Our authority

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CHRISTIAN WARFARE

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SPIRITUAL WARFARE

Biblical Deliverance Ministries

THE USE OF OUR AUTHORITY

We have touched on the subject of spiritual authority just a little, but now I would like to enlarge on it as I believe it is of crucial importance in our christian lives. Whether we use our authority or not can make incredible differences in the victory we see in our lives.

First let us turn to the Scriptures in Exodus 17:8-13

"The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, 'Pick out some men to go and fight the Amalekites tomorrow. I will stand on top of the hill holding the stick that God told me to carry.' Joshua did as Moses commanded him and went out to fight the Amalekites, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his arms, the Israelites won, but when he put his arms down, the Amalekites started winning. When Moses' arms grew tired, Aaron and Hur brought a stone for him to sit on, while they stood beside him and held up his arms, holding them steady until the sun went down. In this way Joshua totally defeated the Amalekites. Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Write an account of this victory, so that it will be remembered. Tell Joshua that I will completely destroy the Amalekites.' Moses built an altar and named it 'the Lord is my Banner.' He said, 'Hold high the banner of the LORD! The LORD will continue to fight against the Amalekites for ever!'".

This story speaks to us about authority. When the stick was lifted, God gave the Israelites victory. When the stick was lowered, the Israelites suffered defeat. What was so important about the stick? The stick represented 'authority'. In other words, when Moses used the authority God had given him, the Israelites were winning against the enemy, but when Moses did not use the authority God had given him, the Israelites suffered defeat.

This is true in our own lives to this very day. In the spiritual battles that we are facing right now and in the future, we need to use our God-given authority in order to see victory.

Who has authority? Basically, the Scriptures tell us that all Jesus' true followers have been given His authority. That means, men and women. It also means children who with correct understanding have accepted Jesus into their lives as Saviour and Lord. A friend of ours eldest son Jonathan at 5 1/2 years old, accepted Jesus into his life. Even as a child he learned to use the authority that God has given him. If he senses evil or something frightening in his dreams, he says 'Go away in Jesus name'. Already at the young age of 5 he is learning to rebuke and reject evil in all its forms. It is not something that God only gives to spiritual leaders or high-ranking people. In God's eyes, we are all equal, and loved the same. He gives His gifts to all his children!

If we have responsibility we have authority, and if we have authority we have a responsibility to use that authority for the furtherance of the Kingdom of God! Authority is not something that is given for our own benefit - but it is a gift from God to us, to be sacrificially given back to God in service to Him.

There are four areas for the use of spiritual authority:-

1. Using spiritual authority for ourselves

Put on our spiritual armour

We have authority, but how do we use it for ourselves? Firstly, it's important to remember that whilst we have God's authority, we cannot go onto the battlefield without being properly dressed. Every morning that we wake up from sleep we put on our everyday physical clothes, and at the beginning of every day we also need to put on our spiritual clothes.

Without offending anyone, I would like to ask you a question. If you were to go outside without your clothes on, would you be attacked? I don't know about Vanuatu, but in the case of N.Z. and other very western countries I know that it would be true. If we do this in the spiritual sense - that is, begin a day without our spiritual clothes on, we can also expect that we will suffer more attack than we would if we did have our spiritual clothes on. The Bible tells us that these spiritual clothes are really like an armor that go over our spiritual bodies to protect us from the attacks of the enemy.

Now, how do we get this spiritual armor on? When we were children we would go to our parents to help us get dressed. But now that we are adults we dress ourselves. And this is true in the spiritual sense also. God requires us to take the initiative. If we want to be protected, we must get dressed ourselves. In the situation of young children, it is important that as parents we teach them how to get spiritually dressed for every day, until they are of the age when they can automatically do it themselves.

Let us read from Ephesians 6:10-18

    "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

    Stand firm then,

    with the belt of truth buckled around your waist,

    with the breastplate of righteousness in place,

    and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

    In addition to all this,

    take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

    Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

    And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."

The first 3 pieces of our armour we have, are those that refer to spiritual truths that need to be daily affirmed in our life. These were first given to us at salvation, these truths need our daily renewed commitment. We need to wear these constantly! They are representative of our position in Christ. When we daily reaffirm our commitment in these areas we affirm that we are in Christ!

In resisting temptation

The second 3 pieces of our armour, we must take (shield, helmet, sword). These represent spiritual truths that we need to use in resisting temptation. They are the pieces of armour that we use when under attack.

