by Teasi Cannon
Wear your bikinis,
Be on your magazines;
I may never fit your ideal for me,
But I'm in the Lord's Army,
Yes, sir!
(To the tune of “I'm in the Lord's Army”)
Many a battle has been won or lost in the pursuit of acquiring land—in fighting for a physical territory. Once the war has been won, however, the winning side better not lay down their weapons or they might lose what they fought so hard to gain. Well, the same is really true in our own lives. Any emotional or spiritual territory we win for the Lord must be defended daily. The losing team isn't going to give up quickly. In fact, its leader is a very sore loser.
We can't say God didn't warn us. He is pretty honest in His Word when He tells us that we're going to have trouble in this life. John 16:33 says, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” The good news is the last part: God is the ultimate winner, and because we are His kids, we win too.
EASY TO FORGET
But even though we know how the big story ends, it's easy for us to get lost in the struggles and distractions of our life now. It's easy to forget God's epic plan as we sort through never-ending piles of laundry. It's easy to forget we are children of the King when we compare our own anticlimactic Facebook status to those of our “friends”—friends who all seem to be living the high life. And it's easy to be tricked into loosening our hold on what God has given us when we take “just a peek” at the new real-estate listings—including the dream house we will never be able to afford.
Why is it so easy to forget? Because we're human. We come by our forgetfulness honestly. After all, we inherited it from our first parents, Adam and Eve. How quickly they forgot how good they had it.
FIREPOWER
We aren't helpless victims of our human limitations, praise God. We have a powerful weapon—one that is more than capable of giving us the firepower we need to protect our land. The weapon is God's truth. No matter how tempting it may be to believe the lying voices that try to take center stage in our heads, we've got to be intentional about shutting them up. Their only mission is to make our lives miserable on the journey—while we live out our lives here on earth in anticipation of the ultimate victory to come in eternity.
When you really get to the bottom of it all, God's truth is the ultimate healer of our every wound. It is the key that opens our prison door. It is the light that expels every bit of darkness in our hearts, revealing the things that have kept us repeating self-defeating cycles.
Defending territory ultimately comes down to this question: do you believe God's truth? That comes more naturally as we begin to see the proof working out in our lives, but it also gets easier when we are better at identifying lies. And that becomes simpler as we expose the author of all lies, Satan.
CHIEF LIAR: SATAN
The Bible has many ways of describing God's ultimate enemy. The father of lies (John 8:44), the accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12:10), adversary (1 Pet. 5:8), beast (Rev. 14:9–10), deceiver (Rev. 12:9), devil (1 John 3:8), evil one (John 17:15), ruler of darkness (Eph. 6:12), and so many more. The only descriptor we need for him, however, is this: disarmed (Col. 2:15). He is a defeated foe. A loser. The truth is he's a weakling. The only power he has is pretend power, and the only time it works for him is when we believe his lies.
So he works really hard at making his lies convincing. He's even got them tailor-made for each one of us. He knows your weaknesses. If you're struggling to trust God with your finances, he'll tell you things like this: “You're never going to have anything. You're always going to be flat broke.” If you're working through trusting your friends, he'll tell you things like this: “She doesn't really like you. It's not safe to open up to her.” He works overtime when he can see that we're physically worn down, and, if you are female, he especially loves “that time of the month.”
NOT A KNOW-IT-ALL
But, the devil really isn't “all that.” For many years I thought that Satan was quite powerful. I thought he could read my mind just like God can, but that's not true. Satan is not omnipotent (all-knowing), nor is he omnipresent (everywhere at once). He is a created being just as we are. He's got limitations, but he doesn't want us to know about them.
His limitations require him to enlist an army of helpers. These happen to be the fallen angels the Bible tells us about (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 1:6). The Bible describes this whole team in Ephesians 6:12:
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
It's clear that there is a team at work against us, and each member is a great student of human behavior. Sometimes I wonder if there are certain demons assigned to just me. All my life they've been watching me so they can really know my weaknesses. How else would they know exactly when to strike?
SATAN'S BIGGEST PUPPET: SOCIETY
Even though it's hard to believe, the Bible calls Satan the god of this age (2 Cor. 4:4). In many ways he's been given permission to do as he pleases—but not for long. Now, he doesn't have power to control us when we have Christ in us, but it is very easy for him to capitalize on the blindness of the lost and the blind spots of believers. All he needs to do is whisper a lie here and there, and soon millions of unsuspecting victims become his closest allies.
