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For the Family: Spiritual Warfare at Home: Your Family Is Not The Enemy · The Father's Business Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Mom used to do this with us, and that's why you've heard me say before, and I'll say it anytime you ask me about how mom wrote these books.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: She lived them first before she ever put it to paper.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: There were times when we would be driving carpool to school.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: You remember those days?
0:14
SPEAKER_00: And she would basically say, Okay, everybody, let's get spiritually dressed for the day.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: And she would walk through the armor of God.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: Hey friends, I'm Kimberly.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: And I'm Elizabeth, and this is the Father's Business Podcast, born out of Sylvia Gunter's heart for people to know who God is and who they are in him.
0:38
SPEAKER_01: So wherever you're listening from today, we pray that you will sense his nearness and know that you are his beloved sons and daughters.
0:46
SPEAKER_01: We're really glad you're here with us today.
0:50
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Father's Business Podcast.
0:53
SPEAKER_01: We are so glad you've joined us today.
0:55
SPEAKER_01: And over the last couple of weeks, we have been talking about our For the Family book, about loving people closest to us without trying to do God's job in their lives.
1:06
SPEAKER_01: Last week we talked about letting God search our own hearts first before we become overly focused on what needs to change in our family or our friend's life.
1:15
SPEAKER_01: And today we're going to talk about spiritual warfare, which can immediately sound like we're going to get very dramatic.
1:20
SPEAKER_01: But I actually think one of the most important things we can say about spiritual warfare and family is very practical.
1:26
SPEAKER_01: And I alluded to this last week because I wanted you to be thinking about it all week before we came to this one.
1:31
SPEAKER_01: Your family is not the enemy.
1:34
SPEAKER_01: That comes directly out of Ephesians 6, where Paul says, our struggle is not against flesh and blood.
1:41
SPEAKER_01: It can be harder to remember when the flesh and blood person is sitting across from you and they have just said something that makes you want to lose your salvation.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: Ever had those moments, Elizabeth?
1:52
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure we all have.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: One of those family interactions where five minutes later you're thinking, how did we even get here?
2:01
SPEAKER_00: Like nobody woke up that morning and said, you know what would be fun today?
2:06
SPEAKER_00: Let's completely misunderstand each other.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: But suddenly everybody is irritated.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: You're responding to what they said.
2:13
SPEAKER_00: They're responding to how you responded, and then you're responding to how they responded about your response.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: And now nobody even remembers what the original conversation was about.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: And that's where I think this reminder matters.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes conflict is just simply two humans being human.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to blame every bad mood or disagreement on spiritual warfare.
2:34
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you're just tired or you say something poorly, or two people living together have two very different opinions about how something should be done, like even the dishwasher and how to load it correctly.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: And we're not going to reopen that theological debate.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: We've already had that on this podcast, but scripture does tell us that there's a spiritual reality beyond what we can see.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: So we don't want to become people who see the enemy behind every inconvenience and disagreement in our family systems, but we also don't want to live as though spiritual opposition isn't real.
3:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and when you put that into a family context, one of the simplest strategies of division is getting me to see the person I love as the opponent.
3:18
SPEAKER_01: So now I'm not listening anymore.
3:20
SPEAKER_01: I'm building a case, I'm assuming motives, I'm remembering the last six to ten times they did something similar, and I'm no longer thinking, how do we move toward truth and love?
3:30
SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking, how do I win?
3:32
SPEAKER_01: Which is why our struggle is not against flesh and blood, is more than a spiritual warfare verse.
3:37
SPEAKER_01: It's a relational verse.
3:39
SPEAKER_01: The person in front of me may be making choices that I disagree with.
3:43
SPEAKER_01: They may even be behaving wrongly, but they are still not the enemy.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: You're right, Kimberly.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: And I think sometimes spiritual warfare gets presented in ways that feel removed from ordinary life.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: So what does spiritual warfare look like at the kitchen table?
4:01
SPEAKER_00: What does it actually look like in your family?
4:04
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it looks like accusation.
4:06
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's fear or shame or suspicion or division.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's believing the worst about somebody before they've even had a chance to explain themselves.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: Or that panic that says, if I don't fix this right now, everything is going to fall apart.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: And that one's a big one for me because if things start to feel unstable, I want to move.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: I want to solve it.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: I want to have the conversation.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: I want to come up with the plan.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes God may be asking me to act.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes fear is creating an urgency that God did not create at all.
