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SKILL FOR THE BATTLE!
"Praise the Lord, who is my rock, He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle." Psalm 144:1
Friend, we need nutrients fit for consumption! A healthy diet prepares us for the challenge of our work ahead. Therefore we begin our days with praise, a healthy diet includes praise and worship, it makes us strong and confident, knowing that our strength is in Him. God also teaches us in His word how to do battle, how to win! It is one thing to claim victory in Jesus, since we know that He has already won the battle for us, it is another thing to walk in this victory with our head held high each day. Let's suppose someone handed you victory in your hand, a letter, notarized, legalized, and presented to the world to establish before the world that you are a victor, how then would you live each day? As a victor! This is what Jesus has done for us. Verbally we shout, "There is victory in Jesus" while too often we are cast down and depressed, more convinced that we are struggling than that we are blessed with victory! This is not living the way that Jesus has intended for us to live. For this reason Jesus trains us up and prepares us for battle, yes because we often lay down the victory that has already been won for us and exchange it for the battle that our enemy pulls us into. I guess somehow unconvinced that the battle has already been won, so we have to win it for ourselves, which is impossible for man. Yes, there is victory, but there is also a war! Notice here we will begin this battle with praise and an acknowledgement of who God is in our life. Friend, exactly who is God in your life? If now you have answered that, take a moment to give Him praise for who He is and all that He has done for you. This is the first step unto victory, this will be the beginning of all spiritual warfare. Remember some time ago when we didn't know who God was, our enemy, be it principalities, powers, or rulers of the darkness of this world, even the devil and his laborers, was hardly ever noticed. He left us alone to our own destruction! There was no war, because there was no threat to him! But now that you know God, even Jesus Christ, and have rightly confessed him to be Lord and king of all, now that you have learned of Him and know of His power, the war for your soul has begun. Before Jesus came into your life, it was already determined that you would surrender your life and soul unto the enemy, but God came and through Jesus He has altered and even changed forever what was determined. Now we are saved because of what Jesus has done us, in that He paid the price, He became the propitiation or payment that bought us back from our enemy. We were slaves unto our enemy until Jesus came and set us free! Now it is more than appropriate that we should praise Him! There are many benefits that come to us when we praise Him, but not for these benefits alone should we praise Him, but because praise unto Jesus is comely, fully deserved, and the absolute wisest way for us! JESUS HAS SAVED OUR SOUL! Now not only has He saved our soul, but knowing how our enemy is, and how frail we are, Jesus goes even further in that He loves us so much that He has determined that none shall be plucked out of His hand. That none shall be lost! Now here is His plan moving forward, but now that we know Jesus and confess Him for who He is, the war for our soul has intensified, Jesus has literally snatched us from harms way, and harms way has not taken a liking to this!
Considering this, our enemy has launched a losers campaign, a losers war, to steal us away from God! Knowing this allows us to know what and who we are up against! Fret not my friend! "He trains my hands for war, and gives my fingers skill for the battle." (TO BE CONTINUED...)
WISDOM FOR WARFARE!
