We as believers are in constant warfare against the enemy of our souls who is trying to take us away from God and also stop us from walking in all that Christ has freely given us through His cross. We are also in a battle for lost souls, which ranges from the soul of an individual to multitudes under the control of darkness. In order for us to effectively do warfare we need to know certain truths on spiritual warfare and also know the importance and significance of the armor of God. As we understand these truths that we will discuss further and grow in them we will do great exploits for the kingdom of God.
1) Spiritual warfare is not just praying and interceding, it is walking in Christ like character.
While we should never ever underestimate all that prayer can do, we need to know that walking in Christ like character releases much more power. If we are living in a place where there is hatred, walking in love in practical ways will destroy that stronghold of the enemy. Just praying over it and not showing love to people around wont bring change .The main reason for most of the conversions in the early persecuted Church was because people around the Christians saw their love and Christ like character. As the Christians walked in Christ likeness, it destroyed the enemy’s hold on people’s lives. As a result they were saved. When we start sowing in Christ by our walk and talk we will see much more results than we are seeing right now. Just as our words in prayer have power, we need to know our actions and conduct also release power.
It also important to know that we can annul what we pray for by our own actions. If we are praying for God to move in holiness and we ourselves are living sinful lives, our prayers might not amount to anything or sometimes we are in danger of destroying the very thing that we have built through prayer by our wrong actions and conduct .It is important that our lives display our prayer and not just our words.
2) Are we rooted deep in God’s truth?
One of the other important things we need to know is that the deeper the darkness in a person or a place the more the intensity of the battle and the more we need to be rooted in God’s truth. When people have tried to do warfare without being properly grounded in God’s truth, the same thing they were fighting against overcame them. If you are praying against immorality in your city and you are weak yourself, it is possible for the enemy to attack you in that area and overcome you. While there is a place where God’s Grace protects us, we need to know that God expects us to grow in His truths and if not we will fall if we continue to wage war. When we are deeply rooted in His truth and the enemy’s storm comes against us, we will not be uprooted but we will uproot His evil from around us and plant God’s truth.
Ephesians 6:10 to 18
THE ARMOR OF GOD
THE ARMOR OF GOD
Just as in the natural a roman soldier would have to wear an armor given by Rome, we as soldiers of Christ are required to wear the armor given to us by God. While many take the armor of God as literal in the spirit, it is far from being just that. As we discuss each of the parts of the armor of God we will find that it includes in itself a lot of practical aspects of living too.
Belt of Truth:
Ephesians 4:20 to 24 tells us what truth stands for, it is putting of our old man and putting on the new man. It is important that we have put of our old man and put on our new man when doing warfare. This process involves a change of mindset (being renewed in the attitude of our mind) i.e. we need to see that Christ destroyed our old nature on the cross (which sets us free from captivity to sin) and now has given us His new nature (which enables us to live holy lives) Romans 6:6. This is the belt of truth that we need to always wear in our minds. When we have this revelation we automatically will be free from bondage to sin to live holy lives.
I have witnessed a few times how young believers who were struggling with sin (without a knowledge of this truth); when they entered into spiritual warfare against the enemy, fell totally into immorality and sin. That left them powerless to face the enemy anymore, and some went away from God totally for a period of time. It is important to have the belt of truth when fighting the enemy. We should always stand against him on the truth that our sinful nature has been destroyed and we have the nature of Christ in us and expressed through us.
One of the reasons for some in the body of Christ being held captive by the enemy to habitual sins is because they have done warfare against the enemy without the belt of truth. They had been taught to fight but not with the belt of truth, therefore many of them have stumbled and fallen. It’s time we arise out of our darkness and stand against the enemy in true Holiness.
The Breastplate of Righteousness:
In the context of Paul’s letter (Ephesians 5:8,9) we must understand that the righteousness mentioned here is not just God’s gift of righteousness but it includes walking in righteousness. One of the important aspects of it is walking in God’s will and doing God’s will for our lives. We see the importance of it as Paul exhorts the Ephesian believers not to be foolish but discern what God’s will is for their lives (Ephesians 5:15 to 17). Many of us have lost our battles against the enemy because we have fought it out of God’s will. When we are not walking in God’s will for our lives, it means that we are lacking the covering around our chest and back, the breast plate of righteousness (The breast plate used by a Roman soldier covered not only his chest but his back too) and if we fight against the enemy out of God’s will, then we are in danger of being deeply and fatally wounded by the enemies attacks.
Brethren let us make every effort to walk in God’s will for our lives and enter into battles that we know that God wants us to enter into. Then we will have His covering around us and the enemy cannot penetrate us with his arrows and we will achieve complete and lasting victories for the kingdom of God.
The Sandals of the Gospel of peace:
It is important that we as believers are always prepared and ready to share the good news of the gospel to people around us. The hearts of the non-believers will not be open always and when it is open God usually brings them our way. If we are not ready to sow the good seed when the soil of their hearts is fertile we will miss the opportunity of seeing them saved.
