The Battle Zone

 

This is a sermon that I preached..

We have all heard sayings such as “Life wasn’t meant to be a bed of roses” or “life ain’t easy”. Well, they are true. Life isn’t easy; it is filled with many challenges. (This may shock you, but God says life is meant to be that way)

Sometimes as Christians we think that when we get saved and give our lives over to Jesus that life will change and that we will no longer have challenges. 

WRONG! It is quite the opposite actually.  (John 16:33 tells us that in the World we will have tribulation.)

When we become born again, we change teams – we move from the devil’s team (the defeated side) and into God’s team (where we are guaranteed victory, but not with a fight.)

The problem is (not really a problem at all when you know the truth) when we change teams the devil no longer sees us as ‘safe’ or a non-threat.  When we dedicate our lives to Christ, we become his enemy and he sets out to do everything that he can to disarm, disable, and steal our power from us.  He doesn’t want us to be a threat to him – and that’s exactly what we are – a threat.

The sad truth is that because of ignorance, a lack of faith and a lack of determination many of us allow an already defeated foe to get the better of us.

The good news is we already have everything we need available to us to live a victorious life.

Let’s take a look at 2 Peter 1: 2- 4

²Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, ³as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, ⁴by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

God’s divine power dwells in us from the moment of our new birth and salvation.  The Holy Spirit, the very being and power of God lives IN US as born again, spirit filled Christians.  The Bible tells us that God has already “given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness”.  That means that we already have all that we need to live a godly and victorious life right NOW.    .

We MUST not be devil focused, but God focused. The bible does tell us that we MUST be aware of his (the devil’s) schemes and that we have FULL power and authority over him.  Ignorance is NOT bliss it is dangerous.

Let us look at these important points

We will prove that- The devil is a defeated foe

We will see that- We have power over the enemy

We will find out- Why do battles take place?

We will look at- Where the battle takes place?       

We will discover- How to fight the battle

And- The results of battle      

THE DEVIL is a DEFEATED FOE

(Rev 1:18, Matt 16:19, Heb 2:14, 1 John 3:8)

When Jesus died on the cross, He did so much for us.  He destroyed the works and power of the Devil.

Let us look at a few supporting scriptures.

Heb 2:14 “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.

1 John 3:8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

Rev 1:18 I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death

Matt 16:19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

WE HAVE POWER OVER THE ENEMY

(Luke 10:19, Rom 8:35, 37, Rom 16:20, 2 Cor 2:14, 2 Cor 10:4, 1 John 2:13, 1 John 5:5,14,

1 John 4:4, Isa 54:17, 2 Tim 1:7 Ps 44:5, Mal 4:3)

When Jesus left this world, He did not leave us alone and defenceless. He passed His authority over to us. Jesus gave us the ability to exercise spiritual power over the devil.

Luke 10:19 Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. ²⁰Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but ^rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”

Rom 16:20 And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.

 

2 Cor 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down of  strongholds

 

Psalm 44:5 Through You we will push down our enemies;

Through Your name we will trample those who rise up against us. 

WHY DO BATTLES TAKE PLACE?

When we find ourselves in trouble we must stop and consider why the battle is taking place and act according to the reason.  We will look at three basic reasons that we find ourselves in a battle

1)    One reason we find ourselves in trouble because we out of the will of God.

Sometimes we face battles and turmoil because we are walking in sin or we are doing something that God does not want us to do.  When we are in these situations God is no longer able to protect us. 

We could relate this to a soldier who has walked out of his bunker and into the enemy’s camp without his gun or protective clothing or perhaps an umbrella that is filled with holes during a heavy rain shower – we are no longer under protection and are open to attacks.

To stop this battle, you need to do a heart check and pray, find out what you are doing wrong repent and walk back into God’s best for you. Stop sinning or ignoring God and change your ways.

2) Sometimes we will find ourselves attacked in areas of weakness. 

The devil will find areas where we are still developing and are not strong and he will bombard us with attacks in that area. 

Soldiers of old would wear mesh vests that would protect them from the arrows and swords of the enemies. If there was a hole in his vest a soldier risked injury or even death.

