Category: Be Aware of Spiritual Warfare

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. ~ Matthew 10:37

The concept of Christ being above every single thing in our lives is a difficult one to grasp when you really think about it. See, it’s not just the things of this world that have to be beneath Christ, but also our dearest loved ones. Why? Well, when you love your family more than you love Christ, then you’ll begin to not only overlook the sins of your family but fully accept and embrace them. We can see this throughout the Church today.

We don’t correct sin anymore; instead, we make excuses for sin to run rampant in those we love. When we do this, we put our family above Christ. And if we put our family above Christ, then we can’t actually pick up our cross and follow Him. We can’t abide in His love. Sin isn’t something that we can allow in our lives. We can’t let in even a grain of sin because sin’s one goal is to corrupt and destroy. It wants to rule your life. When you tolerate sin, you end up inviting more sin into your life.

So, when it comes to your family, don’t tolerate sin. Yes, love them. Yes, treat them with gentleness and kindness, but you don’t have to accept their sin. Place before God. Pray for them. Fast for them. Believe that God will intervene and show them the Truth. Spiritually fight for your family so that you won’t just save their soul but also your own.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Put All Under Christ.

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¹⁴ You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. ~ Matthew 5:14-16

Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” He was speaking to the people of His day and age and to us here and now. This now begs the question, what is light? According to the Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains:

light, i.e., that which is contrasted to darkness (Genesis 1:3), note: in some contexts with the associative meaning of guidance, health, life, prosperity, enlightened judgment, and other positive things.

So, first of all, light is that which is contrasted with darkness. Which begs the question, what is darkness? According to wikipedia.org:

Darkness, the polar opposite of brightness, is understood as a lack of illumination or an absence of visible light.

If darkness is the opposite of brightness, or rather it is the absence of light, then we had better start spreading the light. Why? Because according to the definition above, light represents all that is good and useful for life.

• Guidance
• Health
• Life
• Prosperity
• Enlightened judgment
• And other positive things

And darkness represents the lack of all of the above.

Without light, there is no life, and we are the light. In other words, we carry the words of life taught to us by Jesus. What does that mean for us? We are to show God’s good work so that He might be glorified. But we must show God’s light now while we still can. A time is coming when darkness will overtake the whole world and forbid the working of light. We have to work while it is still day because night is soon coming when no one can work. Tribulation is coming for the full body of Christ, making it illegal to even say the name of Jesus. Unless we want that in our time, we have to spread the light now. We have to spread the Gospel throughout all the earth and push back the darkness that is closing in on us so rampantly.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Push Back The Darkness.

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

Have you ever played any type of Mario game? Ever noticed the little boos, the circular ghosts…? Ever noticed when they attack? The only time they will approach you is when your back is turned to them, making your character unaware of their presence. As soon as your character turns around, they will back away, slowly fading so you no longer see them. This is the same way the enemy works.

You will never be attacked while you’re on guard, ready for him to come your way. Instead, he will only come when your guard is down; when you’re unknowing; when you’re confused; when you’re preoccupied with other things; when you’re weak.

Matthew 4 speaks of Jesus being tempted. Remember when He was tempted? It wasn’t right after praying. It wasn’t when He felt strong, powerful, and filled with the Holy Spirit. It was after fasting for forty days and forty nights. He was hungry. He was tired. He was weary.

Have you ever gone all day without eating and then felt so weak you couldn’t walk, talk, think, or focus, and you’re all confused…? Imagine not eating for forty days and forty nights. That was Jesus. But Jesus relied on His spirit man who was well-seasoned and prepared for defense.

We are each Mario in this scenario, and our spirit man is the player controlling Mario. The spirit man can see the enemy attacking, but we can’t. If we build our spirit man up, as Jesus had done through prayer, worship, reading and studying the Scriptures, and fasting, then our spirit man will be able to guide us through our attack.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Build Up Your Spirit Man.

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⁸ This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. ~ Joshua 1:8

You know, when it comes to meditation and Christians, there are really only two main groups. The Christians that look at meditation as pure Satanism and want nothing to do with it. Then there are those Christians that just embrace anything that is the new popular. The everything goes Christian. I think that they’re both, in a way, wrong. I think that every Christian should embrace and focus on meditation. But only Christian meditation. What do I mean?

I’m not talking about yoga or any other Eastern meditation. I’m talking about Christian Meditation. This is very important for a person to grow as a Christian. Why? Because the Bible tells us so. If we have to meditate, but only Christian meditation, how do we do that? Three words.

Worship. Seek. Listen.

First, you worship. How do you worship? Well, worship can be defined as a few different things. According to Reverend Kenny and Celia Yates, worship is:

Acknowledgment and exaltation of who God truly is.

¹ Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God–this is your true and proper worship.

Romans 12:1

In other words, you have to bring forth a sacrifice. Back in the day, the Israelites had to kill a lamb, a goat, a cow, etc. But now you sacrifice yourself. Not your literal physical self, you’re your spiritual self.

You set a specific time for God and stick to it no matter if there is a new episode of your favorite show on TV, or you just don’t feel like it, or you’re too busy, etc. It’s about shutting out the world and focusing on God. Once you set a time and you’re about to start your quiet time, try playing worship music so that you can get your mind prepared.

This a time when you invite the Holy Spirit into your home. This is the time of humbling yourself in the astounding presence of God and truly acknowledging Him as the omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent Jehovah-Yasha (LORD my Savior). So your worship can be seen kinda like opening a door to go somewhere. When you start worshipping and singing and praising God, that’s opening the door, but you still gotta walk through the door.

This is where seeking comes into play. You cry out to Him. You pray. You SEEK after Him. A lot of times, as Christians, we wonder why stuff happened the way it did and why we didn’t get this or why this happened. It’s because, for the most part, we didn’t put it in His hands.

² You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.

James 4:2

If we just put our desires before the LORD with good intentions, we’ll receive what we have asked for. So now we’ve reached our destination. We’ve walked to the door. We’ve knocked on the door. Now, all that’s left is to wait for someone to open the door. This is where we listen.

Sometimes, we forget to listen. Listening is more than just sitting there and waiting to hear the audible voice of God. Because for the most part not saying He wouldn’t, but for the most part, He speaks to us through His word. So you read your Bible, and when you read, really think about what the verse is saying. If you focus and pay attention to the words instead of what you’ll be doing after this, you’ll hear from Him. I’ll leave you with this,

⁷ Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Matthew 7:7-8

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Meditate.

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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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