SPIRITUAL WARFARE

"Lest Satan should get an advantage of us:  for we are not ignorant of his devices." II Cor. 2:11

". . .When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him."  Isaiah 59:19

"And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him."  Zech. 3:1

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephes. 6:12


THE SPIRITUAL BATTLE OF OUR DAY

I.  Who is our enemy

II. What is he doing

III.  How is he doing this

IV.  What is our Response

Introduction

Revelation 12:12, "Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them.  Woe to the inhaibters of the earth and of the sea!  for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time."

Life is a gift from God.  Salvation comes to all men and leads us to serve Him, love Him and follow Him.  But as we become His children, we become the enemy of His enemy, the devil.  How long does the devil have?  What is he up to?  What are we being warned of here?  The church has an enemy lose and attacking and assaulting.  Mankind has an enemy seeking their destruction.  And yet, life and man and the church go along as if there was no warfare.  But there is!  and it is a warfare for the ages, it is for eternity for every man, woman and child, that as ever been, is or ever will be.  The devil knows this and he is working without ceasing for the destruction of what God has made.

Everything that God has made, the devil despises.  Anything that has proceeded from God, the devil has set his sights on to destroy, mar and vanquish it.  Look, at the following and see wherein his wrath and rage goes against the things of God's hand and making.
--here we have God's creation of Adam & Eve in the perfect garden of Eden; What does Satan do?  He comes to lead man and woman away from that perfect existence and get them to sin against God and destroy that perfect harmony.
--here is God's creation of man, made in His Own image, after His likeness;  And what does the devil do?  He seeks constantly and consistently to destroy them and claim their souls to be, like him, separated from the Holy God for all eternity.  Every device, scheme and plan is to 'kill, steal and maim'; it is 'a roaring lion to destroy and devour'.
--here is the God's creation, the church; Bought and paid for by the very Son of God, with His Own precious blood and life.  What does Satan seek to do?   He has from day one of its existence gone after the church, the Bride of Christ, the body of believers to get them to sin, to fail, to give an occasion against the Lord, to cause shame, harm and make them powerless to win the world to Christ.
Do you see this eternal conflict?   It has always been, and it will rage til the last day, in which God will step out and say to time and this carnal, temporal existence, 'It is finished.'  Satan knows that time is hastening on, and we should also know this truth.  We live so much of our time for self, and the matters that don't really matter.  May we see beyond the physical realm and ask of the Lord, 'open my eyes that I might see'.  And as Elisha prayed that prayer for his servant, 'the Lord opened his eyes and he saw the angelica force standing armed and ready to defend at the Father's command.'   Oh, my brethren, see beyond the natural, that there is a spiritual realm.  And this spiritual realm determines the eternal destiny of every soul.  so which is more important, physical or spiritual? temporal or eternal? carnal or Divine?   

The following is an opening to what we do know in answering and getting us to see beyond.  May the Father open the eyes of His children and we see what is at stake, and how very important it is for us to be engaged.   



I.  Who is our Enemy

Our enemy is Satan.  And if Satan is not your enemy, then the Lord is your enemy.  For Jesus declared, 'friendship with this world, is enmity against the Lord"  There is no neutral ground, or being out of this conflict.  For either you are for the Lord or against the Lord;  either you are for the devil or against the devil. 

Know your enemy

Names:  He is know by many names.  A few of these names are the Devil; Apollyon; Lucifer; prince of this world.  And all those of the fallen angels and of men that follow, adhere and obey him are in his army.  It is an army that is known for one thing, they are against the Lord God.
From the first moment we are introduced to Satan in time and in the Word of God we see his influence and purpose.  We are introduced to him as 'the serpent':
Genesis 3:1, "Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.  And he said unto the woman, 'Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?"

Do you see his purpose?  He came to undo the work of God.  He came to destroy 'paradise';  for how could it be 'paradise' if sin and disobedience was found there?  He came to destroy man.  what better way to assault and attack the Lord, than attack His creation.  Attack that which the Lord had said when He saw man, 'it is very good'.  Since Satan cannot attack the Lord and prevail, he will attack every extension from the Lord.  This is the purpose of Satan.

Throughout this exchange where sin did enter God's creation, enter time, entered into man, we see the devil working his work.  Bringing questions into the mind of woman that was not knowledgeable, and naive and innocent in such attacks.  Bringing reproach upon the Lord, 'Hath God said. . ."  as if the Lord's word would have any untruth in it.  Seeking to undo the work of creation to bring glory to God in it all.  But what he did not know, is that the Lord knew what the devil would do, and the Lord knew then, He would need a means of redemption for His creation.  Something which the devil can never obtain or have.  For the devil is damned for ever!

To the last time, he is mentioned in Scriptures:
Revelation 20:10, "And the devil that deceive them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast, and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever."
this is the end of his freedom and pursuit to destroy.  This is where his destruction will be for all eternity. The devil, as his name is called, is finally put away from any of God's creation.  His purpose and agenda of destruction and anti-God activity will be no more.  And his companions that shall join are of all like mindedness for the same purpose, the rejected God, and they stand against God

For the names of our enemy this is our introduction in Scripture of his beginning and end.  Let us move on now to see more of his nature and activity in time and among God's creation.

