opposing our enemy

Often times the Lord has given my husband or I a prophetic dream of great significance, but we have not fully understood it. We wonder if we are just dense, or if God is shielding the full meaning from our eyes until an appointed later time. This happened 5 years ago when the Lord have me a dream about soldiers guarding toddlers that were mine. There were about 12 children, and each time I went to pick one up a soldier would intervene, stepping in with his rifle and preventing me from holding my child. When I awoke from my dream I was grieved, and cried. Though I do not have 12 children, I have had many works done in the Spirit which had not come to fruit. I had brought these works to the point of near completion, but it seemed I was repeatedly blocked from raising them to the point of giving them to the church.

Living with so much “fruitlessness” made me very introspective, wondering if I was opposed by God Himself because of pride. I spent endless hours confessing every sin I could find or imagine in myself, but nothing changed. People in the church who initially came along side me to further my works would suddenly lose interest and drop what they were doing. I would have given up altogether, except the Lord encouraged me repeatedly that these works were, in fact, from Him.

Knowing I was doing God’s works, yet seeing them incomplete and blocked, put me in a strange place with God. Do I accuse Him of not doing what He can to complete the works . . . open the doors, send the funds . . . Do I “let go and let God”, laying everything down until He does something . . . or is there something I haven’t thought of that I should do? Recently I have been struggling to complete a project with the same uncanny results of the good help offered being dropped by the friend that offered it. I was stuck. I couldn’t go on and meet the deadline in front of me, and the Lord was verifying that, indeed, it was His deadline. Then the Spirit brought the dream I had 5 years ago to mind, saying “Helen, these are not My soldiers. It is satan’s job to oppose you, but that doesn’t mean he has to win.” I was almost incensed as this reality sunk in; I can fight the soldiers, and win! Why hadn’t I known this before?

When God gave me this dream 5 years ago I was battling a terrible illness that has just begun to go away last year. The Lord pointed out that, as in the dream, sometimes our enemies are too strong for us (Ps 18:17). Since I originally thought God might be opposing me, it was difficult to see that the soldiers were definitely from satan. But over the years God has strengthened me physically with healing, and spiritually with encouragement to finish my works. I came to a crossroads last year, deciding to pursue the completion of 2 of these works, standing in faith that God was with me.

Looking back, I see that the opposition of the enemy can cause us to become bitter at God, or it can bring a strong resolve into our hearts to stand in faith and serve God. The second response took hold in my heart; stand in faith and serve God. It was the resolve of strong faith that I needed in order to put my enemy to flight. 2 days I go I began to resist satan’s soldiers, resolutely standing on the authority of Jesus’ name. Yesterday I received word that the one who had dropped helping me had picked it up again. Not only that, but this person found it much easier to finish the work than she had anticipated. The scope of the war began to broaden for me as I saw that not only was satan opposing God’s works, he was harassing those appointed to do them.

The Lord shared with me that when we take authority over our enemy who opposes our good works, we overcome him. This is spoken about in Revelation 2:27. The Lord gave the overcomers the Rod of Iron. It is an authority to pray against satan’s opposition not just for ourselves, but on a national scale. I see now that our dedication to bringing our works to fruit needs to extend to our brother’s works also. First we need to overcome the enemy who opposes us, not becoming bitter against God but developing a resolve in our hearts to complete what God has given us to do. Then we need to have this same determination that our brothers and sisters will complete their works of God, opposing the enemy who opposes and harasses them. This is the authority God gives to those who are determined to complete His works, who will not be dissuaded by enticements to quit, who will not use the concept of trust to lay down what they do for God thinking that laying down everything is trusting God to do what we ourselves cannot do. God has given us an active role in this warfare, and we will not win if we do not have great resolve in our hearts to do so. When the battle is won in the heart, then the battle will be won around us. Strong enemies test our hearts, but that doesn’t mean they have to win. Amen.