4:43
SPEAKER_01: Last week's conversation becomes really practical when we think about this.
4:47
SPEAKER_01: So if you haven't listened to last week's, go check that out.
4:50
SPEAKER_01: But the question is, what am I believing right now?
4:52
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual warfare often happens around truth and lies.
4:56
SPEAKER_01: Am I believing this relationship may never recover?
4:59
SPEAKER_01: Am I believing one that we've said that it's really not a good question and assumption, which is, is this person ever going to really change?
5:06
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're feeling and believing I'm completely alone.
5:10
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're believing I have to make this happen.
5:13
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe you're believing if they don't understand me, I won't be okay.
5:17
SPEAKER_01: Or what if it's like because this conversation went badly?
5:21
SPEAKER_01: Everything is bad.
5:22
SPEAKER_01: You know, we can take one moment and suddenly turn it into the whole story.
5:27
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do in that moment is refuse to agree with the lie, not yell louder.
5:36
SPEAKER_01: And thank goodness none of you have a camera in my home.
5:41
SPEAKER_01: There is one, and I do have access.
5:44
SPEAKER_01: Because I do need to remember sometimes I've just got to stop believing the lie and agreeing with it.
5:52
SPEAKER_01: I don't need to get louder.
5:53
SPEAKER_01: I don't need to become fascinated with what the enemy may or may not be doing.
5:58
SPEAKER_01: I just need to stop and ask, what is actually true?
6:02
SPEAKER_00: And I think that is such an important question for us to be asking because I think that spiritual warfare should always turn us to Jesus.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: And that's something I really want us to emphasize in this episode because if my approach to spiritual warfare leaves me to thinking about the enemy all day long, then I have missed the point.
6:23
SPEAKER_00: There are approaches to warfare prayer that get so focused on identifying every possible thing the enemy is doing that suddenly the enemy feels really, really big.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: And I am in no way dismissing that he has power.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: He does.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: But the heart of biblical spiritual warfare isn't how much do I address the darkness.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: It's how firmly am I standing in Christ.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: That's why Ephesians 6 doesn't say be strong because you figured out all the strategies of the enemy.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: It says be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, because the strength is his, the arm is his, the victory belongs to him.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: And that is one of the reasons why I've always loved the warfare materials that mom wrote in prayer portions that you also find in for the family, because what it does is it keeps bringing us back to Jesus.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is truth, Jesus is our righteousness, Jesus is our peace, he's the author and finisher of our faith, he is our salvation, his word anchors us in what is true.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: So when we're putting on the armor, it's not a magical formula where I say six things in the morning and nothing difficult ever happens to me in my day.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: That that would be nice.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm sign me up for that program, right?
7:38
SPEAKER_01: Say that one again.
7:40
SPEAKER_01: But you're right, that's it's not a magic formula.
7:42
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians 6 assumes that there will be fiery arrows.
7:46
SPEAKER_01: The armor doesn't mean nothing difficult ever reaches us, unfortunately.
7:50
SPEAKER_01: It means that God has given us what we need to stand.
7:53
SPEAKER_01: And I really like the practical picture of putting on the armor because we understand getting dressed every day.
8:00
SPEAKER_01: I hope most of us do.
8:01
SPEAKER_01: You don't wake up and say, I put clothes on yesterday, so I think I'm good.
8:05
SPEAKER_01: Right?
8:06
SPEAKER_01: There is something intentional about reminding ourselves each day what is true.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: And you know, mom used to do this with us, and that's why you've heard me say before, and I'll say it anytime you ask me about how mom wrote these books, she lived them first before she ever put it to paper.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: There were times when we would be driving carpool to school, you remember those days, and she would basically say, Okay, everybody, let's get spiritually dressed for the day, and she would walk through the armor of God.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: As a child, I did not fully appreciate what she was doing, but looking back, I loved the ordinariness of it.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: She wasn't standing on a mountain somewhere fighting some, you know, fiery demon.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: She was driving her kids to school.
8:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
8:50
SPEAKER_01: You know, yesterday I realized I was having a conversation and it reminded me of what you're saying right here.
8:56
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual formation happens in the daily routines of life.
9:00
SPEAKER_01: And in this conversation yesterday, a mom was telling me that she knew her son needed time after a difficult situation to have a conversation.
9:08
SPEAKER_01: And she said, I don't have it in that moment.
9:10
SPEAKER_01: I don't have it in the next hour.
9:12
SPEAKER_01: A lot of times I crawl into bed with him at night and we have conversation.
9:16
SPEAKER_01: And if it leads there, it leads there if it needs to.
9:18
SPEAKER_01: And she said, I actually learned that from you, Kimberly.
9:21
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, wow, that's really cool.
9:23
SPEAKER_01: Because I do firmly believe that, but I forget it too.
9:26
SPEAKER_01: But it's in the car, it's at breakfast, it's at bedtime.
9:29
SPEAKER_01: It happens when you're trying to get everybody out the door and someone's anxious about school, someone's frustrated with their sibling.
9:34
SPEAKER_01: You get the opportunity to address those things.
9:36
SPEAKER_01: It happens before bed a lot of times.
9:39
SPEAKER_01: The morning and the evening are those key moments where we wake up and we go to bed with a lot.
9:43
SPEAKER_01: And so putting on the armor can be a very simple practice.
9:47
SPEAKER_01: Truth.
9:48
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, help me recognize what is true today.
9:50
SPEAKER_01: Righteousness, thank you that my standing with you is based on Christ, not on whether I perform perfectly.
9:58
SPEAKER_01: Peace, let your peace govern me today instead of chaos.
10:02
SPEAKER_01: Faith, help me trust what I know about you even when I cannot see what you're doing.
10:08
SPEAKER_01: Salvation, remind me who I am and whose I am, and the word, bring your truth to mind when my emotions or my circumstances are telling me something different.
10:21
SPEAKER_01: That spiritual warfare that can travel with you into a staff meeting, a carpool line, a difficult phone call, on the way to the game, on the way home from the game, on the way to dinner, on the way to breakfast, when we go to bed at night, or even a tense conversation at home.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of different ways that spiritual warfare can come at us in our lives.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: And I think the one that I recognize pretty quickly in my own life is accusation.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: Especially when I'm praying for someone or I'm gonna be speaking at an event, recording a podcast with Kimberly.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: Here comes that voice that says, Who are you to pray or be in ministry?
11:00
SPEAKER_00: Look at your own history, look at what you've done.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: You've made plenty of mistakes.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: You're the last person who should be praying so boldly for someone or serving the Lord in this, you know, speaking at this event or doing this thing.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: An accusation can sound spiritual because sometimes it points towards something that is true.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I do have sin in my life.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: I have made mistakes.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: There are parts of my history that I wish I had handled very differently than I have.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: And so it starts to feel a little bit like conviction, but there's also the lie that in some ways I'm disqualified.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: So the lie is what the accusation does with the truth.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: It says, therefore, because of your past, because of the things, you're disqualified.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: And I have to remind myself my authority in prayer, my authority even recording these podcasts, my authority in speaking in front of people is not based on the fact that I have been an exceptionally good Christian this week.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: Thank goodness.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: I don't stand before God because I've earned access.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: I stand in Christ.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: And I, if I need to confess something, I'll confess it.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: And if I need to make something right with someone that I've wronged, I need to make it right.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: But once God has forgiven me, the enemy doesn't get to keep dragging the file back out as though the cross didn't happen.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
12:24
SPEAKER_01: And that is different from conviction.
12:26
SPEAKER_01: We mentioned that last week.
12:27
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit may absolutely say, you need to deal with this.
12:31
SPEAKER_01: Conviction leads you toward God.
12:33
SPEAKER_01: Accusation pushes you away from Him.
12:36
SPEAKER_01: Conviction says, come into the light.
12:38
SPEAKER_01: Accusation says hide.
12:40
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't want to hear from you.
12:42
SPEAKER_01: And that is a lie.
12:44
SPEAKER_01: Let me bring it back to the family for a minute and our relationships with one another, because I think accusation shows up in a way that we see each other at times.
