As I was listening to the news about the Middle East conflict dealing with Sadaam Hussein, I began to look at how the United States was getting their forces ready and in place to go to war. But before a soldier can be allowed to be an active member of the armed forces, he or she must under go training. They must under go physical training and mental training to prepare them to defend this country. In other words, they must be physically and mentally fit for war.
They must know the chain of command and how to follow orders without question. They must be taught obedience. This is something that’s hard for all of us. They must learn the rules and procedures for daily activities and special occasions. The new recruits are disciplined to get up at different times in the early part of the morning, go without food and water during certain times of training, and even go through survival endurance training.
They are taught how to use the weapons of war such as the M-16, explosives, grenades, and other sophisticated devices. They are also trained in map reading and using a compass to find their way out of unknown territory. All of this is necessary for getting the new recruits ready for war.
But when we look at the spiritual realm of war….we’re dealing with totally different weapons, strategies, and beliefs. But one thing is definitely the same, we must prepare ourselves to deal with the enemy. How can we fight when we don’t know who it is we’re fighting, or we don’t know what weapons are at our disposal and how to use them.
First of all the enemy is the devil, in the Hebrew language they call him Satan, in the Greek language he is called Diabolos, and he is also called Lucifer, which means light bearing.
Over at the Morgan State University they have the Army ROTC program which stands for the Army Reserve Officers Training Corps. It prepares young cadets that qualify to be officers in the United States Army. Once they graduate from Morgan they will receive two degrees. One degree which will be a B.S. (Bachelors of Science) or a B.A. (Bachelors of Arts) plus they will get their commission from the United States Army to be a Second Lieutenant in the army.
But we as Christians have a military program that will accept any man, woman, boy, or girl that is willing to learn the Word of God and be obedient to Him. No one is turned away if they truly want to be trained. There’s no application to be completed, there’s no fee to be paid, and there is not a waiting list. That program is called the GBTC (God’s Basic Training Camp).
In this training camp, we first must know whom we serve, and that’s Jesus Christ. He is the Commander in Chief. He is the one who prepares us for battle. He is the one who wins the battles through us. Not us winning the battles on our own.
Jesus has given us an arsenal of weapons. I’m talking about spiritual weapons. 2 Corinthians 10:4 says “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal.” Carnal in this sense means physical weapons like guns, knives, and bombs. Satan and his demons would be quite easy to wipe out if a bomb could be used to kill them.
It is so sad that Christians fail to realize this principle in 2 Corinthians 10:4. Christians waste so much time and effort trying to solve spiritual problems and conflicts through “fleshy means.”
Instead of seeking the spiritual way, we resort to our own human ideas from television talk shows like Rikki Lake, Opray, Morten Downey Show, and the Jerry Springer Show. Now if you really want to become a fool watch the Jerry Springer Show and take his advice. You and Jerry Springer will be the main ones to burst hell wide open.
There are many weapons that God has provided for us to fight the devil and his demons with but I am only going to talk about 4 of them briefly. There’s:
1. The Word Of God
2. Effective Prayer
3. The Armor Of God
4. Praise Of God
Our first and most important weapon is the Word Of God. It’s better known as the “Sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17)”. A person may buy and use a Smith and Wesson revolver, a Colt firearm, or any other make of weapon. But the Smith and Wesson Company is best qualified to tell you about the proper use and care of the gun that they make. The Colt company ( they make the colt 44 caliber pistol ) is the best qualified to also tell you how to use and care for the gun that they manufacture.
Well, the Word of God belongs to the Holy Spirit. It is His sword. We have permission to use it, but it is the Spirit’s weapon. Therefore, since it belongs to the Holy Spirit, and it’s one of the weapons of the Holy Spirit, then the Holy Sprit is best qualified to show Christians on how and when to use it! The Holy Spirit is our Drill Instructor. In fact, the primary role of the Holy Sprit is to help Christians prepare for war. That is why our Lord said, “When the Comforter is come, even the Spirit of truth, he shall testify of me. When he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth (John 15:26; 16:13).
As I researched that passage God revealed to me that He has given charge to the Holy Spirit to teach us how to fight with the weapons that He has provided for us.
My second point is Effective Prayer. In order for God to listen to our request, we must pray. We must tell God what it is we need and it must be specific. Whenever troops are pinned down in battle, the officer in charge must radio in to tell the commanding officer what the situation is and specifically what is needed to correct what is going on.
