Spiritual Warfare: A Practical Guide - Part 2
Spiritual Warfare: A Practical Guide - Part 2
In Part 1 of Spiritual Warfare: A Practical Guide, we reviewed what spiritual warfare is and some of the tactics that Satan uses against us. Now let's look at what we can do to stand against the devil and his minions in battle.
Our Help From God:
Even though the devil and his army is against us, Scripture has two valuable promises for us. That while these forces are admittedly powerful (Satan is described as a “roaring lion,” looking to devour people), they are ultimately subservient to our almighty and omnipotent God.
We also have immediate assistance. If we don the full armor of God—the full array of his promises for us, which are truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, God’s Word, prayer—we can stand firm against any attack.
We are not meant for weakness, we are meant for strength.
James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefor to God. Resist the devil (**Resist his authority**), and he will flee from you.”.
Not might. Not maybe. WILL. He WILL flee from you.
And the strength that we are to rely on comes not from us, but to us, from Christ. Eph 6:10 ''Finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.''
E.G. I can recount several times in my life where the devil tried to use the spirit of fear to get the better of me but one instance that stands out in my mind is when I was in college. I created a habit of spending several hours a day intentionally with God and in His word and I’ve never been physically attacked more by the enemy. Every time I crawled into bed either during the day or at night, I would feel the evil presence come into my room. Following was the sense of something on top of me, holding me down and I was unable to open my mouth to rebuke it. But finally after several minutes, I managed to rebuke the spirit in Jesus’ name and it left. This went on for months and one night, as I lay in bed and sensed that evil presence enter my room, I sighed and exasperatingly moaned, “Oh Jesus, NOT again”. I said it with annoyance, not fear. That time I had been spending with God increased my faith in Him and His authority and I knew that that spirit was there to chase me away from God. That spirit could not physically harm me so it had tried to put fear in my mind that would distract me from God. I had resisted the enemy’s authority and that enemy fled and did not come back.
Why is it important/necessary?
***The key to overcoming demonic powers is not by engaging them but by resisting their authority by the undisputed authority of Jesus Christ.****
When we remind the devil that his authority has no power over us, and stand firm in the strength and authority of Jesus, THAT is spiritual warfare.
The devil tries to keep us occupied on battling our temptations, addictions, and fleshly desires by our own strength and our own will and that keeps us so occupied that we are continuously self-focused and consumed with the thoughts of “if I can just do better, if I can just stop doing this, that, and the other thing, THEN I’ll be more effective for Christ”. And of course, we can’t save ourselves so we are stuck in a losing battle and the devil has successfully rendered us ineffective for the spreading of the gospel. But when we accept our salvation and that help comes from Jesus and Jesus alone, we put on the armor that God has promised us, then we will be successful.
We must be obedient to what the Bible tells us and that is to fight, to be ready, and to destroy the works of the devil and to take our place as power of attorney for Jesus on earth.
God will not do for you what He has given you the ability to do for yourself.
Luke 10:19 “Behold I give unto you *power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.".
*Power – Gr. Exousia, “delegated authority” – the right to use power as received and when needed to destroy Satan’s works.
So think about this a second. Jesus has named US His power of attorney here on earth. To do exactly what He would do if He was still on earth. Not only are we told to watch for the enemy’s tricks and schemes, but we are COMMANDED to stop them!
We always ask ourselves, ‘what is God’s will for me?’ Well here it is: to destroy the works of the enemy. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. You know that Jesus completely has your back in this because He commands you to do it. He made you His power of attorney here on earth to do this. That’s a confidence builder no doubt.
We cannot resist the devil while actually staying passive.
James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”.
In James, God is telling us to act. Calling us to fight.
Also, be ready. A Watchman.
Luke 12:39 “And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.”.
The Tools we are given
God has given us an arsenal to fight off the enemy’s attacks. In Ephesians 6, God lists out the weapons He has given us to ward off the fiery darts of the enemy.
