Now, I don’t want anyone to think I am saying that you will never receive a word of rebuke or correction from the Lord. I have personally received such words, and I have been His instrument to deliver such words (mercifully, not very often.) However, if a rebuke is from the Lord YOU WILL KNOW! Even if you don’t want to hear it, something in your spirit will tell you, “this is true!” It will be totally consistent with both God’s Word and His character. I’ve just put a post about some ways to test prophetic words at my Rev. Lynn’s Blog: http://www.revlynnsblog.com/christian-life/2010/06/01/testing-prophecy/ so I won’t repeat that here – just follow the link to check it out.

What I want to address in this post is how to protect yourself when you receive words that purport to come from God, but are really an attack of the enemy.

We are all familiar, at least to some degree, with the armor of God listed in Ephesians 6. (If you are not sure what it’s all about, sign up for my free e-course.) When this recent attack happened, the Holy Spirit took me back to school and gave me a lesson in how to apply the armor very specifically in this situation. I hope that I can share that insight here in a way that will help you if you find yourself in a similar situation.

The first part of the armor is the Belt of Truth. In the case of the prophecy that was made against us, some accusations were made about me personally that were simply not true (one of the reasons that I knew this was not from God, because He is a God of truth and knows my heart.) If you are given a false prophecy, it may contain untrue accusations like this. On the other hand, it may contain untrue flattery – building you up by crediting you for things you know you haven’t done. So the first thing you need is to be absolutely honest with yourself. What is the truth about the things that have been spoken? Take hold of that truth and wrap it tightly around yourself. Remember, man may only see the externals, but God knows what is really going on in your heart. Every time the devil tries to attack you with these falsehoods, simply tell him and yourself – aloud if necessary – “That’s not true!”

Next is the breastplate of righteousness. The devil will try to break down your righteousness by causing anger, bitterness or resentment toward the person who brought the word. Be sure to keep your heart pure by relying on the Holy Spirit. Make sure your responses are gracious, be sure to pray blessing on the person, and be quick to cut off any thoughts of revenge or retribution.

The word you have received will be designed to bring confusion, turmoil and hurt. Be sure that your feet are shod with the Gospel of peace: that is, walk in the peace that is yours as a blood-bought child of the living God. Take hold of Romans 8:28, that God works all things together for good to those who love Him, and allow the peace of that knowledge to saturate your soul.

Take up the shield of faith, remembering that faith is not mere intellectual assent, but a relationship of total trust in God. Your faith should never be in what He does, but in Who He is. Trust absolutely that, because of Who He is, He will complete that which He has begun in your life, and nothing – including the word you have received – will prevent Him from doing so.

The helmet of salvation is given to protect your head. Remember, the key component of salvation is GRACE. The word you have received will quite possibly have a strong element of judgment, even to the extent of condemnation. The Word of God tells us that mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2:13), and grace is greater than mercy. (Mercy is “not receiving the penalty we deserve”, grace is “receiving the blessings we do not deserve.”) The Word also tells us that “there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) God may correct or discipline us, but He does not bring judgment or condemnation against His redeemed people. Remind yourself that you stand by grace. If there is an area where you genuinely need to repent, do so – and know that once you have sincerely repented, you are forgiven! Don’t let the devil, or the person who gave the prophecy, tell you otherwise.

Take up the Sword of Faith, the Word of God. A good Scripture to use against this kind of attack is Isaiah 54:17 – “No weapon that is formed against you will prosper, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.” Remember also that the “Word of God” does not just refer to Scripture, but to the true prophetic words that you may have received. If you have had true prophecies that relate to the word being brought against you, bring them out and begin to declare them over the situation.

Receiving a false prophecy can be a very shaking experience, particularly if it comes through someone you know, respect and trust. But by making sure the Armor is properly in place, you can withstand the attack and come through victorious.

This blog is © copyright Lynn Fowler.

There is one God, and one mediator between God and people, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5)in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9)and Whom God the Father has exalted to the highest place, giving Him the Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

Every time the devil can persuade us to think that sin in any of its multitude of forms is ok; every time he can nudge us to live out of our negative emotions rather than standing in Christ’s power; every time he can divert us to focus on the problems in our lives rather than on the Lord, he has won a small victory.

Much of the time, we don’t even think of these things as warfare. We see the source as being within ourselves – we are just down, or stressed, or overwhelmed – and therefore we don’t put up a fight. That, of course, is exactly what the devil wants.

