THE UNSEEN WAR
The Unseen War • Sermon • Submitted
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Let me take you back to the year 2004. I was 21 years old, trying to get my life back, trying to get my life right. For the last 7 years I had been a pretty heavy drug user. I started Meth when i was about 15 and fell in love with it the very first time I tried it.
What i didn’t know as a 15 year old is that the drug would soon take over my life and make it to where I would do almost anything to get it.
At 21 I was already going through a nasty divorce. was in and out of courts for various infractions
And it was during this time that I started to get my life right with God
I started going to church after meeting some people from over at Crossroads
I was experiencing the peace and the presence of God in ways I had never experienced before
But then I started having these dreams that were more real than anything I had ever experienced before.
Vicious dreams, dreams that caused me to wake up in a cold sweat and linger with me all day long
Then i started hearing these voices, telling me that I would never be forgiven, never be good enough that God was going to send me to hell
That began my journey to learning all that I could about spiritual warfare
I used to wonder why the Lord allowed me to go through such intese battles with these unseen monsters so early in my walk with him.
Until about ten years ago while I was a youth pastor and while taking our youth group out on mission trip and one of our students during a time of prayer, begin to manifest demonic possession, and the Lord used me to cast it our of him, and then about 5 or 6 teens got saved.
I have been able to help many others get free from demonic bondage since then, and I am not sure I would have taken it seriously or discovered my authority in Christ apart from those experiences
Now I know I told you last week that we would cover the Resurrection and the evidences for the Resurrection. But we already are headed in a direction with our coming outreaches. This one coming this Saturday and the second coming next month where we will be heading into the belly of the beast. Good ol Tyler in East Texas is having a Pagan/ Pride Festival.
Now understand todays teaching are not about how to teach you how to cast out devils. Todays teaching are meant to equip you to learn what we are up agaisnt and how to gain personal freedom in your life.
I think for most Christians their experience has said to them , well I have never seen demon possession, or I have never had anything invisible pin me down to the bed, or anything like that.
Oh no for most Christians the warfare has been much more subtle.
And thats how the devil prefers it. Most believers warefare has been much more under the radar, because the devil knows that if he shows his hand too much it will cause the sleepiest Christian to wake up. He is content with you being saved but ineffective for the Kingdom of God.
Most Christians live their lives like soldiers who are on permanent leave from the armed forces.
The devil has come to peace with the fact that He may could not have kept you from being saved, but He is winning the battle in keeping you on leave and out of the battle.
Most Christians experience spiritual warfare in a different manner. Most are prisoners to their thought life. They have that broken tape playing over and over of shame and guilt, worry and fear.
Do you know that the Apostle Paul called fear a spirit in 2 Tim?
7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
What he is saying just as the Holy Spirit can embody in us love, power, and a sound mind, that
other spirits can embody fear, they can embody hatred and rage, they can embody weakness, and they can embody addictions of all sorts
Let me ask this to those of you are a little skeptical about rather or not you should get trained in Spiritual Warfare,
Has there ever been a time in your life when you were sure that God had called you to something: I mean you got that word in your heart and set out to do that thing and all it did was blow up in your face.
A relationship that went south
An en-devour that ended in bankruptcy
A business that went under
A marriage that ended in divorce
A kid that went way out in left field and maybe you don’t even have a relationship with him or her anymore.
Perhaps, you are an emotional casualty of this warfare. Discouragement, depression, downtroddenness, perhaps a sense of even split personality have affected you by this war.
Maybe, just maybe, you heard God correctly, but the enemy who Jesus said comes only to steal, kill and destroy.
Working Definition of Spiritual Warfare
Spiritual warfare is that cosmic conflict in the invisible, angelic realm that is being waged in the context of the visible, physical realm. Let me say that again. When I use the term spiritual warfare, I am referring to a cosmic conflict occurring in the invisible, angelic realm that is being flushed out, worked out in the very visible, physical realm.
