The Armor of God
Last month, I preached about prayer and I issued a challenge for us to wage warfare on Satan’s kingdom in Boston. And it seems that we were all ready to accept that challenge. We have accepted the orders from our master to wage war, but now we need some practical instruction from God’s word on Spiritual Warfare.
I. The Nature of our Warfare.
A. Our fight is not against people, but against Satan
Ephesians 6:12, “For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.”
In warfare, there is always an objective. In many wars, the objective is land. For example, in the Middle East, Israel and the Palestinians are fighting because they both want to have the same land. In Afghanistan we’re fighting because we want to destroy the power base of terrorism. Hitler fought because he wanted to create a “superior” race. The Southern states fought the Civil War because they wanted to be free from the oppression of the Northern States. The Gulf War was fought because the U.S. wanted to end the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, so they could have access to oil. I mention all of these wars, not because I want to say who was right or wrong, but to show that in every war, there is an objective. There is a reason we are fighting the war. And the same is true with spiritual warfare. If we are going to wage war on Satan’s kingdom, we have to know what our objective is. Our objective, our mission is to rescue people from Satan’s grip. To free them from his control. Just as Jesus said at the start of his ministry.
Luke 4:18, 19, “18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors, 19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
Jude 1:23, “Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. There are still others to whom you need to show mercy, but be careful that you aren’t contaminated by their sins.”
In the recent, attacks against Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden, tried to present our fight as the U.S. or the Christian world against the Muslim world. And he tried to present it as the U.S. against the Afghan people. So, President Bush had to very definitely state that our war was against, terrorists and those who support terrorism, not against the people of Afghanistan. And so, it is with our fight against Satan’s kingdom. Even though there are many people involved in this fight, we have to recognize that our fight is not with them. Our fight is against Satan, not the people whom he has under his control. Even, under his control, these people may fight against us, but the fact is that our problem is not really them, but the one controlling them. Our fight is with sin, not with sinners. President Bush was very careful to state that the Afghan people were victims of the terrorists, just as much as the Americans were. And the same is true of those people who come against us in our fight for God’s Kingdom. The people that come against us are not our enemy. They are victims of our enemy, and our very objective is to free them from the clutches of that enemy. Even though, it’s sometimes very difficult, we have to refuse to see the people who are under Satan’s control as our enemy. If we fight them and defeat them, we haven’t accomplished anything. It’s only when we fight against Satan and free them that we have accomplished our mission.
B. Our fight is a Spiritual fight, not a physical fight.
Often, in our culture that really denies the supernatural, we are tempted to look for a physical solution to everything. Education especially gets a lot of attention. It seems that no matter what the problem, AIDS, gun violence, domestic violence, rape, alcoholism, drug addiction, gambling, or anything else, the solution, in the mind of our culture, always involves more education. We also like to throw a lot of money and resources at our problems. We think that if a problem gets enough funding it will go away.
In a culture like that, it’s easy for the church to begin to fall into a mentality that there is a physical solution for every problem. When I think of this, I often think of the story told in
Acts 3:1-8, “1 Peter and John went to the Temple one afternoon to take part in the three o’clock prayer service. 2 As they approached the Temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in. Each day he was put beside the Temple gate, the one called the Beautiful Gate, so he could beg from the people going into the Temple. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for some money. 4 Peter and John looked at him intently, and Peter said, "Look at us!" 5 The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting a gift. 6 But Peter said, "I don’t have any money for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!" 7 Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man’s feet and anklebones were healed and strengthened. 8 He jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk! Then, walking, leaping, and praising God, he went into the Temple with them.”
For many years, since I was a teenager, I have read this passage and longed to see things like this happen in our churches today. And I wondered so many times why we don’t see things like this happening. And I realized eventually the problem. Peter said, “I don’t have any money for you.” But the church now has plenty of money. And they think that their money can solve all of the world’s problems. They think that if they just raise enough money for missions, we will be able to fulfill the Great Commission. I think this goes further than money. I think it speaks of physical solutions. Peter was saying, “I don’t have a physical solution for your problem.” Now, imagine if Peter had money, and had given him some. The next day the man would have needed money again, because he still can’t walk. His problem isn’t really solved; it’s only put off for a little while. And that’s what many churches are satisfied to do today. They’re satisfied to just address the physical problem. And then they wonder why the problem isn’t solved. They wonder why nothing every changes. It’s because we’re tackling the problems all wrong.
