What No One’s Telling You About the Real Spiritual Battle for God’s Homeland
Editor’s Note: Friday is the annual March for Life. As we cry out for the end of abortion, prayerfully consider how the Lord can use your testimony to bring healing, restoration and justice for families devastated by the death of an unborn child.
Abortion recovery is one of Jesus’ greatest victories this side of heaven!
1 John 3:8 says that Jesus came for the express purpose of destroying the works of the devil. He comes to take away our sins, yes, as it says in 1 John 1:8-9, but also to destroy the outcomes and the architecture that led to those outcomes, the structure of sin in this world.
In abortion, we see the fulfillment of Satan’s purpose. Jesus said in John 8 that the devil as a murdered from the beginning. Hence, his purpose is to entice us to sin for the purpose of death and destruction.
Very few commit sins which kill and destroy another human being bodily, but abortion does so every time.
Abortion also may destroy our faith itself.
And Jesus warned the devil is a liar. Commonly we also have taken from us the truth that our bodies are designed to be the temple of the Holy Spirit.
So, Satan the father of lies, comes and says the opposite about your body. It’s your body, your choice alone, and you can demand autonomy to remove your child—your own flesh and blood whom God has placed there—as an intruder.
This is lawlessness in God’s economy, a rejection of God’s authority. Sin says you can be free of all that.
Once we buy into that story and place ourselves into that big picture, it’s inevitable that we will suffer isolation because we have entered the prison of self. And later we add to the sentence with self-justification and maybe self-righteousness, or self-condemnation and its ugly twin, self-pity. The devil returns only to taunt us by turning it all back on us, “The choice was yours alone. What did you expect but to be here alone with it afterwards?”
But here’s the good news of great joy.
Our Savior has already come.
We are already forgiven.
And nothing, I mean nothing, is forever destroyed save for the devil’s work.
Remember, that’s why Jesus came—to destroy the works of the devil. That includes death itself. But our children lost to abortion are safe in the arms of God.
Most of us have never faced a true enemy who was willing to blatantly lie to our faces and steal from us in an elaborate con with the help of our government AND cause us to pay someone to kill our family members.
One of the evil one’s temporary wins is that most people who have suffered his enmity remain unaware of his hand in it.
They walk away blaming themselves and silently suffering shame or punishing themselves in countless self-destructive behaviors. Or they may blame others and destroy relationships. All while still yielding their bodies and minds and spirits to the evil one.
This blame is key to the devil’s strategy. He loathes us with a seething rage because we are beloved by God. It isn’t about your personality or character. Those are just attributes he exploits to keep you in line with his plan and his big picture.
Recognizing when you are trapped in blame is key to sensing your captivity. It is the red flag that you are not yielded to the Holy Spirit and thus are subject to the enemy (Rom. 6 and Rom. 8).
One of the ways the Bible describes peace with God is to call you blameless. It means innocent, reconciled, pardoned, justified, righteous and fit for relationship with God.
“May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23b).
How can that happen? We’re forgiven in Christ Jesus, and his bodily sacrifice of blood has bought our pardon.
And again, what is the purpose of this lavish forgiveness? To make us good forgivers! To make us capable of pardoning, reconciling and restoring those who have trespassed against us.
Abortion blocks that so often. Someone failed to help you be pregnant as they should have. Someone promoted abortion to you. Someone blackmailed you with threats.
Now a child is dead. How do you possibly forgive that?
At the center must be your humble awareness of all the ways that you fall short and yet are now blameless before God as you look to Jesus.
“He will strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 1:8).
And why? The reason is so tender.
Jesus does this so we can be his home here, his temple; and to fit us for our home with him in heaven.
He staked everything on you saying yes to be his home when he told those who sought to kill him that he would rebuild the temple in three days (John 2:19). Later his words were twisted by false witnesses who had no vision that one day you and I would represent that rebuilding.
“For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, ‘I will live in them and walk in them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (2 Cor. 6:16; see also Lev. 26:12 and Ezek.37:27).
“Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God” (1 Corinthians 6:19b).
“You also are being built together into a dwelling place of God through the Spirit” (Eph. 2:22).
The promise of our bodies becoming holy after the defilement of abortion is so deep and beautiful.
The bleeding woman helps us here. She’s mentioned in Matthew, Mark and Luke. She shows us the miracle of Jesus’ imputed righteousness. Before he came, our bodies could cause us to be impure, whether through disease like leprosy or normal functions. Her problem was a disease of her normal menstrual function—making her doubly impure. She would need to be outside the community for the ritual cleansing and isolation that entailed. But just touching Jesus’ garment made her clean and changed her status from outsider to his own child.
And she is the only one he called, “Daughter.”
Our bodies matter.
Many have said the battle is in the mind. But that underestimates the plans of the devil for our destruction.
He wants our bodies. If he can induce us to abortion, he gains a double win. Destroying our peace and denying God to the children God created as his home here on earth by destroying their bodies before birth.
But our bodies belong to God. He holds our children in heaven, and He lives in those of us gentle enough to bow and agree to make Him a home.
Praise God for the bigger story beyond the devil’s evil scheme!
Thank God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. {eoa}
Kim Ketola is the host and executive producer of Cradle My Heart Today, a companion to her award-winning book Cradle My Heart, Finding God’s Love After Abortion. Kim’s radio work earned her induction into the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2013. Cradle My Heart is a safe space for listeners to share stories and connect with others who are finding God’s love—especially during unintended pregnancy and after abortion.
