We're At War Series

Revelation 12:1-5, 7-8, 17

We’re at War!

May 20, 2012

The call comes in . . . we’re at war!

What will you do?

How will you react?

What will you wear?!

How will you defend yourself and your loved ones?

Will you defend them or pretend like everything’s okay?

What will you do?

How will you defend yourself?

Will you take the offensive, or will you be on the run, hoping to evade the enemy?

There’s a problem, though. This is not a natural war. It’s not a war we’re going to fight in the physical world. It’s a war unlike any you’ve ever seen, a war unlike any you’ve been part of. Well, actually, it’s a war you’ve already experienced, but maybe you didn’t get the call.

It’s a war unlike any other war which has been or will be fought in the history of humanity. You see, our battle is not with one another, as much as we might look at one another with disdain and enmity. Paul puts it best . . .

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12)

Do you understand what Paul is saying?

The person who really irritates you,

that person who can’t forgive,

that person who is always spreading vicious lies and rumors and gossips,

that family member who always gets on everyone’s nerves,

that person who abused you, who lied to you, who cheated on you,

that boss who is mean spirited,

the spouse who struggles with addictions and anger,

the kids who don’t listen . . . you want me to stop . . .?

This is part of our battle. You see, our battle is not against one another, our battle is against forces of evil which is putting those temptations, those thoughts, those desires right in front of us, leading us to act one way, even though we know it goes against what we believe.

Our battle is against the forces of evil. It’s not against flesh and blood, but as Paul says, against the rulers, authorities, the powers of this dark world. He’s talking about satan, the devil, the evil one, lucifer . . . or whatever you want to call him.

But you see we don’t take this topic seriously, do we? We don’t want to talk about evil. It’s either too scary or we laugh it off. Only if you’re older than about 50 will you remember a guy named Flip Wilson. He was a comedian who loved to joke about the devil. Listen to what he said, but also catch the deeper truth ~

VIDEO from you-tube

I love watching those old clips and comedians. But there’s truth to what he’s saying. We’re tempted to justify all of our actions — “the devil made me do it.” We act like there are no consequences about anything in life. Then when we’re caught, we blame someone else. It’s a battle, it’s a constant daily battle and if we’re not equipped and ready for war, then we will lose the battle.

You ever wonder why we can’t reach our dreams? We’ve been talking about them for the past few weeks. What dreams has God has planted in you? We looked at Joel 2:28-32, where God reminds us He has given us the ability to prophecy, have visions and dream dreams. But all too often our dreams get squelched. Why is it?

Well, I wanted to give you an example from this past week to show that we are so susceptible to being brain washed that it is very, very scary. We are a product of what we allow to be filtered into our hearts and minds and soul. If we buy into certain lies, we’re going to struggle in life.

I recently met with someone who doesn’t believe they’re beautiful. They claim they’ve never loved themselves. Maybe many of you would say the same thing. Without getting into the deep issues — — we need to remember God created that person, and if God created them in His image, then they are beautiful. But, you see, they’ve bought into the lie. They believed mean-spirited children and mean-spirited adults. They’ve come to accept that there is very little worth in who they are, and the end result is that they are defeated.

Let me tell you satan enjoys nothing more than a defeated Christian, because a defeated Christian is a powerless Christian. And a powerless Christian is a worthless Christian. They’re a Christian in name only. They have no spiritual power to defeat satan or even to defend themselves from his attacks. They just wilt and succumb to arrow after arrow, insult after insult, abuse after abuse, until they become exactly what satan wants, a nothing.