Now in the spirit of full disclosure a lot of the teaching today is taken from a gifted bible teacher by the name of Rick Renner
5 words to understand
1. The Word Devil
2. The Word Wiles/ Or Schemes
3. The Word Stronghold
4. The Word Oppression
5. The Word Deception
These five words that tell you how the devil operates. For the last 6000 years he has used these 5 steps
1. Devil- Not a proper name but a job description- ( DiaBolas)
Satan- describes his character- accuser
There are two words that make up this word for Devil- Diabolas
Diablos-
First word is ballo- and it is a word that means to throw something, to sling something, much like a baseball player throws a baseball. He begons to sling these accusations against the mind, over and over,
until Dia- He penetrates the mind from one side all the way to the other
Just as God is trying to speak to us, so is the devil. He assaults our mind until he penetrates it and then control it. He is after your thought life because if he can control your thinking, he can control you
2. Wiles/ Schemes- Metaodas
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
Odos- like odometer. Scheme- two words Meta- Odoa
a. Odos os where we get odometer and the word means. It is a road-
Meta means with
b. it has the idea of a single track- one avenue
That is the schemes of the devil has a single purpose, it is building a roadway into your life, an easily traveled path for demonic influence, in order to build up the next word- Stronghold
3. Strongholds- 2 Cor 10
2 Corinthians 10:4 (ESV)
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
A prison where the freedom can be seen but you are locked up on the inside.
It doesn’t mean how much people beat on it from the outside it cannot be penetrated because it is so well. I am convinced that a plethera of mental illnesses could be cured when we get off the pill and kick out the demonic
Once the devil can get his tentacle into one area, He then works for more ground
*** Both God and the devil are territorial. They both want more and more ground in our lives
4. Oppression- Acts 10:38- Healing those who were oppressed of the devil-
38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
The word means something that is holding them down-
ITs the same word for a tyrant or a wicked king- Where do wicked Kings live? In Fortresses
A lofty place in the mind- a comfortable place where he begins to speak to us and dictate to us how we will feel, what we will think.
It’s a comfortable place for him because it is a place that we are no longer struggling to liberate.
5. Deception- 2 Cor 2:11-
11 so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.
designs- it’s the word nous- the brain or the mind- and it changes to a different word noumata- it is no longer a brain, but a scrambled brain.
It has heard so many voices. He hears the voice of lies that it thinks its truth and vice-a-versa. It has been hit and penetrated thru that it no longer has the ability to discern truth. A mind that is totally deceived. When this takes place you are totally deceived
IT becomes a force-field of lies that the devil uses to flesh and blood. Striking the mind, striking the mind…
Until a road is built into the mind.
Then when a road is built, a fortress is established, a wicked ruler enthrones himself
Until that person is decieved, until their mind- Nous, is converted into Noumata- a scrambled mind. And then torment is. This is why many addicts don’t get set free.
This is why many Christians live in spiritual poverty, they have been decieved.
OUR ENEMY AN HIS RUTHLESSNESS
OUR ENEMY AN HIS RUTHLESSNESS
Now I want to show you ho ruthless this battle is and how sticking your head in the sand and turning up Joel Osteen radio is not going to do you any good
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
Wrestling- Pale-
is connected to Palestra which is a combat center- Sometime connected to a gym, but a arena.
Three different sports- Boxing, wrestling, pancradia- they fought naked
It was a house of Combat Sports. A house of conflict. Fierce conflict and they had to be prepared mentally.
Like football in American Society. Pale brought up all kinds of images
(A)Boxing was very different.
These boxers took 16’ long pieces of leather and wrapped from elbow to the hand. They would have little nails woven into the knuckles. when they punched they gouged.
In fact art forms depicted of these combat athletes would often picture them with missing noses or ears.
They were a fiercely combative people.
The purpose is to beat their opponent into submission, break their bones, choke them out. These people were fierce competitors
We have an example from the first century of a boxer that was struck so hard in the mouth that it knocked all of his teeth out. And instead of spitting his teeth out and giving his opponent that satisfaction. He swallowed all of his teeth.
(B) Wrestling was horrific. you could break bones, there would be eyes that was gouged out. There were almost little rules.
(C)Pancradia- these were the top dogs. these were the survivors of the boxing and wrestling matches. in this combat sport there were weapons brought to the arena. There would be clubs with nails. It was horrible.
Now when we get to Ephesians 6. Paul was trying to get his readers to understand the seriousness of this cosmic conflict.
When he used the Word Pale “Wrestling. Paul wanted us to know that when you come to this conflict, this was a eye gouging, bone breaking, sweaty in your face, mauling type of conflict
where the devil and his cohorts follow little to no rules
That the Devil comes to the arena of your life, and tries to turn your home into a palestria. To drive you into submission, to get you to surrender.
SURRENDER
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Its interesting that Paul uses the word “against” 4 times … rulers, authorities,
Prose describes intimate contact. Same word John1:1 “With” God. Describes face to face contact with the Father and Son
What Paul tells us here is that we will have face to face, intimate contact with these demonic forces.
Rulers/ principalities- ( Arche) Highest seats of powers from ancient times. Ancient Powers that have held seats from the beginning of time.
