{"id":10770,"date":"2013-03-29T00:01:35","date_gmt":"2013-03-29T04:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=10770"},"modified":"2013-03-28T20:48:45","modified_gmt":"2013-03-29T00:48:45","slug":"girls-with-swords-chapter-1-you-are-a-target-weekly-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/03\/29\/girls-with-swords-chapter-1-you-are-a-target-weekly-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Girls With Swords: Chapter 1 Weekly Review \u2013 \u201cYou Are a Target\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Next Week’s Reading Schedule<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Picture this scene<\/b>:\u00a0 The long awaited girlfriends road trip<\/i> had begun. The five girlfriends had been planning this get-away together a whole year.\u00a0 It was to be a time for studying the Word of God with other believers at the women\u2019s retreat, plus a time of rest and relaxation from their busy lives being a wife, mother, and the many other hats they wore throughout the year.\u00a0 They were riding down the road giggling so hard that their sides were splitting.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Then all of a sudden, they saw a road sign up ahead that read:\u00a0
\n<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Prince<\/a><\/p>\n

The laughing stops as Jennifer, the driver of the car, pulls over to the side of the road. They all sat quietly for a few minutes, each absorbed in their own thoughts as to what they should do now.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Finally Jennifer<\/b> spoke up:\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Girlfriends, let\u2019s face it!\u00a0 <\/span>We did not even have to leave our homes to know that a battle is waging. Satan is desperate.\u00a0 He tries to discourage us and make us doubt our God and His goodness.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It is time to recognize that, as Christians, we are automatically targets of the enemy. Satan will stop at nothing to tear apart our relationship with the Lord. He wants to keep us away from reading the Bible. He wants to prevent us from fully participating in a Bible\/Book study by distracting us. He does not want us to be in fellowship with other believers. If he sees a spot to weasel his way in, he will try<\/i> to do it.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Bible says that I have a weapon against any attacks from the enemy. That weapon is the Word of God.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0I believe we can be a hero in God\u2019s army. When we tuck God\u2019s Word into our heart, we are able to defeat the enemy the same way Jesus did in the wilderness. He refuted Satan\u2019s attempts at trickery by repeating the truth from God\u2019s Word<\/i><\/strong>. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We now have a choice to make.\u00a0 We can choose to be a hero in God\u2019s army of warriors or not. As for me, I choose to keep going. Who\u2019s with me?<\/strong><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Teresa spoke up next.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Look, at it this way, girls.\u00a0 We must have something of value Satan wants to steal from us, kill us, and destroy us.\u00a0 Personally, I think a\u00a0 few of the reasons Satan puts a TARGET<\/span> on us are:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. We are a target simply because we are human.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  2. God loves us and created us for a relationship with Him.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Satan cannot fix his problem himself and be returned to a relationship with God.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  4. If he can\u2019t have a relationship with God, then neither can we.\u00a0NAH! NOT! Whatever!<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Satan knows that every soul close to God is capable of great and wondrous things.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Satan knows how the story ends.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  7. Satan is fighting to keep God\u2019s precious creation distracted, distressed, and demoralized so that we don\u2019t experience the fullness of our place with Him in heaven.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    You know, Lisa Bevere says, \u201cI believe that<\/em> the attacks on your life have much more <\/b>to do with who you might be in the future than who you have been in the past.<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0That statement made me realize that God<\/span> created me for a purpose in this time.\u00a0 I have a choice to fulfill that purpose and live a rich and satisfying life that God<\/span> wants to give me or I can let Satan steal, kill, and destroy me.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    I choose<\/em> to be a HERO!\u00a0 I\u2019m with you, Jennifer; let\u2019s keep going! <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    Tonya spoke up next<\/b>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    Okay, girls, the reality of the situation is that we, do, indeed, have a target on our backs. We are women, we are Christians, and we are determined to take up our swords and fight back. These three combined make us a very real threat to Satan and he will do what he thinks he can do to throw us off of our path.