Category: Be Aware of Spiritual Warfare

¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. ²⁴ And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ~ Galatians 5:19-24

Many of us have the desire to know how to battle sin so that we can begin to dive into spiritual warfare, but we don’t want to lay the foundation in order to be successful. Before we can battle sin, we have to make the conscious decision to carry our cross and follow Jesus regardless of what the world says or does to us.

If we decide to follow Jesus, we must understand the difference between right and wrong. They’re broken up into the desires of the Spirit & the desires of the flesh. Galatians 5 explains that we have both flesh and Spirit. The Spirit is our desire for God. The flesh is our desire to sin. But over the years, the majority of us have built up our flesh and starved our Spirit.

This is why when we become convicted of our sins, it’s so hard to break free. We have this idea in our heads that once we accept Jesus, all desires of the flesh will be gone, but that’s not the way it works. We have to go through trial after trial, battle after battle, until we have finally crucified our flesh.

After we make that decision to follow Jesus and carry our cross regardless of our situation, circumstance, surroundings, etc., we have to do an honest self-evaluation. But because we’re human, we’re going to overlook certain things about ourselves. So, what are we to do? Pray and ask God to search us. To show us anything that is in us that we need to change. Anything in us that we need to remove. When God shows us something, then we go into battle and take each fleshly desire down one desire at a time.

We fast. We pray. We read our Bibles and memorize verses that build us up and defend us against temptation. Then we make sure we don’t give the Devil a foothold into our lives. We stop going to places, hanging out with people, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, etc., which caused us to sin in the past. We change our lifestyle to match the commands of Christ Jesus.

This is a lot easier said than done, and it’s not going to happen overnight. But if we continue, we are promised that we will overcome sin because Jesus has already overcome the world. We can’t just pray and expect God to do all of the work; we have to meet Him halfway. We have to do something. We have to fight.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Battle Sin.

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¹ He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. ~ Psalms 91:1

The word dwell means: To make one’s home; reside; live. And the word shelter means: Something that covers or protects; protection, or place affording protection, as from the elements or danger. Then lastly, the word abide means: to stand fast; remain; go on being.

Therefore, what this Scripture is saying is that the one who makes his or her home in the covering protection of The Most High will stand fast and remain in the shadow of the Almighty. Now this phrase to abide in the shadow of someone is an undesirable place to be. Why?

Because if you “live in someone’s shadow,” you will feel hidden, cut off from your own substance. You will feel as if nobody notices you and like you can never measure up. Well, when you’re talking about mere people, it is an undesirable place to be, but with God, it is the only place to be. For no one can pluck you out of His hands. No one can harm you, and no enemy can attack you when you are dwelling in the shadow of the Almighty.

There is no place you would rather be but in the great protection of the Almighty. But in order to live constantly in His protection you must first dwell in His shelter by being obedient to His word and to His commands. So, do not let the devil fool you into thinking or believing that the shadow of the Almighty is a belittling place to be. Like a place to avoid at all costs. Because every Christian, indeed, every soul on earth, should be straining toward that goal. That is our primary goal while here on this earth.

Father, please help me to dwell in Your shelter so that I can live in Your place of protection, so that old Satan cannot touch me or harm me without Your permission. Thank You for giving me the opportunity to live in Your presence. I love You, LORD. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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²⁵ When they tied Paul down to lash him, Paul said to the officer standing there, “Is it legal for you to whip a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been tried?” ²⁶ When the officer heard this, he went to the commander and asked, “What are you doing? This man is a Roman citizen!” ²⁷ So the commander went over and asked Paul, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” “Yes, I certainly am,” Paul replied. ²⁸ “I am, too,” the commander muttered, “and it cost me plenty!” Paul answered, “But I am a citizen by birth!” ²⁹ The soldiers who were about to interrogate Paul quickly withdrew when they heard he was a Roman citizen, and the commander was frightened because he had ordered him bound and whipped. ~ Acts of the Apostles 22:25-29 NLT

Paul remained silent as they beat him, but after, he revealed his identity when the opportunity presented itself. Paul knew the laws of the Romans and used them to his own advantage. They were terrified when they found out Paul was a Roman citizen after all they’d done to him. This should be us today.

We have a much greater citizenship than Roman. Our citizenship is in heaven. We’ve been given the Holy Spirit as a seal as we wait for our full adoption as sons and daughters of the Most High to gather us to Him and give us new, perfect, immortal bodies. While on this earth, He’s given us His name to use and His Holy Spirit as proof of our citizenship. So why don’t we use it?

