Navigating Spiritual Warfare: The Power of Authority, Battle Buddies, and Closing Your Gates | Ep 9

Battling against discouragement, distraction, division and deception can be exhausting, but what if you had the right tools to stay strong? Imagine having a spiritual army by your side, prepared for this unseen warfare, echoing the infinite authority of God. This episode is a conversation about that very prospect. We put the spotlight on 'battle buddies,' those companions in faith who stand by us during times of struggle. We share scriptural insights and personal anecdotes, highlighting the power of community and the comfort of knowing that God and His heavenly army are with us. 

Next, we explore the ABCs of spiritual warfare - Authority, Battle Buddies, and Closing Your Gates. We dive into the importance of recognizing God's ultimate authority and the power of spreading His word. With worship music as our shield, scriptures as our sword, and a prayerful community by our side, we can counter the enemy's tactics. Remember, every day is a good day to fight, for the Lord will never leave us nor forsake us. Tune in, and discover how to stay secure in your faith as we share practical advice and tools to help you navigate and triumph over spiritual adversity.

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Episode Transcript

Announcer (00:00):
Welcome to In His Hands podcast from women for
women.
We're here to help you findpeace in knowing you are in
God's hands.
Our goal is sharing the Word ofGod in simple conversations.
We're here to help you thriveevery day.
And now, here are your hosts.

Tiffany (00:18):
Good morning.
I'm Tiffany Windsor and I'mMary.
Today we have a strongconversation.
We want to talk about battlebuddies.

Mary (00:28):
I'll start it off.
I'm going to start in prayer,lord, being a warrior brings
fear and it also feels like wecould be unprepared for the
battle.
But like you did with Elishaand his servant and showed the
servant the glorious heavenlyarmy surrounding the enemy that

(00:50):
was surrounding the city, weneed not fear because you are
with us and you prepare us andyou go before us and beside us
and behind us.
So in Jesus' precious name, wesay yes, yes and amen.

Tiffany (01:05):
Amen.
Thank you for starting us offthat way, because I think we
need to do that more often.
That's going to help set ouropenness, our listening and our
trust in whatever message comesthrough today.
The reason we're talking aboutbattle buddies today is that we
were both very inspired atchurch.

(01:26):
We were given little, tiny,little plastic army men to
remind us of this moment.
I think what I want to share tobegin with.
Well, the theme today was theinvisible war, and there's so
many layers of what's going onin the world and what goes on
for us personally.
There's so many interactionsthat happen during the day and

(01:49):
the week that may be withfriends or family, spouses and
such that we don't realize thatit may be the enemy trying to
sneak in.
And some things are very clearwhen you can go oh boy, I can
see the enemy here.
And there's others where wejust get defensive or words come
out of someone else's mouth andit sets us off.

(02:11):
Our first thought is notnecessarily oh, that's the enemy
here.
We put it with the person whatdid you get out of that?

Mary (02:23):
That is so true because there's a verse I can't put my
finger on where it is we don'tbattle flesh and blood, but the
enemy, the dominions of thisworld, which is Satan, and I
love the pastor mentioned he'soutnumbered, he might have
dominion over this world, butit's two to one God's army
against him.
And when I start having stinkand thinking that's the only way

(02:46):
I can think of it is I startgrowl, saying and coveching and
carrying on and I'm like, wait asecond, counting my blessings
really helps.
The other thing I thought wasinteresting is my little army
guy.
He's walking with his gun ready, so my posture needs to be
weapon ready and I thought yourswas so interestingly different.

(03:07):
Your little soldier guy wasleading the way and of course I
had no idea, as they werehanding them out to us that they
were all different.

Tiffany (03:13):
It wasn't until we sat down and you showed me yours and
it's like oh, let me look atmine.

Mary (03:20):
And it's so funny because I recognize that immediately in
yours.
And I didn't want mine becauseI'm battle weary friends, I
didn't want to be keeping in thebattle, but in the weariness
God is speaking to me too.
He says just do what I'm askingyou to do, because it's all the
other things I'm doing thathe's not asking me to do that
are making me weary.

Tiffany (03:39):
One of the things I wrote down is my God is
surrounding my enemy, so thatgives you power.
In that moment of understanding, you have to put on the armor
so that you remember how tofight, but you don't have to
take on the full battle for God.

Mary (03:55):
And we got in the car this morning on the way to church,
and it was rescue Lauren Dagle.
And what are the lyrics?
I've told you that's, that'sthe way to go.

Tiffany (04:04):
That's.
That is definitely one of mywarrior songs, and when I was
low and I first heard that song,of course the tears were just
flowing and flowing because thefact that I do not have to take
on the battle myself.
Part of her words are I willrescue you, I am there.
You have an army behind you.
Here's something else that Iwrote down, which was the devil

(04:28):
is a schemer and drawing upplays against our lives,
obviously to try and derail us,but what's really interesting is
that the playbook is not veryextensive, so you can know that
God gives you a lot moredirection and battle readiness
and plays to execute againstevil.

Mary (04:49):
And I liked how pastor pointed out the enemies for most
used playbook things and it'sdiscouragement, distraction,
division and deception.
And we know these and yet Istill need such the reminder
today about especially thediscouragement, how
discouragement can lead todepression and suicidal thoughts
potentially.

(05:09):
If the enemy can take us out ofthe battle by ourselves, then
he's succeeded and we have tofight against those thoughts.
We need our battle buddies tohelp us in the trenches.

Tiffany (05:21):
That is so true, because what's the first thing
that we tend to do in thatmoment is we isolate ourselves
and we don't have the tools topull ourselves out of that space
with our thinking.
And so you do need to surroundyourself with the community and
the friends and the battlebuddies who can speak the truth

(05:42):
to you and help move you out ofthat space.