12:52
SPEAKER_01: So like once I decide that you're the problem, everything you do becomes evidence to support that you're the problem.
12:59
SPEAKER_01: If I'm convinced that you're selfish, I notice every selfish thing you do.
13:03
SPEAKER_01: If I'm convinced that you don't care about me, then every misstext, every lack of response becomes proof of that.
13:09
SPEAKER_01: If I'm convinced that you're irresponsible, I'm gonna interpret everything through that lens.
13:14
SPEAKER_01: And now I'm no longer dealing with a person.
13:17
SPEAKER_01: I'm dealing with the case that I've built against that person.
13:20
SPEAKER_01: And so discernment matters because we're not saying that we should ignore the patterns.
13:24
SPEAKER_01: There are real patterns and those can be destructive.
13:26
SPEAKER_01: And yet we need to name them truthfully and with humility.
13:30
SPEAKER_01: But there's a difference between recognizing a pattern and making a person, like reducing a person or identifying a person with that pattern.
13:39
SPEAKER_01: And that's really important.
13:41
SPEAKER_01: And remember, we're talking basic, simple, nothing in relationship is ever simple, but we're talking about basic relationships here, right?
13:47
SPEAKER_01: Like spiritual warfare doesn't require us to deny reality.
13:51
SPEAKER_01: If someone is lying, the answer isn't, they're not my enemy, so I guess we'll just pretend that this isn't happening.
13:58
SPEAKER_01: No, the truth matters, it absolutely matters, the boundaries matter, accountability matters, but even in all of that, I want to remember this person bears God's image.
14:07
SPEAKER_01: This person is not the darkness that I may be resisting.
14:11
SPEAKER_01: And that changes the way we respond.
14:13
SPEAKER_01: We can resist deception without dehumanizing the person who is deceived.
14:18
SPEAKER_01: You can confront sin without contempt.
14:21
SPEAKER_01: You can establish boundaries without hatred, and you can disagree without turning another human into your enemy.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think that's where the word agreement is helpful for me because sometimes warfare is simply asking, what am I agreeing with right now?
14:38
SPEAKER_00: Am I agreeing with the truth?
14:40
SPEAKER_00: Or am I agreeing with fear?
14:42
SPEAKER_00: I maybe you're agreeing with hopelessness.
14:44
SPEAKER_00: Am I agreeing with the accusations that I've built up in my own head or the ones that the enemy is saying to me that I am somehow disqualified?
14:52
SPEAKER_00: Am I agreeing with the idea that nothing is ever going to change?
14:56
SPEAKER_00: Or am I agreeing with what God says is true?
14:59
SPEAKER_00: An agreement with God isn't pretending that everything is fine.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: Biblical faith is not denial.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: You can say, this relationship is really painful right now, and also God is still present here.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: I can say, I don't know how this gets resolved, and still know that God is wise.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: And He has a solution that maybe I haven't seen yet.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: I can be afraid and also say, fear does not get to make the final decision here.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: And I can say, I don't know what this person is doing while refusing to believe that their current behavior is the final word on their life.
15:39
SPEAKER_00: And that one is so important to me when we're praying for our family because we're living in current chapters in the lives of our loved ones.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: And this chapter may not be all that great, but that's not the whole story that God sees.
15:53
SPEAKER_01: There's a prayer in For the Family called the Victory of Jesus, and it recenters the whole conversation.
15:57
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual warfare can sound like we're trying to work ourselves up enough to defeat something sometimes, but the Christian starting place is actually the victory that Christ has already accomplished at the cross and through his death and resurrection.
16:08
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes warfare prayer can sound like we're frantically beating back the darkness ourselves.
16:13
SPEAKER_01: And as you were saying earlier, Elizabeth, I don't want my focus to live there.
16:17
SPEAKER_01: I want my focus on Jesus' Lord, the cross is enough, I belong to him, the Holy Spirit lives in me, sin does not have the final word, shame and fear do not have the final word, the enemy does not get the final word.
16:28
SPEAKER_01: And praying that way doesn't guarantee that nothing difficult will happen to you or your family, and that's important to remember because the New Testament never promises us a life with no suffering, no temptation, no conflict, and no attack.
16:39
SPEAKER_01: What we are promised that I want to focus on is the presence and the sufficiency of Christ.
16:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think that is so important because when I pray protection over the people I love, I'm not creating some force field that guarantees nothing painful will ever touch them.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: I'm entrusting them again to that authority and care in Jesus that you were just talking about, Kimberly.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: So I'm remembering whatever happens, darkness does not own them.
17:07
SPEAKER_00: God does.
17:08
SPEAKER_01: Elizabeth, I think that brings us back to one of the themes running through this whole series.
17:12
SPEAKER_01: We can pray spiritual warfare prayers for people without trying to spiritually control them.
17:17
SPEAKER_01: And that sounds obvious until we start praying, because I can still turn warfare prayer into God make them do this, make them stop doing this, override their choices, but that's not my role.
17:28
SPEAKER_01: We need to ask God to expose the lies.
17:31
SPEAKER_01: We need to ask God to bring the truth, we need to ask God to protect, to convict, to heal, to give wisdom, to reveal himself, to frustrate things that are destructive, to surround people with wise voices.
17:44
SPEAKER_01: We need to ask God to draw them to himself.
17:48
SPEAKER_01: We are still entrusting a person to God.
17:50
SPEAKER_01: We pray for people, we don't take ownership of their will.
17:54
SPEAKER_01: And I think that keeps spiritual warfare connected to love.
17:58
SPEAKER_01: The goal is never to control the person.
18:00
SPEAKER_01: The goal is freedom, truth, and a deeper relationship with God.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: You know, Kimberly, we're talking about different ways we see spiritual warfare showing up specifically in the family.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: And we've already talked about accusation, is where I can feel it internally, like I'm somehow disqualified in the accusing voice of the enemy.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: Where I kind of see it externally is chaos.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: And that's not to say every chaotic day in my life is spiritual attack.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: We we talk about that, that not everything in our life is spiritual warfare.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes your washing machine breaks just because the washing machine breaks.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: But for me, when it breaks the day before I'm supposed to leave town to lead a conference, hmm, maybe so, maybe not, you know?
18:39
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes everyone is late because we're all late, and that just causes chaos and confusion.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: But there's times when confusion and accusation and fear and miscommunication, they start to compound.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: And that's honestly where I catch it, where it feels like there's just one too many things that have all happened at the same time.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: And I can feel myself getting pulled into it, and that's where I need to stop and say, okay, wait a minute.
19:05
SPEAKER_00: What is true?
19:06
SPEAKER_00: Because chaos tells me that I also have to become chaotic or I become reactive.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: And I don't.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: The existence of conflict does not require for me to become conflict, or someone else's anxiety doesn't require that I become anxious, or someone else's anger does not require for me to also become angry.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: And that's part of where it talks about once you've put on the armor in Ephesians 6, once you've done everything that you can do, then stand.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: And that's part of what standing is.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes standing looks much less dramatic than we think.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: It's refusing to send that text while you're still angry at the person.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: It's saying, I need 10 minutes before we continue this conversation.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: Kind of a, you know, time out.
19:51
SPEAKER_00: Let's let's take a few minutes here.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: And then also coming back in 10 minutes, because that's some people's favorite tool is I'll just give you the silent treatment, right?
20:00
SPEAKER_00: It may be praying before you answer that email that came across your desk.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: It may be deciding not to repeat the accusation you were just so tempted to make, or choosing not to assume someone's motive.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: There are so many different ways that we can choose not to engage with the chaos that is coming at us and take a step back and be of a mind that wants to have the mind of Christ and believe in the truth that says, I don't know why they did that.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I should ask them before I assign blame, shame, and condemnation towards that.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: And that may be one of the hardest acts of spiritual warfare that we can do because it's the ones that help us keep division from happening.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: It's where I choose not to become a part of the division.
20:49
SPEAKER_01: When we were talking last week, we gave you four questions to really help make it practical.
20:53
SPEAKER_01: And this week we came up with four questions too.
20:55
SPEAKER_01: And so the first question that you can ask in a very practical way when the tension rises in your family is first, what am I believing right now?
21:04
SPEAKER_01: What story am I telling myself about this person, about the situation, about the future?
21:09
SPEAKER_01: So what am I believing right now?
21:10
SPEAKER_01: And then the second question is, am I treating the person in front of me like the enemy?
21:14
SPEAKER_01: Even if they're wrong, even if I'm hurt, have I shifted from addressing the problem to attacking the person?
21:21
SPEAKER_01: The third question is, what is true about Jesus in this moment?
21:25
SPEAKER_01: Is he still present?
21:26
SPEAKER_01: Is he still truth?
21:27
SPEAKER_01: Is he still peace?
21:28
SPEAKER_01: Is he still wise?
21:29
SPEAKER_01: Is he still able to lead me?
21:30
SPEAKER_01: And the last question is, what response would agree with his truth rather than with the fear, the accusation, or the division?
21:39
SPEAKER_01: Maybe the response is to speak, or maybe it's to wait.
21:42
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's to apologize, maybe it is to set a boundary, maybe it's to ask a question instead of making an assumption.
21:49
SPEAKER_01: The key is I want my response to come from my alignment with Jesus, not from whatever emotions are stirring within me that are loud.
21:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's where this is a good place to end by doing what for the family and these pages on spiritual warfare inside for the family encourage us to do, which is to put on the armor.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: Not because the words are magic and not because it's going to stop all bad things from happening, but because they remind us of what is already ours in Christ.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: So wherever you are listening, we want you to receive this prayer over you and over your family.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: Father, remind us that our struggle is not against flesh and blood.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: Keep us from turning the people we love into our enemies.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: And where there is conflict, would you give us discernment to recognize what is human weakness and what needs an honest conversation?
22:41
SPEAKER_00: And where spiritual opposition may be seeking to bring fear and accusation, deception and division.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: And so we choose to put on the belt of truth because Jesus, you are truth.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: We ask you to expose lies that we have believed about you and ourselves and about the people we love.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: Help us refuse accusation and stand in what you say is true.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: And we put on the breastplate of righteousness, and we thank you that our standing before you is not based on our perfect behavior, but on the righteousness of Christ.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: Where we have sinned, give us grace to confess quickly and receive your forgiveness.
23:16
SPEAKER_00: We put on the readiness of the gospel of peace.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: Let your peace govern our responses.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: Make us people who carry peace into our homes instead of multiplying chaos.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: We take up the shield of faith.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: When circumstances tell us that nothing will ever change, help us trust your character and your heart.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: When fear speaks loudly, remind us that what we see is not all that there is.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: You are still writing a story that is yet to be revealed.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: And Father, we receive the helmet of salvation.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: Guard our minds in Christ Jesus.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: Remind us who we are and whose we are.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: Let our identity in Christ speak louder than any shame, accusation, fear, or failure that we've had in the past.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: And we take up the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, bring scripture to our minds when we need truth, give us wisdom to know when to speak and when to remain silent.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: Teach us to use your word to bring life, not as a weapon against the people we love.
24:15
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, we keep our eyes on you.
24:18
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be afraid of spiritual warfare and we don't want to become obsessed with it.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: We want to know you.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: We want to stand in your victory.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: We want our homes and our relationships to be places where truth and grace and peace and forgiveness and love have room to grow.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: And when conflict comes, would you please quickly remind us the person we love is not the enemy, and our strength is in you.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: Help us love our family well instead of turning them into the enemy.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: And we pray all this in your name.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
24:49
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
24:50
SPEAKER_01: It's a really good conversation around spiritual warfare, and I love praying through putting on the armor because I know in the past we've talked about at times, Elizabeth, where you've had that on your mirror and you do that.
25:00
SPEAKER_01: And I've done that through seasons of I should do it every day, but I've done it in different seasons of just as I get dressed and I look in the mirror, then I pause and I put on the armor of God.
25:09
SPEAKER_01: So thank you for leading us through that prayer.
25:11
SPEAKER_01: Next week, we're gonna turn specifically toward marriage and ask another uncomfortable question.
25:17
SPEAKER_01: Are we praying for our spouse or are we praying for God to change our spouse into the person we think they ought to be?
25:24
SPEAKER_00: This series just keeps getting more fun.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: Do I have to show up next week?
25:27
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
25:28
SPEAKER_01: So we will see you next time, everyone.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: This podcast is made possible through donations by people like you.
25:35
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25:40
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