Royal Warrior: How to be the Warrior that our Father God created us to be

By Wendi Barczynski

A coworker steals your idea and presents it to your boss as his own and you are furious. Your toddler looks you directly in the eye after you made a request of her and screams "No!" and proceeds to throw herself on the floor kicking and screaming in full tantrum mode. You are feeling so down that you can't seem to function anymore. All these are real problems that we can face daily. Satan likes to insert himself into these types of situations and cause us even more grief. He is declaring war on us because we are followers of Jesus. When situations like this come our way, what do we do? How do we handle these attacks?

If we don't have a battle plan, we are less likely to see victory in our lives. Jesus said that he came so that we can have life abundantly. Do you feel like you are living an abundant life, or are you being weighed down from these daily battles?

This book has been put together to offer easy, practical steps to form your own battle plan. Wendi Barczynski has used what God has taught her while she faced her own set of challenges. Take time to dive into this book to read what God's word says about how to see victory in your life as you face these daily battles. It's time for you to become a royal warrior!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9781639618316

Book preview

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Royal Warrior

How to be the warrior that our Father God created us to be

Wendi Barczynski

ISBN 978-1-63961-830-9 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63961-831-6 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by Wendi Barczynski

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

To my husband, Wayne.

Thank you for believing that I could do this

and for backing me every step of the way.

Thank you for fighting my battles with me.

We make a great team!

I love you!

Introduction

Ever since I was a little child, I felt the spirit of a fighter deep inside me. I used to love wrestling my little brother and pinning him to the floor until he got big enough that I couldn’t win. Then I stopped. As I watched movies where battles took place, my heart would soar when the good guys won, and it would grieve when the bad guys were victorious. As I matured, I was told that fighting wasn’t ladylike. My parents tried to teach me to be a proper woman who knew how to carry myself and what my place was in this world. The spirit of the fighter deep inside me didn’t like being put in its place. As I started to grow in my relationship with the Lord, I thought this passive, ladylike person was the person I was supposed to be. No matter how hard I tried to quell the fighter within, it would not die.

Maybe you too have had your warrior spirit quenched. Have you been told fighting is not nice or Christians should turn the other cheek or the meek will inherit the earth so you assumed that you couldn’t fight? If you have struggled with to fight or not to fight, then this book may be a good use of your time. You need to find what the Word of God says about your warrior heart.

Maybe you have never had that fighting spirit. You have been content to stand back and let others fight. Someone stronger than you. Someone wiser and more seasoned than you. Someone who naturally has that fighter’s spirit in them. Those are the ones who should be at the front line in battle, not you. Well, you, too, can benefit from this book as you read and start to recognize that not all warriors look the same, but as a Christian, you are already emerged in the war so you need to get on board and start fighting. We need all the soldiers we can get in order to win as many skirmishes as possible.

My Warrior Passion Stirred

The Lord of the Rings movies came on the scene in 2001. Because my husband was a huge sci-fi fan, we went to all of them. As I watched these movies, I rejoiced during the battle scenes when the good guys finally won! When Gandalf the White came riding over the mountain as the light of morning spilled onto the battlefield, bringing reinforcements and thus changing the outcome of the battle so the righteous would win, the fighter inside me wanted to stand up in the movie theater and shout "Y

es

!" As the battle between the Ents (giant tree-type beings) and the Orcs (demonic beasts bent on creating a world of evil) ensued, my heart hurt as the gentle giant Ents seemed to be losing their battle due to the fire that the Orcs used to destroy the Ents. The Ents went to work on tearing down a nearby dam. The tide of battle quickly turns as the dam gives way and the river rushes over the burning fires. Good won again!

But my absolute favorite battle is the one that Éowyn, a daughter of the House of Eorl and the goddaughter of King Théoden of Rohan, fought in. She was told she could not fight in the battle because she was a woman (of which I could totally relate!). She doesn’t obey and disguises herself as a regular soldier, concealing her identity with armor, and goes to fight at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. Over and over, she slashes away at the enemies. Over and over she protects her friends and comrades in battle. But then her uncle, Théoden is wounded by the Witch-king of Angmar, Lord of the Nazgûl. As the witch-king goes in for the kill, Éowyn steps between her uncle and the witch-king with her sword drawn. The witch-king boasts that You fool. No man can kill me. This was a reference to the prophecy foretelling that the witch-king would not fall by the hand of man. Éowyn then throws off her helmet and declares, I am no man! She thrusts her sword into the witch-king and destroys him. Oh, how my heart raced! It was because she was a woman that she was able to defeat this hellish beast!

That scene was to be a foundation that would be built on over the next years of my life. It’s funny the things God uses. But it made me question: What if I was made to do battle? What if that spirit-fighter inside of me was put there by my Creator? What if all along, I had been holding back who I was really meant to be? As I poured over God’s Word, I found out that I am meant to do battle. Being a woman (or a Christian) did not disqualify me from entering into the battle against evil in this world. In fact, as a child of God, I am expected to do battle for my Father-King. The following chapters contain pieces of my journey from frail, ladylike, wimpy Christian woman to princess warrior for Christ. The journey started deep in my spirit and had to seep out into every area of my being: my heart, my mind, my thoughts, my responses, and my reactions until it became me. It is a journey that will continue my entire life as I learn more and more about how to be the warrior that I was created to be.

