Who will fight?

"There's somebody on the other side of slavery, … They're prepared to actually fight you in this."   

- Gary Haugen, Founder and Director of IJM

Fight.  A fight takes a great deal of clarity.  Who is the enemy and what is the goal?  Yes, there are the pimps, the gangs, the traffickers, the abusive family members, the controlling and manipulative wounded people who wound other people.  There are the power plays, the desperation, the money, and the deep-seated corruption.  But if there's one thing Paul wrote that I would write across my forehead, it's that bit he sent to the Ephesian church,

"Our struggle is not against flesh and blood." 

In other words, all of the powerful darkness that we see is only a symptom, the "fallout" if you will, of an age-old battle between our creator God and the spiritual forces who rebelled against him.  Sides have been taken, territory has been won and lost, and we have yet to see the end of it fulfilled. 

But have we forgotten?  Victory has been secured! 

I have been challenged to rejoice in the opposition to what we're doing at the Oasis.  When I hear of our sweet girls facing pressure on all sides to give the enemy a stronghold in their lives, I will fall on my knees and pray with confidence that God hears the cry of his children, I will choose to shout with joy the spiritual battle cry of "Greater is He!" and I will charge boldly into the battle to which I have been called and for which I have prepared. 
When my sweet little sister stares blankly into the darkness of her past or the seeming hopelessness of her future, I will raise walls of prayer around her wounded spirit and a shield of praise in front of my own heart, and I will choose to turn loose the weapon of truth in all its double-edged power against the lies that would relentlessly plague us all if we let them, because I know that when God's people resist the enemy, he flees. 

It is is not for the people of God Almighty to do the retreating. 

Yes, we are weak.  But there is He strong.  May we be terrified to face a single day without the armor that God provides and the security of resting in Him alone.  May we tremble at the thought of one moment of self-dependence, out from under the banner of our God.  But, may God's people never again spend a single day cowering in fear of the evil lurking within themselves or assaulting the world around them!  Evil is present and fiercely active, but may it never be said that God's people allowed their enemy to fight unchallenged.  

Courage!  Confidence!  Joy!  Victory!

Peace.

May the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you. 
2 Thessalonians 3:16