These blind victims compose our society, and the devil uses it to hurt us wherever he can. Billboards scream against the things that please God. Nearly every quarter of a mile a large-breasted, scantily clad woman on a huge poster tries to convince God's sons to take a quick turn off the straight and narrow road into “paradise.” Talk show hosts spout their “expert” opinion on what God is really like saying, “Surely any good god would accept everyone into heaven.” Yes, Satan is the king of propaganda.
LOW BLOW: OUR LOOKS
His all-time favorite way to use society against us is to have it define beauty—a pile of lies that destroys the multitudes. It hurts so many because so few actually fit into the world's slim definition of what we should look like. And it hurts us because for the most part, our looks aren't something we have much control over (excluding surgery and loads of makeup).
Most importantly of all, the devil likes to try to make us focus most on what matters to God the least—our outward appearance. God really wants us focusing on the condition of our hearts so that we can tap into the real joy and the real life He has for us. Listen to what the Bible says:
Give to the LORD the glory due His name; bring an offering, and come before Him. Oh, worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness! (1 Chronicles 16:29)
Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised. (Proverbs 31:30)
Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel—rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. (1 Peter 3:3–4)
God's definition of beauty has far more to do with what's going on inside of us than what's skin deep. In fact, a search of the Bible will reveal no mention of body mass index, no mention of normal weight charts, no mention of point values for foods. Not only that, almost any time the word fat is mentioned, it's used as a good thing—representing blessing.
Now, of course God wants us healthy. Just because our bodies are not the most important thing to Him doesn't mean they aren't important at all. There is no scriptural justification for allowing our bodies to grow morbidly obese. The Bible is clear that we are to have no other gods before the true God, and that includes food (Ex. 20:3). If we are dangerously overweight (and it's not due to a medical condition over which we have little control), there is a good chance we are turning to the Oreos for comfort a bit too often, and that's a role God wants to fi
ll.
CARRYING THE GOODS
The true purpose of our body—God's purpose—is to be a dwelling place for His Spirit on earth and to carry His love to a hurting world.
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. (1 Corinthians 6:19–20)
To “glorify” God with our body means to use it to honor or magnify Him. There are many ways to interpret what that might look like in our individual lives. But one thing is for sure, we can't do it if we hate our body so much that we keep it hidden from the world in shame. That's the devil's goal. How do you think he's doing?
Our enemy wants us to be so ashamed of the appearance of our body that we forget all about the life-changing potential (God's Spirit) it houses. If he can influence us to become embarrassed enough, maybe we'll just stay home and keep that good stuff to ourselves. (I'm not going because my pants are too tight.) And when we do, it just leaves more hurting people—maybe even a family member or friend—to die without hope.
SUIT UP
In addition to getting good at identifying lies, we've got to armor up every day if we're going to win our battle of defending territory. God has our protective clothing laid out for us ready for the taking.
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. (Ephesians 6:13–18)
First we have our spiritual Spanx, the belt of truth. This holds everything securely together and creates a smooth (no panty lines) foundation for all the other pieces of our kingdom attire.
Next we have our Wonderbra, the breastplate of righteousness. Just as this handy undergarment disguises what we may be lacking in the bosom area (thank you, push-up technology), our spiritual breastplate hides what we are lacking in righteousness. It reminds us that from the time we accept Christ as our Savior, His righteousness becomes our own (1 Cor. 1:30). The enemy will always try to tell us, “You're not righteous.” When he does, we can simply say, “You're right. But Jesus is. And my life is now hidden in Him. So there!”
Once our upper body is taken care of, we can slip our beautiful feet into a confidence-boosting pair of heels, our shoes of peace (move over, Prada). In these, we can boldly take the good news anywhere God leads, fearing nothing. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7).
Then we want to grab a purse, our shield of faith. Now we don't want a cute little clutch here. No, we want the biggest, sturdiest purse we can find—one that when held out in front of us would take a bullet. Just as with a purse, our shield of faith grows larger the more “stuff” we put in. As we study God's Word more and experience more of Him in our daily lives, our shield becomes more substantial. The bigger the better.
And of course, no woman I know is going to leave the house without checking her hair. (I can't believe how bad my roots are.) Now, as Christians, we've got something far more dazzling to cover our heads than those lovely locks; we've got our helmet of salvation (Eph. 6:17). This divine accessory declares to the enemy that we belong eternally to God because we have been bought with a high price.
