We’ve Already Won The Battle, But We Still Have To Fight

There’s a old story that was told of a mental hospital many years ago that devised an unusual test to determine when the patients were ready to go back into the world. They brought a client for release to a room where the water faucet was left on so that the sink overflowed and was pouring water all over the floor. Then they handed the patient a mop and told him to mop up the water. If the patient had enough sense to turn of the faucet before mopping up the water, they were ready to be released. But if, the patient started mopping while the water was still flowing, they kept the patient for more treatment. To many of us this test seems silly.

But as Believers, all of face the world in which we live and are confronted with the need to do battle with evil that dominates it. Like the patients in the mental hospital, until we realize where the source of that evil is, we will make no real contribution. To see less evil in the world means that we must conquer the evil pouring forth from our own heart. That is conversion. Then, to deal with the evil around us, we need a mop and bucket, the spiritual armor that God has provided for us.

We wrestle Not Against Flesh And Blood

We must understand who and what our real enemy is. It in not individual as much as it is the spirit of the individual. This is why you have to learn how to love the person and hate the spiritual influence that controls their actions.

Ephesians 6:12 says “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against power, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

We are fighting with everything that we have, to hold on to what we have.

  • But this is more than having the power to hold on to God, the strength of our salvation is that He is also holding on to us.
  • He holds us while the enemy if buffeting us about, trying to destroy us and gain victory over our witness.
  • We, therefore must recognize that many times there is more going on than we recognize with our senses.
  • And while we are getting angry and upset over the conditions of our lives, we can can’t forget if things are going to change we have got to change them through the power of God.
  • Satan has studied us and coordinated a plan of attack aimed at keeping us from enjoying our new life with Christ.
  • And his scheme is so widespread that if he cannot destroy you, he’ll aim his attacks towards the people closest to you and the interests that are near and dear to your heart.
  • Therefore, you have to fight not just for yourself, but spiritual warfare involves praying the devil off your kids, praying him away from your spouse, taking authority over the devil on your job, defeating the enemy that’s trying to take your mind.
  • I know that you’re probably already saved, but your salvation was not enough to change the Satan’s mind about destroying you so you had better get ready for the fight of your life.

But thanks be to God which gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 15:57.

The victory is already ours, but we still have to fight.

What weapons are at our disposal?

But God in all His wisdom never would have left us down here to fight an enemy that we were not equipped to overcome. So, He gave us weapons that are for to use against the wiles of the adversary. That is provided that we are not to lazy to use. Because there are those who willingly defeated by the enemy, not putting to use that God gave them.

First of all, we have the weapon of prayer.

  • This should’ve our first line of defense against the adversary m prayer.
  • It should be the first thing that we do when trouble comes because it is what we should have been doing all the time.
  • The reason why some people are so weak that they cannot handle a fight is because prayer is what strengthens us.
  • And if you wait until the enemy shows us to start praying, you are already at a disadvantage.
  • But if you know how to pray and pray right, He said that whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
  • And when the devil hears you call on the Name of Jesus, demons start trembling and strongholds have to loose.
  • Diseases dry up when you pray in the authority that Jesus gave us.

Next, there is the gift of fasting.

  • Jesus taught there are certain spiritual enemies that we fight that will only be defeated by the combination of prayer and fasting.
  • Fasting kills the flesh and brings a spiritual awareness of the power that God has given.
  • It makes us aware of spiritual things and aides us in our endeavors to be more like Jesus, as it makes us to understand what is going on in the spiritual world around us.

Then there are Angels

  • The Bible says in Psalms 34:7 that “The angel of the Lord encompasses round about them that fear Him, and delivers them.
  • I thank God for the angels.
  • There are times in our lives God’s angels are fighting for us and we don’t even know it.
  • But the enemy is releasing things in the heavenlies because the angels of the Lord have gone to war on your behalf
  • There’s a story that I’m reminded about where Daniel prayed to God for the space of three weeks. He didn’t stop praying just because things had not changed, this is spiritual warfare.
  • And while he was praying, the devil though to hold up his answer from the Lord.
  • But Michael, the warring angel, went and hand to hand with the adversary and loosed Daniel’s answer to the Lord.
  • Sometimes Hod has sent the answer and the enemy try’s to hold it up, but the angels are there to assist us in our victories.

