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SPIRITUAL WARFARE

Biblical Deliverance Ministries

    The question that we most often get asked is, "What is Spiritual Warfare?"

    In earthly terms, war is fighting declared upon an enemy that tries to take something that belongs to us.

    In spiritual terms, spiritual warfare is fighting that is declared against satan who attempts to take that which belongs to God - whether it be individual people, towns or nations. (Ps 24:1 "The earth is the Lord's and all it's fullness".)

    1. The first thing to remember in spiritual warfare is that the battle is the Lord's and it is only as we welcome God's presence onto the battlefield that victory is assured. (Ex14:13) God's presence alone means victory!

    2 Chron 20:15b "The battle depends on God, not on you."

    Exodus 33:15, Moses cried, "If your presence does not go with us, don't let us go up from here".

   Intimacy with God is, I believe, the key to all spiritual warfare. It is only as we get close to Him and enthrone Him in our lives that we can hear His voice telling us which direction to take.

    Dan 11:32 "The people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits."

    Illustration: Soldier must stay close to Captain. Cannot hear His voice if running ahead, or lagging behind. If I love Him I will want to be close to Him and obey Him.

    "For our love for God means that we obey His commands. And His commands are not too hard for us, because every child of God is able to defeat the world."

    2 Timothy 2:3-5 "Take your part in suffering as a loyal soldier of Christ Jesus. A soldier on active service wants to please his commanding officer and so does not get mixed up in the affairs of civilian life. An athlete who runs in a race cannot win the prize unless he obeys the rules."

    We must be willing to place ourselves entirely at His disposal, and be willing to rely fully on Him.

    We must also beware of seeking after the victory itself, but rather we should be seeking after God.

    Psalm 73:28 sums it up well, "But as for me, I get as close to Him as I can".

    2. We must rely upon our position of victors in Christ

    Ephesians 1:18-21

    "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come."

    a) Christ's position of towering above all demonic forces

    In Ephesians 2:5-6 Paul states that our union with Christ has actually seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus. So because Christ is far above all demonic authorities, so we in union with Him are also seated far above our enemies!

    There are many scriptures which assure us of our victory over the enemies of God's purposes:-

    Lev 26:7-8 "You will pursue your enemies and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you."

    Deut 20:4 "For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory".

    2 Chron 20:17 "You will not have to fight this battle. Just take up your positions and wait ; you will see the LORD give you victory."

    1 Cor 15:57 "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

    When we engage in spiritual warfare from the basis of our victorious position in Christ we will see God's victory! Remember : THE VICTORY IS ALREADY ASSURED

     b) God's great power in us who believe

    The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is actually living in us. Do I really know that with all my heart? Are we allowing God the freedom to use His power through us to touch the lives of others? There is a purpose in the power - to bring people out of the Kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of light!

    Illustration : Boy with Polio in Jordan

    The Scripture encourages us, "Freely you have received, now freely give".

    We should have the attitude, "My life is not my own, but I have been bought for a price".

    3. We must rely upon our position of perfect authority

    What is authority? Basically it means the "right to act", and in the situation of spiritual warfare, we have been given the right to act on Jesus behalf.

    Matthew 17:14-21 Jesus said, "Behold, I have given you authority over all the power of enemy".

    When Christ sent His disciples out in Matthew 28:18-19 He said to them,

    "I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Go, then, to all people's everywhere and make them my disciples ..."

    This authority is two-fold : to destroy the works of the enemy, and to put into place that which God wants to replace it with

    In Jeremiah 1:10 we read, "See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant".

    Again, in Mark 16:17,

    "Believers will be given the power to perform miracles : they will drive out demons in my name".

    The authority that God gives us can be used for God's glory or mis-used. The choice is up to us. Later on we will look in more detail about the use of our authority (see Spiritual Warfare Part 2).

    4. Fourthly, it is a battle of faith

    1 Jn 5:3-5 "And we win the victory over the world by means of our faith. Who can defeat the world? Only the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God"

    Hebrews 11:33-34 "Through faith they fought whole countries and won. They did what was right and received what God had promised. They shut the mouths of lions, put out fierce fires, escaped being killed by the sword. They were weak, but became strong; they were mighty in battle and defeated the armies of foreigners."

    Note in Matthew 17:14-21 (Jesus heals a boy with a demon) we learn that falling from faith will leave us without the authority of Jesus to drive out demons. Remember without faith it is impossible to please God.

    In Mark 11:23 Jesus told His disciples to command mountains to move.

    A spiritual mountain may be anything that stands in the way of God's will as revealed to us in Scripture. We need to firstly, identify the spiritual mountains, and secondly, pray specifically by faith, commanding them to be brought down.

    Just prior to this in Mark 11:12-23 Jesus gave an example of this lesson through the fig tree story. It was a lesson in unwavering faith.

    "Have faith in God. I assure you that whoever tells this mountain to get up and throw itself in the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. For this reason I tell you: When you pray and ask for something, believe that you have received it, and you will be given whatever you ask for."

    The kind of faith that Jesus is talking about when used with authority is confrontative. We must be clear that it is not the kind of faith that passively says "Thanks God - you do it". Jesus did not say to His disciples, "Ask God to remove the mountain". Instead, He said, "You command the mountain to move".

    Counterfeit: For every good thing that God gives, satan also desires to give. And this is true in the area of power. In Luke 4 (The Temptation of Jesus) satan reveals his desire to give power to whoever he chooses, and to whoever will worship him. We need to be warned - not all power displayed in healing, miracles and deliverance come from God. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ we need to be careful that we do not accept a 'power spirit' from satan, and we also need to test all spirits.

     Summary: It is important that we understand that it is because of :

    a) Christ's authority

    b) His position in the heavenlies far above all demons, and

    c) Our position as seated with Him

    That we may exercise under His direction the delegated authority He gave to us to carry on His work. The believer who walks close to the LORD and lives a life of faith has complete authority and complete power in the will of God to oppose the powers of darkness. We are victors in Christ and more than conquerors through Christ, who loved us and gave His life for us!

     Prayer :

    O Lord, we thank you that you did not leave us in this world powerless to fight the evil one, but that you have provided us with your authority and your power. Lord, we do not rejoice because the demons submit to us, but we rejoice in the knowledge and understanding that you love us, have chosen us as your children, and that you have written our names in the Lamb's Book of Life. Lord we praise you because you have won the victory over the enemy. All we have to do is stand up and fight. Help us O Lord to be strong in your mighty strength and to be filled with courage. Help us O Lord to draw close to you, because we realise that it is only as we get close to you that we can be successful in spiritual warfare. You are our captain and to you be all the glory given with each victory.

    Now, in the name of our precious Lord Jesus Christ and by the power of His precious blood we break every power in our lives that has come from the evil one. And according to the Scriptures we declare out loud that we will worship the Lord our God, and serve Him only. We renounce and reject all forms of power that have not come through our Lord Jesus Christ, and we declare publicly our complete loyalty to God the Father, through the Son Jesus Christ, and by the Holy Spirit.

    We pray now, Holy Spirit, that you would annoint each one of us with the holy power of GOD according to your will. We humbly ask your forgiveness O LORD for those times when we failed you. Your power was in us, but we didn't allow you the freedom to work through us. We didn't listen to your voice. Please forgive us O Lord. And in Jesus name and by the power of His precious blood we break every power from satan working in our lives preventing us from doing God's will. We release ourselves from all the powers of darkness and declare ourselves set free to serve our Lord Jesus Christ in spiritual warfare.

    Amen!

 

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