I never believed in the idea of spiritual attack until a few years ago.
After all, I'm a scientist. I believe God works through the observable world and we call those rules and workings "science".
But a few years ago, I noticed that whenever I'd just recommitted myself to God, or felt like I was growing, a lot of bad stuff would often start happening. Coincidence? Maybe. But even in Star Wars, Qui Gon says "In my experience, there's no such thing as luck."
Yes, randomness happens. Sometimes it happens to align things in a streak that people usually refer to as good luck or bad luck. but let's take a digression for a second to talk about miracles. Let's say God worked a miracle. Scientists, who try to explain things using only the natural world (so you'll never have an explanation of "God did it"), will say "rarely this result happens." So the miracle would get classified as a rare result. In fact, they'd do the statistics and say it happens something like 1/10000 times.
So I count a miracle as not something statistically impossible, but rather statistically improbable, based on the way we've set up the system. When you start combining things that each only happen 1/10000 times...well, it's statistically possible that it could happen by chance, but it becomes more and more improbable.
I mention this because I think I mentioned not too long ago that my spouse and I felt like God was calling us to start a Bible study. For a long time, we couldn't seem to start one in any of the churches we tried - either they already had Bible studies, or there weren't enough people interested in coming. We finally found one that said "yes! we're looking to start up more Bible studies!"...and guess what, they never moved forward on it. We waited for months with no progress. So we eventually left and came to the church we're at now, and joined a large Bible study. They had a lot of Bible studies already and we thought that the calling from God was not meant to happen at this time...but then out of the blue someone in the church asked us if we'd like to start a Bible study! Apparently the large study we were attending needed to split, and without even telling anyone at the church about our desire to start one, they tapped us as leaders. Us, of all people they could have chosen (and there were quite a few other leadership-worthy couples in our group). How cool is that? God was working all along! He was saying, I want you to have this specific group for Bible study. This is where I want you.
So a couple months ago we began. Spouse was worried no one would show up but we have three regular couples besides us.
Anyway, the couple who hosts at their house was taking a long-planned trip to Florida in order to get away and relax for a few days, something they never get to do at home and have not done for a long time. Of course, while they are on this trip, a lot of stuff starts to go wrong with their business here at home. So much for relaxing! Talk about stress - you're not only adding new stuff to stress about, but now they're far away so there's not much they can do about it over the next couple days.
That by itself is not unusual. But the last couple of days, my anxiety (which I had several years ago, and only had an episode a couple months ago) returned. And yesterday, while listening to the rousing soundtracks of movies I loved in my childhood (including Star Wars), instead of feeling joyous, I felt nostalgic and sad...and the feeling didn't go away. Usually if I hear a sad song (which I wasn't even listening to sad music! I was listening to the openings, fight music, etc.), sure I'll be sad but then when I move on to something else, the feeling dissipates.
It didn't, and left me feeling crappy for several hours afterwards. I felt like I was slipping into depression. Very unusual for me.
So the timing of those 2 incidents makes me wonder if our Bible study is under spiritual attack.
Now, here's the learning part.
If you're under attack, it means that the Dark Forces of the world are trying to stop you. Which means you're doing something good, or something good is underway. I've read about this in so many Christian books. It's right before, or during the beginning of explosive growth and amazing works of God that people find bad stuff happening, which we call Spiritual Attack.
So our Bible Study must be about to do something great. Personal growth for its members. New members. Make a profound impact serving the community. I haven't heard from the other two couples, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were under spiritual attack (had bad things out of the blue happen) too.
So, what can you do?
Brace yourselves, because you know it's coming.
Usually in movies, or even in real life, that means to prepare. To clench, reach for your willpower, because you know you'll need every ounce of your strength in the upcoming days.
The only problem is...there's nothing you can do this time, in the real world.
The forces of evil can overcome us...without God. But with God, we're unstoppable. So if we try to get stronger, do it on our own strength, we will fail. Or, we won't be turning to God, which is what I believe God desires by allowing this experience to happen. Instead, we have to do the counter-intuitive thing and let go of the idea of our own strength. In Christianese, they say "lean into God."
What that means is, this is the time to turn to God, not away. Pray. Read the Bible. This is the time to be even more diligent than normal. Realize you can do nothing, but trust that God, who can do everything, is guarding you.
Let the Force (God) Guide You...Because You'll Fail if You Try to Do it on Your Own
This is even seen in Star Wars. At the end of A New Hope, Luke is racing down the Death Star trench in his X-wing. Watching from a 3rd person perspective, we've seen countless people try on their own strength and fail. So Luke's told to do the counterintuitive thing by Obi-Wan - Let Go. "Use the Force, Luke. Let go, Luke."
At first, Luke fights it. It seems so wrong. Let go of trying to control the situation? But I already feel the situation is out of control! How will it not go completely haywire if I give up and stop trying?
The central command doesn't understand this either - "Luke, you've switched off your targeting computer. What's wrong?" In other words, it may also look crazy to others observing.
But we, as viewers, know he has to do this to succeed. Luke must let go in order for the Force to guide him, which is the only way he will destroy the Death Star and save the Rebel Alliance (and not be killed!).
In fact, this is central to every Star Wars movie. Only when the characters let go and let the Force control them can they defeat the evil bad guy. Without it, they fail every time.
Life application:
Like Luke, when you're in the most stressful situations in your life, do the counterintuitive thing and let go. Let go of your self-guided attempts and switch to autopilot when all is failing around you. Let go so that God can control your X-wing and, flooding through you, steer you to safety.
It is the only way you will truly succeed.
If you're under spiritual attack:
- Brace yourself. You know it's coming. Don't let bad things surprise you, and be determined to hold on to hope.
- Realize it means good things are about to happen/are happening spiritually with you and around you. Hold on to that hope. Something major good is about to happen.
- Realize you can do nothing on your own.
- Let go and trust in God. Give him the controls of your life. Back off.
- During the actual sh*tstorm, lean into God. Pray more. Read the Bible. Attend church or connect more than normal with other believers. This is not the time to slack off. God will bring you through this, but you must maintain your connections to him, especially when the going is hardest.
No comments:
Post a Comment