Eph 6:10-12 "Finally my brethren, be strong in the LORD, and in the power of HIS might. 11Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
Eph 6:13 "Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to resist the devil’s schemes.
14Stand therefore, having your loins girded with Truth, and having the breastplate of righteousness;
15And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
17And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.".
Dig Deeper
Vs 14 Gird your loins with Truth:
Back then, girding your loins was a preparation for action. It meant that a soldier would gather up his tunic for freedom of movement and then tuck it into his belt. The belt would keep the tunic and other armor in place while the soldier was on the move.
There are a couple things to consider here: First, the NIV translates this verse as putting on the Belt of Truth. The Belt of Truth is Jesus. In John 14:6, Jesus proclaims, “I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”.
Today, all around us, including in our churches, the Truth is being challenged. Jesus’ existence, His sovereignty, His sacrifice, His salvation – all are being called into question. Even some believers are questioning if Jesus is the ONLY way to Heaven. In this PC culture, we’ve been trained to not question others’ beliefs and therefore have learned to accept all ways as correct ways to Heaven. But the devil is behind this. He is the father of lies and it’s his goal to get us to question the Truth therefore rendering us ineffective.
The second thing to consider: Girding ourselves with truth is our preparation for action. If we are not daily in the Word we are more susceptible to the schemes of the devil and to his lies. We must meditate daily on the Truth of the Word and on who Jesus is and what he’s done every day and stand firm on that truth so the devil does not have a foothold.
“He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:17
Breastplate of Righteousness:
In Roman times, their breastplates were strong and protected their vital 
organs, namely their hearts. God has us guard our hearts because the heart is the lifeline of the entire body. It is the wellspring of life and out of the overflow of our heart we speak and act.
If our spiritual heart is exposed and constantly under attack, the heart grows weak, and tired. It loses passion and fervency. We are to “hide God’s Word in our hearts so that we won’t sin against Him”. Ps. 119:11.
We daily ask Jesus into our hearts by spending time in the Bible and meditating on its contents. Our hearts also are a repository for God’s love, and the enemy tries to steal our love for ourselves, our God, and others. As we open our hearts to Jesus daily and let His love flow in and out from us, our hearts are fortified and encouraged. 
We also need to make a conscious decision to walk in righteousness daily because spiritual warfare is useless to us if we are not choosing to walk in holiness and still are open to the enemy.
“Be holy, for I am holy”. 1 Peter 1:16.
We need to choose to put on that breastplate daily. Armor will protect you and that’s what God promises, but it’s our decision to put it on.
I heard a story from Pricilla Shire about how an upside down rowboat is the perfect moist, wet environment for spiders and snakes. No invitation is needed since the environment created by the upside down boat is invitation enough. 
Righteousness is right side up living that invites the sunlight of God’s favor and blessings of God on our life. Unrighteousness is upside down behavior that is out of alignment with the truth of God’s word so you don’t have to invite the enemy to make himself at home in your life, just keep living upside down and the environment that is created by living upside down is invitation enough.
You can pray against the enemy until you are blue in the face but if we are not living in alignment with the truth of God’s word, we are wasting our breath.
Be holy. Not by your might or by your power but by the spirit of God.
Vs 15 Feet shod (fitted) with the preparation of the gospel of peace:
Since the Lord always has work for us to do, we are to be prepared at all time and ready for action, moving in synch with Holy Spirit. We are to “be prepared in season and out of season” 2 Tim 4:2 to preach the Word. Also, we need to be prepared in our arguments in why we believe what we believe. We need to be ready to explain our peace over our faith in Jesus Christ.
Col. 4:6 Let your speech be always with grace seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man”.
(Let your speech be spiced and seasoned with answers that will oppose sin and preserve from the corruption thereof. Let it be holy, wise, gracious, Christian, savory, wholesome, courteous, respectful, desirable, and worthy of being kept in the memory of others.).
