Once a warrior always a warrior

A warrior’s weapon is the Sword of the Spirit! Photo source: FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Once a warrior always a warrior. In times past the warrior had to fight for his family to maintain or gain freedom.  He had to bring himself within striking distance of his enemy’s weapon.  Thus, to fight he had to risk his own life.  Death was a daily occurrence (powerful and important to understand).

Our enemy today is no less dangerous and skillful.  Our enemy today is first and foremost in the battlefield of our mind.  He tries to remove our freedom in God by opposing our spiritual values.  Sometimes our enemy is laziness, or our fears.  My enemy tells me I can’t accomplish something and there is no point to even try.  My enemy tells me not to stand up for what I believe in because it is unpopular, or to hide my values because they aren’t the “norm”.The modern day warrior examines his past and wonders whether he has done enough up to this point for the kingdom of God; if he is worthy of the challenge that lies ahead of him.

We as modern day warriors are similar to the ancient warrior.  Although our enemies are not as they once were, we still fight every single day.  We battle because that is our calling.  If you want to make a difference in the kingdom of God, you have to fight, slay, and conquer the spiritual forces wanting you to remain in bondage. Their goal is for you to quit combat.  To live you must fight!  It is better to live one day as a lion than a thousand as a lamb. These turbulent times dictate that we cannot remain in laziness and bondage if we are to learn our weapons of warfare.  The warrior of God must fight!  Only a man who wakes up knowing this is prepared to face it and can call himself a warrior of God.

Fear of the battle is a good thing, it sharpens our awareness to the enemy’s next attack.  Weakness does not exist anywhere in the definition of a true Warrior of God .  Moments of weakness of course, but not someone whose “essence” is weakness.  We can feel the pain and anguish as we push forward in our pursuit of becoming one of God’s warriors; but, also the satisfaction of growing stronger increases with each victory.  You will be challenged to the death in some battles, but you will gain the respect of a  seasoned Warrior.

Learn the skills that remove the fear and doubt.  Quitting isn’t in the vocabulary of one of God’s warriors.  You create that endurance in your mind, body, and spirit, through the intense and heated study of God’s word, only then can you face the forces of hell that rally you to quit.  PUSH your spirit, your will, and mind through the battle … to go further … to be more focused on inflicting a mortal wound to the enemy you are fighting.  Work harder at becoming that Warrior of God.  In the kingdom of God, it is those that refuse to quit that succeed.  Endure hardships not because you have no other options, but with the focus that  these hardships are what make you one of God’s Seasoned Warrior’s.  It’s the hard times, that one day, will bring you to that place of VICTORY, SUCCESS and COURAGE in your spiritual battle.  EMBRACE them!  Rejoice that they are yours and no one else’s.  These long  hard roads are where the lessons are learned and God’s Warriors are trained.  What would you do if you knew you could not fail?

Shalom, Linda

My Letter

source: microsoftphoto: desktoptowallpaper.com

A letter to my husband:   Hello.   Rich, growing up was not a very enriching experience for me.  I always felt like there was so much inside me, but I believed they were crazy thoughts.  Thoughts like, “why am I the person I am?” and, “what would happen if I were not here on this earth?”  Now, coming to realize that they were normal questions, makes me sad.  Questions I had about sex,  I had no one to talk to about them, so I went to my girlfriends and we made up our own conclusions about it.    I was scared most of the time growing up because I had no answers to any of these questions on life.  I always felt empty inside.  I did not know who I was.  I would dare to say that this is the reason I grew up and lived my life the way I did.  Even when I first married, I did not know why I married Denny.  No one told me how life was going to be nor what was expected of me in my marriage.  I destroyed this marriage for lack of knowledge; due to my interpretation of life   And every relationship thereafter I destroyed.    I continued on with this lifestyle even though I felt so confused.  I presented a pretty picture, but inside I was a mess.  I knew the words to start a relationship, but I did not know that commitment meant being transparent.  I did not know how to do that.  I did not know how to share my life with anyone.  I did not know what a budget was or what one looked like.  I did not know that loving someone meant for better or for worse.      About two years ago, God started a work in me that has blown my mind.  I don’t know why he did . . .  but he did.  I have come to realize that God uses ordinary people for his great work.  I am so overwhelmed when I consider how God uses a woman like me for anything.  But you know, when he chooses someone he invests time and love into them because he is the word love.  He walks in love because he is love.  I know that God brought you into my life for a purpose.  When I told you, when we first met, that God wanted us together little did I realize I was speaking truth.    I could not understand you at first so I reverted to what I knew as truth.  I only knew that when you hurt, you hurt back.  I only knew how to lie, cheat and manipulate.  So I used it in force within our marriage.  But when I did use them, God saw through them and he gave you the insight to see through them too.  I would use this trick, that trick, and the next, but God shot down every one of them.  Finally, I was exhausted and hurting and sensed life crumbling around me faster than I could use my bag of tricks.    There were certain key people in my life during this time, that God brought for his purpose, to begin a change.  Most of them were and are your friends and family.  People who actually challenged me, the got-in-my face kind of challenge.  I saw a reality in them that I could not understand.  I wanted to understand them but because I could not, I tore them down before you.  Because I felt like,  “you hurt me so I will hurt you.”  And, because I didn’t  understand them, they frustrated me with their kind of reality.  And, because of them and the one family member that was a relentless rock of love in my life, who at the time I was not aware of, my sister Dee,  I desired to change.   I told God I would do the journey with him.  Little did I realize that it was going to be an atomic bomb on my life!   This is where life began for Ermelinda Evans.    It was small, tiny steps because I was not sure of letting go of what I knew as my “life” at that time.  But I now see that God was so consistent and persistent in my life.  God’s love is what loved the change into me.  I saw the purpose in my life for the first time.  I understood I was not an accident, but that I was on purpose.  No one can do what I was sent here on this earth to do.  I have a purpose.  I realize that God made me from his flesh and that I am the material of “LOVE.’  The very thing that I ran from all my life is what I need to have lived in front of me to change.  God knew this and when I gave him the “go” he did just that.    This is what I see in you, my Husband.  I see a man who is a “cracked pot” just like me because of the wars we have been through.  But what I see in your cracked pot is Jesus’ light shining through.  I could not see this through anyone else’s cracked pot, it had to be yours.  What I saw and see is your love for me.  Sometimes I see your cracked pot has tears of water running down from inside.  When those tears are flowing, God tells me whether they are mine or not.  He tells me sometimes those tears are between you and him.  Your love, because of Christ, is creating a change in me.  You are just as ordinary as I am but our God is what makes you an ocean of his love for me.  I don’t understand everything that is inside you, but I do believe that God made you that way because our love is a journey.  The best of our journey is yet to come!     You reduce me to ashes when you come back and ask, “what is wrong?”  When I meant to wound you with my self-appointed sword.  Now, I must find a place to be alone as I am weeping.  I cannot ever hurt you anymore.  You see, when I am hurting you, I am hurting God.  God once told me that when you conspire to hurt your husband, make sure to “take a look behind him — because I am standing right there.”  This is a reality because your love is changing me.  I never, never, never thought that God’s kind of love could walk within a man’s love for me.    “How do I handle this kind of Love?”,  I ask God.  He tells me, “just look and see me there.”   So, this is why I am learning to love again.  God is loving me back to life again through his well placed people; who are his love for me in skin.   Your ever-changing wife I pray, Ermelinda