S10.02 | Battling Opposition: Recognizing & Overcoming Satan’s TacticS
In this episode, Carla will be sharing insights from her personal experience and professional coaching on how Satan often brings opposition to our healing and growth. We'll explore the four primary ways the enemy tries to hinder our progress: discouragement, doubt, distraction, and disagreement.
Together, we'll uncover strategies grounded in Scripture to combat these challenges and stay steadfast in our journey with Christ. Stick around, as I'll also be inviting you to my free Vision Workshop on January 20th, designed to help you create a God-centered vision for 2025 and equip you to stand firm against opposition. Let's get started!
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Key Takeaways
Satan's Opposition:
Carla explains how Satan opposes our journey towards healing and growth in Christ. She emphasizes that the enemy doesn't want us to root our identity in Christ because it makes us more effective for God's kingdom.
Four Common Ways Satan Opposes Us:
Discouragement
: Carla shares how discouragement can arise from unmet expectations and setbacks. She encourages listeners to combat this by focusing on God's word and practicing gratitude.
Doubt
: Doubt often sneaks in when God calls us to do something challenging. Carla advises remembering God's faithfulness and keeping a prayer journal to see how prayers have been answered over time.
Distraction
: In a busy world, it's easy to get sidetracked by urgent tasks or social media. Carla highlights the importance of setting boundaries and creating routines to stay focused on God's calling.
Disagreement
: Disagreements and disunity can block us from achieving what God intends for us. Carla encourages quick forgiveness and seeking unity within the church body.
Using the Shield of Faith:
Referencing Ephesians 6:16, Carla reminds listeners to take up the shield of faith in all circumstances. Faith acts as our defense against Satan's attacks, allowing us to extinguish all flaming darts of the evil one.
Bonus Information: Carla invites you to her free workshop on January 20th at 7:00 PM Eastern. This workshop will help you through the process of seeking God, reflecting, setting a vision, and sharing it with others. Register now to receive the replay and an informative workbook designed to guide you through this transformative exercise. REGISTER HERE
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Connect With Carla:
Foundations to Healing—-> https://www.carlaarges.com/foundations-of-healing
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Resources:
5 Steps to Building Resiliency
Affirming Truths Facebook Community
5 Tips for Overcoming a Negative Body Image
Who You Say I Am Biblical Affirmation Cards
TRANSCRIPT
Carla Arges [00:00:08]:
Hey friends. Welcome to Affirming Truths. I'm your friend and host Carla Arges. This show is a safe place to share our struggles, grow in faith, and root our identity in Christ.
Carla Arges [00:00:20]:
My hope is that you will leave.
Carla Arges [00:00:21]:
Each episode feeling encouraged in your journey. Subscribe so you don't miss an episode.
Carla Arges [00:00:27]:
And it would mean the world to.
Carla Arges [00:00:28]:
Me if you would leave a review. I am so glad you're here.
Carla Arges [00:00:32]:
Let's get started. Hello friends. Welcome to another episode of Affirming Truth. I am your host Carla and I am so glad that you're joining me here in 2025. Here is something that I know for sure from my own life experience in working on my trauma, healing and thriving with mental illness as I have continued to walk through the sanctification process. Here's what I know from working with clients. I've been working with dozens and dozens and dozens of women through my coaching and my courses and my free workshops. Here is what I know Satan brings opposition.
Carla Arges [00:01:26]:
The enemy does not want us healing and growing and rooting our identity in Christ. The enemy knows that the more healed we get from our wounds, the deeper we press into God, the more we're going to accomplish for the kingdom, the more that we become who God originally intended us to be. Before he even made the foundations of the world. Before Satan sin entered the world, he had a picture of who you and I were going to be. The Enemy does not want us becoming more like that woman because that woman makes impact for the kingdom through her generational breaking off of curses and implementing generational blessings through her testimony, through her walks of bold faith for her stance in the in the midst of the storm. The enemy does not want you healing so he will bring opposition and we talked last week about creating a God centered vision. I hope you're joining me on my free workshop on January 20th about creating a God centered vision for 2025 when it comes to your healing and your growth. But here is something that you have to be aware of as a Christian woman here healing and growing in Christ.
Carla Arges [00:02:56]:
Satan will oppose you. He will oppose you. And in my experience personally and working with women, there are four ways that I commonly see Satan try to oppose our work in healing and growing and rooting and making impact for the kingdom and becoming more of the freed woman that God went to the cross for. Right? There's four ways that I see the enemy try to oppose us and listen. We have to be very aware that this is true. First Peter 5, 8 says the devil prowls like a roaring lion Seeking whom he can devour. The enemy is on the lookout to bring us down. He does not want us thriving in Christ.
