Intro to spiritual warefare Eph 6b

Spiritual warfare involves understanding the schemes of the devil and putting on the full armor of God. We are not to wrestle against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces of evil. The devil's primary goal is to kill us or make us ineffective. We must resist and put on the armor of God to overcome these spiritual powers. There are different levels of spiritual activity, and we can resolve issues through spiritual warfare and prayer. It is important to be prepared and stand our ground against evil. We need to know the truth and be in the word to recognize and combat the lies and deception of the devil. Good morning, it is 5 till midnight. I want to talk to you about spiritual warfare. What is spiritual warfare? There are different ideas. There are different ways to go about it but there are some truths that are important no matter what kind of spiritual warfare you do whether it is praying, whether it is binding and loosing or whether it is other types. There are some very basics you must understand. We are going to look at Ephesians 6 as our base scripture and that is Ephesians 6 and we are going to start with verse 10. Finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. The Lord is saying here that we must be strong. He is commanding us to be strong and in his mighty power. We can be weak but he doesn't want us to be weak he wants us to be strong. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. Do you understand the devil has schemes? The devil has schemes, he has plans, he has purposes. God has purposes, the devil has purposes. The Bible says he comes to do three things, steal, kill and destroy. He is a deceiver. He deceives, that takes some effort, it takes some planning to deceive someone. You must construct the lies and then you must put them into practice. That is what the devil does. The Bible says, Paul says be careful when you come about this because I don't want you to be ignorant. I don't want you to misunderstand what is going on. He says our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against rulers and authorities and against powers of this dark world and against spiritual forces of evil. There are certain things that we are to wrestle against and certain things that we are not to wrestle against. Doesn't that make sense? If I am on the wrestling mat, I need to know where my opponent is. I need to know who I am squaring off with. Notice he uses the term to wrestle. The term to wrestle means, in this instance, to wrestle as in a contest in which each endeavors to throw the other to the ground. Where the victor pins his opponent to the ground and wins by wrapping his hand around the opponent's neck. Once his hand is around his opponent's neck, his opponent is powerless to do either offensive or defensive moves. At this point the opponent is struggling for his life. And this is the wrestling match that we are up against whether we like it or not. The problem is the devil has schemes and we have to understand what those schemes are. The first scheme he employs on us is to get us to wrestle the wrong person. Now that's ingenious. Let's say you go on the mat and they ring the bell and you start to wrestle and you start wrestling the umpire. That isn't going to help us any. That's not who you are supposed to wrestle. We need to know who we are going to wrestle. So we need to stop wrestling each other. We should not wrestle our circumstances. We should not be wrestling our wife, our husband, our spouse, our kids, our employers. These are not the things we are to be wrestling. We are to wrestle the appropriate things that are trying to take us captive. The opponent is of a spiritual nature. He wants to knock you off your stance so you can no longer defend yourself. And with his lies he wants to render you powerless. He wants to wrap his hands around your neck and choke you until you're worthless or you're dead. This is important to understand. This is his primary goal is to kill you. And if he cannot achieve that to make you ineffective. So we must understand that. We must own up to it and we must come against the one who is coming against us because our lives depend on it. Especially if we are going to be overcomers and win crowns here on earth. It says here that our enemy is not each other but we wrestle against principalities. Now I'm into King James right now. Principalities. Those are the things that come first. Those are the first things we meet up with. Those are the annoyances, the things that yell the loudest. When I'm in a wrestling match with demons, I find that these are the things that put up the biggest show but often leave the quickest. The Bible says we are to resist and the devil will flee. These are the things that flee first when we offer resistance. But understand they have a pretty good bark and they can kill. But these are the things we come up against. These are demonic powers that persuade us. They prove to be lethal and they will kill you. They will steal from you. So when we recognize them it is important to get rid of them. And how do we do that? We resist. We put on the armor of God. We have the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth and the rest of the armor and we have our sword in our hand. And when we resist these principalities, these first things, they will flee. After that we come up against powers. Powers, the word in the Greek is exousia. It is the same power that Jesus Christ ministered with. These are demons that are in authority. These are entrenched a little bit deeper. These put up a little bit harder fight. They are not as showy. They put up a little bit harder fight. This might be alcoholism. This might be addictions. This might be that anger that you just can't get rid of. This might be the lustful eye that just keeps coming and is habitual. These powers exercise over us and they change how we behave. They change what we do. And often times they are not as showy, they do not make as big a splash, but yet they are very inset and we can get rid of them. When I was doing deliverance on a man one time, the first things I came across were the principalities and I commanded them to leave in the name of Jesus and they left. They whined, they carried on, they screamed a little bit, but then they were gone. That was easy. Then came the next step. These were the powers. These were things that had more gusto to them. It took a little bit longer