Standing Strong in the Battle

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:17):
I want to welcome you to Healing Begins. My name
is Pastor Gale and I have.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
This is Stephanie Butler. We're so glad you're listening today.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Yes, I don't know what you're doing right now, but
we would love it if you would hang around with
us and listen to us talk. So today the title
is standing Strong in the Battle. I think this is
such a critical topic for the time in which we lived,
and I think so Soephanie.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
I mean there's a lot of contention, there's a lot
of struggle. There seems to be a lot of confusion,
a lot of narratives and agendas out there. So this
is a great topic to learn how we can stand
strong and still be a great witness and keep our
peace in the midst of a seemingly difficult season.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Well, if you want to see battles, just watch the news.
You have plenty of battles to lie. I kind of
shut the news off.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
I'm just sick of it.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
The government's open, the government's shut. I'm not going to
get into that. But there's a lot of batticals, baticals,
a lot of battles in the political realm. But I
think maybe batticals in the new word. Maybe Yeah, it's
a sniggle word you make up.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
I learned something. I like that word.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Sniggle it the words you make up. So batticals. There
you go. You know what I think? More than that,
there's another battle that rages. And often we see what's
happening in the natural right, we're focused on the natural realm,
We're focused on our jobs, we're focused on politics or
focused on all these areas. But behind it is a

(01:53):
battle in the spiritual realm. That is what is key.
That is what the battle we really want to talk about,
because if you see everything in the world today, just
people fighting people at each other, is just backbiting and
people all I want to say, the divorce one over politics,
but people will just cut off friendships for the most

(02:17):
foolish reasons. Yeah, and if you're out there, God wants
you to stay strong in the battle do you happen
to have if he's in sixteen through eighteen?

Speaker 2 (02:27):
H I sure doe.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
I'd love to read that for you. Let me get
that ouh, I sure do. I pulled it up for you.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
So that says, finally, be strong in the Lord and
in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God,
so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but
against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of
this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil

(02:57):
in the heavenly realms. Fore, put on the full armor
of God, so that when the day of evil comes,
you may be able to stand your ground. And after
you have done everything to stand, stand firm. Then, with
the belt of Truth buckled around your waist, with the

(03:20):
breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted
with the readiness that comes from the Gospel of Peace.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
In addition to all of this, take.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Up the shield of faith, by which you can extinguish
all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the
helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which
is the Word of God. And pray in the Spirit
on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests.
With this in mind, be alert, and always keep on

(03:54):
praying for all the Lord's people.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
You know, I think of different ways we can stand
strong in the battle. So let's talk about that for
a minute, Stephanie. I think the number one way to
stay strong and keep your armor on is to stay
close to Jesus. And the number one thing the enemy
will use is discouragement and trials to get you to
quit reading your Bible, quit praying, and quit going to church.

(04:21):
Because the enemy's goal is he'd like to isolate you
from your support system so he can actually pick you
off and destroy your life. And so maybe you kind
of set your Bible down. You got so discourage you
don't want to read it no more. Pick it back up,
Start reading the Bible, start praying, start seeking God, come

(04:42):
back to where you need to be. See if if
you ever see a herd of elephants or stuff that travel,
they they always stick together. Yeah, because they're stronger together
than apart. What are some other ways you think we
can stand strong in the battle, Stephanie, Yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
Think take time to rest is another way to s
stay strong in the battle. If you know you're tired,
you've got to have one day of rest. Even God rested, right,
so he says that he rested on the seventh day. Well,
if God needs to rest, we need to rest too.
So you can't run seven days a week NonStop and
not take that time for the physical rest either because

(05:18):
we are we have a body, we are a soul,
and our soul has been made one with the Lord spirit.
Our spirit has made one with the Lord right, So
we might be strong in spirit, and we might have
a strong soul. But if your body gets tired, it
can war against your soul, it can war against your mind,
it can make you feel emotional because we do have

