Waging War Against the Evil One
By Tanya Lombard on July 14th, 2017
Perhaps you’ve heard it said before that there is a difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge. Knowing the Word of God and walking by faith, although connected in giving purpose to the Christian walk, are two very different things. It is generally easy for us to believe and receive the blessings of our Heavenly Father when all seems well in our lives and situation, but when trials come and we are tested by the brokenness of the world in which we live, our faith becomes a little bit harder to live out. Below is the story of Tanya Lombard and her husband Josh. In her testimony, she sheds light on the truth that as followers of Jesus we must push back the darkness, and rise up against the enemy. A battle must be fought, a war must be waged…even when it hurts.
On Jan.1, 2017, as I listened to a Christian radio channel, the host was commenting on how she prays deeply on New Year’s Eve and God places a word on her heart for the start of that year. The word given to her was TRUST. Lauren Daigle’s song “Trust in You” came on and I immediately burst into tears. God spoke to me on that day through the song and through the host. I declared out loud “TRUST is my word of the year too!”
It’s easy as a Christian to say the words, “I put my trust in Jesus,” but when a difficult situation comes up I tend to go into full panic mode and unfortunately those words aren’t always the first that come to mind. Those words were definitely a challenge for me, and my family, the last few years.
In the 23 years Josh and I have been together, the most difficult circumstance we were faced with was just over a year ago with the loss of our daughter Julia. I was 22 weeks pregnant and her little heart stopped beating and there were no answers for it. Keeping our faith and knowing our God is a God of miracles, we reached out to our Prayer Warriors with the devastating news the doctor had just told us. There were Pastors and friends at our house that night laying hands on us, TRUSTING that complete healing would take place.
I slept unexpectedly well that night, and felt God’s arms surrounding me. I continued to Trust Him and thought when I opened my eyes this would all be just a horrible dream. The next morning, we continued to keep our trust and faith, but I was scheduled to go to the hospital to deliver her. Another ultrasound confirmed she had passed, and the time had come to let her be with her Heavenly Father.
Throughout the next year, as each day was still a struggle, the enemy was in attack mode. We know he is ALWAYS out to kill, steal and destroy us (James 10:10), but at my weakest moment there were times I didn’t care. See, when God didn’t answer my prayers the way I thought He should, it tested my faith and trust. At this point I knew the enemy could fully take over my thoughts and actions if I let him. This was not going to happen and I did what came naturally to me; I got on my knees, I read the Word, prayed, praised and worshiped more deeply than ever. THANK YOU, JESUS. THE ENEMY WAS DEFEATED!
Tanya and Josh Lombard
