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Spiritual Warfare Post Preview
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Why the World, the Flesh, and the
Devil in Spiritual Warfare?
Principalities,
Powers, World Rulers of Darkness, & Spiritual Wickedness in
High Places
The
Battlefield of the Mind I: Prepare Your Heart for War
Battlefield of the Mind 2:
Spiritual Armor of God
Women Cohabitating with Fallen Angels
in Genesis 6?
I Abhor the Devil
and Don't Understand Why I Still Dance
with Demons. Pray for Me!
The Dragon and the Sword of Praise in Spiritual Warfare
POST 1 - Why the World Flesh and Devil in Spiritual Warfare?
Spiritual Warfare and the "World"
The moment a person
accepts Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and receives
God's Holy Spirit, that person is instantly and literally
translated from the kingdom of darkness of this world into
the kingdom of God's light by God's Holy Spirit of truth.
The Apostle Paul describes this process as the "mystery"
revealed, which is "Christ in you" the hope of glory.
Col 1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness,
and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
Col 1:27 to whom God was pleased to make known what is the
riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
God rescued us from the power and
bondage of the world, the flesh, the devil, and
supernaturally. . .Continue
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POST
2 - Principalities, Powers, World Rulers of Darkness,
and Spiritual Wickedness in Spiritual Warfare
Our Spiritual Warfare is
Against "Principalities, Powers, World Rulers of Darkness,
and Spiritual Wickedness in High Places"
What are the meanings of
these terms?
A
special note: The purpose for this teaching is that
we may begin to understand the goodness of God as opposed to
the evilness of the devil. These two parameters are often
blurred and confused, whereby evil is wrongfully attributed
to God, the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Understanding the goodness of God is first and foremost in
spiritual warfare, in order to build the kind of faith that
will move mountains and fulfill God's promise of victory in
our lives.
The Apostle Paul tells us to put on our spiritual armour
because our battle in this world is a "spiritual" one. A
warfare that is against the trickery and power of the devil,
as opposed to a human battle. Even though human beings will
certainly play a role in this spiritual warfare, they are
being used by these entities for the purposes of
accomplishing evil. Evil spirits are the true power behind
such people. We read,. . .
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POST 3 - The
Battlefield of the Mind - (Part I) Prepare Your Heart for
War
Prepare Your Heart for
Spiritual Warfare
The battlefield or realm in which our spiritual warfare
takes place is in the mind of every believer in Christ. We
wrestle, or strive and struggle in our minds against world
systems, the flesh or the carnal nature, and the devil. The
mind encompasses our thoughts (imagination, reasoning, and
intellect) as well as our emotions and will. In all of these
aspects lie the very heart of an individual. By our thoughts
and feelings we determine our will and purpose for our
lives. As Christians, we seek to live by the truth and power
of God because they are our assurance of God's promised
victory in each and every situation in life and we are not
ignorant of the reality of evil and the destruction that
surrounds our world on a daily basis. It is in this process
that we will encounter a very real spiritual struggle in our
thoughts, emotions and will because the
adversary knows that these areas are directly related to.
. .
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POST 4. The Battlefield of the Mind - (Part II) The
Spiritual Armor of God in Spiritual Warfare
"And the Lord said, Simon,
Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may
sift you as wheat.” (Luke 22:31)
The Spiritual Armor of God in
Spiritual Warfare
When Christians make a commitment to trust their lives to
the promises and power of God, they are still living in
hostile territory that presently remains under the influence
and power of Satan, sin, and a fallen world. This leaves the
Christian at a disadvantage, in which we are cautioned in
God's Word to put on the whole spiritual armor of God,
because like it or not, we are in spiritual warfare. As Paul
has revealed to us, the true nature of this battle is
against supernatural evil. The purpose of the armor of God
is to equip us with the power of God in order to stand
against the evil schemes and deception of the devil, who has
blinded the minds of those who believe not.
The power of God is released as we utilize every piece of
the armor of God against evil spirits, who are labeled by
Paul as principalities, powers, rulers of darkness and
spiritual wickedness on high. We are asked to prepare
ourselves as soldiers in spiritual warfare, because as a
forbearer of God's truth and power, Christians and God's
work are targets of destruction. The intense hate of the
devil and his devil spirits against God's creation is
unimaginable, but nonetheless real, he is cruel and
merciless. However, he cannot defeat God, and therefore uses
trickery and deception to defeat believers or draw them into
vulnerable positions. Some of these positions are: fear,
doubt, confusion, condemnation, temptation through pressure
or pleasure, spiritual blindness, pride, affliction or
persecution, intended to frustrate the purposes of God
through His people. He is cunning and attempts to oppress us
in our weakest areas (through our thought life or other
people and circumstances) in which the "unaware" are led
into chains of depression and other forms of bondage.
The Apostle Paul tells us that we actually wrestle against
these forces of evil. Many times we will find ourselves in a
literal struggle from within and without, described by Paul
as hand to hand combat (direct contact) in order to overcome
them. However, this wrestling is spiritual in which the
devil and his demons will take many forms in order to attack
or distract us in our thought life and disarm our faith and
the power of God. If we believe their lies, then they
succeed in gaining their foothold. The devil and his evil
spirits have the power to manipulate the realms of the world
and the flesh in an attempt to obstruct God's truth. God has
not left us defenseless and as we will see, He has provided
us with a greater power and everything we need to stand.