(05:38):
a physical body. So take that time to rest. Make
sure you're sleeping in, make sure you're getting a good
night's sleep, make sure you're going to bed at a
decent time. You're not just scroll on Facebook and on
YouTube till two three in the morning. That will affect
your ability to win the war.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
Yeah, I slepped into four forty am this morning.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
Okay, I listen.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
I'm just preaching myself, so okay, I'm going to be honest.
I binged the House of David the other night and
stayed up till two am. But the next morning, I
was like, what was I thinking? I could have patiently
waited and watched one episode a night, but I was
so impatient I.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
Wanted to see them all.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
And then I paid for it the next day and
I had.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
To sleep in right. So I'm just saying I'm talking
to myself.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
Now I'm going to give you a keyword that will
help you. Nap. Take a nap, all right. Now. I
was in Costa Rica, and when I would go on
the mission field, we'd be there a couple of weeks,
and man, we would run hard. I mean when we
came home we looked like we've been dragged through a notthole.
We were sick and coffing. And one day my translator said, well,

(06:41):
I'm going to teach you something, Pastor Gail. What take
a nap? Yeah, he said, Now you got three hours
before the night meeting, so go back to your room,
lay down, shut your eyes for hour two hours and sleep. Yeah.
You know, instead of my wife quarantining me when I
got home home, I come home healthy, you know, and

(07:05):
and sleeping. Sometimes we don't realize the pace that we're running.
In fact, I challenge you to do this. Take a
day and spend it with the Lord. Get up in
the morning and spend the whole day with the Lord.
You know what you're gonna find. The first thing you're
going to do in the morning and is start yawn
and you got your Bible open, you're going to feel
like taking anap, Take a nap, go to sleep. Maybe

(07:29):
you have a spiritual dream. I don't know. But resting
is a weapon. And we are, like you said, Stephanie,
we are more vulnerable to the attack of the enemy
when we are running on no sleep.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
I mean you can wreck yourself. Wait a minute, I
wrecked the car doing that once. Sleep at the wheel.
We ain't doing that again. I'll tell you that right now.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
Labor to enter into the rest of God, right yeah,
Because I think sometimes we stay busy too, and we
work hard because we're genuinely trying to be really good stewards.
But then in some ways we're relying on our own
strength and our own ability instead of relying on the
Lord to do what he already promised he would do.
When God gives you a word, the very power to
accomplish that thing is in the word that he gave.
So you just take the steps of faith. That doesn't

(08:15):
have to be perfect, You don't have to overwork. Just
do the next thing that's in front of you. And
I always tease my friends, they say, you know, God's
really good at his job, so do what you can
with the time that you have and make sure that
he remains your priority, and he will iron all that
other stuff.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
Out well in this talking about standing strong in the battle,
and we're talking about iphes and six. We got to
get into the armor of God. Yeah, come on, because
that's what's really important.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
You know.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
The Apostle Paul, while in prison and likely observing the
Roman soldiers daily, paints a very vivid picture of the
spiritual warfare that we're in. Each piece of Roman soldier's
armor is used metaphorically to describe how we can prepare
ourselves spiritually for battle. So we're going to take a
deep for a look at that. You want to read

(09:02):
number one, you don't have to. You don't have to
pronounce the greed. I got all that Greek.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
The belt of truth, yes, right, the belt of truth.
The Greek means to gird oneself up for action. It
literally a lithia means truth in the fullest sense, sincerity, integrity,
and divine reality. So this is an idea of authenticity.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
With the truth.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
So you know, it talks about that our yoka is
easy in our burden is light when we yoke ourselves
to the Lord.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
This idea of being transparent and vulnerable with.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
The Lord about where you're at is really key. Being
truthful with him about where we're at. But then also
the belt of truth in regards to what the word
actually says, right.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
We will be comforted.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
We will comfort others with the comfort we ourselves have received.
So I'm even thinking of the verse in Corinthians where
it says when we behold him with an unveiled face, right,
we're we go from faith to faith and glory to
or even transformed into that very same image. So we
can't give what we haven't received. So when we come
into his presence, when we're arresting, when we're getting filled
back up, it's really important that we come with that

