Conflicting Kingdoms: Wrestling Match

Wrestle

Ephesians 6:12(ESV)

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.

Submit to God

James 4:7 ESV

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

James 4:6-7 (AMP) - “But He gives us more and more grace [through the power of the Holy Spirit to defy sin and live an obedient life that reflects both our faith and our gratitude for our salvation]. Therefore, it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD and HAUGHTY, BUT [continually] GIVES [the gift of] GRACE TO THE HUMBLE [who turn away from self-righteousness].” So submit to [the authority of] God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him] and he will flee from you.”

Battle Plan

This passage mentions two relationships with seven verbs, five of them active and two passive.

The first relationship is upward and the second is outward.

The Upward Relationship—God Four active verbs are used to describe our relationship to God: submit, draw near, cleanse, and purify.

We are to submit to God. This means, first and foremost, to accept Jesus Christ as Savior and acknowledge that He is Lord. As we do, we enter the family of God. God is our Father. It is a comfortable situation for us to be at home on our Father’s lap, so to speak.

2. We are to draw near to God. This means we must spend time with the Father. We must get to know Him well, is to know from Him what has already been bound in Heaven so we can effectively bind on earth.

Cleansing our hands refers to what we do.

Purifying our hearts refers to our motives, what we think and feel.

Holiness is being so full of God that there is no room for anything else.

Without holiness we can expect very little power in spiritual warfare.

The opposite of holiness is worldliness.

If you open your life totally to the fullness of the Holy Spirit He will clean you and purify you.

If you submit, draw near, get cleanse, and get purified, the passive verb comes into play: “He [God] will draw near to you . . .” (James 4:8).

Our first movement in spiritual warfare should always be upward toward God, our second is outward toward the enemy.

Here we have only one active verb: resist. If we take steps to resist the devil, the passive verb comes into play and “ . . . he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

Weapons of Righteousness

In 2 Corinthians 6:4-10, Paul covers every challenge against a successful ministry.

2 Corinthians 6:4-10 (ESV)

4 but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities,

5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger;

6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love;

7 by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left;

8 through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true;

9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed;

10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

In verse 7, the phrase weapons of righteousness refers to weapons that equip believers to live righteously and resist the work of evil forces.

Revival Means Restoration

Revival for the church, not for sinners.

Revival means “restoration” and you cannot restore something that has never been.

The body of Christ always needs refreshing and restoration before great moves of evangelism and harvest.

God uses those times to prepare the “soil” in our hearts before He gathers in the lost.

Revival must not be confused with evangelism.

God revives local churches, then they go out and evangelize, gathering in the harvest.

Evangelism is the offspring of a church whose heart has been revived.

Share the dream about the harvest to the congregation.

End in Prayer.

Personal Notes:

Weapons of Combat

Battle Armour

Wrestling Match

Spiritual Gifts as a Form of Warfare

The Gospel & Spiritual Warfare