Has God put a new vision on your heart that is HUGE?  Are you excited and terrified at the same time?  Do you feel like your passion for Him is so on fire you will burn up if you don’t share about Jesus with others?  Have you survived a period of brokenness and come out on top?  Do you wake up excited about co-laboring with Christ in ministry to the world?  Do you feel like He is enlarging your territory?  Do you have a burden to reach the lost?  Have you recently re-surrendered your life to God and said “I’m yours Lord, where ever you lead me I will go.”  If you answered yes to any of these questions, this post is especially for you.  Please sit down, grab a cup of coffee and read on.

Satan is ticked off!  At you.  He hates you. He is scared of the vision God has given you.  He is scared of your faith, passion and willingness to be used by God.  He is scared of your surrender, your brokkeness and especially your burden to reach the lost.  You are going after people that are currently his.  The enemy is scared of any Christian leader that will co-labor with the King of Kings.  Don’t think for a minute that he will go down without a fight. Remember Scripture teaches he is going down. Because Greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world.  But the fact remains if you answered yes to any of the questions above and you are a pastor or missionary you will experience spiritual warfare on a magnitude that most people cannot identify with.  

Satan concentrates on pastors, missionaries and other Christian leaders because he knows if he can get them he may also influence thousands of others by his diabolical plan.  The Word teaches he will attempt to keep people from trusting Christ in the first place. But if they do embrace Jesus, he makes every attempt to keep them from growing and developing.  If he is not successful at that, he will spend years in an effort to cause the Christian to fall. 

Sometimes one of the most weakest areas for a Christian leader is to continually yield hour by hour to God’s Holy Spirit.  We get busy “serving the Lord” and doing so many things that we can began to cheat our personal communion time with Him.  We are not keeping the communication lines open with God as Scripture commands us.  When we do this we are no longer plugged into the power. Ministry will cease to be an overflow of our walk with the Lord.  Instead it becomes a task that we do in the flesh.  We depend on gifting and experience vs. the power of the Holy Spirit.  Sometimes ministry can come between you and God. Please don’t allow this.  When that happens you are wide open for the enemy to attack head on.  You are no match for that battle.  But Jesus in you is.  We must rely on Christ vs. ourselves  for the battle to be won.

I believe Satan often temps us in an area where we seem most vulnerable.  This can be different with each person.  If you have issues with pride, jealously, insecurity, anger, fear or other undesirable traits, he may zero in on those weak areas.  If he can’t get you then he will go after those closest to you.  He will go after your spouse or children. He may go after your inner circle or your team. 

Although we are assured of victory, we must engage in the struggle until Christ comes, because Satan is going to battle against all who are on the Lord’s side.  We need supernatural power to defeat Satan and God has provided that in His Holy Spirit within us and His armor.  (Ephesians 6:10-20)  When (not if) you become discouraged in the battle, remember Jesus words to Peter:  Upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell shall not preail against it.  Matthew 16:18

Are you putting your armor on every day?