Wolves are the ultimate wild dog and can be found all over the world. They may not look the same, but wolves are universally known to be one of the bad boys of nature. They travel in family packs and are organized ranking order from the Alpha wolf to the Omega wolf. The Alpha Wolf is the leader of the pack and is normally a male wolf. When they hunt, they hunt for the weak animals. If the lesser ranked wolves can track and kill the prey, the older ones wait and watch. If it's a bigger prey, the older higher ranked wolves do the hunting. The Alpha wolf is the wisest in the pack and rules. What he wants goes. Where he goes, the rest of the pack follows. He is not used to losing battles, losing means losing his place as Alpha wolf and possible death or banishment from the pack. Wolf packs are also territorial. They stake their claim on a plot of ground and do not allow competitors into their domain.
One thing I have noticed in my studying of wolves is that if the prey stands its ground, and looks the wolves in the eyes, they have a better chance of surviving. But if the prey turns tail and runs, they are more than likely doomed.
They sound scary, but are one of nature's teachers. They teach their prey how to fear and how to watch their backs and young. They teach them that they must be vigilant when the scent of wolf is detected. They teach other animals how to live life in fear and trembling.
Wolves are the pinnacle of pagan/Wiccan animal symbols and are known as the teacher in Wiccan meaning. Also, in the Narnia series, "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe", the wolf was the police force for Jadis, the White Witch. They prowled around doing her bidding and taking out and taught lessons to other creatures that were holding out for Aslan to return. The sheriff was a large black wolf, Morgrim, otherwise known as the alpha wolf of his pack. He ruled alongside Jadis keeping Narnia in the cold and in fear.
A while back on a prayer walk, I thought that I was hearing a big dog behind me panting. I looked back several times and saw nothing. I did hear little yapping dogs in the distance and for a while I thought that what I was hearing might have been those little dogs and just thought it was a big wolf. But I kept hearing it. Finally when I turned around, I 'saw' with my spiritual eyes, a huge black wolf following me. It was head high at the shoulders and stalking. I turned around and kept walking.
This started a whole series of events that has opened my eyes to how the spiritual realm works. The wolf was an alpha male pursuing me. Just like in the natural, spiritual wolves have the same attack patterns and structure. They are territorial and travel in packs. They send the omega wolf first trying to get your attention away from Jesus. If that doesn't work, more aggressive powerful wolves come against you. If that doesn't work, the Alpha wolf will eventually come against you.
How do you come against them? Never be a lone ranger Christian. If you do, your chances of getting attack by wolves are MUCH higher. Always stand your ground against an attacking wolf. If it is to strong for you, ask for help. Look it in the eye and show it you are not afraid. Always be willing to ask others to fight with you in your battle against the wolves. They have no authority to win, except for what we give them. If we curl up and pretend it's not there to run, they attack with vengeance. Let your alpha wolf attach them (that is Jesus). He will willingly come and fight for you and vanquish the wolf pack on your tail. The more you fight, the stronger you get and the higher wolf that will attack. At times they leave you alone waiting for you to put your guard down or have a bad day and then they come at you with all the viciousness they can. I have at times looked theses wolves in the eye and yelled at them in Jesus name to leave me alone and while staring them down, I have asked Jesus to come and take care of the attacker for me.
Just as in Wiccan and pagan circles, the wolves do teach us things. They teach us where our weaknesses are, they teach us that we cannot live our Christian life alone. They also get upset when we go after Jesus with everything that we have in us and help others to do the same. If you are not being attacked periodically by wolves, you may need to check your spiritual walk.
How do they attack? They always attack your weaknesses, those places in your life that you are most susceptible. Have you struggled with a particular sin in the past? Expect attacks there. Do you struggle with depression or worries? Expect attacks there. Are you concerned with your finances? Expect attacks through major setbacks.
