Wednesday, April 6, 2011

You Gotta Fight Back!

Last Thursday, Andy hosted a "Church Planter Think Tank", which was in essence a one day conference to share some of his lessons learned/best practices with other church planters and leaders. When he first came up with this idea, he set a goal of having 50 people attend. I thought it was a rather ambitious goal, not because I didn't think the content would be golden, I just didn't know where the people would come from. As the day approached, more and more people kept registering and we ended up with over 120 church leaders! It was an amazing day and the content was so rich and helpful.



Leading up to this day, I feel like our family was under some spiritual attack. It didn't surprise me because it seems like every time there is a "Big Day", Satan likes to go to work on our family or our staff's families. Why would he just passively sit by as we seek to train and equip 120 leaders committed to advancing the Kingdom?

So, last week we got to enjoy not one, but two trips to Urgent Care. In my four and a half years of parenting, I have never had to make a trip to Urgent Care or the ER. On Tuesday, Caedmon busted his forehead on the handle bars of a scooter. Wednesday, we made another trip because Caedmon busted his chin on the bathroom counter. The forehead did not require stitches. The chin did. Same doctor both visits.

Caedmon also had a round of diarrhea, a slight fever, and the initial stages of a cold which sent his asthma back into motion. So it was back on Albuterol and steroids of him. (Not the Barry Bonds kind!)

Then, on Thursday morning as I was trying to get everyone out the door for the Think Tank, Sammy busted his lip while pushing around a little dump truck in our house. I heard screaming and saw blood and my first thought was, "Seriously? I cannot go back to Urgent Care for the third day in a row! DSS will meet me there!" But, alas, it was just a small cut. Whew!

I checked the mirror one last time before heading out for the Think Tank and said, "What is that on my neck?" Oh, it's my child's blood. Nice.

I grabbed my tea in my travel mug and got the kiddos strapped in their carseats. As we were pulling out of the garage I heard a loud thud and realized that I had left my tea on top of the van. Mug shattered.

I totally understand if you think all those things happen to be coincidences. I realize that all moms go through that from time to time. But, if you are a pastor's wife, I know you are nodding your head in agreement that it was part of a spiritual attack. The precise timing of it was too impeccable.

Andy told me when I got home from Urgent Care on Wednesday night with Caedmon that he had just spent 45 minutes on his face praying. He wanted Satan to know that if he was going to throw sucker punches at our family, we were going to fight back!

South Bay Church continues to have record breaking attendance. Last Sunday we had 628 people with four people indicating a first time commitment to follow Christ. Our church has baptized 16 people in the past few weeks. God is moving in the Bay Area and Satan does not like it.

I tell you all of this because Easter is coming up. We can expect there to be some spiritual attacks over the next few weeks. Sicknesses. Accidents. Conflicts. They can come in any form. But if you are living your life on mission for the King, and especially if you are in leadership in the church, then you need to get your dukes up! Get ready for the fight and be prepared to fight back.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against 
the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this 
dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly 
realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God.
Ephesians 6:12-13

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On 
the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 
2 Corinthians 10:4

1 comment:

Heather and Adam said...

I think that you are totally right. God is moving in this area. He is doing some amazing things. These are attacks, and the rest of the world sees things like this as attacks. Here in the bay area especially we often have other excuses. We are in the midst of making some really BIG decisions in our life right now. I am sure that this scares the evil one. On a night that we were planning on really discussing some things as a couple, we instead (randomly) spent the evening in the ER with a daughter who got pnuemonia. This along with other things.... I am sure he is attacking us right now.