Mary (05:45):
Right, and this wonderful tool to use is to pull this up
and remember that you're notalone and the enemy wants to
convince you that you are, andhe's a liar and he's a cheater
and it's not true and we have tostand on that truth.

Tiffany (06:02):
The enemy, in being the liar, is always trying to wear
us out, wear you down, wear youout.
One of the things I loved thatI heard today that I need to do
because I haven't done this.
I do play worship music in myspace, but we were reminded play
worship music at night on aloop, so that's the last thing

(06:23):
you hear and it can be the firstthing you hear when you wake up
.
We have to have our battletools ready.
What else can we recommend?
Of course, worship music,reading the word, spending time
during the week.
I jumped right into anotherprayer journal and this one's 40
days of prayer, because I wasso blessed with the 21 days of

(06:44):
prayer.
That's what's taking me.
Is that commitment every day tosay I can't miss a day?
That's what I'm finding.
Is, if I don't have one, two,three, four, five counting the
days for me, I had not beenmaking that commitment.
Now, with the 40 days, I knowevery day because this is day
nine and it's a certain date.

(07:05):
The cool thing about I'm usingthe circle maker it keeps it so
light If there's informationthat pours out of you that you
want to write on the page, butit can be as simple as writing a
few words in a circle.
That's on this pre-printed pagefor the day, and I love that,
because some days those wordsdon't flow as quickly.

Mary (07:24):
I like that.
It's the consistency, probably,and training.
Another thing that works for me, too, is a group of us have set
our alarms at 730 and we justpray.
I love that.
Pray for each other and so joinus.
Set your alarm for 730 PacificStandard and that's all.
Pray for each other.
Saturday was the first day andbreakthroughs already, and it

(07:47):
was just because of that,because we invited each other
into our mess and our successes,but also knowing that we need
each other and being authenticand vulnerable and that's okay
because we really are and theLord knows it, and that
sometimes we forget to put ourarmor on, but our friends are

(08:07):
there to help protect us andpray us through.

Tiffany (08:11):
I love that I'm joining , join, and we invite everyone
else who listens to this becausewe'll be there praying every
day, we are so much stronger innumbers Be praying for everyone
at 730.

Mary (08:26):
Yeah, and I just want to encourage you that I might not
know your name, but God knowsyour name and so you might
listen.
Or maybe the liar is speakingreally loudly like oh, maybe I'm
not praying for you exactly,but I am.
I am because God knowseverything and he knows what you

(08:46):
need and he hears our prayersand he has you in his hand.

Tiffany (08:53):
When we're talking about spiritual warfare.
I loved these notes becausethere are the ABCs of spiritual
warfare.
Number one is authority inChrist.
The authority in Christ givesus that armor and allows us to
start pushing back the darkness.
Even when I am deeply immersedin my prayerfulness during the
week, listening to my worshipmusic, writing in my prayer

(09:16):
journal, it can be very easy togo into the negative thinking.
So now that we have a few moretools today that we're sharing
with everyone that are as simpleas the ABCs A is authority in
Christ.
B we've already been talkingabout which is battle buddies
coming together and be together.

(09:36):
Here's what I love that I wrotedown.
We have a herd to protect us.
I can't impress upon everyoneenough to know that and you just
said this that we're here, eventhough we may not know you by
name.
Whoever is listening to usright now, we are praying for
you Because in our prayers thatcovers everyone.

(09:57):
That just feels so good.
I just love that.

Mary (10:00):
That's so true, and you might be more.
I don't know, like me, where Iknow the tools.
I had the tools and I'veforgotten the tools, or I don't
use the tools.
I think that's another tacticof the enemy.
That was the second D isdistraction.
Distraction from what I know istrue.
I think what I'm coming aroundto is I might know the tools,

(10:21):
but I need to have morecommunity, I need to spend more
time in the herd, I need to stepout in faith, and that's a
scary step because it looks likeit's a step out onto nothing.
You know there's no solidground underneath, but that's
actually a lie.
It's the most solid ground Icould step out on.
So, knowing those true thingsand walking in them and acting

(10:44):
on them that's where I'mstruggling these days.

Tiffany (10:49):
Well, the struggle appears to be real, but when we
put on our armor for thatspiritual warfare and we have
these tools we are so armed withthe truth that things will
change.
Just like you said, you juststarted praying with a group and
look at how quickly you wereseeing prayers answered,

(11:09):
Answered prayers.

Mary (11:11):
I just wanted to include the C of ABCs, which is, close
my gates and have the personalauthority, the thought over
those three things the authority, battle buddies, and closing my
gates is claiming Yeshua'sauthority.

Tiffany (11:26):
And.

Mary (11:27):
I get caught up with.
Oh, I don't feel strong enough,or I'm the battle weary, but
it's not my strength and it'snot my authority.
It's Yeshua's and His isinfinite.
He's won already, so it's noteven a question.

Tiffany (11:44):
And one of the notes that I wrote down is what does
it take to close the gate?
Big question mark Jesus gave usthe victory, but our job is to
fight, and it's a good day tofight the enemy.

Mary (11:55):
Every day is a good day, every day is a battle.
So we're either engaging orwe're losing.

Tiffany (12:02):
One of the notes that I wrote been closing my notes
here was a reminder to speak upand share the good news, and
that's one thing that spoke tome Tell everyone the good news.
We may not think in somemoments that we have some good
news to share, but we do and weneed to speak our truth and tell
everyone the good news.

Mary (12:23):
Amen.
It is good news.
Even if it feels like it mightbe overwhelming or you don't
have an answer right away, thereis good news on the way.
Fear not, for our Lord is withyou.
He will never leave you norforsake you.