Carla Arges [00:03:52]:
Jesus tells us in John 10 that the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. He does not want you healing and growing. We even see in Job, Job one that the enemy, Satan comes before God. God asks Satan what he's been doing and Satan answers, I've been from going to and fro into the earth and from walking up and down it. The enemy enemy is on the lookout to oppose you. He's on the lookout for people that are drawing the line in the sand and saying, I am going to change, I am going to heal. I am going to change the trajectory of my family. I am going to no longer live as in bondage to my trauma, but I am going to be an overcomer in Christ.
Carla Arges [00:04:46]:
See, the Satan isn't going to oppose you when you're sitting in trauma and allowing trauma to win. Satan is isn't going to oppose you when you are are living in victim mentality and just seeing that, oh, all bad things happen to me. This is just my lot in life. The enemy's not going to oppose you if you've given up on overcoming your mental illness and thriving in Christ. The enemy's not going to oppose you if you are are settled being who you are in your wounding rather than moving toward who God wants you to be. No, the enemy opposes you when you say no more. I'm drawing my line in the sand and I am going to be that which God is calling to me to be. He's calling me higher and I'm going to partner with the Holy Spirit into my healing in facing the tough emotions, in working with a coach or a therapist in, in in addressing this, taking ownership over this.
Carla Arges [00:05:50]:
This is where the enemy is going to opp. And there's four ways that I often see the enemy oppose us. Discouragement, doubt, distraction and disagreement. Discouragement, Doubt, distraction and disagreement. So discouragement. Oh man, I've got to say this is one of the big ways that the enemy opposes me in my own personal life. Discouragement is a big way. Discouragement and doubt are my Achilles heels that the enemy likes to chomp at when I'm working on growing in Christ.
Carla Arges [00:06:29]:
Discouragement comes from things not working out how I thought they would. You know, sometimes we have a view of what our healing is going to look like and it never looks like how we intended. I always tell my clients it's not a straight line. It's two steps forward and a step back. And it's messy and not clean, but God joins us in the mess. But when you actually do take that step back, it can be so discouraging. And the enemy comes and says, see, you can't do it. God's not in your corner.
Carla Arges [00:07:04]:
God's not helping you. Where is God? Oh, if you could do this, you wouldn't have made this misstep. You wouldn't be stepping back. He comes to discourage us. He comes to discourage us. But God, the Holy Spirit is our comforter and our encourager. And so when we feel discouraged, I want to encourage you to focus on God's word, to, to practice gratitude for how far you've come. You know, 2024 had me battling a lot of discouragement.
Carla Arges [00:07:46]:
You know, as a business owner, I'm constantly putting my there, you know, looking for women that need my support. I put myself out there with the podcast. I put myself out there for coaching and for courses. I'm putting myself out there for something really special that I'm excited about, that I'll tell you about next week that is totally God led and God ordained. But when you put yourself out there, you're bound to have rejection, right? Not everyone is going to accept us. There's bound to be rejection, and that can be discouraging. And I've faced some of that discouragement. And the enemy would whisper in my ear, quit, quit.
Carla Arges [00:08:36]:
But God says, no, I have a hope and a future for you. This is the path. Walk on it. Yes, the path is going to have obstacles, but you are an overcomer in Christ. So shake off the dust off your feet and keep going forward in faith and trust. The other way Satan tries to oppose us is with doubt. This is another area where he personally comes at me, is with doubt. Is God really gonna show up? God's calling me to do something scary.
Carla Arges [00:09:17]:
Maybe in your healing journey, God is calling you to sit with the difficult emotion that you have been avoiding. Maybe God is calling you to put up a boundary. Maybe God is calling you to a deeper level of forgiveness and we can doubt God. Are you really going to equip me to do this? I can't do it. God, are you really going to be there? When we don't see an easy path before us, we can doubt God. You really want me to go this way? This way doesn't seem easy or clear or to be working. Seeing comes at us with doubt. But we can know who God is.
Carla Arges [00:10:09]:
We need to remember God's faithfulness. The Bible is full of remembrance. The feasts were all about Remembrance. This is why I encourage my clients and I do this myself. Have a prayer journal where you record your prayers and go back and see how God has answered them in his faithfulness. Keep a gratitude journal so you can go back and see, wow, God has been faithful, not just faithful in the old times of the Bible, but he is a faithful God today. He is faithful to you today. The fourth way the enemy likes to oppose us from doing what God is calling us to do is through distraction.
