Part 4 – Spiritual Warfare
(1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV) (16) Rejoice always, (17) pray continually, (18) give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Prayer should be our first response, not our last resort.
(Colossians 2:13-15 NLT) You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for He forgave all our sins. (14) He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. (15) In this way, He disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by His victory over them on the cross.
(Luke 19:13 KJV) …and said unto them, Occupy till I come.
We are to take a stand on the Word of God against a defeated enemy.
Believers should not magnify the battle; they should magnify the victory!
Genuine spiritual warfare has to do mostly with dealing with your mind and your flesh and fighting the good fight of faith.
(1 Timothy 6:12 NIV) Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
(2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NKJV) (3) For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. (4) For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, (5) casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
Do we wrestle against the enemy?
(Ephesians 6:12-13 NKJV) For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (13) Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
To overcome the enemy, you must stay in the arena of faith.
(Acts 16:16-26 NLT) One day as we were going down to the place of prayer, we met a demon-possessed slave girl. She was a fortune-teller who earned a lot of money for her masters. (17) She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, and they have come to tell you how to be saved.” (18) This went on day after day until Paul got so exasperated that he turned and said to the demon within her, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And instantly it left her. (19) Her masters’ hopes of wealth were now shattered, so they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities at the marketplace. (20) “The whole city is in an uproar because of these Jews!” they shouted to the city officials. (21) “They are teaching customs that are illegal for us Romans to practice.” (22) A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods. (23) They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn’t escape. (24) So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks. (25) Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening. (26) Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off!
(Ephesians 2:5-6 NKJV) even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), (6) and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
We wrestle and overcome the enemy’s forces from a position of victory.