When James and I found deliverance from the strongholds in our lives, we still had to learn the importance of standing together against Satan’s schemes, because when God removed those strongholds, there was an empty place that had to be filled with something. The Bible says, “When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says,’I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before” (Matthew 12:43-45).
When God released me from the spirit of fear that had governed my life for so long, I had to fill that empty room to keep the tormentors from coming back. I had to learn how to relate to people apart from fear, and it didn’t just naturally happen. God gave me supernatural help, filling my life – His temple – with love, peace, and joy, along with a sound mind in place of that overwhelming fear. I now have a sense of freedom, knowing that God had removed the spirit of fear, but I couldn’t say, “Okay, I’m fixed. It’s all over. I don’t have to deal with that anymore.” I still had to allow God to bring healing to my heart, to teach me how to resist fear, and to make me strong enough to stand against the enemy’s attacks. I also needed my husband to help me do that. Whenever I failed, I needed James to be right there to say, “Okay, we are going to stand against this together,” and not to say, “Oh, I thought you had been delivered from that. Why is that coming up again?”
As with Jesus during His temptation by Satan, the enemy looks for every opportune moment to attack us. James and I are determined to fill the house that God cleansed with the truth of His Word and to daily build up and renew our hearts and minds.
One important change that came about as a result of my deliverance was that I learned to depend on God rather than James for my sense of worth and security. Because James was my husband and because of the evident work of the Spirit in his life, I had placed James on a pedestal. I expected him to come through for me whenever I had a need, but God let me know that He, not my husband, was to be my first love and my deliverer.
When I released James from my unreasonable expectations, it removed a great pressure and burden from him to be the one who gave me joy, peace, and understanding. When I allowed Jesus to be the rightful head of our home, James was freed to take his place as my companion and friend.
I also learned that, in our daily walk as Christians, we have to be on guard. The enemy is always on the lookout for an opportunity to attack again. It’s important to understand that in this lifetime we never will escape spiritual warfare. Resisting the enemy is a lifelong commitment, because Satan doesn’t retire when we put on the armor of God.
Likewise, we can’t just snap our fingers and have a whole, complete, heavenly marriage. It’s a daily walk, and we must have the determination to say, “God, this marriage is worth fighting for. I want this relationship, and I’m going to submit myself to You and let You mold me and shape me to be the kind of mate I need to be so this marriage can be what You want it to be.”
Join James and Betty all week as they celebrate over 50 years of marriage. Copyright ©2010 by James Robison. Excerpted from Living In Love by permission of WaterBrook Press, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
