Spiritual Warfare

Spiritual Warfare 10/10/2023

While most of us here in the United States enjoyed a good night's sleep...many in this world were not as fortunate.  As you slept in your bed, I was awake with my dreams.  Dreams that have inspired, driven, tormented & consoled me my whole life.  And now, I see these dreams happening before my eyes.

It is October 10th, 2023, evil has been on full display for quite some time and now it has emboldened itself to attack what it hates most.  In this country we are mostly isolated from true evil.  Many do not know the horrors of war and very few know the true face of evil.  It is now on display in a hate filled manifestation by radical terrorists in Israel since this past Saturday.  A nightmare shattering dreams.

I will not rehash what you can see on the news & other media sources.  Rather I will share with you what my Faith has consoled & revealed to me, while most of the country was sleeping.

As our countries leaders have tried for years to convince us that global warming & climate change was the biggest threat to humankind...the real threat grew and infiltrated the minds of the innocent.  There is proof of this throughout our recent history and since I have done since a teenager, I make the effort to understand what is happening around me & yesterday was no different.  I prayed and asked God for guidance.  I prayed for this world, for those affected by this madness, but I also said prayers I rarely say & hold in reserve for when evil raises its ugly heads to disrupt God's Creation.

That by the way is what evil hates the most.  God's Creation because their agenda is an accumulation of hate whereas God's Creation is the totality of Love.  Religious & territorial disputes are what we see on the surface in this emotional & physical world we live in.  But there is much more at stake & in battle, than what we see in this physical world & in the emotions we live & dream with.  

So, I ask God, what can I do from here, a half a world away?  The answer is simple...it's in the previous paragraphs.  My best weapon, and yours, is prayer...and believe what you want, prayers have, are and will continue to be answered.  After all, this is Spiritual warfare & we all know who has the real power in this battle.  Here is a quick recap of how prayer works & just one snapshot of history.    

As I have said before and continue to do, often after I say a prayer for understanding I open my Bible or one of my reference books and see what it says.  Answers don't jump off the page, but I read and then think about what I was directed to.  Yesterday as I tried to wrap my head around what I was seeing on Fox & CNN, I opened my Holman's Bible Dictionary to page 1124...Milcom was the word I was focused on.  I had never heard this word, which is the title of a false god, translation being "king."  (Holman's Bible dictionary (c) 2003 Nashville, Tenn. pg. 1124.) This Milcom character/title was the national god of the territory of Ammon around 1000 B.C. until King David defeated the king of Ammon & took his crown (2nd Samuel 12:30).  This cult was revived to a degree in Jerusalem during the reign of King Solomon.  This was the result of his marriage to several foreign wives who worshipped this pagan god.  He even had sanctuaries dedicated to Milcom erected on the Mt. of Olives at his wives' request.  In 621 B.C. Josiah destroyed these sanctuaries (2nd Kings 23:13).  The prophet Zephaniah, around 640 B.C., declared worshipping Milcom was turning your back to God (Zephaniah 1:5-6).  For context Ammon territory bordered Israel to the east in these times and all thru the Old Testament, our ancient history, there have been conflicts between the Ammonites & Israelis.

All these conflicts have something in common.  It is the result of a clash between good & evil, between God loving & pagan idol worship.  What is common...is Spiritual warfare.  Why do I say this?  Because even the pagans pray to their idol gods.  So, there we have it, whose prayers will be answered?  Just look thru history, there's 1000's of examples of good triumphing over evil.  Where the forces of a loving but vengeful God, squashed the forces of hate & idolatry.  History repeats, tomorrow is no different.

So, you see there have been conflicts in this area of the world for not two or three generations, but 100's of generations and many are prophesized, realized & documented with archeological proof.  

This is spiritual warfare, and you can be a warrior on whichever side you choose.  I can tell you the god these terrorists serve is not anywhere near the God I worship & pray to.  Killing innocent babies in the name of any god is unacceptable, & to use God's name in doing so is a deadly spiritual sin that there is no forgiveness for.  This is what is meant spiritually to use God's name in vain.  

In closing I will say this.  The world witnessed true hate & evil the past few days.  Petty concerns over gender identity, sexual preferences, diversity, climate change, race & partisan politics have nothing, nothing compared to the horrors of war.  And this is beyond just physical & emotional war, it is a Spiritual war and I have Faith that you will do your small but significant part in praying for a quick resolution to hostilities.  

Hostilities that could leave our world in ash and a metallic mist, but that's not how the story ends...is it. 

Have a safe rest of the week...enjoy your freedoms, just don't forget how fragile they are.  🙏🇮🇱✝️🇺🇸🙏

Bryan A. Stross    @ 7:48 PM EST 

Book of Daniel Chapter 8:25 AMEN