All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
THE FOUNDATION STONE OF SPIRITUAL WARFARE
IT'S A SPIRITUAL BATTLE
“Greater is he who is us than he who is in the world.” ( 1John 4:4b KJV)
“ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” ( Ephesians 6: 10-12 NAS)
“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” ( Colossians 1:13 )
The first thing we need to understand is that we are not in a wrestling match with a human opponent, It is a spiritual battle that we can't fight with our intellect or with with or by any physical means. It is a spiritual battle that must be conquered by with the weapons of our warfare that are mighty through God.
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.” ( 2Corrinthians 10:4 KJV )
Paul wrote to timothy, “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” ( 2 Timothy 2: 1 )
Paul was telling him to be empowered, or enable by the divine influence( grace ) upon his heart, through Christ Jesus. So we see that it is truly a spiritual battle we are in that we can overcome not in our own strength, but through the power and authority of Jesus Christ and from his mighty strength in us.
“Finally, receive your power from the Lord and from his mighty strength. Put on all the armor that God supplies. In this way you can take a stand against the devil's strategies.” ( Ephesians 6:10-11 GWT )
What does it mean to put on the armor of God?
The answer is not to say a prayer as many assume, but it is by applying the armor to our lives. In other words the armor must be implemented and become a part to our lives.
The armor that God has supplied for us is to be able to stand in these evil days is;
The belt of truth
>“So then, take your stand! Fasten truth around your waist like a belt.” (Ephesians 6:14 NAS)
I like the thought of wrapping truth around my life like putting on a belt . The devil is the father of lies,
( John 8:44 ) but the truth sets us free from his evil influence when the lies are removed out of lives through the truth as revealed in the Word of God.
The breastplate of righteousness
The breast plate is God's approval. “Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction.” ( Romans 3:2 )
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” ( 2 Corinthians 5:21 )
In Christ Jesus even though we are all truly guilty of the sin we were born into, yet we are now blameless before God because of His sacrifice on our behalf by Jesus Christ.
The shoes of peace
The shoes of peace represent that we are ready to spread the Good News that gives peace. It's being firm-footed in the gospel of peace. When you get your shoes on you are ready to go;
The shield of faith
The Greek word here used, “is to stand under, that is, to be a foundation.” Faith is the foundation on which all our hopes for the future are built. For us it is the promise of eternal life through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the promise of victory in this present life over all the power of the enemy.
“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.” ( 2 Corinthians 2:14 )
The helmet of salvation
The Roman soldier wore on his head a metallic cap to protect it from blows, called a helmet.
Isaiah 59:17 says: “He put a helmet of salvation (deliverance ) on his head.”
Salvation, is the consciousness that we have a Savior able to save unto the uttermost.
“But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.” (Thessalonians5:8 )
The sword of the Spirit
“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” ( Hebrews 4:12 )
Matthew Henry's concise commentary;
“The Christian amour is made to be worn; and there is no putting off our amour till we have done our warfare, and finished our course. The combat is not against human enemies, nor against our own corrupt nature only; we have to do with an enemy who has a thousand ways of beguiling unstable souls. The devils assault us in the things that belong to our souls, and labor to deface the heavenly image in our hearts. We must resolve by God's grace, not to yield to Satan. Resist him, and he will flee.”
Prayer and petition
Pray by the Spirit – That is to pray through the influence of the Holy Spirit
“In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words.” ( Romans 8:2 )
“Use every kind of prayer and request there is. For the same reason be alert. Use every kind of effort and make every kind of request for all of God's people.” (Ephesians 6:18 )
As we apply these spiritual weapons to our personal lives we will walk in victory over all the power of the enemy with the help of the Holy Spirit, and the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
EXPOSING THE TRAPS OF THE ENEMY
The enemy( Satan ) uses lies to create doubt, to lure us into his trap.
In the book of Genesis the Devil in the form of a serpent created doubt in Eve by saying, “Did God really say? (Genesis 3:1)
His opening move pull mankind into into sin and rebellion against God is to create doubt through lies and distortions of the truth that he is trying to get Eve to believe.
In Matthew chapter four Jesus is being tempted in the same way. “If you are the son of God?'
First the Devil raises doubt, then he sends the temptation to try to lead us astray, and his tactics have not changed.
The enemy tries to make us believe that being a follower of Jesus is to restrictive.
Who lavishly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.( 1 Timothy 6:17 NAS )
He seeks to get us to ignores the great blessing that comes from a relationship with God,
or the riches of Christian marriage and family, the security of a Christian home, the level of friendship that we can enjoy as Christians, and countless other things that God offers to those who know and love the Lord.
He seeks to entrap us into thinking and concentrating on a tiny unimaginable list of prohibitions of what Christians are not allowed to do.
There are very few things that God does not allow us to do, and there are very good reasons why He prohibits them.
In the case of Eve, the Devil said to her that God was keeping them from something that was very desirable. In this case it was being like God knowing good and evil. ( Genesis 3:5 )
Satan tries makes God out to be a spoiled sport and that he does not want what's best for our lives. He tries to make us think we are really missing out on life by obeying God.
The Devil tries to tell us there will not be a penalty for disobedience
He tries to entrap us is to get us to believe that there will not be a penalty for our disobedience.
