Confronting the Enemy

By Angela S. Kauffman

No one person goes through life without having problems. Even people who say that they have not had difficulties do have problems. They just dont want to admit it. The struggles that some people go through are more difficult than others, tempting them to turn and run in the other direction. But God challenges us to face our fears head-on and depend on him to get us through them. Confronting the Enemy is a book that educates the reader on how to face Satan in the wake of his daily attacks, giving the person the tools with which to fight the enemy and cope with negative experiences in life. It is tough! It takes a mentally and spiritually strong person to survive emotionally in this life and fight everyday battles. But with Gods help, we win!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 24, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512794533

Angela S. Kauffman

Angie Kauffman is an educator who has been teaching for 21 years in to students of all ages. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Early Childhood that she earned from Georgia Southwestern State University. She also possesses a Masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction at Columbus State University and is currently pursuing her doctorate in Curriculum and Leadership there as well. Angie lives the very busy lifestyle of a mother who has two very active daughters. She is very active in her church and helps lead music by singing on the worship team. Due to many difficulties that she has had to undergo in her life, she felt it necessary to share with readers of all ages that they can get through tough ordeals and win, but only with Gods assistance.

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Copyright © 2017 Angela S. Kauffman.

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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-9454-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-9455-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-9453-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017910985

WestBow Press rev. date: 07/13/2017

Dedication

To my God, who has carried me through trials, been my constant companion and who continues to be my guide through this journey of life.

To my family, without whose love and support this work would not have been completed.

To my church family, sharing their experiences and providing wisdom and support through difficult times.

To all of my students who have acted as healing balm through some horrific situations.

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

1     Training for the Battle

2     Spiritual Strongholds

3     God’s Armor

4     God’s Unconditional Love

5     The Master Potter

6     God’s Perception of You

7     I Surrender All

8     The Courage to Persevere

9     The Fear Factor

10   Hope That Healed

11   God’s Sovereignty

12   Counterfeit Christianity

13   From Hero to Zero

14   The Perfect Storm

15   Becoming a Christian

16   Recommitting

17   The Radical Christian

Endnotes

Foreword

B efore turning one page into the chapters of this book, I would like for you to know that everyone has struggled. No one person goes through life without having problems. Even the people who say that they do not have difficulties do have problems. They just do not want to admit it. The struggles that some people undergo are more difficult than others. Honestly, I will admit that turning and running in the opposite direction has been a very strong temptation for me when I have had trials. But, the more I tried to run, the more God would tie my hands and push me to stay in that situation. He made me face my problems because he had things that he wanted me to learn from those experiences. So, I encourage you to plant your feet firmly and depend on his love to get you through the tough times. A good friend once reminded me, When you’ve done everything that you can do in a tough situation, just stand. Sometimes we no longer have the strength to fight, so we just stand and let God fight the rest of the battle fo r us.

The scriptures that are sprinkled throughout the text are meant to do two things. First, they provide healing balm to the soul when trials come. Second, they will give insight as to how to handle your battles. I am asking you to please take the time to read and study the scriptures that are listed so that the Holy Spirit will have the opportunity to speak to you and enlighten you in ways that you may have never viewed these scriptures before. If you are not a Christian or if you are a new Christian, use these scriptures as a springboard for learning new things in Christ.

Spoken firsthand from one who has had to walk through many flames, the scriptures are one of the most powerful weapons in your arsenal. Some trials that you may have may come in the way of circumstances while others may come in the way of heavenly sandpaper. I define heavenly sandpaper as people who choose to do or say hurtful things to another person. Do not feel intimidated by these people. They are simply the gullible vessels with which Satan chooses to do his work or they could be people in the form of a series of tests that God has allowed in an effort to teach new lessons in life. Those that say spiteful things towards you are probably hurting more than you are, so do not be too hard on them. Just respond to them in the way that you know that Jesus would have responded to them. Do not try to take vengeance out on people who do or say hateful things to you. Pray for them, and mean it! If you truly pray for someone earnestly, then the bitterness that you have for him or her in your heart will melt and God will replace it with peace. Have you ever noticed how fighting battles directly after earnest prayer and scripture reading seems to always shut the adversary up so that they become virtually speechless? God has gone before you to fight. Also, knowing the scriptures and being able to use them to fight your battles will empower you. Input equals output. In other words, the more you will allow yourself to read, ingest the scriptures and other spiritual texts and stay close to God in prayer, the more you will find that your conversation reflects those things that you are reading. Being a warrior in God’s strength is more powerful than working in your own strength any day.

Finally, please be honest with yourself when answering the study questions and reflections. Even if you record a false answer, God knows your heart. There is nothing in your life that you can hide from Him. Those who are willing to be honest and transparent are the ones who will reap the most benefits from this book. Ask God to soften your heart and break you in parts of your life that are not pleasing to him. Then and only then can God get in and teach us lifelong lessons and heal our wounds. You see, I think that is how God prepares us to be ministers of his will. My hope is that after you read this book, you will be much more capable of ministering to someone else who is going through similar battles that you went through. And you will be a better warrior in your own life situations because of your willingness to be a vessel that he can shape for His perfect will.