As Christians we have a ‘spiritual mesh’ and sometimes our mesh has holes in it.  (These holes are weaknesses in our faith, our character, and a lack of knowledge of God’s Word.)  The devil will see these and try to take us down.  To stop him attacking us in these areas we must learn about our weaknesses and work to ‘mend’ these areas.

Sometimes this attack is the will of God – He wants us to sort out our walk and grow and mature or change in an area of our lives. Sometimes, He’s preparing us for the next chapter in our lives.

3) Other times we will find ourselves in battle because we have become a real threat to the devil.

If you are making progress and doing things for God, you will upset the devil and he will do all he can to stop you from doing damage to him and his kingdom. (This when you realize what is going on can be quite exciting)

WHERE DO BATTLES TAKE PLACE?

(2 Cor 10:3-5, Eph 6:3-12)

The battle takes place in the spiritual realm

God is a Spirit; we are spiritual beings, and the devil is a spirit.   

So, we are attacked through the spiritual realm and we must fight in the spiritual realm.                                                              

Eph 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

So, who are these powers and rulers? They are evil spirits, the devil and all his cohorts.

We do not fight against the natural world but what lies behind them – Satan.

2 Cor 10:3-5

³For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.

⁴For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,

⁵casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,

 V3 If we are not warring according to the flesh then what are we warring according to?  The spirit.

V4 If our weapons are mighty in God that must mean that they are spiritual because God is a Spirit and He operates through the Holy Spirit in the Spiritual realm

V5 talks about anything that is contrary to God and His word - going against His spiritual authority.

 If we think of ourselves as soldiers, it’s a lot easier to understand the way things work in the spiritual realm. The bible often refers to us as soldiers.  (2 Tim 2:3)

Like a real war is fought with guns and bombs, a spiritual war is fought with weapons.

The devil is the enemy, and he uses a variety of weapons and ammunition to fire at and attack us.

 b) Perhaps the greatest weapon that the devil uses against us is thoughts that he plants in the minds of the believer. He uses our minds because what we think determines how we act and what we can and can’t do. The devil wants us disabled and disempowered; attacking our minds is an effective way for him to demobilize his enemy. These thoughts come about through a variety of ways.

The devil will cause us to dwell on temptations, people, situations, offences and hurts, thoughts, and emotions etc. These are things that will grow and gnaw at us and take our eyes off Jesus and put them on our situations, circumstances, and emotions.  These things become bigger to us than God is and they stop us from being effective in the Kingdom of God.

(Use finger focus analogy) Hold your finger up in front of your face…. Imagine that your finger represents your battle.  When you focus on your finger (or your battle) that’s all you see. But if you take your eyes off your finger (or battle) and instead focus on something ahead of you (like the Cross) the cross becomes your focus.  Where you focus, there your strength will be.

The devil plants thoughts in our minds that cause fear, overactive and unrealistic reactions. When we focus on the problem, we miss the solution.

What we think and meditate and speak on is what we will become.

(Lady with the long hair story) I heard a story, I’m not sure if it’s true but it’s a great analogy.  A young woman had very long hair, every day when she brushed her hair she complained, “This hair is going to be the death of me.” One day, she was in a car accident, the car plummeted off a bridge and into the water. She was unable to get out of the car, because her long hair was caught and she was stuck. Her hair was literally the death of her.

Henry Ford, the Inventor of the Ford Motor car once said.  “Whether you think you can, or whether you think you can’t you are probably right.”

 How we think and speak and what we focus on are very important.

FIGHTING the BATTLE

A good soldier is always well prepared. He does not go into battle without the right equipment and he does all he can to learn about the enemy so he knows how he operates and how to defeat him.

Be prepared

One of the most important things we can do fight a battle effectively is to be well prepared.

So how do we prepare for battle?

Know the Word

We make sure that we know who we are in Christ, what we have in Christ etc.

We must know the Word well and have it deeply implanted in our hearts, not just in our

minds. – Not knowing the word is like having a gun with no bullets

When we are under attack, we can’t afford to waste time and say to the enemy “Can you                

wait for a while until I am ready to shoot back at you” and go and find your bible and

fumble for some scriptures.

We must know the devil and his tactics.

