SNBS Spiritual Battle Within
Notes
Transcript
The Spiritual Battle Within Us
The Spiritual Battle Within Us
For some of us, the hardest battles of spiritual warfare are fought within ourselves. We can understand the circumstances and situations that the enemy uses to destroy us. We can accept the truth of how the world lures and tempts us. We can understand to some degree that the battle in the spiritual realm is ongoing and real, even though we cannot see it. But, to get a grasp on what is going on within our own hearts and minds can be the hardest, most exhausting, battle of them all.
In this section, we are going to explore what the Bible teaches about the war within us, the constant struggle between flesh and spirit. Our battle with sin “wars” within our members.
Question 1: To begin to examine the battle within us we must first understand its nature. The desires of the flesh are part of our human nature and its history goes back to the beginning of time, as we know it.
Describe the setting in which the word "sin" is first used in the Bible. See Genesis 4:3-7.
What was God's warning to Cain?
Have you ever felt that overwhelming desire within you to let sin master over you? We make decisions according to how we think, feel and want. So, at times, we find ourselves struggling with anger, bitterness and hatred leading us into areas of temptation. But God tells us to fight against those sinful feelings. We must learn to fight against the very nature within us. Paul tells us to put off the old nature and put on the new man (Colossians 3:8-13). The Lord has given us His Spirit who will empower us to overcome but we must be willing to allow Him the authority to be in control of our emotions and behaviors.
Question 2: From the following verses, describe the battle of flesh versus spirit.
Matthew 26:41
Romans 7:14-20
Galatians 5:16-17
How do these examples reflect similar situations in your life?
We suffer in our flesh, whether we feed its desires or deny its pleasures. We are constantly battling between what we want to do versus what we know the Lord wants us to do. "All have sinned and fall short" but the blood of Christ has saved us from destruction. The battle is waged because we are given the power to overcome sin's grasps. There is no battle when there is no opposing side. It takes two to fight. When we are dead in our trespasses, there is no spiritual battle within us because there is no spiritual life. The Spirit of God brings us to life spiritually, yet we live in these bodies of flesh that still have a sinful nature. Thus, the battle rages in the lives of believers but the victory is assured because we are in Christ.
Question 9: From 1 Peter 4:1-6, answer the following questions:
What is the advantage of suffering in the flesh?
Describe the sins of the past (of the Gentiles).
What happens when we decide to follow the will of God? See verse 4.
At this point, we have to ask ourselves a few questions like “Is Christianity about fighting and suffering or about love and joy? Isn’t the Christian life about peace? Didn’t Jesus do it all so I would not have to? Do I really have to think this much about my faith when it only took one prayer to be saved?” Even if most Christians do not conscientiously ask these questions, their lives reflect the answer. The Christian life is not passive. Jesus told us in Luke 9:23, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”
Christians are not living the abundant life of love, joy, and peace because they are unaware of how to maintain and claim those promises. Jesus promised us an abundant life that starts here on earth. Until we understand the forces that are against us, and are prepared to fight for what is rightfully ours, we will not be able to receive all that God has for us.
Jesus Christ came to earth in the flesh. He lived a life of much suffering as He denied the desires of His flesh and the temptations of the enemy. Our flesh will suffer just like Jesus but we can be victorious just like Jesus. The victory may not look the same as defined by the world, but nothing compares to a life that is victorious in the ways of God. Think about it: Don’t you want the desires of your heart fulfilled? Don’t you want to know that God heard your prayers and then answered them? Don’t you desire to be all that God wants you to be because He is so good that He only gives you good things? And don’t you want to have all that God wants you to have because He wants the best for you? Don’t you want to do even greater things than Jesus did because you know the Lord and love Him?
If you answered, “Yes. Oh Lord, help me, change me, send me. Don’t let anything prevent me from being all that You want me to be or from receiving all that You want me to receive.” Then, you have to accept that there are forces set against you to prevent you from having any of theses things fulfilled in you. And we must fight those forces in the spiritual realm, worldly realm and within ourselves.
Question 10: What have you learned in this lesson regarding the spiritual warfare and battles in your life? How will you apply what you have learned to your life?
Pray over Spiritual Warfare:
Pray over Spiritual Warfare:
Lord, there are parts of me that do not want to understand the spiritual realm because it seems too scary and too foreign. However, I do realize that I am not where You want me to be. I want to understand what it takes to be victorious. So I ask that You will give me a discerning spirit and I ask that I can be equipped to become victorious. Open my eyes to see and my ears to hear and then, change me for eternal purposes.
In Jesus Christ name, I pray,
Amen
3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground,
4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,
5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?
7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices
10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,
13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
1 Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,
2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.
3 For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.
4 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you;
5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.
17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.