Karl O'Grady
Title: Under Attack
by Karl O' Grady
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Partner Profile |
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• Name: Karl O' Grady
• Residence: London
• Favorite Verse:
Deut 20:10
• Favorite Quote:
"What Goes around
comes around!"
• Hobbies:
Reading, computers
• Date of Salvation:
November 1998
• Latest News:
During this period of Lent I have been giving up an hours sleep each day and spending the time with God, reading the bible and praying. I have found that by starting each day with the Lord I am being blessed in all that I do during the day.
I long to see all who are sick healed, and those under demonic oppression delivered. I long to pray for those who need to be released from their bondage and set free to serve the lord.
• Home page:
Christianzone
• Description of Site:
Christianzone is the website of Healing fire Ministries.
I set it up after I felt the Lord told me to provide a community forum for
Christians.
Though still in its infancy, the community is growing on a daily basis.
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Are Christians
safe from attack by the enemy? In this article I hope to look at this
subject. I will be talking about my own experiences,
which though they will differ
from any you may have had, I’m sure will highlight
characteristics which are
common to all forms of attack.
The simple answer to the above question is NO!!!
And in many ways we are more
susceptible to them than non-Christians. This
is because the enemy hates it when
God receives praise and recognition. In the case
of those people who are not
Christians and who do not believe in the Holy
trinity, it would be simple to say that
the enemies work is already done. There is no
reason for Satan to dedicate his
time and efforts to attack non-believers, It's
us he wants, and so we come under
attack at every twist and turn in our Christian
lives.
Since my conversion to Christ I have been fortunate
in that the attacks which I
have faced have been very few. In my experiences
leading Alpha courses, I have
been able to see others come to Christ and then
suffer a great deal from attacks by
the enemy. I have always felt that the point
where we turn from the sinful life to a
life with the Lord in our hearts is the point
when the devil is able to effect the
strongest attacks. I have had conversations with
many new Christians, who say
that since coming to Christ they have found life
so much harder, this difficulty
takes many forms and differs from person to person,
but it is common to hear
them say “I’ve been swearing a whole lot more”
or “I am really struggling with
prayer”. My reply is always very simple, I tell
them not to worry about these
things. I think the more we struggle with these
problems, the more time we are
giving to the enemy and the last thing a Christian
(especially new Christians) needs
is to get to the point where they are succumbing
to Satan’s attacks because they
feel they are failing as a child of God. I often
dispair when I hear other supposed
Christians telling newly converted people that
they must stop their bad habits
instantly and that they will fail in Gods eyes
if they don’t. This simply isn’t true.
God loves everyone, even the sinners, and though
I’m sure he finds it hurtful
when one of his children strays or is detracted
because of attack, he never gives
up. Can you imagine God saying “forget about
that one, she’s a lost cause”.
So if God won’t give up on us, and yet we find
we are still coming under attack
what can we do about it?
Firstly I would have to say, take your troubles
to the Lord in prayer. When we
were young children if we ever had a problem
that we didn’t really know how to
deal with, what would we do? I suspect that most
people would go and talk with a
parent or a friend and seek advice and guidance.
And so it is the same with God.
If we don’t tell him that we are troubled and
ask for help, we may find that we are
stuck with the problem. Yes God can see that
we are struggling or suffering, but
he wants us to come to him and ask for his help.
Next, I would always advise someone to tell those
within their church family
about the problem. The old adage of a problem
shared is a problem halved is very
true in this case. By talking to others in church
and expressing your concerns you
are doing several things. You will immediately
be getting increased prayer. It never
ceases to amaze me when I take a problem to others
how their first response is
“we will pray for you”. Next you will almost
definitely be able to find someone
who has gone through the same or at least a similar
problem, and who have got
through it by giving it to God. This is undoubtedly
the best way for you to deal
with your issues.
Finally I would advise that you seek guidance through scripture, Though
this is an
easy thing for someone who has been a Christian
for many years, for a new or as
I like to call them baby Christian it can seem
like looking for a needle in a
haystack. There are many good Bibles available
in Christian bookshops or on the
Internet, which have a concordance to help you
find the passage of Scripture that
is best suited to guide you with your problems.
If after all these things you still find that the attacks are continuing
and seem to be
getting worse then it could be that the devil
has gained a foot hold in your life.
Now this is again not an issue that you need
to trouble yourself with
unnecessarily. If your church has a prayer ministry
team you should be able to
approach them and tell them about your situation.
For those that have never
received prayer ministry or even have never seen
it, it is just a matter of having
two or three others pray directly over you. This
allows the pray to be
concentrated towards your particular problem.
They will also be able to ask God
to send his Holy Spirit to fill you and wash
away the difficulties in your life. I have
seen many people helped through this form of
prayer and have been fortunate
enough, to have, on many occasions been asked
to be part of a prayer team.
So,
what if your church doesn’t practice prayer ministry,
what can you do? Firstly I
would approach your pastor/vicar and ask them
about setting up a team. The very
least they can do is say no and hopefully give
you a genuine reason why they feel
this is inappropriate. Although I would have
to say that any vicar who feels it
wrong to pray for others would ring alarm bells
in my head. If you still can’t get a
team started, then you could either visit a church
where they do practice this kind
of ministry, but don’t be surprised if you ending
up moving to that church
permanently (there is a certain warmth and feeling
of Love that emanates from
these churches).
Alternatively you could get
together with some of your Christian
friends and talk the subject over, maybe even
start your own prayer ministry team
from home, but remember, if you do this and word
gets out, you will find yourself
very busy praying for others.
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I am a 32 year old Married man living in London, England. My wife Norma is a nurse and together we have lead several Alpha courses, and have been involved heavily within our church.
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