAMeffort. TEAMeffort works in rural areas with middle school and high school students from church youth groups all across the country to meet physical needs and then meet the spiritual needs of people in overlooked areas within the U.S. (primarily). I was located in Copperhill, Tennessee this summer and had the pleasure of having my own worksite. By the way, did I mention that TEAMeffort is mainly construction based?

 

That's right. The girl who didn't know the difference between a phillips head screwdriver and a flat head screwdriver at the beginning of the summer got to teach kids how to use a saw and put boards together to build a 12x18 shed with a lean-to on the back and also put a roof on a house.

 

What I learned construction wise is really not what changed my life. Over and over and over again, God showed up and showed off. That's what changed my life.

 

TEAMeffort's theme for this summer was "Pray As You Go." Let me tell you something, I prayed a lot this summer. Last summer when I worked at Boy Scout camp, I thought I was as far out of my comfort zone as I could get. This summer proved that theory wrong. 

 

Without God, I would not have made it through this summer.

 

He was my strength when I was so bone tired that I couldn't think straight.

 

He was my encouragement when everything around me went wrong.

 

He was my voice every Wednesday night when I got up on stage and talked about our identity in Christ and how loved we are by God.

 

He was my Creator who showed me the beauty of His creation day in and day out. 

 

He was my King who was worthy of worship every time we sang songs of praise and came together in prayer.

 

He was my Father who protected me countless times.

 

He was my friend who loved me with an everlasting love and held me accountable for my words, thoughts and actions.

 

I could spend a lot of time telling you what I did this summer, but that would be under false pretenses. Truth is, I didn't do this. God did this.

 

In the next few weeks, I hope to share some of what God did this summer and share some of the stories of how God changed me and those around me.

"For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God."
Romans 1:20 NLT