Not Flesh and Blood

A couple of weeks ago, I was reading in my Bible the passage where Paul tells the Ephesians to put on the whole armor of God. I  liked the way my New English Bible says it and I read it several times. “Our fight is not against human foes…but against….the superhuman forces of evil in the heavens. Therefore, take up God’s armour: then you will be able to stand your ground when things are at their worst….. Give yourselves wholly to prayer, and entreaty: pray on every occasion in the power of the Spirit…To this end keep watch and persevere, always interceding for all God’s people.”

That night I had a dream that demonstrated exactly what this verse is talking about. I don’t know if you can say the dream “meant” anything. I just know that I woke up terrified and eventually realized that principalities and powers were probably delighted by my fear, so eventually turned the light on and read all of the book of Philippians and prayed until I could go back to sleep.

The next evening, I got a chance to tell Dru the details of the dream and how they affected me. So thankful for that man’s prayers! In the end, I had to admit that the powers of Satan are scary to me. But I realized that until the day that I can say that I have no fear of these “principalities and powers”, I can take refuge in the fact that my heavenly Father does not have one smidgen’s worth of fear towards Satan or his demons. In this I rest.


Later, on the phone with my mom, she told me about how the Native American children were able to attend the Vacation Bible School at Northwoods Mennonite Church. She explained some of happenings of that event, and especially what my brother faced on the last evening. Again, principalities and powers.

I’ve been on Dru’s Facebook a lot recently. I don’t really have a Facebook account of my own right now that I use, so I’ve been on Dru’s to keep up with what’s happening in the Skrivseth world. At the same time I see what’s up on his home page. I ended up removing a friend from his list the other day because of a totally inappropriate image. Also, there are words that get slung around in people’s common vocab that make me feel dirty to read. This is the world we live in.


My cousin just lost her children to social services; not because of parental negligence, but through the perversion of a system.Justice was greatly lacking, while lies abounded throughout the whole case. Again, I had to think about how we do not fight against flesh and blood. And what about our prayers? Were they not heard? I cried for an hour this morning and still find myself choking up today. How can my cousin and her husband pick up the pieces? How do you go on? What is there to live for? And then I remember that God is in control. I ask myself, “Didn’t I pray hard enough?” Because the situation really has been on my heart and in my prayers this month. But not enough apparently? Obviously, I didn’t realize the gravity of the situation. Somehow, I thought that Truth would prevail.

Then I remind myself that Truth has already prevailed. Somehow. Somehow God is going to be glorified in this situation. Somehow God is in control. It feels like we lost our chance to pray this thing through to the appropriate ending. It feels like Satan has prevailed. Yet I pray to God, that He, who is not locked in time, will, in a sense, go back and change it. That somehow, this story isn’t completed. That principalities and powers will still be defeated as they relate to this specific situation.

Now I’m asking myself questions about what this means for me today. For me as a mom with two children. How do I raise my children in the fear of the Lord? The responsibility of it is huge! Is it even prudent to bring children into this world anymore? Yes, I realize that the grace of God is sufficient—but don’t tell me that as parents of children, aware of the world we live in, you haven’t asked yourself this same question.

“For I am convinced that there is nothing in death or life, in the realm of spirits or superhuman powers, in the world as it is or the world as it shall be, the forces of the universe, in the heights or depths—nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38, 39