Category: Be Aware of Spiritual Warfare

Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.” ~ Job 1:9-10^ESV

Sometimes when you’re having victory after victory, and you’re not falling for the Devil’s usual schemes, he uses those around you to knock the joy right out of you. You don’t have to be a non-believer to be used by the Devil; Peter was arguably Jesus’ best friend, and he was used by Satan at the Last Supper. Judas was a follower of Jesus, and Satan entered him. You don’t have to be unsaved to be used by the enemy; he just simply needs an open door in your life to use you. And sometimes that’s what happens.

Paul tells us that we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood but against the spiritual realm. The unseen world. The enemy and his kingdom. Their goal is to separate you from God, but because they can’t do it themselves, they try to force you to do it through temptation and trials. When temptation doesn’t work, they use those around you to try to steal your joy, your peace, your love. They try to steal your fruit because if you aren’t producing fruit, then the Father will cut you off of the Vine, who is Christ Jesus. So, he goes after your fruit when temptation doesn’t work.

So, be on guard. Put up a hedge of protection around you. How? Through prayer. Through worship. Through speaking the Word of God over your life, your family, your household, your relationships, your job. Speak the Word of God over all that is in your life so that it might be covered and protected.

We are not unaware of the Devil’s schemes, so don’t play his game. Don’t allow him to steal your joy. Your peace. Your love. Once you’ve covered all in your life, cover yourself. Put on the full Armor of God. Be prepared for battle at all times. Don’t give him anything the LORD has promised you; He has promised all the fruit to those who follow Him and allow Him to transform us into a new creation.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Prepare A Hedge For The Attack.

²¹ Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits. ~ Proverbs 18:21

King Solomon said that death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat of its fruits. Those who love their tongue, who use it, who speak, they will eat the fruit of whatever it is they have spoken. Whether blessing or curse. Life or death. Healing or sickness. It doesn’t matter. And here’s the thing: death and life aren’t bound to the life of the person who speaks it.

I was recently talking with a loved one, and they kept speaking words of death on America, her people, and me. And after each word they spoke, I, in turn, looked up to heaven and canceled their words in the name of Jesus. See, they weren’t speaking out of hatred towards America, her people, or me. They were speaking out of hopelessness and ignorance. Their words weren’t intended to be words of malice or death, but their intention is irrelevant.

Our intention may not be for wickedness, but our actions are not bound by our intention. Intent is irrelevant; what has been done is what matters. Our words are powerful. People’s words are powerful. They have the power to impact our lives if we let them. I could’ve just brushed it off as drunken talk and just moved on. But why take that chance? Why let those words linger in the atmosphere? What good would that do? None. So, I canceled those words in the name of Jesus. I brought them into submission to Christ. I didn’t allow the enemy a single foothold into my life or the outcome of my country or her people.

It’s time that Christians begin to stand up and cancel words of death and replace them with words of life. It’s time to stop overlooking words spoken and begin to take that proverb seriously. It’s time we stand up and take our rightful place as watchmen of our lives, homes, communities, and nations. It’s time to take back the power from the enemy and fight back in this war.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Ignore Intent.

⁸ Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” ⁹ So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? ¹⁰ Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. ¹¹ But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” ¹² And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD. ~ Job 1:8-12^NKJV

As Christians, we go through a lot of trials, tribulations, and hardships. Not because God isn’t faithful, or even because the World hates us or Satan is out to get us, but because we ourselves are not faithful. Job was a righteous, blameless man. Not because he never sinned or was perfect in every single thing he did, but because he never forgot God. He was weary of sin and would make sacrifices to the LORD, continually cleansing himself and his family. He’d do so, not just because he knew they’d sin, but just in case they did. So, would he do any less for himself? No. This is the reason for Satan’s complaint.

God didn’t build up a hedge of protection around Job just because He loved Job above all others. He did it because He honored Job’s sacrifices and diligence to do what is right. As Christians, we don’t believe we have anything to do with our own Salvation, let alone our own trials and tribulations. Paul, however, wrote to work out your Salvation with much fear and trembling. He wrote that he would afflict his flesh so that he might not be disqualified from this race after preaching and teaching to so many. We are in a Spiritual Battle, a long-distance marathon, racing against an enemy seeking to destroy us.

How many times a day do we take the time to pray for the forgiveness of our sins, the protection of our lives, and the protection of our family and all that we have? The enemy doesn’t just try to hurt us by going after us alone. It’s our family, specifically our children and spouses; it’s our finances, our jobs, and investments. It’s our homes and our cars. It’s everything. If I can just distract you from praying, worshipping, reading your Bible, then I can get a foothold in your life and then build that into a stronghold; then I’ve won. I’ve now gotten control in your life.