Friends God will train us for the battles in our life when we submit ourselves unto His training. Unfortunately some are content with their lives being lukewarm and therefore tolerate the devil working in their lives, but as soon as they become tired of suffering at his hand, as soon as they call out to God and ask for his mercy, as soon as they decide that they have had enough of the devil in their lives, and as soon as they are willing to make a decision for Jesus and to put away all sin, Jesus is faithful to forgive them, to rescue them, to train them and to lift them up out of the dirt and cleanse them. When we are ready to say, “This is enough!” “No more will I surrender to the enemy, no more will I walk in shame, and no more will my head hang low in defeat!” this is when their fervent cry unto God reaches to is highest peak, and this is when God steps in and rescues them and begins to train their hands for war and gives to their fingers skill for battle! So long as we tolerate sin, Jesus’ training fails to begin. Notice here how God trains our hands and our fingers, notice too that little is said about the heart, we can understand from this that this is war, and most times war and the heart of man do not agree. Why not our heart? Why is this not a priority for battle? Now to some it may be difficult to understand that we serve a God that recognizes that to be victorious in battle we must incorporate wisdom over compassion, and skill over force. We are called to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves, as we read, “Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” Mathew 10:16 Friends, what part of this would say be compassionate to our enemy? As Christians, because we are taught to be compassionate, many times we are fooled by our enemy, they sometimes come as sheep in wolves clothing, deceiving us, and leaving us vulnerable. We become victims or prey through our hearts compassion for a hurting soul, so many times our enemy will pose as that hurting soul. 3 We must be careful even of our own heart. For this cause God trains our hands for battle. Now a little later we will see why training our hands makes sense, especially when we consider the armor of God and the sword of the spirit. We need to wake up to our adversaries schemes! It is during these times that our heart of compassion and mercy must give way to wisdom and skill. Skill for the battle, and wisdom for war! This is war when our enemy desires to sift our soul, as we read, “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.” Luke 22:31 friends this is war and nothing short of war, it is literally kill our sin, and that which provokes us to sin, i.e.,(principalities, powers, and rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places, Ephesians 6:12) or be killed by it! We need to wake up, toughen up, and utilize every instrument of God’s righteousness that we have available to us and can remove from its sheath! We need to engage in battle, refusing to settle for anything less than the victory that Jesus has already won for us! We are victorious in Jesus, Amen! Now we must live, and move, and have our being in this victory!
Why should we hold our heads low in shame as though our victory is not so? Enough is enough, we shall never be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, never ashamed of our salvation, and never ashamed to be called a Christian with power! (TO BE CONTINUED…)
SKILL FOR THE BATTLE! (CONT.)
"Praise the Lord, who is my rock, He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle." Psalm 144:1
THE JOY OF THE LORD!
Ok, so just because we are engaged in battle we should not lose sight of good things. Without joy we will become weary in well doing and battle fatigue will set in. Exhausted and ready to give up we will lose sight of the joy that is set before us. It was this joy that enabled Jesus to endure the cross, as we read, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2 See here it was joy that Jesus saw, the joy of being with His Father! Friend we share that same joy! Praise God that we share this! Without this we will be exhausted and ready to give up, because we will lose sight of the good things of God. These great things are our future, heaven, eternal life, and the great love of God! This is strength to our lives and the reason for us to press forward. This is our vision, and God our Father has given this vision unto us through His Son Jesus Christ. We need vision, as we read, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Proverbs 29:18 this is what Jesus saw, this same vision of life with God the Father! It is this vision that we share that will cause us to endure just as Jesus endured the cross. We cannot lose sight of this. Friend there is a miracle around the corner for every believer who holds fast to this promise! In wars of the past, throughout history we will hear of a thing called, R&R, Rest and Relaxation, these times of refreshing are what we are to think on, not always war, and battle, and combat, but also as we read, “Finally brethren think on these things, whatsoever things are true, (Jesus), whatsoever things are honest, (Jesus) whatsoever things are just, (Jesus) whatsoever things are pure, (Jesus) whatsoever things are lovely, (Jesus) whatsoever things are of good report, (Jesus) if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things.” Philippians 4:8 5
