Choose Your Armor Wisely

Last week during our family worship time, the Lord spoke into my heart about a tough situation we are currently facing related to one of our children.  He reminded me that we must NOT choose to react in fear and try to take matters into our own hands, but that we need to fully release said child to Him and trust that everything will work out as we continue to seek His will and heart.  The Lord has been speaking to me a lot about the story of Abraham being obedient with sacrificing his son, Isaac, and Mary being obedient with releasing her own son, Jesus, to fulfill a mighty plan.  In both of these instances, Abraham and Mary were obedient, even when it broke their heart…but God!  The results didn’t end up like they had expected in their natural mind, which was an ending of death.  The final results were far better!  The Lord keeps telling me, be obedient and leave the results up to me, so that is what I’m doing.

Then Holy Spirit began downloading what I would say in this blog post and gave me the title, “Choose Your Armor Wisely.”

As most of you know, we arrived back in the States on Tuesday, April 7^th, but it wasn’t without a battle.  Not everyone sees our comments on Facebook, so I’d like to share with you all that happened in the Johannesburg airport.  We made it through security, no problem.  Then came our final checkpoint, Immigrations.  Our family was stopped because our latest “approved” visas expired back in February.  We explained how we had visa applications in process that got rejected less than 10 days ago, of which we brought the rejection letter with us. They talked about charging us for an "over stay", which means there was the potential for getting banned from entering the country for 5 years. BUT GOD!!! We were escorted by a supervisor to the Home Affairs office at the airport, who then made a phone call to management. The guy she spoke to said that if we don't have a "departure letter" included with our rejection letter stating that we had 10 days to leave, then we'd be charged for an over stay. We were never given this type of a letter. The first supervisor told management to override procedure because she really feels like we're being genuine and NEED to come back to South Africa. Let it be known....we made our way through with no over stay charge, praise the Lord!! Doors the Lord opens NO MAN can shut!!

The reason I share this is because the enemy is hard at work with trying to prevent our ENTIRE family from returning to South Africa.  I want to honor those involved, so I will not disclose the details of our situation in this post, but we simply ask and would appreciate all prayer warriors to stand in agreement with us that the schemes of the enemy towards our children be thwarted!  That we would return to South Africa as an entire family unit on June 7^th, as scheduled.

Ephesians 6:10-20 talks about proactively putting on the full armor of God so that when the schemes of the enemy come, and they will, you will be able to withstand his attempts of destruction with victory.  The only way to do this is to spend time with the Lord daily to hear His truths about who you are and who He is in you.  By doing so, you will bask in His truths, know that He calls you righteous because of what Jesus has done for you, remain in a position of peace because He’s got you in the palm of His hand, and stand firm in faith knowing that He’s on your side and has your back.

The opposite of love is fear, and this is one of the enemy’s greatest tactics to kill, steal and destroy. When faced with an obstacle, how many of you take yourself to the “worst case scenario” because you’re fearful of what might happen and don’t trust that something good can actually result from your situation because it seems so impossible and hopeless?  When you choose that path, what happens?  Your peace is gone.  Your joy is gone.  It’s very difficult to love, especially your enemies.  But God!  When we choose a stance of peace, faith and trust in the Lord, it not only honors Him, but it makes it much easier to hear His voice and what He is saying about your tough situation and how to handle it according to His will.  I don’t know about you, but I’d rather stay on the path of hope, trusting that God will get me through the trial while still keeping my love in tacked and drawing closer to Him, no matter the results!

In our given situation, the enemy is trying to push our buttons by using other people as pawns to trigger fear in our lives.  We can choose to put on armor of fear, timidity, hate, bitterness, hurt, defensiveness, control, revenge (you name it) to protect ourselves from the “worst case scenario”.  Or we can choose to put on armor of courage, faith and trust, knowing that God knows what’s best for our family and He will see it through.  This doesn’t mean we take on a posture of passivity.  Oh no!  This means we take a stand against the spiritual darkness in this world through our greatest weapon: PRAYER!

Focus on the worst OR focus on the best.  Both might get you the same results in the end, but the path of one is far more enjoyable than the other.  Which path will you choose today?  What armor are you wearing today?