Let's take a look at our Christian
manual on spiritual warfare and the Apostle Peter's conflict
with . . .
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POST
5. Evil Angels Cohabitating with the Women in Genesis?
Fastening the Belt of Truth in Spiritual Warfare
Are the "sons of God" in
Genesis 6 fallen angels?
Since it is God's light that dispels the darkness, then as
part of our spiritual warfare it is important to work
through even some of the most controversial and difficult
Scriptures, at least to the best of our ability. Otherwise,
we can easily be misled and mislead others into
superstitions and other false beliefs of spiritual
consequence. For example, if we believe that God sends evil
spirits to afflict His people in order that they may grow
spiritually, then why resist the devil since it is God's
will? If we believe that everything that happens to us is
God's will, then why pray for deliverance since it is God's
will? When we reflect on these ideas, we begin to realize
the implications and significance of fastening the belt of
truth, as we know, the devil's greatest weapon is
"deception."
A main reason for publishing this post is to dispel any fear
or sensationalism that fallen angels have or ever had the
power to cohabitate with women and propagate a freak
offspring of part divine and part human entities, as some
believe, the fallen angels' offspring being labeled as
"giants" in the book of Genesis.
A second reason for writing this post is
to avoid chasing the wind in our quest to find answers as we
attempt to gain an understanding of God's truth about our
world and the problem of good and evil.
God tells us. . .
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POST 6 - A Response to "I abhor the devil and
don't understand why I still dance with demons. Pray for me!
Abiding Under the Shadow of the Almighty
in Spiritual Warfare.
Perhaps
there are some of you who are struggling with the same issue
as part of your personal spiritual warfare; therefore, I
decided to publish a personal experience I had years back. I
hope that by sharing this experience, those who are
struggling in these areas will make a decision to jump off
the fence onto the side of the Lord. I would think that some
of us may find ourselves dancing with devils because we are
still holding on to or trusting in the arm of the flesh. The
flesh I'm speaking of is the fallen nature that we all have
to deal with as Christians. The flesh lusts against the
Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and this is a very
real struggle and a part of our daily spiritual warfare. If
you are concerned about your spiritual condition, then the
Lord is working in your heart and is drawing you to Him.
Listen to the sweet voice of the Lord Who said,
Isa 30:21
"And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This
is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand,
and when ye turn to the left."
I am going to share an experience I had some years ago as
part of an outreach for Christ. Through this Christian
program of dedicating a year for Christ, I relocated to
another state for that year and shared a room with another
Christian female. One night she was sitting up in her bed
reading a book as I fell into a deep sleep. Soon after, my
sleep was abruptly interrupted by an overwhelming presence
of evil and heavy oppression that I could not speak or lift
myself up from my bed. I was now aware of my friend still
sitting up in her bed, however she was unable to assist me
in my struggle. This evil spirit had a message for me and
vehemently uttered the words "I HATE YOU!" So intense was
its hate that I could never do this moment justice in an
imitation of this experience, but I understood without a
doubt the entity's hate for God and His people. Struggling
for a few seconds more and. . .
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POST 7 - The Dragon and the Sword of Praise
in Spiritual Warfare!
The Power of Praise in
Spiritual Warfare
Psalm 149: 5-6,
"Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon
their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth,
and a two-edged sword in their hand."
Introduction
The Main purpose for writing this post is to emphasize the
power of praise in spiritual warfare, an expression of one
of the highest forms of faith, prayer, and worship, and
described in God's Word as a "two-edged sword" for the
saint.
The best way for me to demonstrate the power of praise in
the believer is by sharing my own experience, which in a
moment of praise, opened the floodgates of heaven and
delivered me out of trouble. We can often feel abandoned in
this life and question our faith in the love of God as we
witness the exercise of evil in the world. However, what I
hope to be a major source of encouragement to the readers of
this post is to share my glimpse into the heart and glory of
God and to say "yes" as believers, we are seated in the
heavenlies with Christ.
Secondly, there are those who have an affinity towards
Christ, but struggle to understand how sin is a part of
their their human nature and for this reason put off their
decision for Christ. I believe this post will also help to
answer that question.
The setting from
which my story emerges begins at my workplace. An occult
group began to surface and grow, and I believe their
practices opened a porthole of negative influences for the
powers of darkness to operate. For example, there were
reports of strange animal behaviors toward some of the
workers. Even a casual mention of the “blood of Jesus”
caused an unnatural reaction in some of the occult members.
Although it is not unusual to hear about daily tragedies,
loss of life, and sickness, however these seemed to increase
in frequency for those associated with this workplace, as
well as in-house fighting and backstabbing. Coincidence?
Perhaps! However, it was under these circumstances that led
to one of the greatest spiritual battles of my life, but
also to the greatest experience of the love, faithfulness,
power, and glory of God! The events I am about to
share transpired.
. .
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Last update:
April 17, 2008
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