Spiritual Battle...Attack Formation:

When Satan decides to attack a nation, he may start with the morality of the nation: the TV, movies, music or computer.
Or he might attack it's patriotism, so that no one has anything to be proud of and they are ungrateful for what they have and so seek after more immorality.  But Satan's most targeted subject is one that he has to use all of his power to break: The Family.

The family is the encourager, the solid rock for the next generation, the spiritual leaders, teachers of the young, they are the cornerstone to any nation.  And thus the most destructive in Satan's plan, but in God's plan they are so precious, so treasured.

Unfortunately the family is one of the world's biggest targets right now, the average family is supposed to have 2.5 kids- now how you get half a kid is beyond me!:)  You are to have both parents in the work force, or just the mother working and the father takes care of the kids.

God states specifically in the Bible that the headship in every family is supposed to go as follows: God, husband, wife, and children.

1 Corinthians 11:3   "Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God."

Ephesians 6:1-4   "Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. "Honor your father and mother"-- which is the first commandment with a promise-- "that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth."  Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord."

The husband is to be in submission to God, but is commanded to love his wife and cherish her, not be authoritative and a dictator.  The wife is then to submit to her husband and respect him and care for her children.  The children are to submit to all three, and learn with a disciplined mind.

So...who is Satan going to attack first?  Well, he already tried to tempt God and got immediately shelved:) So who is next??? The husband (or in my case, my Dad).  The spiritual leader in the family is always targeted first, he is the adviser, decision maker, "tension alleviation master", the encourager, and leader of his home.  With him entrapped the rest of the family will quickly become easy prey.  The husband is not capable of cherishing, comforting, and appreciating his wife when he is under spiritual attack, and because of this the wife cannot teach her children and therefore the children do not have guidance and fall away from the truth.

The trickling effect is devastating, and Satan has this attack right down to perfection.  The biggest way to avoid this attack is to support and encourage your Dad.  He is under attack constantly.  By encouraging him in his walk, discussing with him your problems so that he is aware of other areas Satan is trying to get in, and always supporting him with the decisions he makes.

The next target Satan chooses will be the wife, if she is feeling pressured and absolutely exhausted she will be leaning heavily on her husband for support.  Her weakness needs to be strengthened by the help of her children!! Strengthen your Mom, encourage her as she encourages you!  The household chores and other responsibilities can become overwhelming sometimes, so quickly step in and alleviate some of the pressure building up on her.

I read a saying once that said: "Men have been given the ability to make decisions, they have a "gut feeling" that tells them what is right and wrong.  However, only through women come the diversity of possible answers to the solution.  Women enjoy (most of the time) figuring out ways to solve problems, but in the end they have too many solutions!!  This is where the men come in and chose wisely out of the 4 to 5 suggestions." :) This quote is not word for word, however it describes me exactly!!  I enjoy, for the most part, discussing issues and coming up with solutions, however I hate making decisions, so my Dad is the leader in this area and takes the burden off of me:)

It is very easy to become calloused to the world's influence, one of the easiest tools Satan uses in his daily rampage is that of music... it is all around us, you can walk and listen to it, play it on the radio, TV, computer, through your phone, i-Pod, you name it- it's everywhere! And it is the most easy distraction to succumb to.

Before Satan was thrown out of heaven, does anyone remember what his job was?  Well, if you guessed director of music then you were right.  Satan knows the influence music has on people, he has known about it since the beginning of time, it was how he spent his time even before he became evil!!  So he knows very well how to manipulate it in our society, the tool of music is one of his strongest powers.

But when walking with Christ, His greatest desire is that we do not conform to the world, but be examples of Him.  So become "un-calloused" to the worldly influences you have allowed into you life, we are the clay and God is the Potter:  When a stone is removed from the clay it is sometimes painful and ruins parts of the mold, but once it is removed the clay becomes smooth and is better for it in the end.  So become a clay that is willing to be changed, step out of the worldly pattern and walk in a spiritual formation.  Rely entirely upon the Lord, encourage your Dad, support your Mom, and be obedient to all three headships.  God will richly bless you for following His law, so start to prepare for His blessing by following His directions!!!:)