Spiritual Warfare, Part III

Pray Before Studying the Word and Other Texts

It is very important to align yourself with the Holy Spirit before you read the Bible and other books that pertain to the Word.  There is a greater value with just sitting in His presence.  He knows what you want, what you need, before you even ask. 

Make sure that you have a ‘secret place”—a place where you go and sit quietly with the Lord, waiting on Him and reveling in His presence.  The glory you sit in will stay with you.  The more you meet with Him, the more will stay on you. 

Ultimately, the spiritual work is waiting on Him, and killing the flesh’s desire to do what it wants to do.

A Definition of Spiritual Warfare and How to Fight

Using Watchman Nee’s book, Sit, Walk Stand as a starting point and focusing on the chapter entitled, “Stand,” here is our definition of spiritual warfare:

·         We are constantly in it

·         We must look to His Word

·         Walk in love even when you don’t feel like it

·         It’s a tug-of-war between God and Satan

·         It is a weakness of the flesh versus the Spirit

·         We are just getting started in our overcoming; Paul said even he had not achieved everything

·         Walk by faith, live in love

There are three wills here at war:  God’s, yours and Satan’s.  It’s a tug-of-war for your will to come into compliance with God’s will. 

“Christian experience begins with sitting and leads to walking, but it does not end with these.  Every Christian must learn also to stand.  Each one of us must be prepared for the conflict.  We must know how to sit with Christ in heavenly places and we must know how to walk worthy of Him down here, but we must also know how to stand before the foe…It is what Paul calls ‘our wrestling with wicked spirits.’” (Nee 39-40)

The verse about sitting comes from Ephesians 2:6-9:

“And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷ in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.”

The verse about walking comes from Ephesians 5:1-2: 

“Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children ² and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

So, now we seek to stand.  We cannot hope to win this battle if we have not learned to rest—to trust in His finished work (Ephesians 1). 

“Our task is one of holding, not of attacking.  It is a matter not of advance but of sphere, the sphere of Christ.  He has given us his victory to hold.  In the sphere of Christ, the enemy’s defeat is already a fact, and the Church has been put there to keep him defeated.  Satan is one who must do the counterattacking in his efforts to dislodge us from that sphere.  For our part we need not struggle to occupy ground that is already ours.  In Christ we are conquerors—nay, ‘more than conquerors’ (Romans 8:37).  In him, therefore we stand.  Thus today we do not fight for victory; we fight from victory.  We do not fight in order to win but because in Christ we have already won.  Overcomers are those who rest in the victory already given to them by their God.”  (Nee 43)

In order to fight against the flesh, we need to sit in Him in heavenly places in order to fight!

We must always remember that there are two thrones at war.

Breach of Divine Laws

Most of the stuff we go through are a result of us breaching one of God’s divine laws in some way.  Do we engage in strife?  Are we unwilling to forgive?  We need to do a check-up with the Holy Spirit, a self-diagnostic if you will. 

If we do get attacked, we need to rebuke Satan.  But, sometimes the attack is a result of our own actions: 

“When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’  For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; ¹⁴ but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. ¹⁵ Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” (James 1:13-15)

One of Satan’s ploys is to prey upon our ignorance and encourage us to walk in darkness:

“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. ¹⁵ Such ‘wisdom’ does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. ¹⁶ For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.” (James 3;13-16)

Strife is defined as being at odds over something.  We are to be about the work of the Kingdom and time is lost when we are in strife.  It leads to confusion and “every evil work” and its allows the Devil to come in. 

You need to put on the armor of God by sitting in Him. 

The antidote to strife?  It is forgiveness: 

“‘Have faith in God,’ Jesus answered. ^23 ‘Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, “Go, throw yourself into the sea,” and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. ²⁴ Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. ²⁵ And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.’” (Mark 11:22-25)

Proverbs 6:16-19 warns us: 

There are six things the Lord hates,
    seven that are detestable to him:
¹⁷         haughty eyes,
        a lying tongue,
        hands that shed innocent blood,
¹⁸         a heart that devises wicked schemes,
        feet that are quick to rush into evil,
¹⁹         a false witness who pours out lies
        and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

This is not love.  You are not walking in love if these verses apply to you.  Love is the answer to all things—love is the premier weapon.  No issues will arise of you are walking in love. 

We stand on the victory Christ has already won for us.  We don’t fight to get it; we have it!  We don’t seek to gain ground; we already have it and thus we stand on it.  Satan will try to take away that ground, but we hold it.  This is spiritual warfare:  We hold the ground, knowing that the victory is already won.  Pray as if it is already won.  Sadly, most Christians are on the outside, looking in, because they do not know what they already have. 

Satan’s Mind Games

Satan plays mind games.  We are powerful against Satan if we do know who are and what we possess.  We perish from a lack of understanding.  In John 13, we see how Satan entered into Judas’ heart, which is defined in the Bible as the thoughts, will and emotions. 

Part of Jesus’ ministry is to teach and heal the “broken-hearted,” which means the “broken-minded.”

Satan hits you with fear and he jabs you to see what you’ll say:  “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” 

God has given us control over the sphere that He has given us.  Jesus never went after the Devil.  The Devil and his minions came to Him, in His space, and He told them to ‘shut up.”

We need to learn from Jesus:  Don’t go looking for a fight.” 

We can move on once we know this truth. 

The story of Jehu is instructive here: 

 

 ^“Jehu got up and went into the house. Then the prophet poured the oil on Jehu’s head and declared, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “I anoint you king over the Lord’s people Israel. ⁷ You are to destroy the house of Ahab your master, and I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the Lord’s servants shed by Jezebel. ⁸ The whole house of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel—slave or free. ⁹ I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah. ¹⁰ As for Jezebel, dogs will devour her on the plot of ground at Jezreel, and no one will bury her.’”  (2 Kings 9:6-10)

Jezebel sent messengers to go after Jehu.  At first, they were small.  Then, over time, they become larger and more intimidating. 

If we are a threat to the Devil, he will sent messengers to go after you and they can increase over time.  If the Devil is not bugging you, then there is nothing he wants.

Our heart and mind are united.  Remember, the Devil entered into Judas’ mind.

Last Words

On the pre-resurrected side of the Cross of Christ, the Devil messes with our soul—our mind, our will and our emotions.  But on the resurrected side of the Cross, our heart, our soul, is now under the dominion of our spirit, in which the Holy Spirit inhabits.

We now walk in spirit/Spirit.  That is our power and our position.