Carla Arges [00:11:03]:
Oh, all these other urgent things come up. Oh, we live in a busy world. We're, we're really busy. This got to get done. This got to get done. Gotta say yes to this. Gotta say yes to this. The kids have to be in all these programs.
Carla Arges [00:11:16]:
There's so much going on, I don't have time to focus on my healing or wow, my healing is really hard right now. I'm going to avoid it. And I'm going to distract myself with hours of scrolling social media. And don't say you've never done that. I know that you have. I know that you've been scrolling and then all of a sudden caught yourself and been like, wow, I've been here for a long time. He distracts us. And he's so cunning in how he distracts us because he doesn't just distract us with bad things.
Carla Arges [00:11:55]:
Sure, sometimes he distracts, but he distracts us with good things, with things that seem good in the moment. Right. He tempts us away from our call. He tempts us away from our purpose with something that looks good. We have to remember that every yes we say to something good, we're saying no to something great, potentially. If God is calling you to heal, if God is calling you to break free of the bondage of trauma, if God is calling you into a deeper level of forgiveness, if God is calling you to a deeper level of rooting yourself in him and who he says you are, you're gonna have to say no to some good things that want to distract you. Distraction is such a sneaky little way that the enemy opposes us, and so you have to be on guard for that. The other way the enemy tries to oppose us is in disagreement.
Carla Arges [00:13:06]:
I don't know if you've ever noticed sometimes where just getting out the door for church, like you're fighting with your kids, you're fighting with your spouse. You go to church in a grumpy mood and there is something waiting for you there that the enemy is trying to block your heart off from because you are in disagreement. There is Disunity reigning. You know, a lot of Paul's letters to the church were about disunity and reminding them that as a church, we need to be united. The enemy likes to get us off course for making impact for the kingdom through disagreement and disunity. And in those moments, we have to be ready to forgive quickly. We have to seek unity. We have to pray for wisdom.
Carla Arges [00:14:03]:
We cannot allow disagreement to come in and rot the good thing God wants to do in and through us, both as individuals and as members of the church body. So how do you withstand Satan's opposition? Well, you focus on God's word. You go back to God's word. You set boundaries where necessary, not just on others, but yourself. Do you find yourself getting distracted by social media? Put a boundary on yourself around that. Create routine. Yeah, routine can be holy. Routine can be holy.
Carla Arges [00:14:52]:
It can get you focused on the movement forward. Rather than being discouraged by what's not happening, you focus on what you need to do. Remember God's faithfulness. Combat lies with truth. Guys, I have a freebie all about renewing your mind and all about how you combat those lies with truth. You can renew your mind. You can rewire your thinking. You gotta practice gratitude.
Carla Arges [00:15:24]:
Satan will try to discourage you so much and cause you to doubt. You gotta practice gratitude for all God's blessings and all the ways he shows up faithful. My affirming truth for you today is found in Ephesians 6:16. In all circumstances, discouragement, doubt, distraction, disagreement. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. Where is your faith when discouragement comes? Where is your faith when doubt comes? Where is your faith when distraction comes? Where is your faith when disagreement comes? Where is your faith? It is your shield of faith, your trust in God and the finished work at the cross and what God's promises are over you that extinguish the flaming darts of the evil one. Satan has come to oppose you. But in Christ, you are an overcomer and Satan cannot take from you what God has given you unless you relinquish it to him.
Carla Arges [00:16:42]:
So stand firm in faith, focusing on God's word and combating his lies with the truth. Guys, I want to invite you once again to my 2025 vision workshop. We're going to talk about opposition during this workshop because if you have a vision that God gives you, you can be sure the enemy is going to.
Carla Arges [00:17:03]:
Try to oppose it.
Carla Arges [00:17:04]:
And so we're going to talk about that in this workshop. It's free, but you do have to register so you get the workbook and the link to the session as well as the replay. If you can't join us live. It's happening January 20th and the link to register is in the show notes and I hope to see you there. Ready for a God centered vision, Ready to put on your armor of God as we walk into 2025. I'll talk to you later.
Carla Arges [00:17:42]:
Thanks for joining me today. I hope we're already friends on social media, but if we're not, come find me on Instagram @carlaarges or @affirming Truth. Can't wait to see you back here next week. Bye friends.