Overcomer’s Kendrick Brothers Share How to Stand Strong in the Lord

Have you ever had one of those days or weeks or seasons of life when everything seems to ambush you all at once? The same week your Check Engine light comes on, a strange health issue sabotages your family, unexpected bills arrive in your mailbox, your workload causes sleepless nights, and then a relationship problem blows up out of the blue over a confusing issue. 

Isn’t it ironic how inconveniently timed it all seems?

Enemy Attacks are Real

There are many reasons why these kinds of crises can “group hug” you. But don’t discount the real possibility that you’re experiencing what Ephesians 6 refers to as “the evil day.” It’s when the devil has blitzed you from all sides in hopes of taking you down. 

We’re talking about a 100 percent, genuine, spiritual conspiracy here—a precise, enemy attack that the Bible indicates will periodically happen and we should basically expect.

But because Satan knows a hit-and-run play probably won’t be enough, he schedules a barrage of fiery arrows to try to wear you down. Whether the difficulty is mechanical or medical, financial or relational—this type of attack is out of the ordinary. It’s meant to strike you at a place much deeper than your wallet, schedule, or job security.

Satan Wants to Steal and Destroy

Satan wants to steal your joy, hijack your faith, sabotage your morality, and ultimately derail your testimony. And he will definitely try to slander your grasp of your own identity. He is after your deepest core, the headquarters of your mind and heart where your faith is anchored, and your fellowship with God abides. 

He will use whatever tool he can find to plant doubt, deceit, and discomfort inside you so that you’ll want to give up. He wants you to question your faith in God’s goodness and love, what His Word says is true about you, and whether or not you can make it through this round and get back up for another attack. 

You Can Stand Strong and Resist

But here’s what we’re here to tell you: you absolutely can take a stand. You can totally prepare for it. You can stay strong throughout the full battle and keep going because of the unchanging nature of your God, because of His resurrection power at work within you, and because of the endless resources you have in Christ. 

You are not relying on your own strength, your kung fu skills, or the contents of your canteen. You have the Spirit of God within you, the Word of God in your hand, and a protective Father and victorious Lord standing on both sides of you.

You must remember that Jesus has already disarmed the enemy and taken the bullets out of his gun through the cross (Col. 2:13–15). The devil is threatening you now with an unloaded gun. So you can stare him in the teeth during the next attack, unafraid to call his bluff, and then “take your stand” and resist him.

Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/Gus Moretta

Satan Sneaks in to Divide People

As a personal testimony, we’ve watched bizarre things show up “on schedule” with almost every Christian movie we make. While making Fireproof, our marriages started having weird issues. Right when we started producing Courageous, our father started hearing blasphemous voices in his head. We’ve experienced strange illnesses, heavy dark oppression, betrayal, confusing crew division, bizarre distractions—all uniquely timed.

Listen, “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens” (Eph. 6:12-13). There’s the real source of the problem—not the people Satan is manipulating as his tactical tools. Jesus didn’t treat Judas as the enemy.

There is a real, formidable enemy behind this, who likes to threaten you with fear tactics to make you feel weak, who wants to whisper in your heart that you just can’t do it, that you’re too inadequate. Undersupported. Under-supplied. Under-prepared. He hopes you’ll feel betrayed by your God—abandoned!—though He’s never left you or stopped loving you for even one moment.

Your Armor Prepares You to Move Forward

But guess what: you’re more prepared now. You’ve got the “full armor” of a true, newer understanding of your identity fortifying you. You’ve been prepared by Christ with both the watchfulness and the wherewithal to “be able to resist in the evil day.”

When it arrives and Satan attacks, don’t panic or run away in fear. Don’t even flinch. Just rally the body of Christ in prayer, stand your ground, proclaim the Word of God, speak the truth in love to those around you, then obey what God has told you to do. And keep moving forward by faith, obeying the mission you’ve been assigned by God. Because you are an Overcomer.

Build your wall, Nehemiah! When the devil aims low, you stand firm, cling to the Lord, and honor God in the midst of any pain. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:21 NASB).

God has “seated us with him in the heavens in Christ” (Eph. 2:6). Even when under harsh attack from every quarter imaginable, your life is able to “display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6–7).

For the rest of your life, as you walk with the Lord, you can continue to stand strong...because of who you are, whose you are, what you have, and who is powerfully living inside of you.

Excerpted with permission from Defined by Alex Kendrick and Stephen Kendrick. Copyright 2019, B&H Publishing Group.

After serving in church ministry for 20 years, Alex and Stephen Kendrick write, speak, and produce Christian films such as Overcomer, War Room, Courageous, Fireproof, Facing the Giants, And Flywheel. They are New York Times bestselling authors and their new books, Defined, Revealed, and Wonderful, are companion resources for the box office hit Overcomer.

Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/Iyan Kurnia