Finally, there is the weapon that the Saints of old really understood, the Power Of The Blood.

  • This is one weapon that the enemy can’t stand.
  • The blood represents the ultimate defeat.
  • Whenever the enemy would attack people years ago, it was common for the Saints to do what they called “Plead the Blood.”
  • When they were rebuking the devil, they would say one of the most damaging things to the ears of the devil.
  • They would comfort him with words “Satan, the Blood is against you!”
  • If the devil don’t like what he hears, the only way he can cover his ears is to let go of what belongs to you.

In modern society there are many believers that “say I plead the blood or I’m covered in the blood, so I don’t have to worry. Please don’t use this as a way out of an attack. There is power in the blood, but don’t relax and think your getting of easily. The devil uses this tactic to have you let down your defenses.

To Wrestle Means “Hand To Hand” Combat

And this is the reason why to change many things, you must be willing to struggle and go to war, even if it means that you’ve not to sweat and get dirty in the process. To wrestle denotes hand to hand combat.

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.

  • You’ve already won, but you still have to fight.
  • The devil would love to ruin you, but the power to succeed is in your hands. Fight!
  • Don’t allow the enemy to ruin you or anyone else that you know.
  • Your family is worth fighting for
  • Your health is worth fighting for.
  • Your peace of mind is worth fighting for.
  • Your families souls are worth fighting for.
  • If you have to roll up your sleeves and go hand to hand. Fight for it.
  • Tell that drug addicted son, “I’m fighting for you.
  • Tell your daughter the stripper, I’m fighting for you!
  • Tell them that you’ve prayed too,long to see them just die and go to hell.
  • Tell them that you’ve prayed too long to lose them to the streets
  • Fight for them until they see the need to fight for themselves.
  • And if one can put up a thousand to flight then two can put ten thousand prayers into flight, then sooner or later, everything around you will be cover by the power of God!
  • While your fighting remember that a thousand will fall by your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you..

Pulling Down Strongholds

Have you ever heard, “Everything was going fine until I hit a bump in the road?

In the 2 Corinthians we certainly can see Paul hit plenty of bumps in his years of ministry. One of the bumps we find him dealing with is a group of naysayers and negative critics. They questioned Paul’s ability to minister – calling him weak and ridiculing in his speaking skills.

Perhaps Paul’s mind was filled with self-doubt when their vicious whispers first reached him ears. Did he take criticism and retaliate with his own critical thoughts? Maybe he didn’t broadcast them out loud but even thinking about them can cause damage. When we hit painful and unexpected bumps in life it can be hard not to start thinking negative thoughts. Thoughts laced with doubt and tinged with discouragement .

If we are not careful, those kinds of thoughts can take us places we don’t want to go. They can bring us down and keep us from living the life God wants us to live. Paul reminds us that our enemy doesn’t fight the way the world does. But God has given us everything we need to have victory. Paul writes: “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have Devine power to demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself us against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 4-5)

In other words, what we think matters. Little by little, the Lord by His Spirit teaches us to fight for our mind, to see ourselves only as He does. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen.

If we are Christ’s, this is no passive task. This is war. We destroy lies, take captive our hateful thoughts, look forward to a new plan, and remind ourselves of who we are.

So here it is: this is your call to fight to take action and stand up. Paul tells us we have to take our thoughts captive and make them obey Christ. What does it mean to make our thoughts obey Christ? It means that if Jesus wouldn’t say it about us, we can’t say it to about us, we can’t say it to ourselves either.

2 Corinthians 10: 1-6

How to Walk By Faith And Not By Feeling

What are you led by? What directs your decisions, actions, words, and thoughts?

As believers , were called to live by faith. And yet so many of us choose to live by something else-our feelings. Have you ever made a decision because it simply “felt right”? Have you ever said something because it “felt like the perfect moment “? I know I have. Before I became a believer, I lived fully by feeling. My feelings informed my reactions to life and directed my every step. If a pathway wasn’t accomplished by a nice feeling, it wasn’t the one I took.