Authorities- (exousias) Describes those who have recieved authority from the Principalities, and are spirits that roam about doing whatever they want to do.
Cosmic Powers- (kosmokratōr) Now what in the world is this. Well its a very strange and unique word in the Greek and it describes a boot camp or military readiness facility.
Cosmos- is a word that describes order, or an arrangment or a system. Its where scientist got thier word cosmology where they explain the ordered universe.
Their order, theres discipline theres a way that things work.
Kratos- word that describes power, raw power.
So when you combine the two words, Cosmos- something that is disciplined, something that has been harnessed,
it describes Raw power that has been organized, it has been mechanized and weaponized.
it describes a military boot camp. It is arranged it is disciplined.
Just like our military does today. They take strong young men and woman, who have raw power and they ship them off to boot camp where now they get training to harness that raw power. They became troops and then they are dispatched.
Spiritual Wickedness in High Places - Spiritual forces in heavenly places
1. First off its spiritual
2. Wickedness- Ponerias- the root word is a word for pain or affliction- ponerias is a foul word and it describes somebody that doesn’t just want to hurt you, but they want to destroy you.
Someone who is malevolent, insidious, vicious in their intent
That is they don’t want to just hurt you, but they want to destroy your kids, violate your wife and burn your house down. Think of stories about the cartels and how they operate
So think of it this way. These demon spirits are sent to Satans boot camp, raw power is harness, they are turned into warriors. They are trained in all the dark arts, on how to Kill steal and destroy.
They are trained how to lure people into affairs, and use those raw wounds of betrayal to take out entire households.
They are trained in how to draw people into drunkeness and
They are trained how to infiltrate churches and cause all kinds of division. When a group of Demons are assigned to a church, they first go after the prayer warriors in that church.
They go after the leadership in that church. They are trained in the art of manipulation, they are trained in the art of lieing, they are trained in the art of how to discourage and disillusion the mature followers of that particular flock.
Theres spirits of addiction- thats all they do
Theres spirits of perversion- thats all they do
Theres spirits of divorce, thats all they do.
They are spirits that are trained to do what they do. They are trained then they are dispatched. They are trained, they are organized and the are weaponized
HIGH PLACES- There are two different Greek words to describe heavenly places
I think about our college group, who just a few months ago were on fire for the Lord,
Have you ever
BRINGING EVERY THOUGHT INTO CAPTIVITY
That’s why this thing of Spiritual warfare is something for every believer to learn and understand.
5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
Roman Sword- Illustration of how to take one into captivity. BRING STACEYS SWORD FOR THIS Illustration
Phrase bringing into captivity- the word means putting the tip of a sword into the back of a captive. A roman sword is sharp, and its so sharp that if one makes the wrong move it will thrust through into the gut.
I am moving that thought , and bringing git into obedience
END WITH OUR AUTHORITY AND POWER OVER THE DEVIL
Why do we lack victories? we lack discipline, organization and commitment
We can’t even decide rather or not if we are going to show up for church or not.
When we Mack the commitment, organization and discipline of the devil
13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Triumph- when a military general came back to Rome after defeating an enemy, it was a momentous occasion.
1. First the conquering General on his big, beautiful Stallion,
2. then the accompanying soldiers, then a parade and the spoils of victory were on display.
OPEN SHAME
Put them to an open SHAME- The last person to follow was the defeated king, Who had been beat up, chained, ragged and utterly helpless.
When Jesus went to the Cross- the legal demands that stood against us was nailed to the cross. our sin our shame, our undeniable guilt before Almighty God. The things that the Accusser of the brethern used against us. Utterly wiped out, utterly paid for at Calvary. Then he moved to our other great enemy. Death itself, Jesus went into to the dark hallows of Death itself. Ascended into that abyss because He had to. Man brought in death the first time, but another man would go in get Hells keys and provide a way out. Three days later the Son of God was raised from the dead. And now the final Enemy The Devil himself, Now Jesus has put them to an open shame. Now the Prince of this world is judged. We are not waiting fpr his defeat. He’s already defeated.
Completely disarmed. completely plundered that when the mere mention of jesus Christ is uttered, He flees every single time. Its time people of God that you start taking ground and quite letting the enemy have illegitme control over you. He has been defeated. The Lord has completely plundered him. He has no more resources that He can pull over the child of God. But he is more determined, more committed, more organized than the church is today! If we can get a hold of that we would shake the city of Tyler with the power of Christ
Therefore, in light of everything I just told you