THINGS NEEDED TO WAGE WAR SUCCESSFULLY

Along with the greater release of darkness into the world in recent years is a greater erosion of honor and integrity. This is not only true in the world, but in the church also. This is the main reason for much of the defeat in the churches of today- our tendency to break our commitments both to the Lord and to each other. Also, we must put on the gospel of peace. The peace of God is not an only effective protection against the enemy; it is also a powerful offensive weapon as we use our feet to crush the serpents head- Lk. 10:19. We must be careful not to allow anything to steal our peace or we will be deprived of a most important protection.

Also, we must take up the shield of faith. Everyone in the fight is going to have flaming missiles thrown at him. Faith does not keep the enemy from attacking us, but it helps to extinguish what the enemy throws at us. If we get wounded, we can be sure that we dropped our faith, so we ought to pick it up.

We also need to put on the helmet of salvation. The helmet of salvation protects our mind. It is easy to relax and take off our helmets, letting the pollution of the world attack our minds from the burdens of this world or we will open ourselves to potentially fatal head wounds intended to rob us of our salvation- Phil. 4:8-9.

Finally, we must take up the sword of the spirit. The most of the battle armor is defensive in nature; the main offensive weapon is the sword of the spirit. This sword can also be a defensive weapon- when the devil attacked Jesus, He used the Word of God to drive him off. The more we acknowledge God's word, the more skillful we will be in spiritual warfare, and the more effective we will be in attacking the enemy's strongholds. Once we know our weapons, we must know our battle plan.

Casting out demons is only a small part of spiritual warfare. If we cast out demons without tearing down the strongholds they have been inhabiting in people, the demons will just return and bring back seven more demons worse than itself- Lk. 11:26. Knowing this, we must not make the mistake of spreading our lines too thin, trying to fight on multiple fronts at the same time. We may hold very dear truths that we believe are worth fighting for, but indeed the Lord has not called us to fight for every truth. We need to stick to the battle plan He has laid out specifically for us to fight for a particular truth. When others try to drag us into their battles, we must resist it.

The more spiritual authority we have, and the more of a threat we are to the enemy, the more of a target we will be. The devil did not just send a principality to tempt Jesus or to sift Peter, he did it himself. The more spiritual authority we have, the greater our opposition will be. Yet, on the contrary, the greater our opposition, the greater the evil that will flee from us if we effectively resist. Dealing with demons we do not have authority over can leave us wounded and naked- Acts 19:13-16. And confronting principalities that we have no authority over can even be more dangerous. The greatest revivals in all of the church history have been the result of  the church effectively engaging in this level of spiritual warfare. The devil uses flattery to lure us beyond what God has called us to do or try to accomplish what He has called us to do prematurely. The devil knows we will lack the grace needed to defeat him if he can lure us to go beyond the sphere of authority presently appointed to us- 2 Cor. 10:12-16.

The primary battle field in spiritual warfare is for people's minds, hence we must continually submit to God and draw near to Him and resist the devil if we must not fall into jeopardy. This is because the closer our spiritual authority increases, the higher the level of accusation we get from the devil, this is why apostle Paul encountered continual oppositions in his ministry; but with each level of opposition, he had the opportunity to drive out higher devils-Phil. 1:28-29.

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