Winning Your Spiritual Battles Series

SC 9/5/2008

Winning your spiritual battles

2 Corinthians 10:1-5

Ephesians 6:10-20

Intro-

I want to talk to you about winning your spiritual battles. I want you this morning to understand a few facts- God loves you, more than you will ever know. Satan hates you, more than you will ever know. There is a physical realm. Life as we can see it. There is a spiritual realm, where there is war going on for the battle of our souls and eternity. I don’t mean to scare you, I am not a demon chaser. I don’t see demons behind every door, but I realize that we must know what we are up against and how God has provided every tool necessary to live a life not only pleasing to God, but also victorious.

Everything we need is told to us in the word of God. Guidance, wisdom, armor and weapons. We have the power to stand firm when we are under attack.

I think we must first identify the enemy.

1. In some cases it is demonic. Evil tempting us to fall away from our relationship with God.

2. Our flesh- our own personal desires that cause us to move away from God.

A lot of times, the devil didn’t make us do it, we just are weak in our own personal desires.

Read 2 Corinthians 10:1-5

Paul tells us as meek and gentle as I can ,that as a believer we are at war. We don’t fight like the world does, we don’t live by the same standards, we don’t use the same weapons. We have divine power as believers in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit of God is present and dwelling inside of us. Power to demolish strongholds, power to set captives free, power to identify the enemy, power to take captive every thought to the obedience of Christ.

It is not a question of if you will be attacked, the question is how will you handle it when it comes, and will you be able to identify it.

Christians today are living like they are on the playground, but they are really on the battlefield.

“Onward Christian soldiers , marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before. Christ, the royal master, leads against the foe, forward into battle see his banner go ”

Illustration-

Jack Handey in his book Fuzzy moments writes- “there use to be this bully who would demand my lunch money everyday. Since I was smaller, I would give it to him. Then I decided to fight back.. I started to take karate lessons, but the instructor wanted 5 dollars a lesson. That was a lot of money. I found out that it was cheaper to pay the bully so I gave up karate.

To many times, we find it easier to pay the bully than learn how to defeat him.

1999 Gallup poll

86-95 percent of people believe that there is a God.. 63 percent believe there is a devil. (He likes that.) Either Christians underestimate him ,and fall into temptations and traps or they overestimate him , run around in fear and live defeated lives.

We must acknowledge there is a foe, become aware of his tactics, but not be scared by them.

Spiritual warfare by definition is the battle that goes on in the invisible, and it affects us in our everyday lives.

We see attacks in our families

we see attacks in our workplace.

We see it in our churches.

Our shield against these attacks is the armor God has provided for each believer , lead by the shield of faith.

Illustration

There was once a boxer who was being pummeled in the ring by his opponent. Blow after blow his adversary left him with a bloody nose, swollen eyes, and an enormous amount of pain. The battered boxer’s trainer , trying to encourage his man between rounds, kept telling him, your doing great, Fred. That bum is barely touching you. The boxer responded , “then you better keep your eye on that referee, because somebody is killing me”.

Illustration-

In 2001 I collapsed at church from pain in my belly area. I went to the doctors office for test. The radiologist would not tell me what he saw, I knew it was bad. He sent me down to the emergency room and told me the doctor would tell me what is going on. He told me to call my wife and get her here as soon as possible. He told me I would be admitted.

Folks, listen to me That is not the time that we learn on the job training, that is not when we go - now what do I do That is the time that you realize it is serious and you begin to bombard heaven for direction and answers and healing.