Beautiful Battle.Indd 1 11/9/11 8:29 AM Unless Otherwise Indicated, All Scripture Quotations Are from the Holy Bible, New Living Transla- Tion, Copyright © 1996, 2004
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MARY E. DEMUTH Beautiful Battle.indd 1 11/9/11 8:29 AM Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New Living Transla- tion, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189 USA. All rights reserved. Verses marked nasb are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lock man.org) Verses marked msg are taken from The Message. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. Verses marked niv are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Verses marked kjv are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Verses marked esv are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Verses marked amp are taken from The Amplified Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org) This book contains stories in which the author has changed people’s names and some details of their situations in order to protect their privacy. BEAUTIFUL BATTLE Copyright © 2012 by Mary E. DeMuth Beautiful Battle.indd 2 11/9/11 8:29 AM To Jodi Vinson and Kimberly Baker, beautiful women who deliberately prayed me through Beautiful Battle.indd 3 11/9/11 8:29 AM Acknowledgments I’m particularly indebted to Dr. J. Scott Horrell for his class notes on angelol- ogy. Thank you, Scott, for your graciousness in letting me read through them. Thanks, too, to Patrick, my theological hubby, who read through this book, offering helpful critique and a hefty dose of perspective and encouragement. Thanks to my kids, Sophie, Aidan, and Julia, who allowed me to write bits and pieces of their stories here. I count it a privilege to battle alongside you. I so appreciate Leslie Wilson and D’Ann Mateer, who took pains to read through this manuscript and offer critique. Thanks to the great staff at Harvest House who shepherded this book to press. LaRae Weikert, thanks for jumping at this book. Your eagerness helped fuel the passion for it. Thanks to Kathleen Kerr for your much-needed cheerlead- ing through the editing process. You lifted my heart. Esther Fedorkevich, you’ve been an amazing agent, friend, and partner. Thank you. Thanks to the readers who offered their stories so freely. I am indebted to my prayer team as always, but particularly with this book. You kept the darkness at bay as I tried to write in the light. Thank you Twilla Fontenot, Ashley Weis, Kevin and Renee Bailey, Carla Smith, Caroline Cole- man, Cheramy Mayfield, Colleen Eslinger, Jeanne Damoff, Darren and Holly Sapp, D’Ann Mateer, Dorian Coover-Cox, Erin Teske, Katy Gedney, Kim- berly Baker, Ginger Vassar, Helen Graves, Holly Schmidt, Jan Winebrenner, Jen Powell, Kathy ONeall, Katy Raymond, Denise Willhite, Anita Curtis, Diane Klapper, Lesley Hamilton, Leslie Wilson, Lilli Brenchley, Liz Wolf, Marcia Robbins, Marcus Goodyear, Grace Bower, Marybeth Whalen, Pam Le Tourneau, Paula Moldenhauer, Rae McIlrath, Phyllis Yount, Becky Ochs, Sandi Glahn, Sarah Walker, Shawna Marie Bryant, Tim Riter, Tina Howard, Tracy Walker, Heidi Van Dyken, Paul Napari, Renee Mills, Stacey Tomisser, John Davis, Carla Williams, Nicole Baart, Tosca Lee, Marilyn Scholtz, TJ Wilson, Jim Rubart, Patrick DeMuth, Jody Capehart, Susan Meissner, Ariel Lawhon, Mary Vestal, Amy Sorrells, Lisa Shea, Dena Dyer, Kathryn Thomas, Carol Avery, Cyndi Kraweitz, Don Pape, Esther Fedorkevich, Susie Larson, Christy Tennant, Jodi Vinson, and Ericka Smiley. Jesus, You are beautifully victorious. For that, I humbly thank You. Beautiful Battle.indd 4 11/9/11 8:29 AM Contents Introduction ...................................... 7 Part One: Foundations 1 Our Story: The Gaping Hole and Freedom ........................ 13 2 Satan’s Story: Understanding the Enemy Who Towers and Cowers ........ 21 3 The Right Story: God’s Sovereignty. The Wrong Story: Our Comfort. ........ 37 4 Living the Right Story: Balancing Between Ignorance and Overreaction ........... 49 5 So What’s the Story, Exactly? What Is Spiritual Warfare? . 55 Part Two: Proactive: How We Participate in the Beautiful Battle 6 Breathing Prayer ................................... 69 7 Loving Truth ...................................... 85 8 Practicing Risk ..................................... 91 9 Slaying Idols ...................................... 97 10 Worshiping God ................................... 105 11 Living the Bible .................................... 111 12 Embracing Rest .................................... 119 13 Chasing Healing ................................... 125 Part Three: Reactive: What We Do in the Midst of the Beautiful Battle 14 When Fear Rushes In ................................ 