Satan’s good. Real good. He gets ya where it hurts. But he will not win. He is a liar. He is a cheat. And he is DEFEATED. Still, he is the prince of this world, and (for lack of a non-cliche “Christian-ese” phrase, he’s lost the war, so he wants to win as many battles and take down as many people in the meantime as he can. He’s a jerk.
Things here in Albania aren’t getting easier (YET), they’re getting harder. More of us aren’t sleeping. In our room of 7 girls, there are nightmares every single night. For some reason, at least one of us always wakes with a start at 3:30am (9:30pm your time.) We are sick. We are in physical pain. We are tempted with things we are not normally tempted with. We are on edge. Some of the other girls are overwhelmed by fear. Girls want to give up. We begin to believe lies about ourselves, about our pasts, and about who we are. We hear things in our hearts like “you’re not good enough. you should be silenced. God is mad at you. you may be redeemed, but you disappoint God.” We speak those things outloud, and our teammates rebuke them and speak truth to us. We don’t sleep, so we feel almost too tired for ministry.
BUT SATAN WILL NOT WIN.
Personally? I think we threaten him. He’s scared because he knows that we have the power of the living God inside of us. We are His daughters. We have authority. And we will not stop fighting. We will not relent. Period.
In our team’s manifesto, we stated the following:
We REFUSE to let Satan blow out this flame. Any attempt by him to do so will only provide the wind to fan our flame into a more passionate flame, shining the light of the Lord to the nations.
He hates that. He hates us.
Because of this, we need your FERVENT PRAYER. Especially at 9:30pm (3:30am our time.)
I am going to DECLARE TRUTH on here. On the internet. For you all to see.
SATAN HAS NO PLACE HERE. I
HAVE AUTHORITY THROUGH THE
BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST AND
HE IS TO BE GONE IN THE
NAME OF JESUS CHRIST. WE
REFUSE TO PLAY HIS GAME
. WE REFUSE TO FALL PREY TO
HIS SCHEMES. WE ARE FED
UP. WE DECLARE PEACE AND
REST OVER THIS PLACE. GOD
IS AT WORK. HE WILL ALWAYS
BE AT WORK. AND HE WILL
WIN. HE HAS WON. AND HIS
VICTORY WILL BE REALIZED
AS HIS PEOPLE LIVE OUT
TRUTH AND LIGHT IN THIS
DARK PLACE.WE WILL NOT
RELENT. WE WILL NOT GIVE
UP. WE WILL FIGHT.
And you wanna know what? God IS at work. He IS winning the battle here in Albania. We have countless coffee dates with the girls and guys here each day and week. The gospel has been presented more times than we can count. Truth has been spoken into so many lives. The CRU meetings have been filled to capacity. Jesus is being lived out each and every day. Countless Bibles have been passed out. The students here have received hope! The GOSPEL! The light is being brought to dark places. The lies are being spoken against and brought to truth. The students here think that education, jobs, and looking nice are all there is to life. We come here having given up all that (and this will sound silly, but wearing sweatpants shocks them, and they are slowly seeing what true beauty is.) God is transforming this place. Bringing hope to the Christians that live here. Satan is SCARED. He thought he ruled Albania. But he doesnt.
OUR GOD REIGNS.
Stephanie,
We will be praying for your team tonight.
Stephanie, dearest daughter of the Lord Most High,
You and all your team mates are targets because he of the cloven hoof knows Who is your Daddy!!! Never let him forget! Keep using the powerful Name of Jesus in all things, in all places, at all times, with all peoples.
Jesus is Lord Almighty, Creator of the universe and all that is in it, including the angels. Oh my, angels were created, weren’t they? lucifer (angel of light) knows that, that he’s only a created being who truly has no power so instead uses horror and terror to capture individuals to keep them from the TRUE LIGHT, the Light of the World. WHO? JESUS!!!!
May His Name be praised!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ…” 2 Cor 10:3-5
USA, 9:30 PM Power Zone!!!! Rest ASSURED!
Praying for your team. Praying for the squad. Praise Jesus you are where you are, shining light into a place so in need of our God. God is with you. The battle is His to win through you.
June
Most of all NO FEAR….not even an inkling of it. “For He has not given us a spitit of FEAR, but of LOVE, POWER and a SOUND MIND”. We know that Satan has lost the WAR, don’t let him win little battles or they become BIG ones. Let us coach you from the sidelines, as they do in war when they radio the troops with reports of enemy movement. Y’all need to have ‘shoutin’ prayer meetings before bed, binding fear, sickness, tiredness, dreams…everything. When you awaken in the night PRAY!!!!!!!!!!! REMEMBER ALWAYS: Put on the Armor of GOD everyday AND every night. Say those verses out loud as you ‘put them on’, AND stand FIRM: the Belt of Truth..to hold you up, the Breastplate of Righteousness, to protect your heart, Your feet shod with the readiness of the Gospel, Take up the Shield of Faith, to extinguish those firey darts that you are feeling now, the Helmet of Salvation, which protects your MIND (our enemy can have a heyday there!), AND the Sword of Truth…which is the WORD, Jesus the Word becoming flesh, the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIGHT. The LIGHT, the LIGHT!!! Darkness cannot prevail against the LIGHT! We are with you on this one Steph! Remember in this day, our shoes of the Gospel are not sandals anymore, they are BIG ‘ol combat boots always ready to kick the enemy in the butt!
Love, Susan
Hi Stephanie,
I’m in Lydia Hart’s squad for the WR, launching in January. She posted your blog in our squad group and I wanted to let you know that I will be fervently praying for you and your sisters in Christ tonight (3:30am your time). You will be covered in peace and I pray the Lord gives you all rest. You’re bringing light, and I want you to be encouraged that as a soldier in Christ, you are POWERFUL.
Declare truth.
Proclaim the gospel.
Speak victoriously.
Continue fearlessly.
Love in Christ,
Helena
This makes me SO pumped!! I will be praying for you girls each night!
love you.
You are wearing the armor of God. In His Spirit you will resist the fiery darts of the evil one and hold out the Word of Truth to those our Father has prepared in advance for you to meet. Our Mighty God has already won the victory, don’t give the evil one another thought.
I’ll pray Steph.
Stephanie,
Thank you for your transparancy in sharing what is truly going on in Albania. I’m so sad that you all have to engage in this type of battle, but know that the Lord has each and every one of you where He planned you to be. He knew what you were going to be facing and dealing with. You all are equipped to fight and win this battle in the name of Jesus! Be sure that you’re always clothed in the armor of the Lord…and KNOW who you are in Christ!
I will be praying for you and your team (as I have been), especially at 9:30pm.
Be blessed…as you have been blessing me!
Lisa