In Russia as I was doing my medical studies, I was staying in a hostel. During that time I had been fervently praying to see revival in my hostel. After sometime I felt I had the breakthrough in the spirit, but I did not know that I need to be prepared to share the good news to the students around me. So when the students in my hostel all of a sudden got interested in knowing about Christ, it didn’t pass my mind that I need to share with them the message of the cross. I was ignorant and did not obey the Lord when He wanted me to organize a meeting for the whole hostel and preach the gospel.
The students were open for a period of time where everybody I met was really interested in knowing about Christ and then eventually it ended where things went back to how they where before and even worse. I had missed the opportunity to share the saving message of Jesus Christ to these students and soon I lost the ground I gained for Christ in the hostel back to the enemy.
This is very very important. No matter how much we pray, it is the spoken word of God mainly that saves a person (I Peter 1:23). Prayer is that which prepares the heart of a person and makes him ready for the word. If we have been praying for our loved ones or friends or people around us who are lost, let us be prepared to sow the good news of God’s word in their lives in season and out of season and we will reap a bountiful harvest.
The Shield of Faith:
If we have noticed, many times only when we sit down to pray or when we are on the verge of doing something strategic for God’s kingdom, all sorts of thoughts that worry us start coming to our mind. Usually it is those problems that we are facing that we cannot solve. What happens in the spirit is that the enemy starts firing his darts against us when we start to pray or proceed to do God’s will. Those fiery darts will hit us only if we are weak in faith (which means the shield of faith we have is too small to protect us). Then those darts start to produce in us thoughts that make us worry and it affects the way we pray or sometimes stops us from proceeding further in God’s will.
If we have noticed, many times only when we sit down to pray or when we are on the verge of doing something strategic for God’s kingdom, all sorts of thoughts that worry us start coming to our mind. Usually it is those problems that we are facing that we cannot solve. What happens in the spirit is that the enemy starts firing his darts against us when we start to pray or proceed to do God’s will. Those fiery darts will hit us only if we are weak in faith (which means the shield of faith we have is too small to protect us). Then those darts start to produce in us thoughts that make us worry and it affects the way we pray or sometimes stops us from proceeding further in God’s will.
Dearly beloved if we are struggling with anxiety and worry in an area in our life lets go before God and be strengthened in that area by His word, so that when the enemy fires his darts against us our faith will protect us.
The enemy has launched an all out attack on intercessors, in which he has tried to take them far away from the word of God. He has succeeded to a great extent, as intercessors struggle in getting the word of God in their lives. As a result of this their shields of faith have been small and they have been hit by the enemy’s darts and are praying for things they shouldn’t be praying for and are weak and less effective. God is going to restore His warriors and bring in a balance between the word and prayer in their lives. They will stand against the enemy in the day of battle and expose his lies and deceptions and will destroy every root and weed he has sown in God’s children’s lives.
The Helmet of Salvation:
In I Thessalonians 5:8 Paul refers to the helmet as the hope of salvation. When we stand in the perfect will of God for our lives and are doing significant things for the kingdom of God, we will face great opposition from the enemy. If we take the apostles; especially Paul, the enemy attacked them and tried to stop them every way possible. We see how they underwent great trial and persecution but one of the things that kept them going strong was the blessed hope, which was the salvation of their souls and the glory that followed it. When we are strongly anchored on this hope we will not be shaken amidst all the trials and storms the enemy brings against us.
The days ahead are going to get worse and worse and as far as this world is concerned it will head towards total hopelessness, but we as the children of God will grow stronger and stronger in the hope of seeing Christ return in glory and ultimately our faith will lead to the salvation of our souls
The Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God:
While our faith protects us from the attacks of the enemy, the spoken word of God is our offensive weapon against him. With the Rhema word of God we can destroy the works of the devil and inflict major damage to him and his kingdom. This makes it all the more important for us to hear God for specific situations in our lives where the enemy attacks us. Once we have heard from God, our confession of what God has said can give us the victory or it can be an act of just proceeding in the direction God has spoken to us against the odds, which will in turn bring in the victory eventually.
As we approach the end times. God’s children will speak His Rhema word into hopeless situations and change them .The power behind the word of God will be revealed in its fullness in the end of the end times.
Praying with all prayer and supplication (intercession) in the Spirit:
As much as the word of God is a powerful offensive weapon against the enemy, praying and interceding in the Spirit is the other weapon God has given us. Praying in the Spirit could either be praying in a language known to us led by the Holy Spirit or praying in tongues as the Spirit gives us utterance. Also intercession in the Spirit can have a lot of different expressions to it, but it happens when God’s Spirit unites with the depths of our being which results in different expressions of prayer before God like laughing, weeping, groaning, etc. However the expression of our intercessions might be the key is being led by the Spirit. Only the Spirit knows what the enemy’s plans are and only the Spirit knows what will destroy him. As we yield ourselves more and more to Him our prayers and intercessions would have greater impact and precision. We will do great exploits for His kingdom.