Peter recognized that even though he didn’t physically possess anything to help the man, he possessed something far greater. He possessed spiritual authority over that man’s problem. He somehow recognized that the man didn’t need a physical temporary solution, but he needed a spiritual permanent solution. He needed something more than money; he needed a healing. And the same is true of so many things that we will encounter as a church. The problems may manifest in the physical realm, but they are really spiritual problems. Now, James encourages us that when we are able to help with something tangible, like money, we have an obligation to do that, but we also have to have the spiritual discernment to know when the problem is deeper than something physical. We have to know that our real fight, even though it shows up in the physical sometimes, is really in the spiritual world.
It’s like a cold medicine. The cold is a virus. Medicine cannot cure you of a cold. You can take anything you want, and as much of it as you want, and it’s not going to shorten your cold by one minute. Oh, it may cover up your symptoms. It may take away your cough or your runny nose or your sore throat, but it isn’t going to take away your cold. A cold is a virus. Now, these medicines really do make you feel better. They may even help you to feel like the cold is gone for a while. But all they’re doing is masking the symptoms. They’re not treating the problem.
Now with a cold, it’s not detrimental to mask the symptoms instead of the treating the problem, especially because there really isn’t anything else you can do. However, in our warfare against Satan’s kingdom, we MUST treat the root problem. We may treat physical symptoms, but unless we defeat the root cause, that is, unless we can solve the spiritual problem, our work is useless.
Our great plans for winning lost souls aren’t going to win the war for us. Great education in how to win the lost isn’t going to do it. A lot of money and the best resources isn’t going to do it. Our great arguments for Christianity aren’t going to win the war. While all of these things are good and even necessary, unless we defeat the controlling powers in the spiritual realm, we’ll never win the war.
The good news is that we can, through Spiritual warfare, defeat Satan’s Kingdom and establish God’s Kingdom here in Boston. We can pull down the strongholds that are holding people back from accepting the Gospel. The eyes of peoples’ hearts that are blinded by Satan can be opened for them to see the truth.
Paul, in Ephesians 6, continues to name some of the weapons and methods that we can use to make war on Satan’s kingdom.
II. Defensive Armor.
Ephesians 6:13-17 “13 Use every piece of God’s armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil, so that after the battle you will still be standing firm. 14 Stand your ground, putting on the sturdy belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. 15 For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News, so that you will be fully prepared. F13 16 In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan. 17 Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
The first weapons that are listed are defensive weapons. As is always true in warfare, going into the enemy’s territory is dangerous. Going into an area controlled by the enemy always has risks. However, God does not send us on our own, unequipped, into enemy territory. Instead, he carefully explains to us the preparations that we must take to protect ourselves against the attacks that are sure to come when we Charge enemy ground. This is why Paul starts verse 14 with “Stand your ground.” Not only is each individual at risk when they go into battle, but when you launch an offensive attack, there is always a risk of losing ground. When you’re inside your foxholes with your machine guns ready, it’s hard for the enemy to overcome you. But when you leave your foxholes and get into open ground to charge the enemy line, your own line is vulnerable. So, the first consideration in planning any offensive is defense. You don’t want to charge forward when you’re not ready, because not only will you not gain anything, you may actually lose something you already had. This is true of Spiritual warfare too. When we follow God’s instructions, I believe we do not put ourselves at risk. But if we hasten to battle, without carefully preparing our defenses, I believe that we unnecessarily put ourselves and our fellow soldiers at risk.
A. The belt of truth is the first of the defensive weapons listed. The mention of this defensive weapon, I believe reveals two ways that Satan may try to attack us.
