Spiritual Warfare

All Believers are in warfare:

When we became Christians we made a decision to join God’s army, which means we have taken sides.
In life when there are sides it means one side wants something the other side has.
The war in the Middle East at present is more about land and money than anything else
The struggle in Ireland is not about religion but about power and money
Often what we see in the natural is a replica of what happens in the spiritual.

Looking at the terrorist situation this week:

The threat of what they might do has caused so much negative response and reaction, that the damage they wanted to cause has been achieved without an attack.

Talking negatively about what might or could happen brings:

Panic
Overreaction
Massive misinformation and misunderstanding
Lot’s of noise and bluster, lives disrupted

When it’s all over everyone will ask “what was that all about

Just like the church, seeing demons behind every bush, stamping around, screaming out prayers as loud as they can. 1Pe 5:7 …casting all your anxiety onto Him, for He cares for you. 1Pe 5:8 Be sensible and vigilant, because your adversary the Devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking someone he may devour;

I have even heard of teams flying over cities dropping prayer bombs on the enemy???

Pastor Christopher spoke a great message last week about inherited or generational curses. He really bought a balanced view on the subject.

He said this, “often it’s not a curse but rather inherited lifestyles, life patterns and inherited thought’s or behaviours.

What I would like to do today is demystify the whole thing of spiritual warfare

What does my enemy want: The enemy’s target?

So what do I have as a Christian that my enemy wants from me? It must be very important.

Position and Faith:

As believers, God has given us dominion on the Earth. He has placed us in a position of authority as His under shepherds or rulers. He has positioned us as members of His family and given us an inheritance that is directly from heaven. The very thing that Satan was after, that got him thrown out of heaven.

As believers it is our faith in God, His word and His promise that enables us to walk in that divine place of authority.

John 10:10 The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).

The first thing we notice here is that there is a sequence.

Steal: Before the enemy can kill us he first must steal something from us. This something is such a powerful, vital weapon that unless he steals it or removes it from us he cannot touch us.

This weapon is our faith. If we maintain our faith in God and His word then the enemy cannot knock us off our God given place of authority.

2 Corinthians 10:3-4 For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and using mere human weapons. 2Co 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood], but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds,

Our weapons are spiritual, powerful; they are mighty in God for the overthrow and destruction of Satan’s strongholds.

1 John 5:4 For whatever is born of God is victorious over the world; and this is the victory that conquers the world, even our faith

Faith is the thing the enemy is after, it is a spiritual force that enables us to access the very power and authority of God that ensures victory in our lives. The defeat, overthrow and pulling down of everything that belongs to the enemy.

Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to every one who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. But set your mind to be right-minded, even as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.

That is the God kind of faith, that can move mountains, remove fear, disease, sickness, poverty and ignorance

And all believers have it. It is God’s faith in us that allows us to use His weapons, put on His armour, bring about His will and enforce the defeat of the enemy on the earth.

Ephesians 6:16 Above all, take the shield of faith, with which you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

Above all, more than anything else it is our faith that will subdue, quench, destroy, and render totally ineffectual every attack of the enemy.

So this then is what the enemy is after, this which is the greatest gift from God. This gift that enables every other gift every other blessing and promise from God work.

Once the devil can steal our faith he can come in with sickness, disease and any other thing that he uses to kill us. Since our faith (belief) is founded on the word we can see why the parable of the sower or soils is so important.

Mark 4:13 And He said to them, Do you not discern and understand this parable? How then is it possible for you to discern and understand all the parables?

Mar 4:14 The sower sows the Word.

Kill: Once the enemy has stolen our faith there are many ways he can kill us through, Sickness, depression or even worse he can just kill our dreams and vision and put an abrupt stop to us reaching our destiny.

Your destiny is not just about you. On your route to achieving destiny you will encounter many other people who are also on their road to destiny.

As we get involved with each other through walking the path God has set for us we help others and they help us enabling each of us to grow and learn, taking us further down our path. You stopping can hinder another from reaching their destiny as others stopping can hinder yours. Taking us off track then can be disastrous for both us and others.

So he killed us, stopped us from fulfilling our dream, so what’s left to destroy?

Destroy: If Satan then takes away the faith of Christianity he then takes away the power, if he takes the power he then takes or destroys the testimony of the believer and the church (testimony – us talking of an act of faith that came to pass).

Larri’s powerful testimony is not just that she was healed of incurable cancer, but that she lacked fear. She defeated Satan right at the point of his attack. She said, if I die I win because I go to be with Jesus, if I live I win because I have a glorious testimony.

Fear filled words activate Satan, faith filled words activate God.

Jesus did not go into the wilderness and fast for forty days to overcome Satan, he was not trying to get enough power and anointing to defeat him, he was praying about his life and ministry. He defeated Satan with the word, spoken in faith.

That’s why Satan has tried to discredit the faith churches and preachers.

If he can remove faith from the churches then the Bibles credibility is destroyed

So we see, Steal, Kill and destroy

No healings, miracles signs and wonders

Verse 10 goes on to say “I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)”. Jesus speaking.

Zoe the God kind of life, the faith life.

What enables us to stay in there? The very things that got you to where you are, will keep you going

Quiet time/Listening

Prayer

Reading the word

Fellowship

Trevor Loveday, 13/08/2006