So, what are we to do? Take Job’s initiative. We go before God humbly, offering sacrifices of praise, Thanksgiving, worship, and fasting. And we couple that with prayer as we dedicate all that we have to Christ. And we build that spiritual wall of protection around ourselves, our family, and our finances. We build that hedge of protection around all that is ours, so that we are not the cause of any of our hardships. Any of our trials and tribulations. So that the enemy has no foothold in our lives.

Peace. Love. GO Forth and Take The Job Initiative.

²⁴ And the LORD’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, ²⁵ correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, ²⁶ and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. ~ 2 Timothy 2:24-26^ESV

I was recently speaking to someone who said to me, “Yo, sometimes I need a break from you cause you’re intense.” What made me intense? I correct him when he misquotes, misuses, or conflates Scriptures. I don’t let it slide. I correct it. He’ll send four to six voice messages at one time, each lasting between 30 seconds to 1 ½ minutes. Some can last up to 2 ½ minutes. In each message, he takes a random Scripture either out of context, misquoted, or poorly translated. So, I’ll go through each claim he’s made and correct it. The message I sent is one message that is about 4 minutes long (3 minutes and 55 seconds). This is what he claims is intense. But what is he really saying?

It’s too much Truth right now, and I can’t defend my belief, so I can’t handle much more. He once told me he could never leave his wife alone with me for a long period of time, lest I convert her to Christianity. His words were derogatory. You’re too intense to be around all the time, man. But his meaning was, you know too much Bible and can correct me, expose the flaws of the beliefs I refuse to let go of, so I need a break lest you convert me to Christianity and I am forced to change. He meant it as derogatory and a way to get me to back down a bit, but I took it as a victory. A sign that my words have been digging into him. That they’ve been working on him. That his conscience has been thinking about all that we’ve been discussing. Most importantly, he’s feeling conviction that he isn’t living his life the way God has called him to live.

The enemy will try to use the tongue of others in order to deflate you, make you feel some type of way, downcast, self-conscious, but that is a last resort for him. That means he’s losing his grip on that person. He’s losing his hold on them, and the blinders he’s placed on them are beginning to fall off. So, what’s left? What now? We pray. We go to spiritual war on their behalf. We bring them before the LORD night and day until that stronghold is broken. Until that light can break through and they can see the Truth.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Stay Regardless Of Words.

²⁰ If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— ²¹ “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” ²² (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? ²³ These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. ~ Colossians 2:20-23

Paul writes to the people of Colossae not to fall into the trap of self-made religion that has an appearance of wisdom, but they don’t actually build the spirit-man in order to stop the indulgence of the flesh. Just because you are able to stop eating a certain food doesn’t mean you can overcome the flesh in your own power. I’ve seen many different people convince themselves that if they give up a certain food, especially pork, they’ll be good with God at the end of the day. They’ll somehow be better off than others.

I know someone personally who hasn’t eaten pork in a decade and thinks that will help him when he stands before God. He’s able to restrict himself in this one way but in nothing else. He gives in to his alcoholism, gambling, rage, and allows any and everything to fly out of his mouth, especially when he is angry. He’ll use the name of the LORD as profanity and His essence to curse, and not even bat an eye; but because he doesn’t eat pork, he thinks he is somehow more justified with God than a Christian who does eat pork.

Here’s the problem: he has no relationship with the LORD. It sounds good because he’ll point out that he’s keeping the Law, yet there is no other Law that he keeps. Not the Sabbath, the feasts, or even the other dietary laws. Nothing. Here’s the thing: we can’t redeem, fix, or change ourselves based solely on not doing something in the physical without Christ. Not eating pork isn’t going to get you brownie points with God. Afflicting your flesh without Christ is useless. There is nothing you can do to achieve Salvation. Nothing you can give or change to earn it. Salvation is a free gift from God given to those who have faith. That is the only way to the Father: faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Sacrifice The Flesh Through Christ.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! ²⁴ And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! ~ Psalms 139:23-24

⁴ Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵ and there are varieties of service, but the same LORD; ⁶ and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. ⁷ To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. ⁸ For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, ⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ¹⁰ to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹ All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as He wills. ~ 1 Corinthians 12:4-11

David was the prophesied king who was a man after God’s own heart. A man who was to lead Israel in the ways of righteousness, but he fell over and over again. He looked out at Israel and sinned by numbering them. He didn’t go to war with his men, as their king and leader, and ended up not only impregnating one of his men’s wives, but having that same man carry his own death note. David had a gift of leadership. A gift of worship. A gift of knowing how to come in and how to go out, but the enemy tried to corrupt that. He tried to take that away from him.

