Unseen Battles (2)
Notes
Transcript
Tear It Down
Tear It Down
We do not want to become demon-conscious or to glorify the works of the devil in any way. This series is not meant to make the devil appear stronger and mightier than he is. Satan and God are not equals. We should not take our enemy lightly or disregard the fact we have an enemy. The enemy you ignore is the one that can defeat you. But we also must realize that we are not fighting for victory, we fight from victory because Jesus Christ has already defeated the enemy on the cross. Colossians 2:15 “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”
And when He returns, He will defeat the devil eternally, casting him into the lake of fire. The fact he knows he is defeated causes him to wage war, not with God, but with the thing God loves most, people. And if you have demonic influences and struggles in your life, you need deliverance through the power of Jesus Christ. If the Son makes you free, you are free indeed.
So, while we cannot afford to simply ignore the enemy, our focus and our faith must remain securely in the person and the work of Jesus Christ. But that does not mean the Christian life is a cruise ship that we just sit back and enjoy the easy life as we are on our way to heaven. So many have been deceived into thinking the Christian life is meant to be an easy life that when the storms come and the enemy wages war, they lose hope and end up leaving the faith. We have a wonderful relationship with Jesus Christ to enjoy and we have a home in heaven to look forward to but we also live in a fallen world which Jesus told us, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, for I have overcome the world.”
Satan’s army is organized and strategic. Paul tells us that we should not be ignorant of Satan’s schemes and devices. He has strategies and schemes that have not changed since the beginning of time. His greatest strategy is deception, often the deception that he does not exist or that he has no power in this world. So, how do we stand strong against his schemes? He cannot win if we know we are fighting a defeated enemy. But if he can deceive us into believing we are bound and tormented or are not even a child of God and buy into his lies rather than the truth of Jesus Christ, then we give him room to operate in our lives.
We need to know in our battle, that God has not left us defenseless and weaponless. He has provided us the necessary weapons to fight the battles we face.
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,
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,
Do you see how so much of this battle takes place in our mind? You will never win a battle that you don’t know you are in. However, victory is promised and victory is already given to those who do not faint. The enemy cannot defeat you if you already know he is defeated. You fight from a different perspective when you know he is already defeated.
If you know the enemy is defeated, when he comes and attacks, all you have to do is stand firm in what God says and remind the devil that he is defeated and that God has given you authority over him. However, if when you allow doubt to stay in your mind and he attacks, he can convince you that he is not defeated and that you are the one defeated. Then you find yourself getting beaten down and discouraged and you give up the fight because you think you cannot win.
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.
We live and breath in an earthly body with earthly limitations. But thank God that when we engage the enemy, we do not have to engage him under the strength and abilities of our flesh.
We do not wage war the way the world wages war. We do not war against people. We war against spiritual enemies, lies, and deceptions. We do not wrestle flesh and blood but principalities, powers, rulers of darkness in this age, and spiritual wickedness in heavenly places.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,
We have weapons. Your weapons are not dependent on your physical strength or abilities. How many of us know that our flesh wears out as we get older? Our skin begins to wrinkle, our hair may fall out, we get arthritis, and other things going on with our bodies that demonstrate the constant decay of the fallen world we live in. But the weapons we have that are given by God to fight this battle we are in do not wear out. They do not rely on our natural strength.
That means even at the weakest points of your life, your weapons are still mighty through God. You may be going through the worst time of your life but you still can find strength in the midst of the battle because your weapons do not rely on your strength but on God’s.
Sometimes you might be so sick or weak in the flesh that you cannot get out of bed. But even in those times, you can declare the Word of the Lord over your situation and watch those situations turn around.
The key is not to begin to wage spiritual warfare and try to do it in our natural strength. You cannot defeat a spiritual enemy with your natural strength. You must rely on the weapons that God gives you through the power of the Holy Spirit inside of you. If you have the Holy Spirit inside of you, you have authority in the spirit to take control of a situation and cast down the enemy. Greater is He that is in me than He that is in the world. We need to remember that. It does not mean he will not attack but it does mean he cannot win if we do not give up.