The following is an example of how we would use these last 3 pieces of armour that we 'take' to resist temptation:

Use your Position In Jesus name

Use your Shield I refuse to accept these "angry" thoughts and feelings. (Your choice) I have died to you, and I choose to live for God, accepting only His thoughts of me and desires for me.

Use your Helmet Father, by the power of your Holy Spirit, please give me Jesus' (The Spirit's empowering) "patience" .

Use your Sword For I choose to do as your Word says and ... (The Word of God) 'Lay aside all bitterness, wrath and anger . . . and be kind to another, tenderhearted and forgiving each other just as God in

Christ also forgave you." Ephesians 4:31-32

While this type of prayer may be good in resisting temptation that has it's roots in our sinful nature or old habits, if we find ourselves in a situation where there is a strong attack from spiritual forces in the guise of temptation, we may need to adapt it to the following:

Use your Authority In Jesus name, I command the spirit stirring up these thoughts and feelings of "lust" to Stop! Stand! and Listen!

Use your Shield I refuse to accept these thoughts and feelings. I died to them (Your choice) when I became a child of God. I am alive in Christ and seated in Him above all rule and authority and that includes you! Jesus' blood has cleansed me from my sin and I am now part of His Kingdom. I choose to live according to God's Word which

Use your Sword It says in Colossians 3:5, "Put to death whatever belongs to your (the Word of God) earthly nature : sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry".

Use your Helmet Father, by the power of your Holy Spirit, please give to me (the Spirit's empowering) Jesus' "purity" as you promised in your Word. I recommit this area of my life to you and I ask that you fill it with your Spirit, that you may be glorified in me. Thank you!

2. Using spiritual authority in the home

God has given us the authority to stand against satan's attacks upon on families. Are we prepared to do battle on their behalf? Often in battling for our loved ones we need to come against a stronghold that has them captive. A stronghold is like a fortified castle that you can't seem to penetrate. Spiritually speaking, a stronghold is a mind set contrary to Scripture that will not move. The Apostle Paul explains how we can come against this in 2 Cor 10:4-5

"I use God's mighty weapons, not those made by men, to knock down the devil's strongholds.

These weapons can break down every proud argument against God and every wall that can be built to keep men from finding Him. With these weapons I can capture rebels and bring them back to God, and change them into men whose hearts' desire is obedience to Christ."

Suggested Prayer for Family:

"God and Father who sits on the throne in Heaven, I counter-petition satan.

I come to you in the name of Jesus Christ my Lord and in the power of His precious blood and I lay claim to _____________. Satan may not have ______________.

I ask you to open _______________ eyes so that he/she can see the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ and be able to embrace the full truth in God."

It is important to remember that anybody living under your roof must come under husband and wife's joint authority. (See the story of Abigail in 1 Sam 25:3-44 for an example of how one woman undertook for her whole family's safety).

Another important area needed to be looked at in the area of our home life is what I call the "enemy's treasure". In Joshua 7 we read the story of Achan who stole the enemy's treasure and buried it in his tent. Because he directly disobeyed God's command when He said in 6:18, "But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them", terrible trouble came upon him.

We need to ask ourselves, "have we got any of the enemy's treasure in our homes?" Deut 7:26 also says, "Do not bring a detestable thing into your house, or you, like it will be set apart for destruction" These things may be any objects such as jewellery, carvings, idols, books, music, etc. Some items may need to be destroyed completely, others may need annointing with oil. The best thing is to rely on the Holy Spirit to lead us in showing which things need to be dealt with. I have to stress the importance of obedience here. If we disobey and rebel against what God has shown us, a curse will be brought upon our lives. Following this every christian family needs to dedicate and annoint the building and surrounding land up to the boundaries if not already done.

3. Using our spiritual authority as those who serve in the Church

In spiritual warfare, the Church is supposed to be the vehicle through which war is declared against satan. I like to call the Church, the warship. All Churches are called to be warships, some are actually doing effective battle against the enemy, others are 'in the waters' but have little understanding of the equipment they've been given to do battle with therefore they achieve little in the spiritual realm. And still other warships are totally sunk.