When we’re under spiritual attack, why don’t we use the name above all names to push back the darkness? When we’re depressed, why don’t we put on the garment of praise to encourage our souls and lift our spirits? Why are we so stubborn? The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. We want to do these things, but our flesh is weak. It’s ridden with sin, unbelief, roots of anger, bitterness, envy, hurt, and pain. So what are we to do? Take it one step at a time. We fail forward. We keep track of the flaws that plague us and take them down one step at a time. We crucify the flesh, and we build up the spirit so that we might be strong enough to use our citizenship to our advantage, just as Paul used his.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Use Your Citizenship.

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³⁶ Amazed, the people exclaimed, “What authority and power this man’s words possess! Even evil spirits obey him, and they flee at his command!” ~ Luke 4:36^NLT

Jesus did many things that amazed the people because of His great authority. One of the first was casting out demons and evil spirits. Why? Because the people of Jesus’ day weren’t as spiritually blind and ignorant as we are today.

They knew the difference, most of the time, between a sickness and a demon or unclean spirit. They didn’t get offended when someone suggested they had an unclean or demonic spirit. No, they threw themselves at the feet of Jesus, asking for help.

If the Church wants to get their God-given authority back, then we need to start differentiating between the spiritual and the physical. So that we can begin to cast out demons once again, it shouldn’t take us hours upon hours to cast out demons. The early Church didn’t even have to speak or be present to cast out unclean spirits. All it took was a piece of cloth touching Paul to cast out the demonic spirits. This is great authority. This is the authority God intended for His Church, regardless of the generation we are in. We aren’t to be weak and powerless but filled with power and authority, all fueled by one thing, love.

Dear LORD, please teach me to love more. Soften my heart from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. Write your Word on my heart that I might not sin against You. Show me the way to correctly love people. As You fill me with Your perfect love, fill me with Your power and authority that You promised from the days of the prophets of old. Fill me with love and power from on High so that I might show Your glory to the dying world around me. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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¹⁴ And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.” ~ Nehemiah 4:14

I’m encouraging you today, dads, fight for your sons and fight for your daughters, fight for your wives and fight for your homes. This is your family we are talking about here, so take an interest and fight for them. What do I mean? Get on your knees and pray that the LORD will have mercy on them. That the LORD might intervene on their behalf. That the LORD might save them from their wicked ways and turn them towards Him. Fathers, you have a spiritual battle that you have to fight, not just for you, but for your wives and your children. Now is the time to stand up and fight for all that God has given you.

Peace. Love. Go forth and Fight For Your Family.

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²⁴ And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, ²⁵ who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? ²⁶ The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against His Anointed’—²⁷ for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, ²⁸ to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. ²⁹ And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, ³⁰ while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” ³¹ And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. ~ Acts 4:23-31

The chief priests and elders had just threatened Peter and John for preaching in the name of Jesus after they had healed the lame man by Gate Beautiful. After they were released, they reported all that was said to their friends. And when they heard it. When their friends heard all the threats that were made by their chief priests and elders, they went straight to God in prayer.

When you receive bad news or when you receive threats, do you go immediately to God in prayer? Or do you try everything else, and finally, after everything has escalated, you say, there is nothing else for me to do but pray?

Prayer is not a last resort. Prayer is the first and foremost thing on our list. When the trials of life come against us, when things are not going as we plan, the first thing we must do is to get on our knees and pray. Seek the face of God, call upon His name, for He will hear, and if He hears, He will answer.

Look at the believers’ prayer. “Look upon their threats…” In other words, listen to what they have said and take note, oh, LORD. Then they ask that they be granted boldness to continue to speak the word of God so that their mission is not thwarted by government threats of punishment and imprisonment.

Our whole mission is to bring, take, and carry the good news of Jesus Christ to all people and all nations with boldness and accuracy. But they did not leave it there. They asked for more. In other words, they said, give us boldness to do our part, and You, Oh God, do Your part by stretching out Your mighty hand to heal the sick and to perform signs and wonders in the Name of Jesus Christ so that His name be lifted up, and glorified. And you know what happened? Their prayer was answered.

Oh, that we would run to God with our burdens and our cares. To seek wisdom and boldness to do what He has called us to do, and that healing, along with signs and wonders, would be a staple in our services and daily lives. So that Jesus is magnified and glorified.

Heavenly Father, grant us boldness to preach Your word. Grant us understanding to discern the times and wisdom to know what to do. Stretch out Your hand to heal the sick and to perform signs and wonders and all sorts of miracles in the name of Jesus. For it is in His name, we ask it all, amen.

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