1. First, I think that Satan may try to attack us with false beliefs. This makes sense as an attack. If we’re on the offensive and we’re building God’s Kingdom then Satan loses. But anything that is not for God is against God. So if Satan can get people to fight really hard for what they think is God’s Kingdom, but really is not, then he really has them fighting really hard for himself. For a drastic example, we can look at the Muslim extremists. They think that when they perform their acts of terrorism, they are advancing Allah’s kingdom. They believe that they are defeating Satan when they do this. And many times they are successful in their mission. The trouble is that they don’t have truth. So, while they are successful in advancing their cause, they have been tricked into advancing a false cause. This is not only true of Muslims. You could use Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormons or any of a number of groups as examples. They think that they are fighting for God’s Kingdom, and they’re even finding success. However, they are not fighting for truth. You know, Satan doesn’t really mind when they’re successful in their fight, because they’re only transferring people from one of his groups to another of his groups.
Now, you may wonder what any of this has to do with us, considering we’re not a cult. I agree 100% that we’re not. However, I have to say that many of the cults didn’t start out as full blown cults. They started out as people who wanted to see God move and bought into the enemy’s lies. Furthermore, falsehood doesn’t have to be as drastic as these cults to effectively stop God’s work. And oftentimes Satan is very subtle in his work. There is a tendency in American churches at least who are really looking for God to move to ignore some things that are not right, because they’re afraid to lose the move of God because of it. They say things like, “In every great revival there are excesses.” This somehow implies that we cannot have a great move of God without a little bit of error mixed in. That’s nonsense. While a little bit of error doesn’t mean that God is not moving, as it may just mean someone has made a mistake, God certainly doesn’t need error to move. God is capable of great revival without error too. It’s really up to us. How much truth are we willing to sacrifice in order to build God’s Kingdom? I hope the answer is NONE. After all, if the truth is really the truth, then it should work perfectly fine on its own. And if it’s not the truth, then it’s not worth fighting for anyway.
2. Satan may try to get us to compromise what is true and right to “spread the Gospel.” I’ve never understood people who do unethical things or even anti-biblical things and try to justify it by saying they’re spreading the Gospel. God doesn’t use anything less than 100% truth to spread his Gospel. God doesn’t need to go against his word to spread his word. I think this is pretty much self-explanatory, because it’s complete nonsense. It’s like the people who decide they want to kill abortion doctors because they’re killing children. While I’m as firmly against abortion as they are, I just can’t see how their sin of murder helps solve someone else’s sin of murder. Even though, that’s an extreme example, Satan tries many times to tempt us to compromise the truth just a little bit to spread the truth.
3. Now, Paul says here that the truth is like a belt. Now a belt is really used for one purpose, maybe two. I guess it can hold things, like other weapons. But the main use for a belt is to keep your pants up. And I would propose that’s what the truth does in spiritual warfare. When you don’t wear a belt, your pants may fall down and you’re “exposed” to the world in what is a pretty embarrassing situation. And the fact is, that if you allow anything less than truth to reign in your spiritual warfare, you will eventually be exposed and at great cost to God’s kingdom, embarrassed. However, if you always have the truth by your side, no matter how much Satan wants to embarrass you, he can’t, because you have truth protecting you.
B. Body Armor of God’s Righteousness -- When we’re fighting against Satan’s Kingdom, really we’re fighting against his control over people. And that control shows itself chiefly in sin. Before someone believes, we know that they are a slave to sin (REFERENCE). So, naturally, Satan would while you’re working hard to free other people from the grasp of sin, to ensnare you in sin again. That’s why
Jude 1:23 says, “Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. There are still others to whom you need to show mercy, but be careful that you aren’t contaminated by their sins.”
There is always a risk when we’re in the trenches fighting against sin that by getting close to it, we will be contaminated from it. This is especially true about a sin that previously ensnared you. I, for example, wouldn’t have any problem being around alcohol while trying to rescue people, because that has never been a problem for me. There are other things, however, that I know are my weaknesses, and I have to be very careful when I’m dealing with those things. We have to use some wisdom in the battle. Keep in mind that you don’t gain anything if you go to enemy territory to rescue others from sin and you end up staying there and getting caught back up in sin yourself, you haven’t gained anything. In fact you’ve lost something.
Obviously, though, when you see someone who is caught up in the same kinds of sin you once were, you can connect with them in a special way. First, you can feel a genuine sorrow for them, because you know exactly what they’re going through. You know their pain and sorrow and what leads them to sin. Even moreso, you can share with them how you found the way out, which can both encourage them to take the same way, and once they’ve made the decision, give them some practical help on finding real freedom from their sin. So, the solution isn’t to stay away forever from the types of sin you once were enslaved to. Instead, you have to first use wisdom and know when you are weak and when you are strong. And second, you have to recognize that your Righteousness is really God’s righteousness which he has give you as a free gift. In your own strength you could never resist temptation, but it’s not your own strength that you have to rely on. Because you have been given God’s righteousness, even when you go out into the world of sin, you can live a righteous life.
