WEAPONS FOR A SPIRITUAL WAR
By: C. Mason Davis
A minister died and went to heaven and ahead of him at the Pearly Gate was a guy in sunglasses and a leather jacket and the guy said to St. Peter. "I'm Joe Renko, cabdriver from Las Vegas." Saint Peter gave him a golden robe and golden staff and then it was the minister's turn. "I am Elmer Lundberg, pastor of Zion Lutheran for forty-five years." Saint Peter gave him a cotton robe and wooden staff." "But that man was a taxi driver, and he gets a golden robe and golden staff?" And St. Peter said, "Up here, we go by results. Elmer, while you preached, people slept; while Joe drove, people prayed."
TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
2 Corinthians 10:4; “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.”
Men are men. Women are women. A man cannot become a woman. A woman cannot become a man. Men are better at some things than women. Women are better at some things than men. Marriage is between a man and a woman. We should not kill babies. Children should not be exploited or abused. Men should protect and provide for the family. Women should nurture and care for the family. These statements were self-evident truths for thousands of years, only in the past few decades did they become “hateful” or “bigoted.” Satan is attempting to turn God’s creation upside down and invert it. Up is down, left is right, right is wrong, evil is good, good is evil. The “truth” is relative and whatever you want it to be. These are the lies of the enemy. This is the post-truth trash world.
We may live in a post-truth world, but that doesn’t mean that the objective Truth that has been revealed to us through God’s Word will not stand the tests of a world gone mad. Going against the Truth of God’s design for men, women, children, and families is like going against gravity: eventually, you’re going to fall back to earth.
It should come as no surprise when worldly people fall into the trap of completely rejecting Truth, but what is astonishing to see is that people who call themselves Christians are buying into lies of the enemy wholesale without question.
Wear the mask. Don’t question it. Lock down the church. Don’t question it.
Take the experimental DNA-altering aborted fetal tissue vaccine. Don’t question it. Accept the election results despite the rampant irregularities. Don’t question it.
Hand over your guns. Don’t question it. Attack, demonize, and destroy anyone who questions it.
The rejection of Truth by Christians causes those of us who are grounded in God’s Truth to become incredibly frustrated, even dizzy at the prospect of trying to communicate effectively and wade through the adversary’s mountain of lies. This is what the enemy wants, and we must fight back against the urge to stay silent. If Christians are denying God’s Truth when it is right in front of their faces, we have a big problem and we need to course-correct, quickly. The only way to do that is by speaking the Truth loudly, boldly, and often.
Part of the problem is that we are trying to fight the enemy on their terms and in their battlefields. We are all guilty of this, me included. We enter the adversary’s battleground–Twitter and Facebook for example–and expect to gain ground on land that the enemy controls where they can wipe us out with the click of a button. We consume news and media that is carefully crafted by the enemy and expect things to change by lending them our time and attention. We immerse ourselves in the culture of the enemy and are surprised when that culture turns on us. One of the biggest problems is that most people who reject Jesus do so because it interferes with the way they want to live. But if we are going to win a spiritual war, we must dare to stand for God’s Truth in this post-truth world, but how do we do that? Here are a few simple examples.
Boldly defend the sanctity of life in a world that praises child sacrifice. Boldly defend the holiness of marriage between one man and one woman as God designed. Boldly defend God’s creation and the unique roles and gifts God has given men and women. Boldly rebuke the Den of Vipers and their wicked ways. Boldly share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
This is a spiritual battle and therefore we must use spiritual weapons to expose and fight the enemies of Truth, including when those enemies of Truth happen to be our brothers and sisters in Christ. We must lovingly and boldly rebuke Christians who reject Truth in favor of political allegiances and narratives and let God handle the rest. Jesus Christ and God’s Word are the ultimate sword and shield in this war.
They have no recourse to fight back against you when you wield spiritual weapons against them. To smear and attack you they will need to smear and attack Jesus, and in doing so they show their hand. If you want to become a victorious warrior in the post-truth spiritual war the best way to do so is by using the spiritual weapons and gifts at our disposal.