(10:09):
belt of truth about where we're at in our weakness,
what we need from him, And then he gives us
the truth of his word and the reality that he's
the source for the very thing that we need, and
the very grace he gave us were able then to
give to other people.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
It's a beautiful exchange.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
Now, the belt was so important because all the other
pieces of the arm are hinge down that absolutely, and
so you know, if you're not living in truth and
you don't know what truth is everything else in your
life a fall apart. Jesus said, I am the way
so you won't go lost. I am the truth so
you won't be deceived. And I am the life so
the devil can't kill you. By the way, I didn't

(10:45):
make that up. That came from Jesse to Planets. I
always like that saying. So the belt of truth. The
next playing is the breastplate of righteousness.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yes, come on, the breastplate of righteousness covers the chest. Okay,
that whole area in the chest refers to the chest
of armor covering the heart and the lungs the Greek.
In the Greek, it means literally righteousness, both moral behavior
and standing with God. So it's this idea of being

(11:16):
covered by the finished work of Jesus Christ. It's not
something that we earned. It's the free gift given to
us through the finished work of Jesus's blood and his
broken body. But then at the same time, faith without
action is dead, so this is also this idea of
affecting our moral behavior.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
Faith with our action is dead.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
So it should be changing the way we live our
life out loud. Our values should begin more and more
to look like the holiness of the Father as we
integrate it into our lives.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
And righteousness is so important. It's something that is lacking
in today's world. So as Christians, we're not supposed to
be living in sin. We're supposed to be living in
right relationship with God.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
Number three fitted with the readiness that comes from the Gospel. Peace.
I used to I love that when we were looking
into the Roman shoes there was like six inch spikes
on the bottom of the Roman shoes. And so peace
is actually a weapon. The feet shod with the King
James's feast, shod with the readiness of the Gospel. Peace.

(12:18):
Peace is actually a weapon. And when you're in the
middle of war and you're in the middle of something
going on in your life and you can lay down
and sleep in peace, the enemy hates that because if
you're sleeping in peace, you're gonna wake up restored. Absolutely,
you're gonna wake up feeling better. You know the application.
Let your steps be guided by the peace of Christ.

(12:38):
Wherever you go, bring the Gospel good news that brings peace.
Walk in forgiveness and reconciliation. Be quick to speak peace,
not conflict.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
Amen. I'm thinking about those six inch spikes because it
used to be a runner. It was a track runner,
it was a sprinter, right, So the purpose of those
spikes is to help you stay your ground when pressure
is coming against you, when forces are coming against you,
or when you need to move swiftly, you can do
so without losing your footing. And I'm just thinking of
Jordan Peterson. I love Jordan Peterson. Some of you may

(13:11):
know who that is. But a common business practice is this,
he who stays calm in the midst of an argument
always has the upper hand. Why because your mind remains clear,
Your ability to stay focused on the goal and the
purpose and who you are and why you're there remains clear.
And it gives you the ability to hear the other

(13:34):
person instead of trying to create a rebuttal while the
conversation's going on. So it frees you up to actually
be able to love the other person better and then
make a decision that's best and aligns with your values
and your desired outcome according to the will of God,
instead of being moved back and forth with every emotion
that's coming at you in the situation.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
You know, I like the spikes and of the Romans
shoulder shoes made the God of Peace soon on the
Can you imagine if you stepped on something and you're
wearing six and spikes, it would be a lot of crunching.
And so the Gospel of Peace, all right, Stephanie read
about the Shield of Faith.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Oh, I love the Shield of Faith.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
That's one of my favorites.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
It says that the shield of faith will quench all
the fiery darts of the evil one. Right, so it
refers to a large Roman shield that actually covered the
whole body. It's not like what we see in Captain America,
where it's just a small round shield, which is one of.

Speaker 3 (14:31):
My favorite superheroes.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
Size of a door.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
Yeah, it's the size of a door. It's huge.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
So it covered them from top of their head all
the way to them on their feet, right, so protected
them from everything. Then oftentimes it was covered in leather
and they would wet them before they went into battle
because the enemy would light up these arrows and shoot
them at them and it would extinguish them. So sometimes
this is gonna sound kind of silly, but I'll give

(14:57):
you a little tip of what works for me. If
I'm in a really difficult conversation and I know Leviathan
or a spirit of pride, or the enemy is just
operating maliciously through the wounds of another person against me.
I actually imagine in front of me either a wall
of fire or my shield of faith in front of me,
and I see their words hitting that shield and just
being extinguished before they hit my heart, because it says,

(15:19):
guard your heart, for out of it flow.

