Pastor Darren mentioned a key way of fighting in spiritual warfare is operating in the opposite spirit. Meaning that when you are faced with challenges and opposition in certain areas, empowered by the Holy Spirit you push back by living past the opposition.
This can look like being generous when you are faced with financial hardships, being kind when faced with slander, or living in truth when faced with lies.
This is a practice that followers of Jesus have observed throughout church history. Evagrius Ponticus is a Desert Father from the 4th century partnered with the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures to speak to lies that were deceiving him. He modeled one way we can allow the Scriptures to shape and form us in our everyday ordinary lives.
Here is a short guide on implementing the same strategy.
Take some time to go through this practice on your own, the gather together in groups of 2-3 to share your answers and pray for one another.
1. Divide a sheet of paper into three sections.
2. In the first section, write the question “What’s the thought, feeling, and/or sensation?”
a. “Write out an obsessive thought that keeps coming to mind, a lie that you just can’t shake, a toxic feeling (like shame or worry), or a sensation in your body (like tightness of chest, shallow breathing, or a sense of dread). Thoughts emotions, and sensations are separate only when they are written about as different chapters in a book. In your body, they overlap, collide, and mix together like a chemical reaction”
b. Example: I’m worried about losing my job and not being able to make my car payment.
3. In the second section, write the question “What’s the lie beneath the thought, feeling, and/or sensation that reveals your attachment?”
a. “See if you can articulate the lie behind the thought, feeling, or sensation. If you’re feeling scared and if your chest is tight, it could be like I’m not safe if people criticize me. If so, what’s the attachment under the anxiety? Could it be an attachment to living a suffering-free life where all people speak well of you? Safety isn’t bad, but the need to be constantly safe can become a prison that holds us in fear and out of love.”
b. Example: My safety and security are in my job, and owning newer nicer things will make me happy.
4. In the third section, write the question “What’s the truth?”
a. Sit in silence, meditate, pray, ask, “What does Jesus say about this?”, listen. You might receive a picture, phrase, or a scripture. “Write out a scripture or word from the Spirit that counters the lie. Then turn your mind to this truth whenever the lie reappears in your mind stream. It will, many times. Don’t be discouraged. It happens to all of us, constantly. Resist.”
b. Example: “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you (Hebrews 13:5)