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    But, there is a bigger reality than this one—<\/strong>the reality that we have God on our side<\/i><\/span><\/b>, the reality that His promises are stronger and more powerful than any threat Satan has made. \u201cThere is no way we can or should fight this battle alone.<\/i>\u201d We don\u2019t have to, we don\u2019t need to, and we can\u2019t. We NEED<\/span><\/i> God\u2019s heavenly support.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    We as women are faced with a choice, \u201cWill we be an unarmed civilian, victim, prisoner of war, or a hero<\/i>\u201d? <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    There is a target on our back, but the swords we hold are bigger and stronger than the weapons being thrown at these targets. Our swords, our prayers must not be influenced by what is around us; they need to be powered by looking to the One who created us to be warrior<\/i>s<\/i><\/strong>.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    \u201cI\u2019m with Jennifer; let\u2019s move forward!\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    Diane spoke up next<\/b>:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    \u201cHey girls, you know what just occurred to me?\u00a0 Hebrews 12:1 says that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, which is the faithful followers of God whom we learn about throughout the Bible<\/strong>.<\/b>\u00a0 They were people just like you and me throughout the Bible who have run their race and won!\u00a0 Each one of these people had one thing in common\u2014they lived by faith and not by fear.\u00a0 They let God control their lives, and not fear.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    Satan will never be able to live for God.\u00a0 He has no choice but to live by fear.\u00a0 <\/strong>His fear drives Him to attempt to destroy God\u2019s chosen ones.\u00a0\u00a0 That is what he is trying to do to us now—implant fear in us to keep us from going ahead with our journey.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    I\u2019d say we must follow the examples of the faithful followers of our heritage, put on the full Armor of God, and trust that God has a plan for our lives, one in which we are a Hero for God.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    I\u2019m with you, Jennifer.\u00a0 Let\u2019s keep going.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    I, Martha, was the fifth girl on that trip<\/b>.\u00a0 I had sat silently while my friends were discussing our options for continuing our journey.\u00a0I now had to make a decision.\u00a0 As I saw it, I must decide if I wanted\u00a0to enter this territory where I was marked as a target<\/b>, or get out and walk back the way our car had come from—alone!\u00a0 These gals were determined to go forward.<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    As each of my friends had spoken from their hearts, I saw something different in them. No longer were they just friends, giggling on a road trip; they had caught a glimpse of who they were in Christ, <\/span><\/span>and were not afraid of facing an enemy who had already been defeated anyway.\u00a0They had convinced me that we were warriors!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    Without a speech, I just said to Jennifer:\u00a0 \u201cCrank her up, Jen.\u00a0 Let\u2019s keep moving.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    Let’s Pray:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Father, God, we thank You for each lady who has signed up for this course.\u00a0 Having read their comments this week, I know that, they, too, are ready to move forward using the sword that You have given us, defeating all the attacks the enemy tries to throw at them.\u00a0 I pray Your blessings on each of them as we continue our journey together.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.<\/p>\n

    *****<\/p>\n

    If you would like to join us for the “Girls with Swords” Online Bible\/Book study, click HERE<\/strong><\/a> to be taken to our sign-up page.\u00a0 Once you complete the enrollment process, we will email you further details.\u00a0 We hope you will join us!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Next Week’s Reading Schedule Picture this scene:\u00a0 The long awaited girlfriends road trip had begun. The five girlfriends had been planning this get-away together a whole year.\u00a0 It was to be a time for studying the Word of God with other believers at the women\u2019s retreat, plus a time of rest and relaxation from their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":10800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[1266,2136,425,1985,1986,649,723,2071,2040,2084,1140],"class_list":["post-10770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-womens","tag-christian-womens-fellowship","tag-enemy-target","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-girls-with-swords","tag-lisa-bevere","tag-martha-bush","tag-online-bible-studies","tag-spiritual-warfare","tag-swords","tag-target","tag-womens-online-bible-studies","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Prince-of-Darkness.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-2NI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10770"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10799,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10770\/revisions\/10799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}