The goal of the wolf is to steal, kill and destroy you. Their goal is to get you side tracked in your spiritual walk. They want you to focus on their attack and not on Jesus. They want you to think you are weak and cannot fight against them and therefore give up. I want to encourage you to NEVER give up and be willing to be honest with someone you can trust with what you are struggling and fighting against. Allow others to fight with you, the more that fight with you the more strength you have to defeat it. They often try and make you feel like your spiritual walk is gone, but in fact the exact opposite is true. You really are growing if you are actively fighting back. But if you give up, they will destroy your spiritual walk. I am going to say this again, be willing to be totally honest with a trusted person who can walk through the attack with you and help you restore your spiritual health and heal the wounds the wolves have given you. Be encouraged, when you are being attacked, it can lead to a stronger spiritual walk and a closer relationship with others and a closer walk with Jesus.
I just read Romans 16:20 and came away with a HUGE truth that I feel I need to share. The last few days I have been under some major spiritual warfare. It was awful, I felt like I was being shredded emotionally and spiritually. Then I read this verse. It states: "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." It was as if it leaped off the page at me. So I did what comes naturally to me. I studied it, ripped the verse apart and put it back together and a peace flooded my heart.
From the Greek, this verse literally means that the God of Peace, or the God where peace comes from, will do the crushing of Satan under your feet. In ancient times, when a king defeated another king, he would symbolically place his foot on the neck of the king he defeated. It symbolizes the complete subjugation and possession and defeat of the captured king. This can be seen in Joshua 10:24 and Psalm 110:1. This was an act meant to humiliate the king or defeated foe.
If you notice the Romans 16 passage says God will crush Satan under your feet. This is a picture of God the King of peace, defeating Satan, and then instead of Him placing His foot on the neck of the enemy, he allows His son or daughter (and ultimately the Church, the bride of Christ) to place their foot on the neck of the enemy as a sign of victory. But who did the fighting? I am sure we can all say we have done our fair share of spiritual warfare, but the majority of the credit for fighting does not go to us, it goes to the God of peace. It is then after he has won, he allows us to place our foot on the enemies' neck, and not only place it there, God will crush him under your foot. The picture that comes to mind is of a person placing his foot on Satan's neck and then God placing His foot on top of ours as a symbol of who really defeated him. We may do what we think is a lot of warfare in fighting the enemy and even refusing to follow the wicked schemes he throws at us. But the picture here is not us doing the majority of the fighting. God does. We may help, but God does the fighting and God places Satan under our feet so that He can crush him, or destroy the work that he attempted to destroy us with.
That is good news to me. I have felt many times that I was the only one fighting and had to put all my effort into fighting and God just watched to see what the outcome would be. But Paul reminds us with his word picture that God did the fighting for us and we just got to have the privilege of being there when it happened. This did not happen in recent times, it happened when Jesus went to the cross. Jesus died, descended to hell and rose again in order that we might be free from the curse that Satan attempts to throw at us.
Even further, the Greek word for crush is even more intense. It does not mean crush like you step on a bug, it literally means to destroy, to shatter. It is in the 3rd person singular which means that God Himself will shatter, destroy, crush Satan under your feet. To make it even more intense, the word 'soon' literally means 'with quickness, with speed, and without delay. It is also singular meaning one person will do the crushing, meaning God Himself will do the crushing immediately. It was done a long time ago.
'But (I can hear you think) it sure doesn't feel like he is crushed. He fights me a lot and attempts to destroy me'. You have to understand something; Satan wants you to think he is still able to defeat you. If he can make you think he can defeat you he can. Satan is the ultimate deceiver. He loves to psych us out and make us think he is more powerful than he really is. Jesus has won the battle for us along time ago. All we have to do is remind that deceiver who has really won and then allow God to crush him once again under our feet. Get angry at the enemy; remind him of his crushing that he received from the God of peace. If you feel the enemy coming against you, call out to Jesus. Stand firm, but do not cower and let him win the battle of wits. You have won through Jesus. You have the victory through the God of peace. Why can I be confident of this? Because God's word tells us in 1 John 3:7 that "the Son of God came to destroy these works of the Devil." So when the enemy comes at you to try and tell you otherwise, you can say with confidence that the works of Devil are destroyed once and for all. It is something you can be sure of even when your circumstances and your thoughts and feelings tell you otherwise.