Strongholds
We so often, when talking about spiritual warfare, focus on defeating demons when much of our battle is not with demons but with strongholds. Strongholds are lies that the enemy hides behind in your mind to keep you in bondage. A stronghold is a military term. It is used to describe a fortified place on the battlefield that a group can hunker down behind and launch attacks toward their enemy. It seems impenetrable. It seems like there is no way around it or through it because every step you take, the enemy is throwing grenades at you or firing rockets toward you.
The weapons you and I have are not just to deal with the devil and his demons. Jesus already dealt with him and made a spectacle of him on the cross. He is defeated!!
However, what we must deal with the most is his tactic of deception. His lies tell you that you are defeated, weak, unworthy, unloved, that God does not care about you. These are lies of the enemy and when you start to believe his lies, it sets up strongholds in your mind that he can just hide behind and every time you start to break free, he lobs another grenade to tell you the same lie.
But when you know he is defeated and it seems like he might be winning, you don’t run for cover. You stand strong in the power of God and tear down the stronghold. You tear down the lie that God has left you or God does not care about you or that you are unworthy of the love of God. He could never save you. Look what you have done. You think you are a Christian. I saw what you did. Those are lies that the enemy tries to throw at you to keep you bound and not walking in the freedom and victory that Christ as already won. When you know he is defeated and he tells you God has abandoned you, you can look back at him and remind him that Jesus said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Jesus said, “I will be with you always, even to the end of the world.”
Too often we believe the lies of the enemy rather than the truth of the Word of God. That is why so many Christians deal with a cycle of depression. The enemy has made you believe that is your lot in life. He has made you believe that you will always be depressed. He tells you, that’s just the way you are. You are supposed to be depressed.
That does not mean you never have to deal with depression. It means you do not have to stay there. Job went through depression, Elijah went through depression. But they did not stay there. It is a season, not a sentence. Seasons can shift and change at the Word of the Lord but you have to be able to believe His Word. You have to tear down the strongholds that the enemies has set up in your mind.
There are strongholds set up that encamp around an entire region. These have been set up in the minds of the people so they see no way out. That is why depression, anxiety, poverty, and drug addiction run so rampant in Lee County. Yes, some people are overtaken by demons and probably not the people you are thinking of. But many people are bound by strongholds that tell them, “all you will ever be is an addict. Your parents were addicts so you are an addict. Your parents were depressed so you will be depressed. Your parents abandoned you so everyone will abandon you. You don’t deserve to be loved.”
What it will take to break these strongholds is people preaching and declaring the truth of the Word of the Lord. We need men and women in pulpits and on the streets who are not afraid to preach the truth of the Word of God and know how to do it in grace and love. I have known many who boldly preach the truth but there is no grace in their speech. It often feels like they hate people more than they hate the devil. If we are to tear down the strongholds and change the atmosphere of our county, it is going to take grace and truth. We will not do it with a bunch of hateful Christians who do more to tear down people than they do strongholds.
Strongholds are how people remain in bondage. Satan sows lies into your mind that make you doubt and can lead to unbelief if not dealt with. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4, “Do not give place to the devil.” He wasn’t writing to sinners. He was writing to the church. So, don’t tell me that Christians cannot have a place in their lives where the devil has authority and control. It happens a lot more than we realize it does.
Strongholds are the reason so many Christians walk around living defeated lives. They have not exposed and dealt with the lies of the enemy that keep them bound and keep them defeated. It is time to stop living lukewarm Christian lives, and start living like Christ calls us to live and the first step is to tear down the strongholds. And the first and greatest lie we have to tear down is not believing the enemy is already defeated and we have victory through Jesus Christ.
Can we come into agreement that God and the devil are not fighting a battle to see who wins? They are not equals? Can we come into agreement that Christ made a spectacle of the devil on the cross and he is forever defeated?
Now, knowing that, that is half the battle. All you have to do is believe that and enforce what Jesus has already accomplished.
You are not fighting for victory. You are fighting from victory. You have the power through Christ to tear down strongholds and to take every thought captive.
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,
You cannot stop thoughts from coming but you can bring them into obedience to the Word of Christ.