Warfare

When some think of spiritual battle, visions of a priest sprinkling holy water on a demon-possessed child while her head spins around may come to mind. While I do believe in spirits, demon possession, and expelling evil spirits, I don’t think this type of warfare is what most of us will deal with in our lifetime or on a daily basis. There is a time and place for this type of confrontation, and we should never shy away from it if we encounter these types of situations. But the training of that kind is for another book.

The kind of warfare I want to delve into is the day-to-day stuff. The questioning of why difficult things are happening in our lives; the struggle to put down the donut and get on the treadmill; the frustration of asking our spouse for the twentieth time to help us with something; sitting up all night in sheer exhaustion with a crying baby. These are only a minute sampling of situations where spiritual battles take place. It is what we choose to do during these times that will determine if we are successful in the skirmish or if we fall by the sword of our enemy. If we do not have a plan to use during these times, our emotions can take over, and we are just reacting instead of using wise warfare tactics.

As humans, we are created to be emotional creatures. What our enemy likes to do is to convince us that it is okay to let those emotions run us. When emotions run us, those emotions become an authority over us and soon they become our lord instead of Jesus being the Lord of our lives. Just reading some posts on Facebook reminds me of how easily some people let emotions decide the direction of their lives instead of having a well-thought-out plan.

To combat this scenario, I work at having a plan when I am faced with a battle situation. I remember talking to one of my favorite elementary teachers when I was a senior in high school. I was so excited to share with him that I had decided to go to college to become a teacher. He gave me some great advice. He said to always have a plan for the kids or they would have a plan for me. I have kept that sage advice always in the back of my mind. I never did finish my training to be an elementary teacher. God had other plans. But that advice has been used often over the thirty years of children’s ministry that I was active in as well as raising four children of my own. I believe the same advice can be true regarding our daily warfare. If we don’t have a plan, then our emotions can take over, and we will succumb to the plan that our enemy has for us instead of living the life our Lord and Savior intended for us.

Just having a plan isn’t enough, though. We need to be training for battle using this plan. Scripture says that whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much (Luke 16:10a NIV). If we want to fight the big battles, we need to learn how to be victorious in the small battles. These small battles build our spiritual muscles so that when the intense warfare comes our way, we are ready and will be victorious.

Once you choose to be a Christian, you have set yourself up as an opponent to the devil. He is against anything and anyone that aligns themselves with Jesus. So now it’s not a matter of if you will encounter warfare, but rather when you will encounter warfare. I don’t know how your story unfolded. You may be in the thick of battle right now. You may be waiting for your first confrontation with the enemy or you may be a seasoned warrior. Where ever you are in your journey, you still need to be learning about spiritual battle/warfare.

I’ve come out of some battles feeling the joy of victory lifting me up; I’ve come out of some battles knowing that I messed up and failed. I’ve also come out of battles wounded and not sure if I won or lost. But each battle has brought me one step further in my trek.

This message burns deep in my heart. I am tired of seeing my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ fall because they haven’t been prepared to face their real enemy. They don’t know what the Bible says about God, about them, and about their enemy. They don’t know the power that is available to them. They don’t remember what God has done for them and others. They don’t know how to make a stand and refuse to let the enemy have any more ground. It is time for Christians to start seeing victory in their lives.

Throughout the following pages, I am going to share the battle plan that I am learning in scripture. In order to make it easy to remember, I have boiled it down to three points: Know, Trust, and Stand. No matter what size of battle I am facing, I use these three steps to fight the good fight and win! It’s what I have been using for years now when I am faced with a full-on confrontation from the enemy or facing one of those days that I am down and struggling with my faith.

We will take each step and pick it apart so you will know exactly how to format your own battle plan. God’s Word is full of everything that we need to be victorious, and we will use the rest of our lives trying to understand and put it all into practice. In this book, I am sharing my journey in warrior training. Each of you will have your own journey; God will show you the verses from His word to help you be victorious. The know-trust-stand technique can be honed to your situation, your personality, your unique set of circumstances, and the specific place you are in your journey. So what I will share is not the final product for you, but rather a framework for you to build your own warrior techniques on. So let’s get started.

Section 1

Know

1

We Need to Know Who God Is

Who Do We Serve or to Whom Does Our Loyalty Belong?

Whenever we commit to someone or something, we want to be assured that the person or the cause that we are fighting for is reliable, trustworthy, and worth our time and effort. This was one of the first things that I had to work out in my relationship with Jesus. I was drawn in by the fact that He loved me so much that He died for my sins, but that was not enough to keep me faithful to Him. I had to know that He was someone I could trust; Someone that would stand the test of time. All of us need to make this step in our journey: the discovery of who God is. Unfortunately, some give up too easily because they cannot commit to a being who is so difficult to understand.

I am a short lady and have had to use things to stand on to reach objects in my kitchen or off shelves in the pantry or living room. I like to use my strong, sturdy wooden kitchen chairs. I know that they can hold my weight and will not move around as I am standing on them. I have a set of floating shelves in my living room that periodically need to be dusted. Several cobalt blue glass pieces are displayed on those shelves and need to be taken off the shelf in order to do a complete job of clearing the dust off. There are two shelves and while the lower shelf does not cause a problem for me, the upper shelf is unreachable without something for me to stand on. Right under the shelves is my computer desk with a computer chair on rollers. Yes, there have been times that I have stood on this chair to complete the dusting, but when I try to accomplish my task standing on this rolling, swiveling chair, I do not feel safe. As I am pulling down glass objects, the chair is swiveling back and forth. Several times I had to grab the shelf to steady myself.

This is a good analogy of what it can be