Another term for body armor is “breastplate.” The breastplate is a covering for the chest, to protect the heart. And we know that our soul is often referred to as our heart. And I believe that as we try to win other souls for Christ, Satan would like very much to steal back our souls, but when we wear God’s own righteousness into the battle, he cannot steal our souls, because they are protected.
C. Shoes of Peace that Comes from Good News – Satan would love, as we fight against his kingdom, to steal our peace. He would love to fill our hearts and minds with anxieties of all sorts. The reason for this is that when we are worried or anxious, then we focus on that instead of focusing on the battle. The fact is that if we’re worried about going, chances are we’ll never go. Furthermore, how can we go to people who are lost and announce to them that they can have joy and peace, when we ourselves don’t have it?
Philippians 4:6,7 “ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”
God tells us not to worry, but to pray instead and he will give us peace.
Shoes are used for walking. And just as I’ve already said, if we are anxious we won’t march forward to the battle. Think about walking on the beach for example. I don’t know about anybody else, but when I go the beach and walk around barefoot, I walk very carefully. I always look to make sure someone didn’t leave a broken bottle in the sand, or I look carefully for broken shells. And I’m very paranoid at times about stepping on a needle. In fact, when I visited Vietnam, and whenever I think about it at home, I wear water shoes. They’re just like regular shoes, except they’re made entirely of rubber and mesh, so they don’t soak up water. When I have those on, I can run around as much as I want, and don’t give a thought at all to where I’m stepping, because I know that whatever I step on is only going to hit my water shoe.
Well, Spiritual warfare is the same way. We can be afraid of what we might encounter when we march onto enemy territory. But when we have God’s peace, it’s like those shoes. We don’t worry about what we’re going to step on, because we know that whatever it is, God will absorb it for us, and it won’t harm us. Now we can go forward without fear or anxiety, because there is nothing left to be worried about. We have God’s peace.
A couple of weeks ago, we were praying and fasting for the Thanksgiving service. And we were praying against all kinds of strongholds. When I was together with other believers I prayed boldly. But one night when I went home, I got in my bed and got scared. I was all alone at that moment and I felt so helpless. And I was a little less bold. In fact, for a moment I was very worried about what Satan might try to do to me, now that I was alone. Then I realized that I was being cowardly and for no reason. I remembered that whether there are a lot of people around or I’m all alone, God promised us that we have authority over Satan. He has no right to harass me. He wanted me to be afraid, because he knew that if I had fear, I wouldn’t pray. And if I didn’t pray, he wouldn’t be defeated. But having realized his plan, I prayed all the more against him. I allowed God’s peace to fill my heart, realizing that I had nothing to worry about, because God promised to take good care of me.
D. Shield of Faith – As we make war on Satan, we don’t have to wonder if maybe Satan is going to attack us. The fact is that if Satan hasn’t attacked you lately, you’re probably not doing anything worthwhile for the Kingdom of God. We know, surely that if we’re warring against him, Satan will try to attack us. And there are, as we’ve seen, so many different ways that Satan tries to attack us. We’ve only be able to look at just a few of the ways, because naming all of Satan’s different plans would take volumes. Those attacks are called fiery arrows that the enemy aims at us. He tries in many ways to destroy us, because if we’re destroyed, we cannot fight against him. But whatever the enemy throws at you, there is one solution: FAITH.
Now, we know that Hebrews 11:1 says, “What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.”
And this is the key. We have to have faith that no matter what the enemy throws at us, God will protect us. We can see for example Job. Satan so desperately wanted Job to turn his back on God. He took away Job’s wealth and killed his sons and even brought him physical torment with boils. Then to top it all off, he got some friends with bad advice to make him feel even worse. But Job never gave in to all this pressure, and do you know why because he had faith. He said,
Job 19:25, "But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he will stand upon the earth at last.”