Let me remind you of something important brothers and sisters: we have the power of the one and only Holy Creator God inside of us. Whom then shall we fear? Jesus didn’t die on the cross for you to “feel good” about yourself or to live in apathetic complacency as His enemy’s mock, attack, and destroy Truth. He didn’t tell us to sit around getting crushed by the enemy waiting to die. In Matthew 28, 19-20, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always to the very end of the age.” Hebrews 10:13 says, “We were commanded to make disciples of all nations and Jesus is waiting for his enemies to be made his footstool.” So, pick up your spiritual weapons my fellow Christians, we are in the footstool making business.
The first weapon that we have is the name of the Lord. Proverbs 18:10 states that, “The name of the LORD is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” The devil hates that name, the name of God, the name of Jesus. The disciples were rejoicing that they had power over the devil through the name of Jesus. When Jesus would show up, the demons would say, “we know you Jesus of Nazareth, have you come to torment us before the time?” The devil cannot penetrate past the name of Jesus. When you feel a spiritual attack in your life, use the name of Jesus. There is something about that name. The mere NAME of Jesus causes God’s enemies to lose their minds.
The Word of God can also be used as weapon of God. Ephesians 6:17 tells us to, “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” You have a powerful weapon in the Word of God because the devil cannot make the Word of God, which is truth, thus the devil fails. You can claim the promises of God in your life when you use the words, “yes” and “amen.” The word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. When you use the word of God against the devil, you will get immediate results. Faith in God’s Word will move any mountain, will slay any giant, will defeat every enemy. No weapon formed against you will prosper. Let us turn to the Word of God, which is our most powerful guide as a spiritual weapon, for how we are to proceed considering the truths that have been revealed to us as we wage our spiritual battle in a post-truth world. Just look in what is written in Hebrews 10:32-39 “Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.” But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.” God didn’t place us in this world to live lives of constant defeat and discouragement. Even though life is a war, God has given us weapons to win the battles of life. It isn’t that the weapons aren’t there, it is that many people live their lives not knowing how to use these weapons for victory. Today, I will give you these weapons of spiritual warfare. In spiritual battles you cannot use physical weapons. You won’t succeed in the battles of this life by talent, ability, intelligence, finance, or social skills, in spiritual battles you must know how to use spiritual weapons. God has not given us the Spirit of fear, but of love, power, and a sound mind. God has given us weapons to win, and you can live in spiritual victory by using them. In 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
Another weapon in God’s arsenal is the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus is a covering over your mind, your spirit, or anything in your life, you can place a blood covering over it, and the Devil cannot cross the blood line. Revelation 12:11 says, “They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” When Jesus shed His blood, it conquered sin, death, disease, and every other thing. You need to plead the blood of Jesus over your life, your family, your future. There is power in the blood of Jesus, like when we take communion, it is symbolic of taking into our lives the very power of the blood of Christ.
We must also invest ourselves in prayer for the service. You must come into the service to worship with a clear mind and a clear conscience, motivated to praise the Lord with an open heart. Enter wholeheartedly into the praise of God. Be cheerful before the King and present your very best. Be sure to go to sleep early the night before so that you can give Him the very best of yourself. Our praise is not automatically glorious. We make His praise glorious. Psalm 34:1 says, “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” Be a worshipper all week long! A true worshipper worships at every opportunity and does not demand some stimulus for it. Psalm 91:1 says, “He who dwells in the shelter of the “Most High” will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.”
In Matthew 17 is a story of when the disciples couldn’t cast out the devil from a boy, so Jesus cast out the devil. When asked why they had failed, Jesus said, in some cases, there are strong spirits that you will face, so spiritual prayer will be needed to win the victory. What that means is that you need to keep talking to God thru prayer, for if you let your guard down, the enemy will win over you. The devil and his evildoers will look for any chance, any crack to slip through the cracks to get at you. You must stay on your toes, keep your guard up, and keep your relationship to Jesus strong so that any attempts by the evildoers to turn you against your faith, will fail. But beware, they never give up. Sometimes you must die to the flesh to strengthen the spirit. The weaker you are in the flesh, the stronger you will be in the Spirit. Luke 24:49 says,” I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
Faith is what gives a believer confidence in God's presence to access what belongs to him. Such faith is undeniable and can 'purchase' anything from God without hesitation. However, faith cannot function alone; it must have its own work because faith without work is in vain. Faith brings all the benefits of salvation into our lives. Ephesians 2:8 states, “For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” This includes healing, prosperity, peace, love, joy, deliverance from demons and the curse, sanctification of the mind and emotions (the salvation of the soul) and any other benefit which the word of God promises to us. FAITH means, belief, firm persuasion, assurance, firm conviction, faithfulness. Faith is confidence in what we hope for and the assurance that the lord is working, even though we cannot see it. Faith knows that no matter what the situation, in our lives or someone else's that the lord is working in it.