Introduction

I   do not know about you, but it always helps me to put more credence in an author if I can discover some background information about them before reading any of his or her material. My name is Angela S. Kauffman. Most people call me Angie. I have been an educator for nineteen years. I was raised in Americus, Georgia. For those who do not know where that is, it is about fifteen minutes from Plains, Georgia, Jimmy Carter’s home. I have my Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood education, a Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction and am presently trudging up the doctorate hill for Curriculum and Leadership (concentration on curriculum). I am married to a wonderful man and have two daughters; three if you count my dog who thinks that she is person. My daughters are eight and thirteen. I felt led to write this book because I have been though many trials in my lifetime and God has helped me through each and every one of them. To say that I have arrived and have all of the answers is far from the truth. I learn something new every single day. My hope is that you can glean some truths from this book in ways that you have never thought about and that your walk with God will get stronger by using some of the principles written within the text.

Who knows why difficulties come in life? I believe that difficult times can come from two different sources. Without sounding too cliché, I will say that some are circumstance, while others are allowed by God to test our faith. Regardless of where the trials come from, God always wants us to learn something that will help us grow as individuals in our lives. Let’s look at Gideon. The Bible says in Judges 6:1 (NIV) The Israelites again did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. In the course of the Israelites preparing shelters for themselves in the mountains, there was a man named Gideon who God began to raise up as a leader. Only, he was so meek in spirit that he did not think of himself as a leader. God had to send an angel to tell him that he was a mighty warrior. Gideon had the courage to do many mighty things, but only after he allowed the spirit to empower him. You see, Gideon had to get to the point where he could believe that he truly was a warrior, but only with God’s help. Today we need the spirit’s power and the armor of God so that we might stand against Satan’s advances (Hayford, 1995).

Put on the armor of God so that you can take a stand against the devil’s schemes. 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 (Ephesians 6:11-12, NIV).

Sometimes when we are going through struggles, we feel like we are being pounded and fired like a vessel of clay. And even after we go through the kiln (the oven that the vessel is cooked in), we find that we still have cracks. These cracks are holes that only God can fill. I believe that he takes us through this process because he wants to refine us as individuals. He may do this multiple times throughout someone’s life if he chooses. He either does this because he wants to break us of undesirable behaviors or because he knows that we can handle the pressure. He may even be preparing us for more challenging roles in life and needs to toughen us up. Many times we feel that he is asking us to walk through walls of fire because of the courage that he requires of us. But, the courage comes from him. A very smart person once told me that being brave is easy. It is just something that we do when things get hard. Courage is much different. Courage is a character trait that someone exudes when they are brave in the face of fear. There is a huge difference. We have to depend on his eagle’s wings to gently push us forward. We cannot do difficult tasks in life in our own strength and not eventually fall on our faces.

Satan loves to attack people during difficulties and feeds them lies that can seem quite convincing. That is why we call him the enemy. This book gives clear definitions, scriptures, and strongholds that Satan desires to use in order to push our buttons and make our lives more difficult. There are holy weapons of destruction that can be used during these times. In this book, you will also learn about various people who have had to face battles during their lives and how they used God’s weapons to confront the enemy. This book is intended for people of all ages and all walks of life. Some of the ideas in this text may be foreign to some and they may not totally buy in to some of the concepts because of their personal beliefs. However, I encourage you to not to put it down if that happens. There is something in this book that the Holy Spirit wants to communicate to you and I do not want you to miss the message.

CHAPTER ONE

Training for the Battle

How to Prepare for Satan’s Advances

Training for the Battle

T rials come in many forms. We must be prepared for all types of challenges because Satan likes to hit us from all sides. He is very unpredictable. We must take on the mentality of both an athlete and a Bible scholar. There is a direct relationship between strength of the mind and the body. Those athletes who tend to train harder also tend to have a more positive mental outlook about themselves, life, and their circumstances. They are also more alert and cognizant of what is occurring all around them. These are the characteristics that a true warrior for Christ needs to possess. There are two types of training that need to occur before facing the e nemy.

Physical Training

Now, the first thing that you are probably thinking of when you read the words physical training are that you have to practice healthy eating and exercise. That is true, but generally taking care of the body goes under that topic. People also need to monitor what their body does, what goes into it, where it goes and what they allow it to do. In I Corinthians 3:16, NIV, Paul states, Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? Boy, that really makes you think before you watch a rated-R movie, moving to third base with your boyfriend or shove a Snicker down your throat, doesn’t it?

Let’s discuss exercise first. Yes, exercise is important, but apparently everyone’s idea of exercise is different. Some people think that you have train to run a 4-K in six months. I am an avid exerciser and I am not even going there because my knees will not let me! What I am saying is that there has been extensive research that backs up the fact that physical activity is beneficial to the body. The latest U.S. guidelines recommend the equivalent of at least thirty minutes of moderate activity, such as brisk walking, five or more days a week plus thirty minutes of muscle-strengthening activity at least two days a week (Bassuk, Church, & Manson, 2013).

The risk of physical ailments or diseases can be greatly reduced by daily exercise.