Job had faith, he saw ahead to what he could not yet see in the physical. He trusted that in the end God would save him and make everything right. He was able to look at all the terrible circumstances around him and completely ignore them. Instead of believing them, he believed that God’s promises were true and that God would protect him.
And the enemy may throw many things our way. And it may even seem for a time that he is successful. In those times, there is a temptation to question God and wonder why he isn’t protecting us. But it’s only when we go that way that Satan succeeds with his arrows. If we have faith in God, the Bible promises us that all of Satan’s fiery arrows will be quenched. He’ll miss every time.
It’s only when we begin to doubt God and lose our faith that Satan’s attacks can really hit us. But as long as we have faith, that is we see ahead to the day when the victory will be evident, the fiery arrows of the evil one cannot hit us.
E. The Helmet of Salvation – Paul was writing this letter to the church. These were people who already had salvation. They didn’t necessarily need to put on salvation, because they already had it. And we know that you don’t have to continually become saved every day. Instead, I think that we can see two things here.
1. If you’re engaging in spiritual warfare, you better make sure that you are saved. This is simply because spiritual warfare doesn’t involve magic formulas, but spiritual authority, that has only been given to believers.
Acts 19:13-16, “13 A team of Jews who were traveling from town to town casting out evil spirits tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus. The incantation they used was this: "I command you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches, to come out!" 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a leading priest, were doing this. 15 But when they tried it on a man possessed by an evil spirit, the spirit replied, "I know Jesus, and I know Paul. But who are you?" 16 And he leaped on them and attacked them with such violence that they fled from the house, naked and badly injured.”
These men were trying to do spiritual warfare, but without the helmet of salvation to protect them. Now, keep in mind that this is not a warning to believers to worry about the devil. These were people who had no authority over Satan, because they didn’t have salvation.
2. The second truth in this statement is for those who already to have salvation. I think that it’s connected the concept of helmet. A helmet protects your brain or your mind. And I think this is where Satan tries to win a lot of battles that he knows he couldn’t win elsewhere. Often Satan will try to condemn believers and make them doubt their salvation, because he knows that if they doubt their own salvation, they will be too fearful to attack his kingdom. He tries to condemn the saints, because he knows that otherwise they will condemn him. But remember that
Romans 8:1 says, “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.”
Satan cannot take your salvation from you. But if he can attack your mind and make you think that you have lost your salvation somehow, then he has won a victory. However, Paul tells us to wear the protection of our salvation. When we are saved, and we know it, Satan cannot penetrate to our minds.
III. Offensive weapons.
Ephesians 6:17b, 18, “and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere.”
A. The Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God
1. The Word of God, like a sword, is both a defensive and an offensive weapon. First we will look at its defensive capabilities.
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Even Jesus, when he was fighting against Satan in his wilderness temptation used the Word of God as his weapon. Time won’t permit me to read the whole story this afternoon, but three times Satan came to Jesus and told him to do something. And three times Jesus responded with, “The Scriptures say.” Even one of the times, Satan quoted the Bible to Jesus, twisting it’s meaning for his own use, but Jesus quickly came back with, “The Scriptures also say.”
In order to use the Word of God as a weapon, you have to know the Word of God well. If Jesus didn’t know the Scriptures well, not only would he not have been able to use Scripture to turn Satan away, but he would have fallen for Satan’s trick when he misquoted Scripture. And if Satan tried this trick on Jesus, surely he’ll be very happy to try it on us. So we have to constantly read and study and meditate on Scripture, so that like the Psalmist you can say,
Psalm 119:11, “I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”
2. The Word of God, also like a sword, is an offensive weapon. This is the weapon that you can use to inflict real damage on Satan’s kingdom.
a. The word of God is where we draw our authority over Satan. If not for the Word of God then we don’t have any authority at all. But because we read about that authority in the Bible, we can exercise that authority.
Matthew 11:27, “"My Father has given me authority over everything. No one really knows the Son except the Father, and no one really knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."
Matthew 28:18, “Jesus came and told his disciples, "I have been given complete authority in heaven and on earth.”
Now, we can see very easily in Scripture that Jesus has complete authority on the earth, including Satan. And Jesus, when he commanded his followers to spread the Good News, didn’t expect them to do it on their own, but he gave them his authority.
