Is It Spiritual Warfare?

Are you familiar with the story in the Bible of Elijah having the great victory of killing all of the false prophets of Jezebel?  Do you remember what he did right after that great victory?  He ended up running away in fear, hiding in a cave.  What was it that caused this great man of faith to suddenly cower at a woman who wanted to take his life?  What happened?

I’ve often thought of this story as I’ve experienced a great spiritual victory only to sink into deep discouragement and sometimes depression afterwards.  Why does that happen?  What is it that can take you from being at the top of the mountain to running for cover into a self-made “cave”?

It seems to me that as Christians, we sometimes want to “gloss over” or minimize scripture references that talk about our enemy and the work he does on this earth.  It’s a bit uncomfortable to think that there may actually be spiritual warfare happening around us.  But just because it’s uncomfortable doesn’t mean that it’s not true.  The Bible is very very clear.  There is an unseen world, and that world is doing battle for the hearts and souls of man.  I for one believe that after great spiritual victories, the enemy of our soul comes immediately to steal our victory.  And awareness is the first step in doing battle with that enemy.

Next time we’ll talk about the other steps to defeating the enemy and keeping him from stealing our joy when we have had a spiritual victory.

Until then, stay alert!

Love,

Coach Ginny