135 Beautiful Battle.indd 5 11/9/11 8:29 AM 15 When Christians Hurt You ........................... 145 16 When Your Mind Attacks ............................ 155 17 When Your Family Faces a Battle ....................... 167 18 When Sin and Addictions Threaten ..................... 175 19 When the Mouth Becomes a Weapon ................... 183 20 When Overt Attack Assails You ........................ 189 Part Four: Victory: We Can Live with Hope When the Beautiful Battle Rages 21 Overcoming in Community .......................... 197 22 Mountains and Valleys ............................... 203 23 Finding Abundance and Perspective .................... 211 24 Go Forth! ......................................... 223 Notes ............................................ 231 Beautiful Battle.indd 6 11/9/11 8:29 AM Introduction ’m not much for war. I don’t relish my son’s seeming addiction to the IHistory channel, a channel my husband renamed “Th e Hitler Chan- nel.” I can’t shoot a gun, pull a bowstring taut, or comprehend tank war- fare. I don’t like confl ict on a global scale, nor do I relish arguments in an interpersonal arena. Simply put, I’m warfare-avoidant. So why in the world would I write a book about spiritual warfare? Because whether I avoid it or not, the truth is we live in a battle zone. I can’t put my fi ngers in my ears, sing la-la-la-la-la, and hope spiritual confl ict will cease. I’ve seen enough of Satan’s outright attacks against me and those I love to know a head-in-the-ground approach only makes for demonic victory. We can’t hide. Th is war will not go away. And there are consequences if we shrink back. I don’t write this book to glorify Satan’s tactics, but to point them out. I don’t resort to histrionic fear as I unpack spiritual truth about demonic activity on this earth; instead, together, we’ll discover the might and power and verve of our holy and amazing God, the Victorious One. While it is true that we face battles aplenty in our personal lives, rela- tionships, schools, churches, cities, and governments, it is truer still that Jesus came to this earth to bring abundance and victory. How can I be so sure? In a smaller-than-global scale, He’s joyfully revolutionized my life. I grew up oblivious to God’s activity in the world. Surrounded by drug abuse, neglect, and sexual assault, I knew at a young age that this world wasn’t safe. And if I cherished my own safety, I would have to provide it for myself. Problem was, I couldn’t always protect myself. Bad things 7 Beautiful Battle.indd 7 11/9/11 8:29 AM 8 Beautiful BATTLE happened. Bad people acted cruelly. By the time I was thirteen, I despaired my life and wanted to end it. But God would win the battle for my life and eventually my heart. His sovereign hand saw fit to send me to a school counselor who saved my life, then prompted my friend to invite me to Young Life in ninth grade. By tenth grade in the shelter of a Christian camp, I succumbed to His holy wooing and gave my tattered life to Him. In that moment, the darkness fled. Many of the doubts, suicidal thoughts, fears, and heartache God flung away. He tucked His powerful Holy Spirit into the crevasses of my heart, set my feet on a firm path, and instigated joy. When I burst through the doorway of my home, I felt my heart would overflow. I spilled, leaked, and gushed the gospel to my unsuspecting mom, who grew visibly angry, then belligerent. She felt I’d joined a cult and warned me about my newfound faith. That conflict between us con- tinues to this day. Even with little support at home for my faith, God grew me. He pro- vided Christian friends, a church, and good leaders who shored me up. He instigated this adventure I’m on, thrilling me on trips around the world— Malaysia, Singapore, Ghana, South Africa, Europe. In those adventures, and in the confines of my own home with three teenagers and a handsome husband, I have seen Him bring victory from heartache, power from weak- ness, beauty from failure, purpose from grief. That’s the power of the God we serve, this Victorious One. I can’t help but spill, leak, and gush His capability to you. How can I not share what God’s accomplished in me? How can I not pull back the veil of this crazy life and point to all the victory He’s wrought in me? Because the power of God-breathed spiritual warfare is this: changed lives. And mine’s been changed, reshaped, renewed, rejuvenated, refined by the One who conquered death and Satan in one defiant, glorious cruci- fixion and resurrection. This is not a book about evil. It’s a book about the outrageous victory God sends our way. It’s about freedom and how God moves and trains us from glory to glory.