time to get rid of these things. You can get rid of them, it just takes a little longer and you need the Holy Spirit especially. You need to employ His help in every step of the way to remove these things. And then there are rulers of darkness. These are things that are commanding all the things below them. These things have true authority. When you move one demon out, it might try to move another demon in. It may talk back and forth between different sets of demons and give instructions. I was one time in a church. I had been working with a man. We were working on deliverance. We were trying to get rid of some demons and they were not coming out. I was in church and I asked for prayer. I simply signed a prayer card and I said, would you please pray for me? I'm doing deliverance on this guy. When I met him, it was like the next day or a couple of days later, and he said, you've been talking about me at church, haven't you? Information was changed, exchanged, and he understood it. He knew it had happened. He arranged for it. He was a ruler in higher places. He was in charge of something. It took a long time to get rid of this one. I've faced these before and you will probably face these. These are the things that may not come out in one session. These are the things that might take several, several sessions to get rid of. They are the things that have captivated the heart and actually changed the personality. Then there is spiritual wickedness in high places. These are things outside of the body. These are things in the second heavens. When we go to battle against an area or against a demon in a person or a situation, these are the things over the city, over the group of people, the ethnic group. These are the things over the organizations. They keep the other demons in line and they give directions and they give orders. Here is how you are to go about it, your work. We can wrestle against those things. It takes special prayer. It takes anointing from the Father to do that, but we can watch those things clear up. Some people will say, don't do it unless the Lord shows you to do it. I would agree, don't do anything unless the Lord shows you to do it. But those things are the spiritual wickedness in high places that he is talking about here. So it is important for you to understand there are different levels. There are different levels of spiritual activity. When you come across that person who is just generally disagreeable, understand that you can resolve that disagreeableness. You can resolve the anger issues. You can resolve the problems of lust or pornography or addictions or anything else through spiritual warfare and through prayer. I have seen venereal diseases healed because the demons were taken out. I have seen attitudes changed. I have seen multiple personalities cease to be because the demonic realm was taken out. I have seen relationships healed. So we are not to go against other people. We are not to pray against other people, but we are to pray against the enemy. It talks about here in Ephesians 6. He says to do so, how do we do it? As we continue on, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you will be able to stand your ground. Don't wait for the evil to get here. That is a big mistake. Don't wait for the evil to get here. Make sure you are in the word. Make sure you understand the message of salvation because there might be a small window for you to be able to minister salvation to someone and you must understand how to do it or at least know the right questions to ask. Put on the belt of truth. Understand where the lies are, what the lies are. Understand what the truth is. It is often told if you want to catch counterfeiters, you don't study counterfeit money. You study real money. You learn what real money looks like and then if someone puts a counterfeit bill across the table, you will recognize it very quickly. We need to be in the word and in truth. So it talks about the different parts of the armor of God and then it talks up here about the one offensive weapon we have. Now it's important to understand that most of these weapons are defensive because we can be in real danger if we are doing spiritual warfare and not having ourselves covered completely. Take the time to study these different pieces of armor. It's important to be in the word each and every day. I would say if you are not in the word at least a couple chapters every day, then you need to think twice about what you are doing and how you are going about it. Even if you are not in an act of battle, you need to be in the word. It says take the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, and pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Keep the word in your mouth. Pray the word of God. Read the word and pray it over your situation. That has to happen first. That is one of the most powerful tools you can do. You can say, I can't see the situation. I can't see those people. I've been doing it, Rich. I've been doing it and nothing is happening. But let me tell you this, there is something happening. Things are moving, you just can't see it yet. But they are moving. Let me give you an example. I was coming into a deliverance session with someone and I decided an hour beforehand I was going to take some time and pray. I spent about 30 minutes in prayer in the basement of my home. I got done, I got a quick bite to eat, a drink of water, and I went behind my laptop so I could communicate with this person. He said, wow, I don't know if I can make it. I am so tired. It just hit me. I said, when did it hit you? He said, it hit me about 40 minutes ago. I said, really? That was just the same time I was praying for you. We can have an effect on people even if we can't see them. It's funny because it turns out that many times we will pray and pray for someone and they are changing, we just don't see it yet. They are considering lining up their ducks, getting them in a row so the Lord can implement that change. Don't get it on what He desires for you to do. You have to go after the enemy, not other people. We have to stand firm. Don't give up. Don't give in. Don't fight. That will be your downfall. Don't fight with others. Don't fight with the person next door, your spouse. That just feeds the enemy. Stay tuned to where you know you are effective and that is on your knees. These are some things to think about. Some of the basics in spiritual warfare. It's 5 till midnight.