Speaker 3 (15:20):
The wellspring of life.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
And we know that we do not war against flesh
and blood, but against principalities and powers and wackness. In
my place, it's just like this verse says. So it
makes it a lot easier to love the other person
when I recognize the source of the fiery arrows that
are coming at me well.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
And we teach kids at Spiritual Care about using the
shield of faith. Will have them draw a shield out
a piece of paper and write the in christ statements
over the shield, and we teach them to use that
like an invisible force field around their mind. That you
see that Satan doesn't have a voice on the earth
unless we give them a voice.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
That's exactly right.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
And so the words that come from the enemy come
through other people, and sometimes they come through Christians. We
don't realize they're picking up the enemy's words and speaking
them out of their own mouth.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
So I love Isaiah twenty six to three to it
says he will keep imperfect peace, him whose mind is
steadfast because he.

Speaker 3 (16:19):
Trusts in him. That's exactly what you're talking about.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
It becomes an invisible force field. When I keep my
mind on the Lord, on his truth, on those promises,
it enables me to continue to take the next steps forward,
regardless of what someone's response or receptivity towards me.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
Is that word peace in the Hebrew means shalom shalom. Yeah,
come on, everything that you need is so, shallom over
your brain right now. If you're listening and you need
peace in your mind, shallo over the brain. So, and
then we have the helmet of salvation. Go ahead and sephanie.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yeah, So this is obviously a covering around your head, right.
Salvation it means in the Greek, I means salvation, deliverance, wholeness,
and safety. So sometimes in the midst of a battle,
just remembering I am saved, so I don't act this way.

Speaker 3 (17:09):
I'm not going to react. I'm going to respond.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
I am Sometimes the accusers coming at us, right so
I am saved, I'm loved by God, I'm safe. I'm
not in harm's way here. He protects me. Right, that's
helpful to know. And then maybe they're pointing, someone's pointing
something out that you actually really need to look at.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
So, yeah, I am saved.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
But you know what, there's something this person's saying that
does have some truth to it. So I can relax
a little bit because I know there's no condemnation for
those of us that are in Christ Jesus. So I
can look at that and agree with you know, the individual,
and say, you know what, You're right, that's something I
need to work on without being offended because I know
who I am and I know whose I am.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
And when we're saved, when we accept Jesus Christ into
our hearts, we have on the helmet of salvation.

Speaker 3 (17:55):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
And so number six is the sword of the sphere.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
Go ahead, Sephany, So in the great here this is
actually referring to a short sword that was used in
close combat. Numah, of course, is the spirit, Paul clarifies,
which is the word Rama of God. Use the word
of God actively. Rama refers to the spoken specific words

(18:21):
from God. So memorizing scripture, declaring it in prayer, and
using it to rebuke the lies of temptation, like Jesus
in the wilderness respond with.

Speaker 3 (18:30):
It is written.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
So the word is our defensive weapon, I guess, or offensive,
I guess it would be right, Like we're going at
the enemy, so it's the one thing that we release
to kind of take ground or push back on the enemy.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
And if you.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
Remember that story with Jesus, he stood on the mountain
and when Satan was telling him all these things, throw
yourself off of this hill, right, the angels will catch you.
Turn the stone into bread. You're hungry, surely you've been
fasting for forty days?

Speaker 3 (18:54):
What did he say? Over and over again?