And finally we've got to put some lipstick on those luscious lips because they've got some work to do; they've got to proclaim the Word of God. This is our only offensive weapon as Christians, our sword of the Spirit. In the Greek definition, this usage of word means specifically the spoken Word of God. Remember, our enemy can't read our minds, so we need to tell him verbally to back off. (Don't worry about what the family will think—you know Mom hasn't lost her mind.) Just proclaim the truth out loud. Even if you're the only one around. Joyce Meyer says this, “In order to overcome the negative thinking and speaking that have been such a natural part of our lifestyle for so long, we must make a conscious effort to think and speak good things about ourselves to ourselves by making positive confessions.”16 And listen to this: “With the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. 10:10). Get talking, girl.
FIGHTING IN THE MEAN…TIME
Now, in the physical world, it might be important to spend lots of time studying one's enemy. Learning everything about it—the enemy's inner workings, and ultimate plans. But, in the kingdom of God, it really doesn't work that way. In God's world, we win our battle against the enemy by focusing not on the devil, but on God. The more we set our hearts and minds on the things above, the more powerful we are against our foe (Col. 3:2; James 4:7).
And setting our sights on things above means remembering that this world is not our home (Heb. 11:13). We are strangers in this world, and our ultimate destiny will not be fulfilled until we are sitting in our heavenly Father's literal presence looking at Him face to face. What an amazing day that will be!
In the meantime, as we wait for that nice time, we must establish a strategy for daily success. The devil will try to keep us overburdened by the cares and pain of the temporary. But we must not be tricked. The more you can be proactive instead of reactive, the better.
Tape your favorite scriptures to your bathroom mirror and commit them to heart.
Play worship music often.
Read your Bible and as many uplifting and encouraging books as you can get your hands on.
Have at least one good friend you can be totally real with—one who won't doubt your salvation when you let it all out. (External processing to the rescue.)
Go to bed early sometimes (I've called it a day as early as 4:30 p.m. on occasion), and remember that His mercies are new every morning.
Never hesitate to get professional help when all the above doesn't seem to be cutting it.
SILENCE THE COMMUNITY
You may not have Trainer (the voice that berated my body) or Reflection (the one who calls out my moral weakness) or Sabby (who wants to sabotage everything) living in your head. The fruits and veggies might not throw snide remarks your way at the grocery store. But, I'll bet you have some not-so-kind voices trying to be heard in that head of yours. Any voices that don't encourage you in the truth must be silenced.
I know from experience that some of these voices don't give up easily. Even after experiencing great healing in my life, Reflection tries to tear me down here and there. I just tell her to shut it. Sabby likes to try to get me off the beaten path with her self-absorbed ideas and selfish motivations. I have to tell her to shut up too. The more times I tell them to zip it, the less they try to speak. They've just kind of given up.
Miraculously, I never hear from Trainer any more. God pretty much zipped her lip once and for all. I have never equated my value with the appearance of my body (no matter what my weight) since that encounter at the beach. Sometimes God just does the really big stuff for us. It's the miracle of a transformed heart.
EMBRACE LIFE
There is one very important truth you must always remember: your life matters. Yours, mine, everyone's…God planned them all before the beginning of time (Ps. 139:16). He formed us in our mother's wombs with a purpose in mind (Ps. 139:13). Not one of us is a mistake.
No matter the circumstances of our birth—whether we were conceived in the back of a car during a teenage lust fest, or in the marriage bed of a happily married couple—God is the one who delivered us and brought us into the world. We truly are His children. We were His idea.
The one thing our enemy wants most of all is to see us
dead (John 10:10). So, we must not let him succeed. Let's choose to embrace life—the good and the bad of it, remembering that even when life is painful, God is at work. He is the Master Gardener in our lives, and as Bunny Wilson says in the book, Becoming God's True Woman, “The gardener only prunes the branches that belong to him, which makes it an honor.”17 Let's give the Father praise for all He's done to redeem the messes we've been a part of, whether willingly or not.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)
A VICTORY PRAYER
Precious Father,
Thank You for being a God of love and for pouring that love upon me. Thank You that Your Word is steady and unchanging and that it is a rock for me to stand on in every season of my life.
Thank You for healing my brokenness. Continue to show me the places in my heart that still need Your touch. Thank You for giving me everything I need to rise above the hurts in my life and the plan of my enemy to hurt me. You are such a good God.
I thank You for the territory You have given me—my inheritance in Christ. I pray for the wisdom to defend it. Help me to recognize the lies I hear in my head and to use my weapon of Your truth against them…quickly. I give You permission to convict me every time I forget all You have done in my life, giving opportunity for Satan to steal Your glory.
Thank You for my life—every bit of it. I know You planned it, and You long to direct it. Thank You that You have promised to complete the good work You've started in me as I surrender to Your plans. I want to be a warrior for You, Father—a warrior for truth.