In the book of James it says, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much (James 5:16). The Greek word “effectual” is energeo, which means to be active, efficient in working supplication, to be mighty in, to be operative, to put forth power, or to produce an effect. The Greek word for “fervent” is zelos, which means zeal, ardor, heat or to be hot. True prayer or genuine supplication is prayer that has spiritual zeal and ardor and is effective and powerful. In other words the shucking and jiving prayers just isn’t getting it.
My third point is the Armor of God. This is our defense against the attack of Satan. In our armor we have several weapons at our disposal. I’m only going to cover two. Those two are the helmet and the breastplate.
The Helmet in the spirit realm is called the “helmet of salvation.” The helmet was originally used to protect the heads of the soldiers as arrows were shot at them, javelins were thrown at them and heavy stones dropped on top of them. For the enemy knew that if the head was injured, the soldiers were at their mercy.
Satan knows that if he can attack our minds, he can instill in us fear, lustful living, selfishness, hate, malice, homosexuality, adultery, anger, idolatry, witchcraft and drugs, worshiping people, and anything that angers God. He can have us operating like a puppet on a string. Our helmet is referred to as “the hope of salvation” as stated in 1 Thessalonians 5:8.
We also have the Breastplate that is worn to protect our hearts. In the spiritual realm it is called the breastplate of righteousness. It is the righteous of Jesus Christ that protects our hearts, protects our emotions, and secures our feelings from Satan’s assaults. We cannot face the enemy with our own righteousness because all our righteousness is as filthy rags ( Isaiah 64:6 ) To wrap my heart up in filthy rags and go out into battle is like having no protection at all.
The enemy tries to make issues of your flaws, weaknesses, and imperfections. His goal is to try to make Christians feel unworthy and to appear unrighteous. If you become wounded in your heart, you are depressed and emotionally paralyzed. You will not be able to stand at all in the battle.
We also have the Praise of God in our arsenal. The original Hebrew words for praise are halal and yadah. Halal means to show, to boast, or to celebrate and to glory in. It is the source of Hallelujah, which is a Hebrew expression of praise, which is found more than 160 times in the Old Testament.
Yadah, which means to give thanks and praise. It is a verb that is important to the language of worship and it’s found 120 times in the Old Testament. We ought to thank Him every chance we get for not letting us be consumed by the adversary.
Yadah is the kind of praise that is a weapon against our spiritual enemy. There will be times in your lives that you will have to stand face to face with the enemy, and that’s when you must resort to Yadah praise to defend yourself.
I know you don’t believe me, but if you look in the book of 2 Chronicles 20:21. Jehosaphat appointed men to sing praises to the Lord and to praise Him for all of his marvelous acts as they went out at the head of the army. They continued singing and saying: Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever. As the singers continued their praise, God set ambushes against the invading men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir. All of them, not some of them, but all of them were defeated.
Now let me wrap this thing up. Sometimes you have to use the names of God to fight your battles. When I need God to provide a way out I call on Jehovah Jireh. When I need to have the blood of Jesus with me on a banner, I call on Jehovah Nissi. When I need peace of mind, I call on Jehovah Shalom. When I need the Lord to provide righteousness, I call on Jehovah Tsidkenu. When I need the Lord there, I call on Jehovah Shammah, and when I want God Almighty, I call on El Shaddai!!!!!!!!!!
And I can go and say God is the King of Kings, He is the great I am, He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, He said I am that I am, I am the God of deliverance, I am the God of the most high, I am the shelter in a time of storm, I am a bridge over troubled water, I AM He who is able to more than you can imagine, I am a stronghold in the time of trouble, I am the God of grace, I am the God of strength, I am the God who sustains you, I am the Redeemer,and this is the one that I like best……..it is He who is able to keep you from falling.
One day I almost let go, but because of His grace and mercy. He saw fit to keep me.
But when you know who you are in God, you can look the devil square in the face and say…. Devil take your best shot. This isn’t about me anyway. This is about the will of God, the power of God, the orders of God, and the kingdom of God.
Devil, I’m coming into your camp and take back what you stole from me. Shoot your fiery darts, I have on the breastplate of righteousness. You can’t attack my heart. I know who I am in God. I have on my helmet of salvation. You can’t mess with my mind. I got my mind made up, and I’m not going back. I’m going to see my Jesus one day. Now devil I’m taking back my joy. I want my children back, I’m here to get my drug addict brother, I know my father ain’t about nothing, but I’m here for him too. Give them back to me because I am here on the authority of God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Now you and all of this hell get out of my way……………………….
For those of you that have just gotten out of the enemy’s camp, anything that you need ……God’s got it. If hope is what you need, God’s got it. As my mother in law says “If more love is what you need, God’s got it.” If more faith is what you need, God’s got it. He’s got everything you need. He’s got it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