Like Eve in Genesis 3:4 he says to us, “You will not surely die,”
He says in affect that it won't hurt you, or do you any harm if you disobey God, but the truth is disobedience causes us to miss out on so much that God intends for us.
The Devil's favorite entrapment
It was just brought to my attention that God gave Adam and Eve a chance to repent. God said to them in Genesis 3:11, "Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat fruit from the tree I commanded you not to eat from?"
Instead of repenting they blamed;
Did you eat fruit from the tree I commanded you not to eat from?" The man answered, "That woman, the one you gave me, gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."Then the LORD God asked the woman, "What have you done?""The snake deceived me, and I ate," the woman answered. ( Genesis 3:11-13 )
We can't blame each other, or even the devil when we sin.
James 1:13-15
13When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
In conclusion
The Devil uses lies to lead us to doubt, then he tells us we are missing out because Gods boundaries of conduct are to restrictive and that we are missing out. Then the Devil cons us into believing that there will be no consequences for our disobedience, then he tries to get us to blame others for our sin.
1John 1:9 says that if we just admit that we have sinned, then God will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
God want us to know that even if we fall into one of the traps of the enemy that he will always be a very present help in our time of need. He also does not want us to be ignorant of the Devil's devices that he uses to seek to entrap us.
1John 4:4 says; “You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”
1John 2:1 says; “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;”
Prayer
Praise you God for the victory that we have over the power enemy. Father we need to grow in our understanding of how to walk in victory that you have provided for us. You have totally freed us from the grasp of this present world and we can walk in the power that you have provided over all the power of the enemy.Open up our understanding of the all the things you have given to us to assure our victory. Our greatest asset is you Holy Spirit who leads me to victory in this present life. You are constantly helping us, teaching us, leading us, we desire to be submitted to you, take full control of our lives.
We also overcome by the the blood of the Lamb and the word of our own testimonies of the grace that has brought to us everything we need to live a victorious Christian life. In the name of Jesus, amen
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by mary jamieson on
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hi AGAIN the man at the garden centre said to me i am on a mission ....................yes i am i want to know what caused my daughter and her husband to spilt they both came to australia to work less and have more quality time with their children,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,my ex husband came her last yr with his partner who i do now discern has a very jelous spirit and the marriage was over in a day,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,praise god for my friend ron and the POWER OF THE HOLYSPIRIT THAT HAS LED ME HERE AND TO SEE WHAT IS NEEDED AND NOT BE EFFECTED BY IT ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,THE FIGHT IS NOT OF THE FLESH BUT OF THE POWERS AND PRINCIPALITIES THANK GOD JESUS HAS THE VICTORY OVER THIS ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,MY PRAYER IS THAT I UNDERSTAND MORE LIKE RON TO PRAY THE RIGHT PRAYERS AMEN ,, FATHER REMOVE ALL JEALOUS SPIRITS FROM MY DAUGHTER AND HER HUSBAND AMEN
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Permalink Reply by Pastor Bob B on
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Truly spiritual warfare is about helping others get and stay free from the snares of the devil. Thank God for you standing in the gap for your family Mary Jamieson
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Permalink Reply by Tawake on
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Praise the good LORD for He is kindness,love and always cares for us.
JOHN 14:6 Jesus said to him,"I'am the way the truth and the life.No one comes to the Father except through me."
The fight is not of the flesh but of the principalities.....If we are not born again,then unexpected situation will happen in our life and we need to have a pure relationship with Christ and fight off the evil spirit.We need to pray for our families and friend who are going through tough times.
May the good LORD give kind,loving and forgiving heart to your daughter and her husband and only Him (Jesus Christ) can put together what has man seperated.
God Bless you mary. -
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Nancy you have grown up in the Lord in a very healthy way, just like eating the right foods and also exercising makes our bodies healthy, so we need to be as 1Peter 5:8 says to ; 'Be well balanced.' I have seen with my own eyes what happens when some one looses that balance.
When our children are young we do not put all kind of adult responsibilities upon them until they grow up and mature, then they start to take on more responsibility. That is why I am a real advocate for maturing Christians.
Maturity will come as naturally as growing up physically as long as all the elements are there for growth.
So that is why you did not have spiritual warfare on your plate before as you do now. -
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Permalink Reply by CESAR HUSMILLO on
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I hope I can achieve the balance that you have already achieved so that I would overcome all the challenges in my spiritual journey.
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While we are growing in the Lord it is so important to build good relationships with other Christians that can help us in our journey. I never realized until many years after being a Christian how important these relationships are in our victorious walk as Christians.
God spoke a simple word to me that changed everything for me in dealing with spiritual warfare, those words are; "STAND NO MORE ALONE"! -
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Permalink Reply by Wendy Evans on
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Thanks for sharing this very timely article!
Be blessed! -
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Wendy I am glad you enjoyed this foundation stone, check out the other 11other foundation stones.
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I did check them out,they are all wonderful,thanks for sharing!
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Permalink Reply by BloodBought357 on
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This is one of the most important books in the Bible for me. As a former (cured/delivered) drug addict, I have a little experence with this topic. God can do all things, however he is seletive about the things he does. For example. lieing, sining or any one or more of things like this. I am not an elquent writer, I have troble with speling, sentance structure and much more. However, what I do have is a deep and abiding Love for God.
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