Attributes/Descriptions

There are three main verses that we shall constantly use to address the devils attributes and descriptions:
--'Your adversary the devil as a roaring lion, walking about seeking whom he may destroy'
--'He is come to steal, main and kill'
--'the accuser of the brethren'
--'tempting him'
--'the devil entered into them'

The attributes of the devil are easily to be known and understood.  The attributes of the Lord are the very opposite of the devil.  For example:
--the Lord is holy, the devil is unholy;
--the Lord is pure, the devil unclean;
--the Lord is the giver and sustainer of life, the devil is the taker of life;
--the Lord is light, the devil is darkness;

Anything that you can come up with in Scripture and a fuller knowledge of the Lord attritubtes and descriptions, we can understand the devil for is the very opposite of it.  that which the Lord loves, the devil hates;  that which the Lord hates, the devil loves (although he has no compactiy for love in its purest sense); His love is a description of passion for evil things. 

End game/Purpose

The devil simply has one goal, to cause has much destruction, death and claiming of souls from the Father while he has time.  His time is limited as we read in Revelation 12, and he is working with a fury to do as much damage and destruction to God's creation as he can.  He is bent against all of God's created works of nature, man and the church.  He sets his goals and end purpose to take from the Lord all that he can, while he can.

God's purpose is to redeem and deliver man kind from sin.  Satan seeks to keep them in sin and cause them eternal hell with himself.
God's purpose is to work through His church and bring forth the Word of God so that they may  hear and be delivered.  Satan seeks to undo the works of the church and hinder and destroy the word of God from ever being sent or brought forth.
And at the end of time, the judgement day; if Satan will have been able to strip from the Lord souls and claim them for his trophies, then whatever sense of victory that will be, he will do it for the sheer pleasure (he has no pleasure as defined by us, but to cause harm to the Lord) of robbing God of His created purposes of man, church.  



II.  What is he doing

It is easy to see the devil's activity in this world today.  The headlines are full of hideous, vile, evil activity, that can only be explained as the influence, persuasion and tempted of the evil one.  There are many that are oblivious to these truths, and are the very ones asking at such horrible headlines, 'What is going on?'  or 'How could any one do that?'  And of course, The actions of the devil are simple, he is seeking to destroy and claim as many souls as possible before his time runs out and his eternity begins.
Let us list the verses describing his actions:
Luke 22:3, 'he entered in Judas';
--Satan is able to enter into the lives of lost souls;  he is able to tempt the saints, but I do not believe he is able to enter into them to possess them;  he enters the saints to tempt and only by the Christian's allowance is he able to make them fall into sin by their choices;  But we do have the promise and the hope to counter this, 'now unto Him(Christ) Who is able to keep us from falling' into sin.  A lost person, Satan enters in and has his will and way.  A Christian, he may tempt, but it is their choice of how far evil will prevail with them. 

John 13:2 'devil putting into his heart';
Acts 5:3 'Satan hath filled thine heart to lie'
Acts 13:10, 'pervert the right ways of God'
Acts 14:2, 'made their minds evil affected against the brethren'
Acts 19:16, 'he (the evil spirit) leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them'




Culture and society

Let us examine his influence and growing power over culture and society.  We see a society bent on evil and flesh.  In the churches and prayer groups that time is spent in intercession for our nation, the church and our future, Isaiah 59:19 is our focus, 'So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glry from the rising of the sun.  when the enemy (evil) shall come in like a flood, the Spriit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him."
This has not happened over night, but the devil has continually prodded along to make his way gain the greater part of men's souls.
 
2.  The church, who alone, stands and has the power to stop and turn him back have not done so.  They have allowed for his increase by their failure to pray and stand against him with our weapons of warfare.  where there is no resistance by the church to take back the darkness, to deliver the souls and to cause him to cease from destruction, hell advances.  The church has lost much of its influence and power to push back the darkness.  Therefore the evil continues, and rages into the 'flood of evil'. 







IV.  What is Our Response
Pray and Battle
Romans 12:21, 'Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.'
A standard answer for us to remember and contemplate.  Our warfare is before us.  We are commanded to overcome by good deeds, act, intentions and lifestyles and choices.  Evil is not move upon us, but us upon it. 

Pray
When I say 'pray', most are quick to defend themselves that they/we are praying.  But this isn't just about 'saying prayers'.  But when the demonic child was brought to the disciples they could not cast him out, only Christ could.  And when they enquired, 'Why could not we cast him out?  Jesus answered them, This kind cannot come out but by prayer and fasting.'   There is a notable difference to praying and prevailing and praying so as to say prayers.  Let us be found to the first means of prayer and not guilty of the second.

Praying so as to prevail.

Battle
The battle is fought in the mind, in the heart, in the soul and in the secret closet.  The battle is not in the physical realm, but in the spiritual.  'we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."   this call is to 'wrestle', as Jacob physically wrestled the angel, so we wrestle this powers of evil and darkness.  You recognize the enemy, you see what he is up to in his path of evil, wickedness, destruction and death.  You take a stand against this evil, for the reason of knowing that it is anti-God.  Now once engaged in the battle how shall you fight? with what weapons? victory or defeat?

Weapons of our warfare - Since this battle is spiritual and not physical; physical weapons will avail nothing.  The spiritual weapons are given to us out of Scripture.  



Started:  January 18, 2016

Continued: 1/29; 2/1; 3/15/18;

Finished: