Your Gifts are Targets for Spiritual Warfare
Your God-given, God-nurtured gifts, talents, and abilities are a good thing, Christian. The Bible says that every good thing comes from the Lord (James 1:17). He is diligent to gives us the tools, resources, time, energy, and focus we need to complete our creative work for His Kingdom, because He loves us. And, like all good things that come from the Lord, the enemy hates them.
The bad news about this is that the enemy will, specifically and without remorse, attack our creativity. He’ll throw temptations our way, break down our creative process, hit us with depression, procrastination, and fear. He’ll cause strife in our creative communities, stir up trouble in multi-person projects, and sabotage what should be relatively direct paths to Kingdom success. He’ll fan the flames of our own pride, nudge us towards idolatry, and take our good sacrifices for the Lord and turn them into self-satisfying desires. He is cruel, hateful, and vindictive against all things that are supposed to uplift God’s good name and support His Kingdom.
That, Christian, leads to two important truths: the first is that the world is going to hate us. The enemy’s domain is going to do everything it can to sabotage us, to make us feel inferior and unworthy, to critique harshly, to judge rashly, and do everything in its power to demoralize us into giving up. The second is that, honestly, sometimes those kinds of attacks are an excellent sign. It means that we are doing the exact work that God needs us to be doing.
Which leads us to the good news: we have God on our side. And while He may allow the enemy to creep around our projects and cause us all kinds of strife, He is not going to let us lose. In fact, He’s going to use those enemy’s attacks specifically for our good; to strengthen us, to fortify our resolve, to turn a creative project in a different direction, and to give us a much-needed challenge (even if we hate it, humans tend to thrive on challenges). Sometimes exactly what our faith needs is to remember that we are completely reliant on Him for strength and mercy.
Now, the question might be: how do you tell the difference between genuine spiritual attacks and God closing doors and directing you away from something?
Well, there’s no easy, straightforward answer for that one, except to pray. Ask God for discernment. Ask Him to reveal exactly what these challenges are before you, and whether or not they are a good sign, a sign that you are going in the right direction, or the exact opposite. Then trust that He will be diligent to reveal the truth to you!
Personal note from the author: in my own faith journey, if God is closing doors and directing me away from something, there is a sense of finality. A sensation deep in my spirit that understands this is not the direction I should go. Spiritual attacks usually produce the opposite. Yes, they are awful and bring me down and make me question if I’m even supposed to be doing what I’m doing, but I can tell the path is still continuing forward under God’s grace. It may not be like that for everyone, because God communicates with us all differently, but that has been my experience!
Putting it Into Action
Typically, there is not a lot we can do to get out of spiritual warfare. It is all under God’s domain and part of His good plan for us. All we can really do is continue forward with the task that God has given us. That said, spiritual attacks and spiritual warfare are excellent opportunities for a couple of things: prayer and reliance on God. Prayer that He delivers you and provides you with the strength, wisdom, and courage needed to endure the attacks. Then reliance on His strength to endure, and on His trustworthiness to give us rest, even in the midst of these great storms. Remember, Christian, you are not alone when it feels like everything has fallen completely to pieces!
“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.”
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some to devour.”
“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have dvine power to destroy strongholds.”
“But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.”
“Although an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.”
