Battle of Spiritual Realm

There are few things harder in the Christian life than discerning God’s will amidst a tough decision. We feel doubtful and fearful, or we might feel the pull toward making a decision solely on what feels best for ourselves, without considering others. Without a doubt, we can struggle to make “good” decisions if we’re just depending on ourselves for wisdom. So how can we feel more confident in the daily decisions we are making? How can we be sure what God’s will is for us? Thankfully, we have tools at hand to help us: prayer, meditation and the Word of God. If we can create habits of discipline that help us stay in tune to God’s will for us, then when tough decisions come, we can feel prepared to make a choice that we know honors God. The following tools are a few of many we can use to discern God’s will when we’re making a tough decision. 1. Make a Regular Habit of Prayer “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding faul...

As Christians, we wish that once we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, everything would immediately go well in our lives. However, if you’ve walked with Christ for more than 24 hours, you probably already know that is simply not the case. We can experience true peace, joy, and hope with Christ; however, living on this side of eternity doesn’t necessarily become easier. In fact, there is one thing that may intensify when we choose to follow Christ, and that’s spiritual attack. Spiritual attack is opposition from the enemy in your life to prevent you from living out your faith in Christ. Once you are saved the enemy can’t separate you from God but he’ll do his very best to discourage you from living out the abundant life Christ promises to believers ( John 10:10 ) and being a witness to the goodness of Christ to others.  We know this to be true because we see spiritual attack throughout the  Bible .  Examples of Spiritual Attack in the Bible In t...

On Tuesday, lawmakers in California listened to arguments on a proposed resolution that some California Christians believe would infringe on their religious liberties,  according to CBN News . The resolution, titled  Assembly Concurrent Resolution 99  (ACR99) and authored by Evan Low (D-San Jose), “calls upon all Californians to embrace the individual and social benefits of family and community acceptance [of LGBTQ matters]…” and to “counsel on LGBTQ matters from a place of love, compassion, and knowledge of the psychological and other harms of conversion therapy.” But many religious leaders believe the language in the resolution may condemn those with an opposing view. “ACR discriminates against perfectly rational adults who seek an alternate viewpoint to the gay-affirming counseling many of them have already tried and found wanting,” Russell Willingham, executive director of New Creation Ministries said. “I believe ACR99 sets the stage for future laws that wi...

Watch this video. God's Loves you.

John Cooper, lead singer for the rock band Skillet, responded to the litany of recent apostasies among young Christian leaders. In a  Facebook post  titled ‘What in God’s Name is Happening in Christianity?’ put up on Tuesday, August 13, Cooper directly addressed the reasons given by Hillsong songwriter Marty Sampson for renouncing his Christian faith, before highlighting the need for Christians to stay grounded in a truth-driven faith over an emotion-driven one. Here is the text of the post in its entirety (not corrected for spelling or punctuation): “Ok I’m saying it. Because it’s too important not to. What is happening in Christianity? More and more of our outspoken leaders or influencers who were once “faces” of the faith are falling away. And at the same time they are being very vocal and bold about it. Shockingly they still want to influence others (for what purpose?)as they announce that they are leaving the faith. I’ll state my conclusion, then I’ll state some rebu...

Alicia Purdy   Crosswalk.com Contributing Writer In case you haven’t already noticed or experienced it for yourself, here's a bit of wisdom I’ve gathered along my journey of faith in the Lord: The life of a Christian is not an easy one!   It’s not like we weren’t warned, however. Jesus said in John 15:18-19 “But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, the world therefore hates you.  He also said in John 16:33 , “…in this world you will have tribulation.” Jesus knew trouble would be part of the Christian experience from beginning to end. And how much more true on some days than others!   Compound human troubles with those created from the spiritual turmoil in darkness trying to influence, manipulate, convince, prompt, and lie to all of humanity and, well, time for an altar call! Jesus, anyone?   The spiritual powers at work are directly tied to the sin and darkness of humanity, so while it’s easy to loo...