When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we instantly become a target for the enemy - the devil. We have to come to the understanding that as Christians, we have been given many spiritual weapons to defeat the attacks of the devil and his cohorts. The kingdom of darkness has no authority over us as long as we know who we are in Christ, and the weapons we have to fight the good fight of faith. 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 KJV says - "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled."
We are flesh and blood humans, so we are still in a fleshly body, however, we are not to do war according to flesh and blood standards. The war we fight now is a spiritual war with a real enemy - the devil, and we are well equipped with supernatural weapons that will destroy every attack that the devil and his demons assault us with. The weapons we have are mighty weapons that get the job done. Weapons that pull down every stronghold the enemy hits us with. It's called a strong hold for a reason - because it has a strong hold upon our lives if we don't successfully recognize it, and eliminate it. When the Word says to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, it's talking about those times when the devil will whisper his lies in your ear to see if you will side with what he's saying. This is where we must be on our spirtual toes. When the devil blurts out his pathetic lies, we immediately resist him, and cast that thought down, and command it to be obedient to the Word of God. James 4:7 says - "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." Many times we like to quote the last half of that verse, but in truth, the only way the last half will work, is if we are doing what the first half says! It says to Submit ourselves to God. When we submit to God and walk in His ways, then we have the authority to successfully resist the devil, and he has no choice but to flee from us.
So, what are these weapons that we have to fight the good fight of faith? Well, there are several, and I want to show you some of them. First off, we have The Name of Jesus. The Name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, is the Name that is above all names, and when we speak that Name, the devil and his demons tremble. The demonic kingdom knows the power in the Name of Jesus because Jesus defeated the devil when He hung on the cross and paid the price for the whole world. Jesus took the keys of death, hell, and the grave and made a public spectacle of the demonic kingdom. Philippians 2:9-11 says - "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name which is above every name: That at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." When you are in a crisis situation and don't know what to do, just speak the Name of Jesus, and watch as your situation turns around for the good. Proverbs 18:10 says - "The Name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe." There is power in the Name of Jesus !
The next spirtual weapon we have is The blood of Jesus. Oh what power there is in the precious shed blood of Jesus Christ. During the old covenant they only had the blood of bulls and goats, but under the new covenant, we have the shed blood of Jesus which cleanses from sin (1 John 1:7), and heals, redeems, and gives protection to the believer. There is life in the blood - (Leviticus 17:11). The bible states that we are overcomers because of the blood. Just look at Revelation 12:11 - "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." We overcome the devil by the very blood of Jesus Christ - the Lamb upon the Throne. Christians need to understand the power and protection there is in the blood. Learn to daily plead the blood over yourself, your family, friends, car, etc. The enemy can't get past the blood line when it is proclaimed by faith. There is wonder working power in the blood !
Our next spiritual weapon is The Word of God. The Bible is the written Word of God, and is a mighty weapon against the enemy. Hebrews 4:12 says - "For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Ephesians 6:17 tells us that The Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit. We can wield a natural, physical sword all day long and try to poke the devil with it, but our attempts will be in vain. On the other hand, however, we can wield the Sword of the Spirit - God's Word, and that cuts the devil and his cohorts in pieces. I'm not talking about hitting him over the head with your Bible, I'm talking about speaking the Word of God out of your mouth, out loud - that is how we use the Sword of the Spirit to wage succesful spiritual warfare. Isaiah 40:8 says - "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the Word of our God shall stand for ever." The Word of God is what we measure everything by. Only God's Word will stand. Learn to talk back to the devil like Jesus did (Matthew 4:1-11), and use the Word of God as your spiritual Sword !
The next spiritual weapon we are going to look at is praying in tongues. Jude verse 20 says - "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost" I think many believers lose sight of the spiritual power they have when they pray in their Holy Ghost language. It's the Holy Spirit Who gives the utterance, and He uses our mouth to speak forth His will to the Father. Praying in your prayer language of tongues is the only type of prayer that the devil cannot understand. That truly makes this a powerful spiritual weapon to destroy the devil's evil plan for our lives. Romans 8:26-27 says - "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." Praying in the Holy Spirt, is praying the only perfect prayer - the true will of God. The Holy Spirit of God is interceding to the Father on our behalf. (See also Acts 1:1-8, 2:1-4, 4:31, 19:1-6)
Now we are going to look at our next spiritual weapon of warfare - Binding and Loosing. Jesus said in Matthew 16:18-19 - "And I say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Just to clear things up, Jesus was not saying that Peter was the rock. The rock referred to is the revelation that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God (see verses 13-17). Jesus was telling us that He has given us the very keys of the kingdom of heaven. If someone gave you the key TO their house, that would mean you had limited access. However, when someone gives you the keys OF their house, it means you have access to everything. Just think about it - we have the keys OF the kingdom of heaven - meaning we as believers have access to everything in heaven ! So since we have been given these spiritual keys, we better know how to use them. The keys are binding and loosing. We bind the enemy and foul spirits of infirmity, poverty, perversion, depression, oppression, etc, and we loose the gifts of healing, abundance, peace, joy, wholeness, etc. To bind and to loose is basically forbidding (binding), and allowing (loosing). So, when we take our rightful authority over a situation, God is right there backing us up all the way. We as Christians must use the authority that Jesus has given us. In Luke 10:18-19, Jesus said - "...I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you." That word power also means authority. We have the power and authority over the devil and his demons because Jesus Himself has delegated that authority to us as His representatives. See also Matthew 18:18 for more on binding and loosing.
Now that we know what some of the weapons of our warfare are, we need to start using these weapons every day. We need to come to that place where we are standing our ground, and watching the devil and his demons flee in terror. So we have our weapons, but we must also put on our spiritual clothing - our armor as the Bible calls it. Ephesians 6:10-20 goes into detail about the armor of God that every Christian should put on each and every day. The armor consists of: The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the Gospel boots of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the Sword of the Spirit - The Word of God (as we looked at earlier), and Prayer. So when we look at this armor, we actually see that what we are putting on is Jesus Himself. His attributes clothe us and protect us from the wiles and arrows of the devil. So when we get up each day, we put on our armor and declare that we have Jesus not only in us, but also upon us. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, The Word. Right after the listing of the armor of God, Ephesians 6 verses 19-20 goes on to tell us to open our mouths boldly and make the Gospel known. Boldness is essential if we want to fight the good fight of faith with true success. (See also 1 Timothy 6:12.)
We must remember that we are not fighting with flesh and blood (See Ephesians 6:12). Our fight is against principalites and demon powers - the very devil himself, and all that applies to him. This is why we must be vigilant, on the alert, and fully dressed in our armor, and completely equipped with the weapons of our warfare - The Name of Jesus, the blood, the Word of God, praying in the Spirit, and the keys of binding and loosing. Once we know our authority in Christ, we can go forth and be victorious. As Romans 8:37 says, "We are more than conquerors through Him."
"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds" (2 Corinthians 10:4) AMEN !