Shortly after I became a believer, I still lived by my feelings rather than my faith. I doubted my salvation because it didn’t feel real. I struggled to believe that God still loved me when sinned because I couldn’t feel His love. I often gave into temptation to sin because it felt better that obedience. My worship time was completely regulated by my feelings as well-if I felt near to God, then I had worshipped effectively and right.

Do you live by your feelings? Do you live in a similar way I did? If so, consider what God’s Word has to say about our feelings and what living by faith actually looks like.

Your Feelings Can’t Be Trusted

The Bible is quick to tell us that our feelings (or hearts, more accurately) can’t be trusted.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5)

“Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.” (Proverbs 28:26)

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it.” ( Jeremiah: 17-9)

Why are our hearts deemed so untrustworthy? Why. They are constantly changing and affected by sin.

Our feelings are about as certain as the sand on the beach . The sand is always being moved, pushed forward and backward by both wind and water. It’s kicked and thrown by people running across it, children building with it, and dogs digging in it. It may appear to be a solid foundation for your sandcastle, but add just a little to much water and the entire building will collapse.

Our feelings are no different than that sand. They’re easily changed by people and circumstances. One moment you could be happily reading a book in your favorite chair, and a few minutes later be angered by the trail of mud someone brought in. You may have felt down when you first woke up this morning, but after exercising with your favorite play list, your day is looking a lot brighter. Our feelings are fickle.

Psalm 7 Reflection

“The Lord shall Judge People: Judge Me, O’ Lord, According To My Righteousness, And According To Mine Integrity That is in me”

We are in a war! This spiritual war continually goes on around us, and for the more part, we are unaware of it, and yet, we know it is there. One of the ways we do see it, is when a wrong is committed against us. How do we react? With righteous indignation? That phrase is seldom used correctly. Are we angry because they sinned against us,or are we angry because they sinned against God? Righteous indignation means we are angry when God is attacked.

It may seem to us from the words in Psalm 7, that he is being a bit melodramatic. Save me from all those who persecute me; and deliver me, lest they tear me like a Lion, rending me in pieces, while there is none to deliver.

Yet, when we read the accounts of David’s life in the Old Testament we understand that people were, indeed, seeking him life, his own sons sought to steal the throne from him.

David learned that victory from his enemies, no matter who they were, must come from God Himself. Apart from God, David was helpless before even the weakest of enemies. He proclaimed in Psalm 7:10, my defense is of God, who saves the upright in heart.

Have we lost that perspective in the world today? We are most likely not in the same situation that David was in, as our enemies are probably not trying to seek our lives, but even so, do we understand that the only hope for us is in the Lord? Do we expect God to intercede on our behalf before those who hate and despise us, or do we believe that it is us to us to deal with the situation?

David had a close personal relationship with the Lord. Nothing in his life was kept from the Lord, but rather he spoke to God as one speaks to a close friend. Therefore when he found himself surrounded by the wicked, it was natural for him to go to God, knowing that God would intercede on his behalf. David knew that God is a just judge, who is angry with the wicked.

Are things so very different in modern society today? Is God so far removed from our lives that we do not even consider spending time with the Lord, seeking His wisdom in dealing with our day to day difficulties? Do we feel that our lives are certainly much too unimportant for God to even notice?

God has included the Psalms in the Bible for this very reason. As we read of David’s close relationship with the Lord, we understand that God is a personal God, concerned about all of the intimate details of our lives. How many trouble and burdens do we suffer through without going to the Lord? No wonder we lack confidence in Hid ability to intercede for us. We have not learned to go to Christ with all of our concerns and problems, therefore we have not seem Him work and move in all the little details of our lives.

James says we do not have because we do not ask, and when we ask, we ask the wrong questions. It is time that we dust off our Bibles and become intimately involved with our Lord Jesus Christ. As we read and study His Word, may our faith and confidence in our great God grow. May we find Him to be that dear Friend who sticks closer than a brother.

It’s time we turned of social media and Television and spend a little time with God.

Pray today that God would give you the spiritual strength to put all your circumstances into God’s hands, and it there is a battle to be fought, pray to Him for victory instead of attempting to take it into your own hands.