Fighting the good fight of faith involves running from sin and pursing things such as righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fighting the good fight of faith is about making a choice, a choice to pursue God's will and a life of faith on a daily basis. Faith is the method by which we are enabled to be victorious in every aspect of living. It is the foundation for salvation and used to form an intimate relationship with Jesus. We forget how powerful and significant working our faith out in daily lives is to winning the battle over every obstacle. It is one of the most powerful weapons of spiritual warfare, overcoming life's trials and securing victory every day. If faith is this powerful, what is faith and how do we acquire it? According to Hebrews 11, faith is the substance of things hoped for, and it yields evidence of its presence when it manifests itself in the visible world through a response to what is believed. Faith is applied confidence in God to our daily lives and circumstances.
Using faith as your weapon of choice is to realize you cannot win the battle over your soul without it. It is your power in the kingdom to purchase what you need, spiritually and naturally. God receives faith and blesses it when it is centered in Him. This is why basing your faith according to the witness God left of Himself is most important to your spiritual authority. Faith is one of a few spiritual artilleries that has the ability to move God on His throne to your particular need. It caused the woman with the issue of blood to be made whole, as the very essence of the touch of faith pulled virtue out of Jesus and captured His attention. She made a faith-move on God that grabbed His attention to meet her need. Faith should be your weapon of choice.
Have you ever noticed the way God multiplies your faith when you begin praising Him? There are times when it is more important to praise God than to pray to Him a prayer of intercession. Praise lifts your eyes from your circumstances to your almighty Father who is Ruler overall. Not one circumstance in your life can come without His permission, and that means that He has a way of causing it to work together with other things for His glory and your good. Praise in warfare is not telling God what to do, but rather when we believe that He knows what the best possible means to win the battle is and takes. We are not focusing on the enemy or the warfare, but we are transferring the battle into a mighty man of war. And the victory is a sure thing. Praise does not flatter God to incur his favor. It enthrones him back on His throne in our eyes, in our beliefs, and in our hearts, where He belongs. Praise lifts your eyes from the battle to the victory. For Christ is already Victor, and though we do not yet see all things under His feet, they are there in a divine reality. You have the Victor in your heart that you might have His victory in your life. It is interesting to learn that the opposite of praise is to blame. Could it be when we don’t praise Him, we are angry with God and blaming Him for a situation in our life? Have any of you ever been guilty of this yourself? What did you do to reverse this blame? Have you asked for His forgiveness? Did you stay steadfast in your faith, your praise and trust in Him? Did you pray to Him for answers, for relief, or anything else? Were your prayers answered? God requires you to pray to him through His only son, Jesus. You have to ask him for what you need. You need to ask to receive. Ask not, receive not! It’s as simple as that!
When you need faith there are two steps to take; go to God’s Word and begin praising Him. These two go together as naturally as hydrogen and oxygen together make water. Stop worrying, fearing; try praising. Do you need faith? In your own mind, what do you need to do to strengthen your faith in Him? How will you go about doing it?
Living a life of praise will inevitably require a sacrifice of time. We cannot dash in and out of the presence of the Lord; there times when we need to stay and commune for a while. We must bring our praise with no ulterior motives, no attempts to “twist Gods arm” to come to us. Our praises will become a powerful weapon against the enemy.
Praise is a commandment! Praise God in His sanctuary! Praise Him in His mighty firmament! God does not need our praise! He is commanding us to praise Him because it is for our benefit. When you praise Him, you lift your eyes from the battle to the victory. When we come before Him in Praise and worship is not the time to focus on yourself. Some introspection is good, but we can be so engrossed in introspection that we neglect the priority of blessing the Lord or we disqualify ourselves by that, that we are not worthy. The basic posture of a Christian is not “Bless me, Lord,” but rather I will bless the Lord. Proverbs 11:25 says, “The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself.” Praise is a preoccupation with who God is and what he has done and what he is going to do. It is our individual responsibility to praise HIM!
We, as Christians, are members of the New Testament priesthood. And we must accept the responsibilities for our role as ministers in the congregation. We must prepare ourselves for worship. When you prepare for worship, there are a few things that you need to deal with. First, you need to deal with any known sin in your life before getting into the worship service. Otherwise, you would spend more time and attention on yourself instead of spending that time getting yourself right before God and thus lose opportunities to praise and worship Him. If any known sin is just swept under the carpet, then you won’t get a full release of your conscience to openly, and freely, praise God during the time of worship. The enemy will use sin as well as any other means to distract us from worshipping. But overcome his evil by worshipping despite distractions!
Why is worship so powerful? Well, worship is a powerful tool. It is the means whereby we invite God's presence into our lives and into our world. Worship has a way of changing our lives and giving us different perspectives on how we see our circumstances. It is an incredible blessing to see life from God's point of view instead of our own. Worship is a powerful weapon of spiritual warfare that defeats the enemy and completely nullifies His plan of destruction for our lives. The correct answer to the question of “Why do Christians go to church and worship” is simply to remember God, to worship the God of creation, and to be thankful for the sacrifice of Christ that provides our salvation. What is the true essence of worship? It involves giving to God our total self. We can worship without uttering a single sound because God's spirit within us is contacting the Spirit in the Godhead. When we worship, we become more conscious of God's presence. What are four reasons to worship God? First, we worship Jesus because of his divinity; next, we worship Jesus because of his supremacy; then we worship Jesus because of his humanity; and finally, we worship Jesus because of his humility. What happens when people worship? Worship is a declaration that God is in the midst of all that is happening in our world today, a powerful weapon against any lie that says God is not in control or that he is not able. Worshiping together teaches us to submit and surrender all our cares to God, such as our priorities, plans, hopes, dreams, and even our fears. What is true worship? Jesus laid out what real true worship is, first it's to worship God in spirit and truth. That means you understand who God is and all about the Godhead. So real worship is more than singing songs, real worship involves what Romans says; “your body as a living sacrifice.” To exalt God is to raise God to the highest place in our lives. To give Him first place in every thought in our mind, every word spoken, and every deed done. This cannot be done apart from His Son, Jesus Christ.
Today, if you want joy and zeal and power in your life, you need the Holy Spirit working in you. God’s prayer is that you walk in victory every day, and defeat the devil in every place, just like Jesus did, and still does today. In Exodus 15:3-5, “The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name. Pharoah’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone.” Jesus told the disciples to tarry and wait for the promise of the Father. He knew that for the disciples and the early church to walk in victory, they would need the power of the Holy Spirit working in their lives. Many people do not realize that the Holy Spirit is the active force of God in their lives to help them overcome the devil, the flesh, and the world. The weaker you are in the flesh, the stronger you will be in the Spirit. God never placed us here to walk in limited power, but in unlimited power. He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and with fire. John the Baptist pointed to Jesus as the one who would baptize people in the Holy Spirit. John knew that people needed more than a dunk into the water, they needed a filling of the fire. We see Him as gentle father loving but there is another side to Jesus Christ, He is a mighty man of war.
Again, our spiritual weapons are the name of Jesus, the Word of God, the Blood of Jesus, prayer, faith, praise, worshipping, and the power of the Holy Spirit. There is nothing wrong with the weapons, you just need to know how to use them to be successful in spiritual battle.
God wants us to be obedient to what He asks us to do. If you feel like he’s asking you to give 10%, then you best be giving 10%. Blessing comes with obedience. Whatever that obedience looks like. Whether it’s giving or serving. Obedience is the key. That reminds me of a story of a little boy and his father eating in a diner together. Upon receiving the check, the boy noticed his dad was calculating 15% of the total to leave as a tip. Puzzled, the little boy asked the dad why the waitress was getting 15% but God only gets 10.
Malachi? ?3:10??????? says, “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!” “Remember this: a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. 2 Corinthians? ?9:6-8? says, “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need, and plenty left over to share with others.” ??
?????????????????Also remember that happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions. And of this, I pray for you. Amen.????