See, each of us is given a gift from God. A gift that will propel you into your God-given call. Because of that, your gift can often be the inspiration for Satan’s attacks. Here’s what I mean. I know someone who has a gift of encouragement, but every now and then, words just fall out of their mouth that tear others down. I know another who can see the spiritual battle we’re in with their own eyes but struggled so badly with fear that they didn’t sleep at night well into adulthood. See, if the enemy can keep you from using your gift, then He can keep you from fulfilling your God-given call.

So, what do we do? Identify, then guard. First, identify your gift, then guard it with all your heart. See, your enemy knows you better than you even know yourself. He will try to corrupt, distort, and stop all of the good the LORD has in store for you to do by attacking who you are. Your gifts help make up who you are. Who you are in Christ and who you are to the world. Your testimony is precious; it’s a weapon to fight darkness. Don’t ever allow the enemy to take it away from you.

¹¹ And they have conquered [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.

Revelation 12:11

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Identify Then Guard.

¹¹ so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs. ~ 2 Corinthians 2:11

⁸ Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. ~ 1 Peter 5:8

Every good legend or even every good lie has some kind of truth to it, but just because there is a little truth in something doesn’t make it truth or reliable. See, when Satan tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, he didn’t fully lie to her. He told her truth mixed with deception. He said, ‘You won’t die but become like God knowing Good and Evil.’ That wasn’t a lie with no truth in it.

Satan was telling the truth; Eve wasn’t going to die in the natural sense, but in the spiritual sense. She didn’t understand that she was being deceived. That she only knew part of the truth. This is how the enemy still works today. He’ll give you some truth. Partial truth. Half truth, but not the full truth. Not all that it entails. Jesus loves you. God loves you. True statements. But there’s more to it. It’s not just a full-stop. It’s not just a do-whatever-you-want free pass. We must remain in His love. But Satan doesn’t push that part of the truth.

When He tempted Jesus in the wilderness, used Judas, used Peter, etc. all the same MO. The same pattern of behavior. Paul told the Corinthians that we are not unaware of Satan’s schemes. Peter says we have to be watchful because Satan is a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. We have to know the Word in order to combat half the Word being spoken to us. If we don’t pay attention to the past and implement it into our present, it’ll become our future.

One of my favorite verses that I think really sums this up well is God’s judgment in Hosea.

⁶ My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge
because you have rejected knowledge,
I reject you from being a priest to me.
And since you have forgotten the law of your God,
I also will forget your children.

Hosea 4:6

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Learn The Full Truth.

³⁴ Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵ For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. ³⁶ And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. ³⁷ Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸ And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹ Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. ~ Matthew 10:34-39

I recently heard someone say that a well-known celebrity had explained how she continuously puts her son’s faith to the test. The comment section said how much they supported her and were proud of her for doing that because it’s not really his faith, but his father’s faith. If he believes in his father’s religion, then it’s his father’s faith, not his. Now, if he then renounces his faith and turns to his mother’s faithlessness, is that now his beliefs or his mother’s beliefs? My other question would be, if the beliefs were reversed, and it was a Christian mother putting her son’s faithlessness to the test, would they still be supportive and proud of her? Probably not. That’d most likely be seen as a mother trying to bully her son into following her religion.

The world loves to put our faith to the test. They love to try to quiet us and break down our faith. You’re not really a Christian because your parents or a parent is a believer. They will try to take away any realness or authenticity you have in your walk with God and in your faith. The only thing you can do is walk the walk, not just talk the talk. In other words, we have to live our lives as a light to others and let God shine through us.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be Authentic.

²⁰ For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. ~ 1 Corinthians 4:20

¹¹ And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. ²⁰ I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹ that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, ²³ I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. ~ John 17:11, 20-23

Have you ever watched a tornado form? The tornado doesn’t just come down in one solid wind, wreaking havoc on anything in its path, but instead, two distinct winds (one above and one on the earth) come together and form one powerhouse. One tornado. This is how the Church should be. We should come together as one tornado. One force of nature, ready to spiritually tear down anything in its path.

Paul says that the Kingdom of God isn’t about talk, but instead, power. Nowadays, power in the Church is frowned upon. Success in the Church is judged. No longer are we coming together as one body in Christ Jesus to tear down strongholds and break down spiritual blockages in our way. Instead of coming together as one, we fight one another. Jesus said they would know we are Christians by our love for one another. Instead of loving one another. Instead of encouraging one another. Instead of building one another up. Instead of becoming one with one another, we tear each other down. We capitalize on each other’s flaws and failures. We do whatever it takes to tear down our fellow Christian. That isn’t our call.

Yes, our call is to expose darkness. Yes, our call is to separate ourselves from the world. But our call is also to come together as one Church and build the Kingdom of God. We are to preach the Gospel, teach and disciple, heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead, tear down strongholds, and break down spiritual blockages in our paths. We are to become one with each other. Different winds coming together to form one unstoppable force. That is how the Church should be.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Form The Tornado.