Vs 16 Shield of Faith:
Every day we are attacked by future uncertainties, financial problems, family dramas, pandemics, sicknesses, etc. and the shield of faith is what we need to keep up against all these attacks and not let them get to us. Our faith in God shows that we rest in Him during our troubles and that we give our worries and struggles over to His capable hands because we rest in the knowledge that He is sovereign and He can deal with these things better than we can.
We need to keep that shield up because as soon as we lower it, we start taking on those worries and carrying those burdens that God does not want us to carry because it draws us away from Him and undermines His sovereignty.
Additionally, the shields in the day of Paul were six feet tall and designed to lock into other shields.
So, one important way that we use our Shield of Faith is to lock shields with other believers.
As we share with others our burdens, worries, and areas we are being attacked, and we Pray together, our Faith is strengthened. We are stronger together. We are created to walk life with one another and carry each other’s burdens and war against the enemy with each other. We must “take up” our shield of faith, which means we are intentional.
These shields' edges were bevelled in such a way that they could be locked together to form a solid wall.
Arrows couldn’t penetrate that united wall as the soldiers marched forward, held together by their shields' common bond.
The shield was a powerful defensive and offensive weapon.
In addition, the Roman soldiers would dip their shields in water, so that the enemy’s fiery arrows would be extinguished the moment they hit the shield, rendering them powerless to penetrate. Jesus is the water of life so as we submerge into Him, our shields are continuously reinforced against the enemy.
Vs 17 Helmet of Salvation:
The main battlefield the devil chooses to fight us on is the mind. He is constantly pouring lies into our minds, gross scenarios that make us cringe, fake fights that get us worked up, self-conscious sore spots about ourselves, etc. We all have that voice in our heads saying we aren’t good enough or talented enough or someone else will be better equipped to do it. He knows that if he can penetrate our minds and overload it with his lies and distractions that he has the upper hand.
The helmet of salvation is to protect our minds from his lies. His lies that keep bringing up past sins and shames. Guilt.
We need to remember our salvation in Jesus Christ and remind the devil that we will not listen to his lies any more. Going back to the devil’s primary tools against us are lies, temptation, and fear – he pours all into our mind. We need to remind ourselves daily that Jesus saved us. Our old man is passed away. We belong to God.
When putting on the helmet of salvation, we also need to make an effort to train our thought life. We need to daily fill our minds with the Word, with praises, with everything that has to do with Jesus.
2 Corin. 10:5 – “we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
I struggled for most of my life with running fake arguments through my head. I’d get myself so worked up over pretending to be fighting with someone that my whole day was shot and my mood would be ruined. Those are among the thoughts we need to take captive and resist.
Vs 17 Sword of the Spirit:
All the previous armor is defensive in nature. But the sword of the spirit is an offensive weapon and we use it to attack. 
The Sword of the Sprit is the Word of God. Heb 4:12- ''For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.''.
When Jesus was being tempted and attacked in the desert for those 40 days, He countered all of Satan’s attacks by piercing his schemes with the Word of God. The devil cannot fight against the Word.
Since the word of God is Jesus, when we use the Word against the enemy, we allow Jesus to fight the battle for us.
Daily application:
We are in a constant struggle between our ‘old man’ and our ‘new man’ We need to stab our flesh (old man) to death daily.
Every day is a fresh battle and we need to kill our fleshly desires, thoughts, motives, habits DAILY. We use the Word of God in correlation with our helmet of salvation to combat all the lies the enemy tries to pour into our minds, we resist those lies, and we use the sword of the spirit as an offensive weapon against the enemy.
A way to do this? What is a common thought that haunts your mind daily?
Find a scripture that counters that and then use that scripture to fight off that thought whenever it comes to mind. This is how you resist the devil. And this is why he must flee, because he has no argument against the truth. This is how you say 'no' to the devil and exert authority over him.
VS 18 PRAYING ALWAYS:
The key that unlocks the resources of heaven so that they can be unleashed on the earth. Prayer is what pushes the kingdom of darkness back. Jesus said my house will be called a house of prayer-not good preaching, not fun lights, not production, but PRAYER. 
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