For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh,
for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh,
but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing
raised up against the knowledge of God,
and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,
and we are ready to punish all disobedience,
whenever your obedience is complete.
2 Corinthians 10:3-6
God has directed my heart to studying up on prayer and spiritual warfare… He has done so and I am obeying. I believe our nation and our church has progressed to where it is because we have forgotten we are at war. We have forgotten in this blessed land of the free that a spiritual battle wages against our minds. We have forgotten that we are still in the evil day…
Sadly many of us have left our armor lying on the floor. We have decided that we will be just fine without it. We have decided that we can fill our minds with csi miami, pretty little liars, and spongebob square pants. We can play halo and fantasy football. We have actually decided that we can fill our minds through our eyes and ears with sin of all sorts for our own entertainment purposes and actually expect it not to affect our souls.
When the salt loses its saltiness it is good for nothing…
Christian we have the mind of Christ. So of course Satan is after our mind. He wants to build a fortress of lies and accusations in our mind. He knows that if he can inflict a head wound, it can be fatal. When the head is sick, weak, confused, or distracted it affects the whole body.
We must put on the helmet of salvation. We must protect our mind! We must not be passive in this area of our life. WE MUST BE AGGRESSIVE AND DECISIVE!
He put on righteousness like a breastplate,
And a helmet of salvation on His head;
And He put on garments of vengeance for clothing
And wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle.
Isaiah 59:17
And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION,
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Ephesians 6:17
But since we are of the day, let us be sober,
having put on the breastplate of faith and love,
and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.
1 Thessalonians 5:8
When we look at the description of the last days that our God gives us in His Word it all points to social and mental digression…
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money,boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also.
2 Timothy 3:1-9
I am currently teaching through the book of Revelation and studying with Kay Arthur through the book of Ephesians and my extracurricular reading has been on prayer and spiritual warfare. I am tired of seeing the enemy win battles in my own life. I am tired of him pinning me to the ground. I am tired of allowing him to almost convince me to quit writing, teaching, serving because I get caught up in emotional turmoil through Satan’s ability to use another’s battle to inflict a wound on me.
We must never forget that our battle is not against flesh and blood…
And we must also never forget that evil is also within our hearts.
But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.
Matthew 15:18-20
It’s time we stop making excuses and address reality…
There is evil in this world and there is evil in our hearts… and no amount of man’s knowledge, education, or fantasy utopias are going to change that… only Christ can.
Today I read this post: I am Adam Lanzas Mother
As my heart breaks for this mother… I wonder is she supplying her son with the only weapon that he has to stand against this battle in his mind?
I have a very dear friend whose son is struggling with a mental illness and what I know is that she is preparing her son and herself for the battles ahead.
She has let other believers know her sons struggles so that men and women of God can cover him and their family in prayer.
She has removed the things in his life that feed his flesh. Monitoring more closely the things that go in his ears, his eyes, as well his mouth.
She is teaching him how to recognize the enemy.
She is teaching him the Word of God, because she knows that only the knowledge of God and the love of Christ can defeat our flesh and only the Word of God and standing on faith can cast Satan and his demons out of our life and minds.
My friend knows that her sons victory is in Christ.
My friend has had many attacks, many judgments, many hurts brought against her. She could have many times chosen to grab her son and hide him away in their home and keep him and herself from the church simply because sometimes it hurts too much to experience the judgments and glances and whispers of man, whether they be real or assumed… but my friend has chosen to believe God. She has chosen to prove the Word by her faith.
And guess what her son is watching.
And so am I.
Her obedience to the Word will bear fruit in her son… and her courage will bear fruit in those who are watching her stand.
But the lovingkindness of the Lord
is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him,
And His righteousness to children’s children,
To those who keep His covenant
And remember His precepts to do them.
Psalm 103:17-18
In the fear of the LORD there is strong confidence,
And his children will have refuge.
Proverbs 14:26
As our nation continues to wonder why… and how… what happened at Newton can happen… it is quite simple… apart from Christ that shooter could have been any of us. He was not some rare monster that popped up on the earth.
While in Poland, standing within the Lodz ghetto beside a railcar that carried Jews from there homes to concentration/death camps one of the survivors shared with us how these men who did this were not monsters, they were men. To say they were monsters was wrong. To say they were monsters removed the reality that this could happen again and it removed their responsibility. This was evil done by evil men who chose to do evil.
Precious one, we are depraved evil hearted people living in a world ruled by the evil one… We are an arrogant prideful people living in a world ruled by the one who was so filled with arrogance and pride that he actually attempted to set himself up above the Most High God. We are hopeless, helpless, and godless apart from Christ and there is no limit to our madness when we stand opening stand against our Creator in our grumbling rebellion. It doesn’t matter how good we make our outside environment if we don’t deal with our heart and mind then our evil deeds will abound… and the only One who can deal with our heart and minds is Christ.
There is only one way to overcome evil, whether it be within us or outside of us and that is by faith.
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world;
and this is the victory that has overcome the world—
our faith.
1 John 5:4
Faith is simply believing God.
In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.
Romans 4:18-21
We have a choice ever day, with every thought… who will we believe?
Will we believe God?
And precious one, how can you recognize His voice if you do not know His Word? God does not move us with emotion, He moves us with Truth.
In these last days, in our increased “knowledge” and day of technology, Satan will be full force frontal attack on our minds. He is raising up every speculation he can up against the knowledge of God and he is throwing them full force up against our minds.
I love what Kay said in one of her teachings in Ephesians 6- Frisk every thought with Philippians 4:8, if it doesn’t line up, then reject it.
It is time we recognize that we are in a battle. Their is a spiritual realm and we are at war with the enemy. Put a name on the lie and send it to hell!
God, all I can assume is that I have a spirit of immorality coming against me. And God I don’t want that.” now listen to me very carefully, “God this is your body, this is your body, you redeemed it. This is your mind, you have given me the mind of Jesus Christ. And God, I am standing against the enemy, in the name of Jesus Christ and by the blood of Jesus Christ I command all these spirits, any spirit of immorality to be gone from me. You have no place here. This body has been redeemed by Jesus Christ. And I want the Holy Spirit to fill every nook and cranny. And so I command you in the authority that is mine in Christ Jesus. [“Greater is he that’s in me than he that’s in the world.”] ~ Kay Arthur
If there is a spirit of immorality… then could there be other spirits as well?
Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:19-21
If it is not of God it is either our flesh or Satan… if it is our flesh you better believe that Satan is right there cheering our flesh on… he wants you to be controlled by your flesh because then he can control you because he knows your flesh well. He’s been devouring it for thousands of years.
Either we believe God or we do not.
Our desires, our dispositions, our temptations, our imaginations, are NOT to control us.
Only the love of Christ!
For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15