I believe that as a Church we need to ask ourselves, what kind of warship are we? Are we effectively doing the work of God in carrying out the great commission? If we are working hard but are seeing little fruit, it is time to start doing spiritual battle through prayer. As we continue in the work of the LORD we also need to be aware of satan's planned attacks upon the Church. These attacks seem to come under four categories:

1. Attempts to stop the evangelistic outreach of God's people (Acts 4:1-4)

2. Attempts to contaminate the spiritual life of the Church's members (Acts 5:1-10)

3. Attempts to divide the fellowship of the Church (Acts 5:42 - 6:1)

4. Attempts to destroy leadership

As a church we must pray for each of these areas specifically in order to extinguish satan's attacks. Because God has given us the spiritual authority to come against the enemy in his attacks against the Church, we would be foolish to not use our weapons of warfare in preventing them.

Ephesians 5:16 "make the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil"

It is important that we remember that the other churches in our cities are not our enemies! We must learn to war against all the things (illusions, fear and jealousy) which are sent by satan to try to divide us. In Jn 17:20-23 we learn that Jesus is eternally praying for our oneness - if this was of such great importance to Him then it must be because satan is continually warring against our oneness. Why is oneness so important? Because a church divided against itself cannot stand. If we want to see this island win the war against satan we must be united with the cords of God's pure love. The Church must unite interdenominationally - we must advance together!

4. Using our spiritual authority on behalf of our country

Powerful spirits are in control of countries. Whether we believe it or not - it is the truth. It comes as a result of disobedience to the Word of God, (Deut 18:9-11).

Ezekiel 4:1-2 "Now, Son of man, take a clay tablet, put it in front of you and draw the city of Jerusalem on it. Then lay seige to it: Erect seige works against it, build a ramp up to it, set up camps against it and put battering rams around it. Then take an iron pan, place it as an iron wall between you and the city and turn your face toward it. It will be under seige, and you shall beseige it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel."

In Ezekiel 4:1-2 we read of the principal of laying seige to a geographical area. It is important that as a united Church we ask the LORD, the captain of the army, to show us which areas He wants us to claim for Him. Now in Vanuatu it is the same as N.Z. at this time. There are not any visible enemy fortresses that we can see. But in spiritual terms we are literally surrounded by our enemy satan and his demons.

As in all situations of war there is always a base or headquarters where most of the activity comes from. And this is what we mean when we are talking about particular areas that are spiritual fortresses. Because we don't see this war going on between God and satan with our own eyes we are often indifferent or unaware of the reality of what is going on around us. If only we could truly see and understand, we would realise the importance of all the truths in Scripture about putting on our spiritual armor and using our spiritual weapons in this battle.

In verses 2-3 of Ezekiel 4 we read of the battering ram which was to be used in breaking down the enemy's fortress. This battering ram is a picture of repetitive spiritual warfare praying. Sometimes walls will come down instantly as in the case of Joshua and the wall of Jericho, but sometimes they will only fall as a result of a spiritual hammering.

In 2 Kings 13:19 it says, "You should have prayed 5 or 6 times . . . until you had destroyed it".

We must ask the Lord to lead and guide us. The captain of the army knows best!

In Jeremiah 1:10 we read, "See, I have set you over the nations and over the kingdoms . . . to build and plant". Following the destroying of a stronghold it is important that we as a church remember to pray into place that which God wants to raise up in place of the strongholds that are removed. It is faith that will enable us to speak prayerfully into existance that which we are convinced is God's will (Hebrews 11:1).

So as we complete this study let us reflect for one moment about what would happen in a war if nobody came.

Just suppose you were the captain of a large army. When recruits first came under your command, most were given an instruction manual that not only instructed them on everything they needed to know about waging a successful war, including tactics and weapons, but informed them about the nature of the enemy, his purpose and his strategies.

However, what would you, as their Captain, do if you knew that most soldiers under your command were so unfamiliar with their manual they didn't even know there was a war going on?

What would you do if most of the people in your army were not even in their uniform and poorly armed, not even knowing they had weapons, much less, how to use them?

What would you do if many were sick or wounded?

What would you do if you knew that some of your troops were even co-operating with the enemy without realising it?

What would you do if the few warriors who actually knew how to fight and make war were often rejected and kept at arm's length by their fellow soldiers?

Does this sound ridiculous?

The above situation is the one in which Jesus Christ, Commander in Chief of the heavenly armies finds Himself today. While our enemy, satan, prowls about, seeking whom he may destroy, much of the Christian world stands at ease, frightened, depressed or discouraged over what our enemy is doing, never realising that it is Christians who make up the different sections of God's army.

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