Even when we do recognise the warfare element, the question arises, how do we fight against something that seems to come from within us? Is it just a matter of discipline: grab ourselves very firmly by the bootstraps and pull ourselves up? Should we start on a prolonged course of counselling to find the root causes of our problems and deal with them? Perhaps we should start on the “antidepressant merry-go-round.”

Self-discipline, counselling and medication all have their place, but they are not enough to bring us through a spiritual attack in victory. We need to fight spiritual battles with spiritual weapons: and one of the greatest of those weapons is the Word of God.

The problem, of course, is that those times when we are tempted, down, or overwhelmed are not the best times to try to start using the Word of God. If it is not our normal habit to turn to the Word, we will probably not even think of turning to it in the difficult times. Even if we do think to open our Bibles, if we are not familiar with the Word we will not know where to go in the Word for what we need. It’s a very simple equation: you can’t take out what you haven’t put in.

David wrote, “I have hidden Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” (Ps 119:11) When He was preparing them for His death, Jesus told His disciples, “The Holy Spirit … will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.” (Jn 14:26) Whilst the Holy Spirit is perfectly capable of moving sovereignly to give someone a revelation of things he had never known before, most of the time He chooses to give revelation through the Word that we already have in us. No Word means no revelation, and no revelation means no power.

It is not enough to turn to the Word in times of crisis. We need to be storing it up, hiding it in our hearts as David did. That comes from regular times of reading and meditation, not just on our favourite “blessing” verses, but through the whole of the Word. Over the years I have tried many Bible reading plans, but I always come back to the simplest plan of all: start at the beginning, read to the end, then start at the beginning again. (Actually, I now do a slight variation on this simple plan: I begin simultaneously on the Old and New Testaments, and read twice as much of the Old as of the New. It’s a good way to balance Law and Grace.) It’s important, too, that we don’t just read the word, but spend time thinking about it, chewing it over, finding its relevance for our own lives and situations. That’s what the Bible calls meditation.

As we regularly take the Word into our hearts and minds, it begins to become part of us, and once it is part of us we can count on it being there when we need it. When sin starts to look attractive, the Word will pop up and remind us of God’s opinion about the things we are considering. When we are down or overwhelmed, the Word will be there to remind us that, even if we don’t feel it, we are on the victory side in Christ.

This blog is © copyright Lynn Fowler.

There is one God, and one mediator between God and people, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5)in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9)and Whom God the Father has exalted to the highest place, giving Him the Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

At the end of the day he gave handouts with pages of written prayers that people were supposed to use when they were involved in spiritual warfare. Now there was nothing scripturally wrong with what was written in these prayers, but I am absolutely convinced that for most people they would be totally ineffective for spiritual warfare.

I also understand that for many, they would have been exactly what they wanted – a “how-to” manual, cut-and-dried, just add your voice and no thought required. I understand that, because it’s what so many people ask for – “spiritual warfare prayers” that they can simply repeat and have the problem go away. What they want, basically, is a verbal “magic wand” … and that is precisely one of the reasons why it won’t work!

God does not work through “magic wands”. Ritual and legalism serve only to keep us distant from His power, not to release that power through us.

Our victory in spiritual warfare is based on three things: firstly, the finished work of Christ at Calvary, by which He once and for ever defeated satan; secondly, our personal relationship with Him and the authority He has given us; and thirdly, our understanding of those truths. Without those three things, we are at the mercy of the devil. It doesn’t matter how much Scripture we quote, or how many cookie-cutter prayers we read, if we don’t have that personal relationship and are not absolutely sure of Christ’s victory and our authority in Him, then we will be no better off than the sons of Sceva who tried to cast out demons “in the Name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches.”

Now just in case someone thinks I’m saying that we shouldn’t pray as part of spiritual warfare, let me clarify that I am talking here about set prayers that someone else has written and we just parrot off. True prayer – prayer in which we actually express our heart and connect with God – is very much part of spiritual warfare. However, we also need to understand that, as well as prayer, we need proclamation – directly addressing the forces that come against us and declaring Christ’s victory and God’s will in the situation.

“Spiritual warfare prayers” might serve a purpose in giving you some understanding of how to pray, but they will never replace the expression of your own heart and mind.

Called to Battle Spiritual Warfare Seminar
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This blog is © copyright Lynn Fowler.

There is one God, and one mediator between God and people, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5)in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9)and Whom God the Father has exalted to the highest place, giving Him the Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)