Spiritual Weapons & Tactics
A lot of times the church fails to speak on the subject of spiritual warfare. Too often Christians, especially new converts or baby Christians, are left in the dark when it comes to this epic battle that is taking place in an unseen realm.
All too often Christians wonder and ask the question: “Why is this happening to me?”
Anybody ever ask the following questions:
• How come before I came to Christ my life was ok?
• How come now that I am trying to get my life together and serve God my world seems like it is falling apart?
• How come life seemed easier before I started to come to church?
Anybody ever ask these questions before? Well today I want to answer that question for you and over the next few weeks I want us to learn together how we can overcome what seems to be an all out war in our lives.
First thing we must recognize and understand is that we are in the middle of a war. A war that is not seen, but is heard. Whether we are saved or not we are in the middle of a spiritual warfare.
EPHESIANS 6:12
“12 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.” – NKJ
The fact of the matter is that when you accept Christ, you are just made more aware of this war. It is more evident in your life. All of a sudden it seems like your life is flipped upside down and things start happening in your life that didn’t take place before. It seems as though life just got harder and more complicated.
This is because there is a very real enemy whom you have made very angry. You have made him angry because the moment you accept Christ as Lord and Savior is the exact moment you decided to switch sides. You see there is a war that is going on between the Kingdom of God and anything that stands against Him, namely hell and all of its demons and the great enemy Satan or Lucifer.
This war began when the enemy Satan rebelled against God. In Revelation we are given some insight as to what happen:
REVELATION 12:7-9
“7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” – NKJ
The earth is now the domain of the dragon, or Satan and we are behind enemy lines. One thing we must understand is that the territory that we are currently living on is ruled by Satan.
2ND CORINTHIANS 4:4A
“4 Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe.” – NLT
Even though Satan may be the god of this world, he is not supreme. God in heaven is the only supreme god. Satan may be the god of this world, but he is very limited to what he can do. Like a dog in a yard. The dog can only as far as the leash will take him then he is retrained by the collar. Satan too is on a leash.
We see this in the account of Job. The enemy Satan had come before God and had to ask permission by God to attack Job in any way shape or form, and even then God had a restriction on him every time he came against him.
• JOB 1:12
“12 And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” – NKJ
• Even when the enemy wanted to harm Job physically, God still had him on a short leash.
JOB 2:6
“6 And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life.” – NKJ
You are probably wondering the why part of all this. Why would God allow these things to happen? We will get into that at another time in this series. What I want to help with this morning is to see who the enemy is for what he is.
Even though the war was won on Calvary over two thousand years ago, there are daily battle that take place and if we are to be victorious, live victorious, then we must know who the enemy is. In order to defeat an enemy, you have to know who they are and what they are about.
Now I am not telling you to go out and start demon hunting. There is no need for that. The enemy will come to you. You just need to recognize that it is the enemy that is attacking and how he is attacking so you can properly defend yourself and have victory.
Too often Christians are giving the enemy too much credit, credit for stuff he didn’t even do.
• It isn’t the devils fault that you ran out of gas
• It isn’t the devils fault if your washer and dryer quit working
• It isn’t the devils fault if you run out of ink in the printer
• It isn’t the devils fault if you stub your toe
• It isn’t the devils fault that your car broke down
Remember it is a spiritual warfare, not a physical war that is going on. The devil doesn’t care too much if you’re on time to work or not. I mean think about it. Can you really picture the enemy saying to himself, “Hahaha…watch me as I make so and so’s car run out of gas so they are late! Muahahaha!”
No! He is more concerned about you being what God has called you to be. He is more concerned about you turning into and having the character of Jesus Christ. We are called to be like Christ.
1ST PETER 2:21
“21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps.” – NKJ
This is the will of God that we conform and follow in the footsteps of Christ. Understand this, the devil hates Christ and he hates that you want to be like Him. That is what he is concerned about.
As I had said before we have to know who we are up against in order to win this battle. So who is this enemy?
He is a Liar
Scripture gives us a peak into who this great enemy is. The first and probably the most important truth we need to understand and really take heed to, is the fact that the enemy, the devil, Satan, Lucifer, is nothing but a LIAR!
Jesus confronted some Jews who wanted to kill Him and He told them that they do not know the truth and they do the works of their father, not their heavenly Father, but the father who has blinded them with lies.
JOHN 8:44
“44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” – NKJ
One thing we must understand and if we can just grasp this concept we already won the half the battle, the devil is nothing more than a liar. This is all he can do. There is not one ounce of truth in him. He has never nor will he ever speak truth into anyone’s life.
When we begin our journey with God, the enemy will show up, count on it, and he will begin to whisper lies into your ears.
Lies like:
• You’re not good enough
• Nobody likes you
• You’re too old
• You’re too young
• You will fail
• There is no way out
• God is not pleased with you
• You need to give up
• God won’t bless you
• People won’t listen to you
• You will always live this way
• You won’t amount to anything
Listen, the enemy will speak these lies to you through people as well. The enemy loves to use people, especially church people to tear down what God is doing. I remember when I first got saved and began to do ministry the enemy did not like that. I was a target. I was on his hit list, and still am. He began to speak lies to me through other people in the church.
• You’re not good enough
• Nobody will listen
• What can you do
• Your ideas for youth aren’t good
• You will fail
What we need to do when the enemy begins to speak, we need to immediately fight back with the Truth of God’s Word! In Ephesians 6 we are given the armor of God and part of that armor is the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God. This is why it is imperative that we arm ourselves with the Truth so that when the enemy does strike we can fight back.
The enemy will use whoever or whatever he can in order to spread lies to us. He will even use the Word of God against you. He tried that with Jesus when he was in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights. Every time the devil came against Jesus, Jesus responded: “it is written, it is written.”
When the devil gets a hold you and you buy into his lies you are then held captive. We too need to respond to the enemy with the TRUTH of God’s Word and declare with boldness and with authority: “IT IS WRITTEN!”
Every time he spits a lie at you, you need to declare the Word of God! Speak the Word of God!
HEBREWS 4:12A
“12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword…” – NKJ
We wield in our possession the only thing that is sharp enough to cut off the lies of the enemy! What has God spoken over your life that the enemy is trying to steal, kill and destroy? What lies has he spoken to you?
I tell you today that you can have victory over the lies of the enemy this morning!
Earlier this year, a North Carolina woman read the Bible to her attacker for an hour and a half after he slashed her throat before the man apologized and left.
Lindsay Wood, 32, of Shelby, N.C., had just arrived home from Bible study on Wednesday. Wood asked her 15-year-old son to collect the trash can from the curb. During this time, Wood’s attacker walked into her home and slashed her neck.
“She told him please not to hurt her, that she loved the Lord and her son,” neighbor Faye Cooke told ABC affiliate WSOC.
Police said Wood’s son heard what was happening and hid in the backyard out of sight while Wood continued to reason with the man.
“She offered her car up, as well as money,” Rick Stafford, a captain in the Shelby Police Department told WSOC.
But the man took none of those things.
Despite her injuries, Wood opened her Bible and read to her attacker.
He listened. She even invited him to her church.
After an hour and a half, her attacker apologized and left.
Don’t tell me there isn’t power in the Word of God!
ROMANS 8:37
“37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” – NKJ
Let us proclaim the truth against the lie’s of the enemy today.