Speaker 2 (18:56):
It is written? And every time he responded with God's word,
the enemy had to stop and wait for more opportune
time or go a different route because that same tactic
he was using wasn't going to work anymore. You have
to say it out of your mouth. I think we
forget that sometimes.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
Well, you know Kenna Copela, and I heard him say today.
I think I caught him on a Facebook real that
he had a scripture for every situation, for every negative thought.
He had a scripture for his healing. He had a
scripture for his mind. He had a scripture. He said,
I answer things with the word of God. And if
the power of life and death is in the tongue,
then quoting and confessing the word is powerful, because this

(19:40):
says in Isaiah, I think it is fifty five eleven.
And then when he sends out his word, he also
sends the power to perform it. And I like that.
Having a scripture for every situation, you might say, well,
what if the situations all negative? Quote the word at it.
Keep quoting a word at because it is not my word.
Like a hammer breaks the rocks and pieces. The lawyer says, so,

(20:03):
But there's one more piece of irony that's not on here,
and it's often overlooked by most people that teach the arbor,
and it's the lance of the intercession. The Roman soldiers
had a lance that they were on their side, and
they would use that and they could throw it long
distance right into the enemy's camp. And intercession in prayer

(20:24):
is a land. The Bible tells us, even if he's
in six point eighteen, that we are to pray in
the spirit on all occasions, for all people. Remembering our
brothers and sisters, and so Stephanie, you want to lift
up a prayer for those that are in the battle today.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
Yeah, Father, I just as first that you baptize them
holy spirit with a spirit of intercession, that you would
open their spiritual eyes to see what you need them
to see, to understand the strategy and what it is
that's coming against them, and how to pray in agreement
with your will, so that they can be effective in
their prayers, so they can hit the target of the
issue that you want them to pray for. Father, I

(21:01):
asked you would quick into their remembrance as well the
word of God and the promises and the prophetic things
that have been spoken over them, the things that you
said you desire to see happen according to your will
for their lives. And then I ask that those things
would be meted out, that your angels would be loose
right now to hasten and perform every dormant word.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
That you've spoken over their lives.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
We say, let it be activated, let it come to
pass now, Let the angels be loose to help bring
it to fruition in this hour and in this day.

Speaker 3 (21:30):
Jesus nam Amen.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
Father, I pray for those that are in the battle
that you would strengthen them and strengthen the hands that
feel weak. Lord, I pray that you would let them
know that they're not alone. I pray that you will
send your angels to every person to minister to the
heirs of salvation. I thank you Lord that two thousand
years ago over that you already won the battle. You

(21:51):
won the victory over death, hell and the grave. The
devil is defeated. So Father, I just think, I thank
you Lord that in present battles you are here. Isaiah
forty one ten. Fear, though not frying with you, be
not dismayed. F im by God, I will strengthen you. Yeah,
I will uphold you and strengthen you with my mighty

(22:13):
right hand. In Isaiah forty one thirteen says I have
the Lord will take you by the right hand, and
we'll walk with you. I pray that people would know
they're not alone in the battle, that you are walking
with them to give them the victory in the name
of Jesus. Amen. Now we'd like to hear from you.
My email is share at Healing Begins radio dot com.

(22:37):
Share at Healing Begins Radio dot com. If you need
something encouraging to read. I have a couple of Really,
I have six books out can you believe it? Put
my name in Amazon dot com Gail G. A. L. E.
Kroc k R A G. T. And you're gonna find
my books. I'd love to tell stories, talk about God moments,
talk about the Heart of Healing, and all the other

(23:00):
books that are out. And Stephanie, you have some books
out right.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
Yeah, I sure do. There's two on the Amazon Magnanimous Love,
The Keys to Transform in a City and Rest as War.
They're primarily designed for Christians or Christian leaders. They'll encourage
you and your goal goals to see the Kingdom of
God come here on earth, justices in Heaven perfect.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
So as we wind up here in this last few seconds,
we want you to know that God is with you.
The battle's already won, and you are not alone. And
so may the Lord bless you, and may he keep you.
May he cause his face to shine upon you, and
be gracious to you, and turn his face toward you,
and give you shallan shalon. And I pray that the

(23:46):
angels would stand by your side, and that you would
be filled with the presence of God. So from Gail
and Stephanie, have a good morning.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
God bless have a great day, and may.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
The Lord be with you wherever you go. Are you
struggling with emotional pain, anxiety, trauma, or feeling stuck in life?
At Spiritual Care Consultants, we believe that healing is possible
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(24:21):
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(24:43):
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