Have you ever had a moment where your mind is bombarded with thoughts…maybe even feelings…that are so strong it’s hard to not believe them or define yourself by them?
Usually, those are lies that the enemy wants us to believe are our own thoughts, when in reality they are external whispers being delivered to us by the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10). This last season has been the Holy Spirit teaching me how to not engage these thoughts, how to take them captive and how to stand in my true identity as a child of God who knows and lives out of what GOD says about me.
The enemy is on the prowl right now, desperately trying to get Christians to believe untruths about themselves. I use the word desperate, because that’s exactly what he is! The devil is desperate because he knows that his time is coming to an end, and the people of Jesus have victory over him. Sadly, one of the things he uses most to keep us in bondage to lies is our very own salvation, because so many Christians have no idea just HOW MUCH Jesus has done for them, above and beyond just forgiveness and entry into Heaven. When you don’t know what you have, you won’t use it.
What if every Christian was fully aware of exactly what Jesus did for them, and thus who we are in Him? I long to see Christians in my generation in history truly grasp the substance of their salvation. I long for us to learn to use the Heavenly weapons of warfare to overcome the devil’s lies. Revelation 12:11 says that “they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony.” We have a better understanding these days about the blood, but what about the word of our TESTIMONY of what Jesus fully did for us? If we only knew and believed, I know the lies would no longer have any power.
The Lord showed me a silly picture for my friend once, which I would love to share with you because I feel it is actually a tool to help people learn to fight the lying thoughts and feelings with their Spiritual weapons instead of worldly philosophies.
I looked over at my friend one day, and I immediately saw everything in the natural turn into a cartoon. I’m a prophetic seer, so I wasn’t surprised by this manifestation, although I had never seen the world through cartoon eyes before! When I looked over at him, I saw that he had the full armor of God on his body (Ephesians 6), and he was swinging that sword of the Spirit like he was ready to cut off the head of a giant. I saw that there was a sneaky demon coming toward him, and as he was going after it with his sword, he did not see that there was another, larger demonic force approaching his head, unnoticed, from above. What I saw next was both hilarious as well as profound: As soon as my friend had killed the demon in front of him with his sword, he quickly turned to the sneaky demon above him and he headbutted the demon with his helmet of salvation! The demon was headbutted a few times before it was defeated, but when it disappeared, I knew that it was indeed gone. Soon the cartoon encounter ended, and Ben was hugely encouraged by what I saw!
Perhaps, like me, you have always been told that the helmet of salvation is actually a defensive weapon used to cover the mind, or used to protect the mind or thoughts of the believer. I’m not disagreeing with this teaching, but I would also like to propose that when the enemy begins to throw lying thoughts at us as believers, we have every right to take that helmet and begin to use it as an offensive weapon!
As it is the helmet of SALVATION, once we know the true substance of our salvation and the fact that we are truly free indeed (John 8:36 – “Whom the Son sets free is free indeed”), we can fight off the enemy by using what we know about our salvation to not just protect our thoughts, but to conquer every lie that the accuser tries to throw at us. I believe that working with the sword, the shield, and all the bits of the armor, we can stand even more victorious when we know what that helmet of salvation actually means to us.
It sounds a bit ridiculous, but I feel that we need to get really good at using that helmet of salvation to not just protect our mind, but to headbutt the devil out of our lives! The only true power he has is what we give him when we partner with his lies. I challenge you this week to ask the Lord to remind you about your true testimony, and what Jesus did for you and how Jesus transformed you – and then headbutt that old liar back to hell where he belongs!
— Mandy Woodhouse
