Have You Stirred Up a Nest of Trouble?

Recently, my son was riding four wheelers at my sister's house and got involved in an accident. He fell off the four wheeler and landed in a bed of fire ants. Unfortunately, he received several fire ant bites. (Approximately 60 - 75 bites).  My sister quickly put him in the shower and began to research  various remedies on the internet. (One suggestion was to apply worchestire sauce!) In the course of her research, she read that fire ants quickly swarm a person, but do not bite at first. They wait until the person is covered with a swarm of fire ants, and then they send "the signal". At that moment, they begin their attack and start biting all at once. They are sneaky! You see, if the first fire ant that reached you bit you, you would immediately feel it and swipe that fire ant away. You would look down and see all of the fire ants that were about to swarm you and you would get away from them. So the fire ant's instinct is to wait until you are sufficiently covered with a swarm of fire ants and then to go into attack mode. With so many fire ants attacking you at one time, you are helpless and unable to beat them all off at once. While you are brushing them off one area, the fire ant's buddies are eating you alive in another area. Luckily, my son's cousin and friend came to his rescue and began helping him knock the fire ants off. They each received bites on their hands and arms as a result of their good deed.

So lets learn a lesson and take a spiritual application from this. If you walk past a bed of fire ants and you don't kick the nest mound or accidentally disturb it, you're probably pretty safe. If you just keep on walking and they don't bother you and you don't bother them, all is well. However, when you start disturbing their territory, they are going to get angry.  If you accidentally step into a mound of fire ants and get them all stirred up, you are going to have trouble! A fire ant bite is extremely painful and then continues to itch mercilessly for days afterward. In addition to that, we've already learned that fire ants are sneaky and love to swarm a man when he's down. Imagine that fire ants are demonic forces. (If you've ever been bitten by one, that's not much of a stretch.)

The Bible says that we don't wrestle against people, we wrestle against wicked spiritual forces, or demonic forces. That means that people are not our problem. Even though it seems that people cause our problems, it is actually the wicked spiritual forces in our world that make people act the way they do. So, if we imagine that fire ants are like these demonic forces...When we are going about our daily lives and busy in the day-to day duties of working, paying bills, completing our chores, etc. we are not disturbing the wicked spiritual forces in our world. However, when we start making positive changes and growing spiritually, we start disturbing those demonic forces. When you commit your life to Christ or start growing in Christ, you are disturbing the kingdom of darkness. When you start increasing your prayer time, fasting, or starting a new ministry, you are disturbing the "fire ant nest" of spiritual wickedness.  When you were not really making a difference, the spiritual forces of wickedness left you alone. When you started growing in Christ or making a difference in the Kingdom of God, you kicked open that nest of demonic fire ants...and they swarmed you.

Start noticing that as soon as you do something good for God or start a new ministry or spiritual discipline, trouble will appear in your life.  When my Pastor and his wife began their journey to plant a new church, they disturbed the kingdom of darkness, and began to get swarmed.  Difficult events such as job loss and a house fire begin  invading their life. Now, in hindsight, approximately three years later, we see that they are Pastoring a successful church plant that is making a difference in the community. The first time I ever embarked upon a Daniel fast, my whole life fell apart. Now, in hindsight, I see that I have received many blessings and grown so much since that time. The first time I ever spoke in a Sunday service at church, I was scheduled to speak in a Sunday evening service. I selected "Spiritual Warfare" as my topic. (What was I thinking???) Everything that could go wrong that afternoon and up until the time of the service, did go wrong. Finally, I just started laughing at the stuff that went wrong.

I've learned that if I am going to speak at my church or at another church, I will usually have something go wrong in my personal life or at work that week or in some way have something upsetting happen on the day that I am supposed to speak. Once, when I was supposed to speak on a Sunday morning, I was pleasantly surprised as I got dressed to go speak, when I realized that I hadn't really had anything negative happen that week. I thought that was strange, but just shrugged it off. In a few minutes, my Dad called and asked me why I hadn't brought my kids to his house to stay with him while I went to speak. He was going to carry them to our church while I spoke at a different church. I said, "Well, I probably won't take them over until about 9:45 am." He said "It is 9:45!" I had forgotten that was the weekend to spring forward into daylight savings time and I was an hour behind! Thankfully, I did make it on time, but not without a struggle!

If you are increasing your prayer time or trying to start a new spiritual discipline or in some way seeking God like never before...don't be surprised when trouble comes knocking at your door. Most importantly, don't let trouble fool you into thinking that you made the wrong choice and you need to give up. When trouble comes, just say to yourself, "Hmmm...I must be on the right track!" Don't get discouraged, God can help you overcome any trouble that comes against you.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  John 16:33

Peter said, "Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed." 

When trouble comes, tell your trouble what God says about you. "No weapon formed against me shall prosper", or "Greater is He that is within me than He that is within the world".

God's glory is going to be revealed in the midst of your trouble! Stay the course...don't give up.