Warfare Praying
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4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
Spiritual warfare - very important subject, you may not feel it is important or not even be interested to know more about it.
Whatever your attitude is about Spiritual Warfare - it doesn’t change the fact that...
WE ARE AT WAR!
This kind of war is more severe than any of the world wars or any kind of human war that we can ever imagine. Our main enemy in this war is both ruthless and merciless. You see.... our enemy, satan follows no rules,, there is no Geneva Convention in this war. This is Spiritual Warfare!
There are two primary New Testament passages on Spiritual Warfare that we should know. One is found in Ephesians 6:10-18 - The Full Armor of God. The other one is in this passage in 2 Corinthians 10.
But 2 Corinthians is replete of references to the spiritual warfare:
In chapter 1 Paul told the Corinthians to not be ignorant of the trouble which came to them in Asia.
In chapter 2 verse 11: Paul said lest satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.
In chapter 3 verse 14: He talks of blindness of people’s minds.
In Chapter 4 verse 4: he attributed this blindness as the doing of the god (small G) of this world.
In Chapter 6 he asked: What communion has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial or satan?
In Chapter 7 he expressed how they were troubled on every side.
In Chapter 8 he talked of that great trial of affliction.
In Chapter 11 Paul wrote that even Satan transforms himself into an angel of light!
In Chapter 12 - he told of a messenger from Satan that tormented him like a thorn in his flesh.
And then we have this passage in Chapter 10.
The context of 2 Corinthians 10 … is Paul’s rebuttal against those in the church who questioned his authority as an apostle, I still believe we can glean from this verse lessons that we can apply in our own spiritual battles.
These are the battles for people’s minds.
The aspect of Spiritual warfare which is breaking down strongholds that go against the Gospel. Or even closer to home, that prevents people even your loved ones from coming to salvation through Christ. This warfare therefore is waged through intercessory prayer.
Lessons for today:
In the middle of the warfare:
We cannot be unaware!
We cannot be timid!
We cannot be unprepared!
In the middle of the warfare...
We cannot be unaware!
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,
People, even Christians who are unaware of the spiritual warfare are employing physical weapons or natural methods in fighting spiritual warfare.
Human wisdom and intelligence are being used
Pride of Intelligence - Paul was not against intelligence, but intellectualism, the high-minded attitude among people who think they know more than they really do.
What are the weapons of of warfare that the Apostle Paul refers to?
First of all, we need the right weapons.
If you are entering a tank battle - we need.... tanks.
If you are engaging in an aerial dogfight - you need planes!
If you are entering into a naval battle - you need.... ships.
But are enemies in the spiritual warfare are not human armies or not an air force or navies.
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
So if you are facing a spiritual battle you need Spiritual Weapons that God provided.
The chapter in Ephesians 6 that talks about the whole armor of God, tells us about an offensive weapon...
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;
The sword of the Spirit - which is the word of God.
18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—
Prayer and God’s Word. - These weapons according to St. Paul are mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds. (talk)
What are these strongholds? These are fortresses that satan has been allowed to build in people’s minds.
Breaking down these strongholds is a picture of militancy. The metaphor is that we have to completely break down these fortresses and annihilate the enemies inside of it.
In this context, these fortresses are built on one foundation PRIDE. And how does pride manifests?
Overly High estimation of one’s self
Self sufficiency - reliance only on self over dependence on God
Pride of one’s culture (example the Judaizers, today’s culture wars)
Strongholds are anything in which men shuts themselves up against the Gospel of salvation that will save them.
In the middle of the warfare...
2. We cannot be timid!
5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
We have to be militant. We have to be courageous.
We have to confront arguments - not debate -- have a ready answer from God’s word
15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;
There’s a violence here, we have to aggressively CAST DOWN arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Jesus said in Matthew 11 that the kingdom of God suffers violence, and the violent take it by force!
You cannot use diplomacy with Satan!
Example of Nazi Germany and Winston Churchill (talk)
“We will fight! And we will never surrender!”
The enemy, Jesus said is a relentless enemy, and he will take no prisoners..
The Lord said:
“The thief does not come except to steal, kill, and to destroy...” (John 10:10a)
We cannot negotiate with this enemy.
Bringing every thought captive into the obedience of Christ!
No room for diplomacy, confronting everything in people’s minds that stands in the way of the gospel — fighting satan’s minions behind them!
Bible says in Ephesians 4 - do not give place to the devil!
13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
In the middle of warfare..
3. We cannot be unprepared!
6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
Unpreparedness for the warfare is the biggest problem among Christians.
Christians who know about the Spiritual warfare but not preparing themselves. They do not know how to fight the battles.
“Being ready...”
It is a long fight. not a one time skirmish..
Word study here of “warfare” - which really means campaign.
Your skirmishes with the enemy are part of a large satanic campaign!
Jesus is already victorious but the devil is after your usefulness (he wants you to be useless), your growth (he wants you to be stunted in your growth), he is after your fruitfulness (Satan wants you to be empty handed when you face the Lord)
Remember from the last lesson? Jesus said He chose us to bear much fruit, fruit that will remain - Satan does not want for us what God wants for us.
You know who Satan is also after? The people you love. Your wife, your children.
If you are a follower of Jesus - You are in active deployment!
4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.
Ultimately - Satan wants to destroy the work of God (examples)
How do we fight this spiritual warfare - as I mentioned earlier, the warfare that we face is also a satanic campaign against us.
Therefore we must likewise be on a campaign being on our knees.
Fight the good fight of Faith!
Warfare Praying - Let us claim God’s promise to cast down the wrong thinking that keeps people from surrendering to God.
WAGE THE WARFARE IN YOUR FAMILIES - loved ones whose minds have been chained by Satan.
Lessons for today:
In the middle of the warfare:
We cannot be unaware!
We cannot be timid!
We cannot be unprepared!
Declarative Prayer:
“Father, It is true that I am an ordinary, weak human being, but I don’t use human plans and methods to win my battles. I use the mighty weapons that you provide, not those made by men, to knock down the devil’s strongholds.
I take these weapons to break down every proud argument against You and every wall that can be built to keep men from finding You .
With these weapons I will capture rebels and bring them back to God and change them into men whose hearts’ desire is obedience to Christ.
I will use these weapons against every rebel who remains after I have first used them on people who surrender to Christ.
In Jesus’ Mighty and victorious Name, amen!”