offense – KARLA LEES

God is stirring something in His daughters today….can you sense it?

He is calling us, His Bride, to band together & intercede, cry out for the ones we love.

The enemy strategy is to take us down, however he can.

God defeats him by linking us together with His power & love, and strengthening us to endure the onslaught, to protect one another as He defends us and battles for us.

Each of my loved ones is battling right now, as am I.

Whether physical, mental, emotional or spiritual, this world we are temporarily living in wants nothing more than for us to throw in the towel and give up.

We were meant to give up, but not in defeat.

We are meant to give up fighting for ourselves and allow Him to fight for & through us.

When the Maker of all things wants to defend us, we need to step back & allow Him to do so.

When we try to go into battle improperly prepared, we end up wounded & weary.

When we fail to cover one another in prayer, lifting each other up to the One who is able to do all things & anything, we end up easy targets.

Holy Spirit is whispering to allow Him to guide your thoughts towards prayer.

Jesus is waiting for you to accept His covering, the blood of the Lamb which conquers all sin.

God is pacing as He waits for you to let lose the cry which will launch Him into battle on your behalf.

We have been made in His image. which is why we get stirred up with the desire to battle. But this battleground is not one we were meant to step onto alone.

For we only see things dimly, but God sees the entire action plan.

He knows we need weaponry, and He provides them as outlined in Ephesians 6.

He becomes our armor when we prepare ourselves as He directs…

Truth: we are to wear truth like a belt, which helps hold us together.

Righteousness: He is our breastplate, the One who makes us pure & Holy because we are now His.

These two protect the core of who we are: His Beloved.

Gospel of Peace: these shoes are go everywhere shoes, relying on God to guide us as we step. Knowing He is with us calms our fears & fills us with peace.ise can proclaim the good news about our Prince of Peace when we step as He directs, avoiding unexpected landmines of doubt & chaos.

The next two pieces of armor serve to help us in our defense:

Faith: our belief in the God we follow serves as our shield. The truth of who He is cannot protect us if we don’t cling to it & use it as our protective shield when the enemy darts attempt to strike.

Salvation: our position in God family is to be our new mindset. We are His, forever, because we have accepted Jesus’ gift of being made anew & right with God. We are to wear this helmet not only to protect us, but identify us as His.

The last part of our armor is the most powerful weapon we could ever use, need or desire:

His Word: The very power of God Himself is interwoven with His Word, the Bible. We are to use this mighty weapon as His Spirit guides us to: strategically, purposefully and prayerfully.

Prayer is the key to our armor working together. Asking God to protect us & equip us for the skirmish at hand, seeking His play by play as to the action we are to take with each step.

And we are not only to pray for our our protection, but those of our fellow saints, as we stay alert & proactive waiting for our instructions.

If you take a closer look at our armor, you too can see it is mainly defensive pieces we have been given. That was deliberate.

God Himself wants to be our defender, our strong tower & Fortress. Our covering, safety & hiding place.

He is 100% concerned about our security, all the time, as His Beloved.

He knows our adversary best, for He created him, which we tend to lose sight of during the battles when we get too focused on what is coming against us than Who is defending us.

We are to be on the defense, because God Himself leads the charge against the enemy.

We are to strike only when He commands us to, for He alone is head of this army.

We are to join together in prayer: for our loved ones, our friends, our coworkers, our neighbors, joining our armor together for greater defense.

When we do so, then link up with Heaven, all things become possible when God is in command.

We know how the battle ultimately ends, and we know how we are best to stand…in His corner, secure in the knowledge of whose we are, and Who is in control over all.

It’s time to armor up, Beloved.

Not only will it help keep us safe, but it has been custom designed for us by our Bridegroom to work perfectly as we use it the way He directs us to!

Today was one of those days where everything seemed to be a major effort, all day long.

It started up an hour earlier than I ended up needing to be up.

At work, one long awaited tech glitch fixed caused another even more frustrating one, eventually freezing three computers and one program, making for very frustrated staff and clients for a brief period.

Every time the phone rang, someone live was at reception needing to be served, or all three phone lines rang at the same time.
And over and over, as many people don’t like to leave voice mails, so they keep calling until you answer.

Not to mention the action emails, a sick staff, laundry or other daily jobs that pile up in a bustling business.

A kid sent home sick, the other studying for the first of four exams, three of which are math.

A post that garbled another post’s link and ended up on the wrong site.

And all day long, God reminded me to let it go. Don’t try to control everything but go along with His flow, and keep letting it go.

With two exceptions of incidents that tried to cross my boundaries, I tried very hard to flow along and not let things stress me out, which for me usually ends up with me taking them personally.

I even had a few cool observations from my quiet times (coz I didn’t have enough time to finish it all at once) which I wouldn’t have seen had I not been depending on Him so much.

I will admit, I was pretty ticked at the scenarios that popped up, and was hoping for a good wallow and stew session. Then God reminded me each time to let it go.

I don’t need to accept another person’s attempt to control me, nor their bad mood.

I had to unclench my fist and let it fall open by praying forgiveness.

Let go of the offense and forgive, instead of going on the defense.

Lift my hands in praise instead of clenching tight to anger.

Today, I found it hard.

But I obeyed, the second time quicker than the first.

And as i did, God revealed something profound in my listening and obedience.

A negative spirit (control, anger, insecurity) will back off if you won’t partner with it. Why? It can’t play out the drama it desires when we refuse to plug in with the part it is trying to assign us. Essentially we steal its thunder as we refuse to let it plunder us.

We need to be diligent to ask God what is really going on, and listen for Holy Spirit’s whisper: what to do, how to do it, what to say and/or what to pray.

By speaking forgiveness out loud, I declare my intention to let God be in control of the situation, not me nor the other party involved.

Every time God reminds me to use my shield, it had been to stand on who He is, and who He has made me…His Chosen Beloved, home of Holy Spirit. Child of the King, given His authority.

By letting go, I let God move into the offensive on my behalf.

I don’t need to take offense, God is keeping track of wrong doings as the Judge.

My part? Focus on sticking close to Him, even closer on the days like today where it felt like everything was rising up against me.

God moves mightily to resolve things when i let them go.

Its by clutching His hands that I am going to make it through any situation that comes my way, not by the works of my hands, nor anything else i may be holding onto.

Its time to open our hands, let go of what we were never meant to hold, and allow God to tightly grip us with His loving embrace and immeasurable grace.

Tag: offense

armor up

clenching too tight?