It has been on my heart to rally the troops and remind us of a few things as we wage war in the battle of the ages as soldiers of the cross, with a bit of teaching and encouragement for the times we live in at present. Also, please feel free to add more or comment, as it is most edifying to all of us, the body of Christ to be reminded of our strength in Him. I hope the following blesses you!
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The Bible instructs us to be diligent, vigilant, against our enemy (1). This doesn’t equate a paranoia or “devil consciousness”, but our vigilance in good things, the word of God, walking in the spirit. Our diligence in studying and knowing the scriptures. Our watchfulness in prayer, often visited fellowship with our Lord in our daily walk soaking in His love. So when the enemy comes lurking, you recognize him for he will bring an atmosphere different from your “normal”, which is to be the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (self-control). (2)
You will catch the thief who seeks to steal your sense of righteousness, your peace and your joy (3) (which the Bible says of these three is the kingdom of God) and set you back or at a stand still, keeping you bound to the natural realm, not the spiritual realm where you are to live in and out of, by your adoption as a “son” of God (4).
Our enemy often uses thoughts ie. fiery darts (5) along with fear, doubt, condemnation , unbelief, accusation, and lusts to “hook” into our flesh nature, hooks hidden by the alluring, subtle bait of satan. He, the evil one, is clever, cunning and stealthy. Much of the time, he fires at you with “I” statements making you think the thoughts he flings at your mind are your own. He accuses you, accuses God, accuses others to you (6), to try to conjure up a raging storm inside of you to move you to sin, or perhaps just to keep you busy and focused on the attack instead of Jesus. Remember Peter walking on water? I find it interesting that Jesus was at the time walking on water and told Peter to “Come!”, despite the wind and waves. Jesus ignored the wind and waves. Great example for us.
Many times, the enemy couples his onslaught of “thoughts” with other spirits, like fear, shame, guilt, despair and other non-edifying “feelings”. I believe these are actually seducing, lying spirits (7) masquerading as feelings. The “lie” in these spirits is they are trying to convince you that they are feelings that originate in you, yourself. But they do not. They are spirits that come against you from the outside and you can sense or “feel” them, sometimes so strongly, you can mistake them for being in you and your feelings., Their purpose is to compel you to action “in the flesh”, attempting to trigger that “fight or flight” response, which moves you to physical action, resorting to the flesh to relieve their pressure. And they try to disarm you with confusion so you won’t recognize the origin of the attack and speaks to you with lies that you are weak and you can’t fight against it.
As you resist the devil and turn to God, the devil will flee from you (8). Do not trust in the arm of the flesh (9). Humble yourselves and you will find power-packed, continuously flowing, never ending grace to get through these trials and temptations. Stand strong in the Lord! Not in the power of self, for “our weapons are not carnal”, like self is. But they are MIGHTY (10), which also implies that carnal weapons, anything we try to do in our strength to combat evil coming against us, are WEAK to the pulling down of strongholds. Using the armor of God, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God and faith, you cast down every imagination (thought) that exalts itself in the knowledge of God (11). Replace his lies with God’s truths in your mind, from your lips. The “feelings” will fade, the devil will flee.
Never back off from your journey with God because of fear and weariness. Later, other battles will come, but you are to ‘fear not’ (12), for the Lord is your helper. Do not settle into a life of compromise as a means to avoid the enemy. Exercise the authority Jesus gave you to drive back the kingdom of darkness (13). You, along with the rest of us, are in a “war”, a spiritual war, where we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us (14)! One of us can put a thousand to flight, two of us can send the legions fleeing (15)! Remember your armor. Return fire upon the enemy with scriptures. Raise your banner that reads “GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN YOU THAN HE THAT IS IN THE WORLD! (16)”
Scripture References –
(1) 2 Timothy 2:15, 1 Peter 5:8
(2) Galatians 5:22-23
(3) Romans 14:17, John 10:10
(4) Ephesians 1:5
(5) Ephesians 6:16
(6) Revelations 12:10, Job (ex. satans character as accuser)
(7) 1 Timothy 4:1-2
(8) James 4:6-8
(9) Jeremiah 17:5, John 6:63
(10) 2 Corinthians 10:4
(11) 2 Corinthians 10:5
(12) Hebrews 13:6, Revelation 1:17
(13) Luke 10:19
(14) Romans 8:37
(15) Deut. 32:30
(16) 1 John 4:4
