Spiritual Warfare: The Call Of God

Spiritual Warfare, Call of God.

March 31st, 1999. I’ll never forget that day. My life changed that day because it was the day I entered into service for the US Air Force. Over the next several weeks of my life, I woke up at 530 AM. I did cardio workouts for almost an hour. I ate whatever was put in front of me. I marched everywhere I went. I wore a uniform all day long. I no longer had any hair. I did everything I was told, without question. I was a soldier in the armed forces. Why all the training? Why all the pushups and the running and the marching? I was preparing for service and I was preparing for war.

Our military is the backbone of our country. Our military serves and protects us and is sworn to do so against all enemies, both foreign and domestic. We train, we learn, we breathe preparation for war. We constantly train for real life scenarios and in the end, we are better prepared for it.

Well, Christians, there’s another war going, right now. There is a battle going on-a battle that you and I can’t see with our eyes. There is a battle going on, and there two sides-heaven and hell are fighting. It’s not just angles vs. demons, God vs. Satan-the war includes you and I. There is a real battle going on right now, souls and lives are at stake. We are in the midst of an invisible war.

This isn’t an easy topic; it’s not a pretty sermon. War never is fun to talk about because war brings casualties, pain, and separation. War is nothing something that people like talking about, it’s something people like to forget. We want so much to live in a world where war is a fantasy and not a reality. But, that’s not reality though. we live in world where there is a war going on-there was a war going on before you came to Christ and when you trusted Him to be your Savior, you switched sides. The war didn’t end, you just switched sides. You join the winning side when you trust Jesus.

The Word of God is very, very clear on the subject of an invisible world all around us. It is confirmed in both the Old and New Testaments. Why is this war being waged and why is it being fought? It is because the devil wants to disrupt the plans of God and steal his glory. Satan and his demons are behind unbelief, temptation, deception, fear, false religions and persecution. Satan hates God, Satan stands in complete opposition to God and to His church. While it’s much easier for us to ignore Satan and attempt to go about our lives ignoring him, the reality is this: if we deny Satan, his demons and angels, we just judgment on the Holy Spirit’s revelation to us.

This isn’t a pretty sermon-it’s graphic and it needs to be because our culture and our world is doing anything and everything it can to desensitized the world concerning the reality of the evil one who seeks to destroy lives. Someone actually stated that Jesus’ miracles, parables and stories are 25 percent about the spiritual wars going on. This is a war that you and I cannot see but nevertheless, the war is real, it is serious and it has consequences. There is an invisible and an indivisible world that intersect. We live in that intersection.

Conflicts, relationship struggles, flat tires-there are so many circumstances in this life that often, we brush aside as nothing big-and it is actually a spiritual or demonic attack on us. Hear me out here-while there is a war going on, that doesn’t mean you avoid personal responsibility. If you need a job and you don’t get one right away, that’s not always spiritual warfare. But we have to understand this: the war going on right now is real and we have a real enemy out there as well. His name is Satan. So I want to begin there-looking at Satan so we can unravel his identity together.

SATAN’S IDENTITY

He was created as a perfect angel named Lucifer (Ezekiel 28:12-13)

He was the guardian of God’s glory (Ezek. 28:14)

He had more power than anyone else, other than God. He was the number 2 guy.

In the Scriptures, Satan was the most intelligent and beautiful being God created. He is a powerful angel who committed treason against God Almighty.

Satan deceived a third of the angles in heaven. He deceived a third of the angels who lived in the very presence of the Almighty. If he could that to the angels in heaven, do you think he could deceive you?

SATAN’S CHARACTER (Isaiah 14:13-14)

The Five I will’s