We must keep ourselves “full” by praying etc so that our sensitivities in the spiritual realm are high.  If we spend more time with God and praying our spirits become more sensitive and alert – therefore we are able to determine when we are being attacked by the enemy

We must know the areas where we have weaknesses and work to change and protect them. 

HAVE the RIGHT WEAPONS

It would do us no good to go into battle with the wrong weapons.  If would be like painting our houses with a toothbrush – not at all effective.

Speak The Word

The Word of God is one of our greatest fighting tools. 

In Ephesians Chapter 6 we find all the battle gear we have as soldiers of Christ, but the only offensive or fighting gear we have there is “the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God”  Lets look at these verses

V 13 says we have to put on the armour to stand in the evil day – that’s now, not just when we are under attack.

V14 the belt of truth – gives us strength that helps us to stay up.

And the breastplate of righteousness – protects our hearts and attitudes.

V15 feet shod – ready to share and justify our faith – keeps us walking and moving forward

V16 shield of faith – protects us from the fiery darts – like a force field (knowing he can’t hurt you)

V17 the helmet – protects your mind – knowing you are saved and His

And the Sword of the spirit which is the Word of God 

Jesus Himself used the Word to fight against the temptations of the devil. 

In Matt Chapter 4

When He had been out in the wilderness and fasted for forty days and the devil came to Him, and tested Him. How did Jesus respond to the taunts and challenges of the devil? He answered with him with IT IS WRITTEN.  If that’s good enough for Jesus to use against them enemy then it’s great for us too. 

Hebrews 4:12 tells us that “the Word is sharper than a 2 edged sword able to divide spirit and soul” THAT means that you can use the WORD to separate the spiritual from the soul and flesh YOU can use the WORD to determine if that which is attacking you is spirit, flesh or ‘soulish.’

Jesus said in John 6:63 that the Words he speaks are spirit, they are life.  When we speak the Word we too are speaking spirit and life.

Wielding “The Name”

The name of Jesus is very powerful

Let’s turn to Philippians 2:9-10

⁹Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, ¹¹and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

Just look at that…. It says that His name is above all names and that at HIS name EVERY KNEE shall bow on EARTH, in HEAVEN and UNDER the earth.  That means everywhere and everyone.  That means that if YOU speak the NAME the devil and all his cohorts MUST bow.  You have a great deal of power there.

And another way you can fight the battle is by submitting to God (doing what He has told you to do either personally or through His Word) and resiting the devil James 4:7 says that if we submit to God and resist the devil that he will flee from us.  Great don’t you think?

Prayer of Power

Prayer is obviously and key weapon used to fight the battle.  We need to keep in contact with the commander and chief of the army with we are to overcome the enemy.  Prayer helps us to stay in contact with God.  We can ask Him for direction and wisdom.  We can call on Him for strength, support, and encouragement. 

Prayer helps us to stay in the battle. Prayer rejuvenates our faith and trust in Christ and reminds of of Who He is and what He has done for us. Perseverance is also very important.  Don’t give up before the battle is won

THE RESULTS of BATTLE

We don’t tend to look on battles and see them as a good thing. But they can be great for us in many ways. Let us look at a few benefits. 

Growth and strength

If we go through a battle, we get stronger – the more you go through – the more you grow through. The more we go through the more we learn and the better fighters we become – as the saying goes calm seas never made a good sailor.  We build our spiritual muscles- learn from what we did right and wrong and are prepared for similar battles in the future.

Reliance on God

Through the battles we learn to lean of God.  We draw closer to Him and learn than He is our source of comfort and strength.  We learn that we can’t do anything without Him.  We learn that He is on our side helping us to fight.

Greater awareness of self, God and the devil

You learn where your strengths and weaknesses are – you learn a lot about yourself.

You learn more about God and who He is and how much He loves you

You also learn how the devil works and how to get him running in the other direction.

So the you can help others

From what you experience you can help others.  You can share what you did to overcome your challenges, what scriptures you used, what emotions you went through etc.  It makes a big difference to your growth to share with others and it helps them too.

A word of WARNING

Watch out after a battle. Don’t relax too much or let your defenses down. The devil may sneak in while you’re celebrating and not looking.