Luke 24:47, “47 With my authority, take this message of repentance to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: ’There is forgiveness of sins for all who turn to me.’”
Luke 10:19, “And I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy,”
So, we as soldiers for Christ, have the same authority that Jesus had over spiritual forces. And we base this authority on these, and many other promises in Scripture that give us that authority.
b. Revelation 19:13, speaking of Jesus, says “13 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God.”
And it’s true, that really our weapon against Satan is so closely tied with our relationship to Jesus. In ourselves, we have no authority. Even if we were not believers and quoted Scripture carefully, we would have no authority. All the authority that we have comes through our relationship with Jesus Christ, the Word of God.
c. Remember that our goal in our war on Satan’s kingdom is set people free from his grip. And this is where the Word of God is a very effective weapon.
Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are. “
If we want to rescue people from the grasp of Satan, it isn’t going to be our own philosophies or ideas or convincing that does it. It will be the Word of God. It seems that many people who are living without Christ have tried to convince themselves very hard that everything is okay. They try to fake happiness and joy and peace. They try to think that their good deeds will somehow get them into heaven. There are many false things that they think. And all of these things keep them from accepting Christ, because they think they’re okay without him.
But what the Word of God does is burst that bubble. It cuts deep, differentiating between real joy and fake joy, real peace and fake peace, real good works and fake good works. And in light of the Word of God, men and women have no choice but to accept the fact that they are in a miserable condition.
Isaiah 55:11 says, “It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.”
God’s word is a powerful tool that we can use to rescue people from their slavery to sin. We can learn all kinds of methods and strategies and that’s good. We can hone our arguments until they’re perfect and that’s good. But it is the Word of God going out that is going to bring in the harvest of souls. That means that we as soldiers must read, and study, and understand this Word if we’re going to use it effectively. It isn’t just a matter of memorizing a few Scriptures and quoting them at Satan. Even though it is important to memorize as much of the Scripture as we can, it’s more than that. It’s really growing to understand the Scripture so that when the enemy tries to tempt us, we know what’s right and wrong, because we know what the Word of God says. And when we seek to bring people to Christ, we have the Good News for them, because we read it in the Scripture. And when they have questions or challenges for us, we’re ready, because we know the Word of God.
B. Prayer. Last month, when I preached about Elijah, I already talked at great length about prayer, and the time is short now, so I’ll just list is as one of the weapons that we have available against Satan.
I will also mention that it says specifically, “in the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 8:26, “And the Holy Spirit helps us in our distress. For we don’t even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.”
1 Corinthians 14:15, “Well then, what shall I do? I will do both. I will pray in the spirit, and I will pray in words I understand.”
While we must pray with our minds and in words we understand, it is not sufficient. The plans and works of the enemy are often more than we ourselves can comprehend and understand. If we only pray with our own minds, we will not be effective enough. We must also pray in the Spirit. That is, we must allow the Holy Spirit to pray through us in tongues that we don’t understand. Because the Holy Spirit is omniscient, he knows exactly how to pray. So, we don’t have to guess or hope that we prayed the right way. When we pray in tongues, we are can be sure that God will do the best, because we’re praying directly in accordance with his will at that time. If we want to really make war against Satan’s kingdom, it’s not going to be enough to pray only in our strength. We must pray in the Holy Spirit.
C. Alertness. I think that this weapon really only requires common sense to understand. The fact is that while we’re waging war on Satan’s kingdom, we’re also involved in many other activities of life. We still have to live our normal lives. It’s so easy then to forget that we’re at war. And the enemy wants to lull us into a complacency where we forget that we’re at war, so that he can blindside us, and attack us when we don’t expect it.
But because we already know this is his plan, we have to determine to remain alert. When the enemy tries to attack we’re ready for him. That means we have to pray continually, because we never know when the battle is going to happen. We have to meditate on and study God’s word continually, because we never know when the battle will come. That’s the message of this alertness. You can’t segment your life into Spiritual warfare and the rest of your life. You can’t be a soldier for God on Saturdays and Sundays and Thursday morning, but not be a soldier the rest of the week. When you enlist in God’s army it’s a full time commitment. There are no reserves. Once you make that commitment, you have to remain constantly vigilant.
c. 2001