Note here, for those who cannot find any good thing in their life to think about, I have placed in parenthesis some help, even (Jesus) for in Him we can find all of these, as we read, “Looking unto Jesus” Where shall we look? Unto Jesus! Now in today’s world it is becoming more and more difficult to keep our eyes on Jesus, what with all the evil around us, evil governments, unbelieving people, and those that are determined to see the Christian believer fail. But note here, Jesus endured the cross with all of these same and more, yet He never took His eyes off of the prize, the joy that was set before Him! Not even when he stumbled on the way to be crucified. That so called Via Dolorosa, even the sound of this sounds that there awaits some musical joy, yet it was a song of His death. Still Jesus never lost sight of what was set before Him! This brings us back to the point that I set out previously to discuss, R&R, that rest and relaxation, and that time of refreshing, and that time that we set out to meditate on the good things in life. Philippians 4:8 continues on to say, “Those things which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do.” Did you catch that? Did you catch the “Do” here? Jesus instructs us to do what He has done in that He has kept His eyes on the prize, the mark of His high calling! DO THAT! Keep your eyes on the prize! “And the God of peace shall be with you” Ah you thought we were done? No my friend it goes on to tell us, “And the God of Peace shall be with you.” There world is shouting for this peace and cannot obtain, because it cannot see this prize! What a great blessing unto us that we can see! Remember we are being trained, “Praise the Lord, who is my rock, He trains my hands for war, and gives my fingers skill for battle. Would you like to win the battle? Keep the God of peace with you, keep your eyes focused on the prize, and think on all that you have learned and received from Jesus, this is an absolute proven way to win the battle and to endure all that comes your way! So when we read here that it says, “Those things which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do.” God is training us for battle. God doesn’t leave us ignorant nor will he send us into this battle without equipping us. God trains us and provides for us the skills, and the weapons that we need to be victorious. Not only does this spiritual warfare require that we change our old thought pattern, be we are called to renew our minds, putting on the mind of Christ. (TO BE CONTINUED…)
SKILL FOR THE BATTLE (CONTINUED)
"Praise the Lord, who is my rock, He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle." Psalm 144:1
THE JOY OF THE LORD (PART TWO)
Spiritual Warfare requires that we change our old thought patterns and be renewed in the mind, but we also must learn how to change these patterns. First this requires that we cast down every imagination that exalts itself against God’s truth. We are not in a war with other people or innocent bystanders that are ignorant to these things. Instead we are in a war with that we cannot see. As we read, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but might through the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; and having readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.” 2Corinthians 10:3-6 friends, we must cast down the thoughts, pull down the strongholds in our mind, and bring them all into captivity, every thought and act of disobedience to the obedience of Christ. This is normally called REPENTANCE! After we have repented and begin to show the fruit of repentance we are assigned a new task. This new task calls us to seek revenge against all the disobedience against God that brought us to this place of sorrow and even shame. “Having readiness to revenge all disobedience” No more can we tolerate these things, no more can we accept this disobedience, and no more cane we turn a weakened eye towards sin! God hates sin and we are called to hate this sin also! Don’t consider this in error, for it is not the person who sins that God hates, but rather it is the sin, and the agents that cause this sin to come. What agents are these? As it is written, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:12 After we obey God and have come into submission to Him we are not completely finished, and for this cause our enemy trembles! By God’s grace we have been saved, by His power we have been adopted and grafted into His family, and by His wisdom we now have learned that we are sent forth as mighty 7 warriors, and as a royal priesthood into this world to contend for the faith in Jesus Christ, to win the lost and dying soul back into the loving arms of Jesus, and to revenge all that our spiritual enemy has attempted to steal from our lives. We know that our enemy is a thief and a robber that seeks to destroy, and even kill every chance that we ever had for the glory of God in our life, for this cause he has ignited a HOLY ANGER, whereby God has said, “Be angry but sin not!”
Friends it is ok to be angry! The right kind of anger has no malice towards the individual, but rather a burning heart towards sin and darkness! No more will we walk in our former sinful ways of lust, and pride! Now we shall overcome all evil with good! Never will we return unto to our own vomit as we read, “As a dog returneth to his own vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.” Proverbs 26:11 Sure this is a graphic word picture and it may be difficult for us to see sin as vomit, but this is exactly what God can see! Even worse, and for this cause God turns His back. Friend sin is ugly and has dire consequences, as we read, “For the wages of sin is death: but the gift of God is eternal life.” Romans 6:23 Friend God is log-suffering towards us, but our enemy is also long-suffering towards us. God is not willing that any should perish, but our enemy is willing that all should perish! You see here that we must be on the winning side, and through Jesus Christ we are more than conquerors, we are His! “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16 what shall we say to these things? Praise Jesus for His SAVING GRACE! (TO BE CONTINUED)
http://souls-for-christ.com/id12.html
SKILL FOR THE BATTLE (CONTINUED)
"Praise the Lord, who is my rock, He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle." Psalm 144:1
THE JOY OF THE LORD (MORE ON JOY)
O.K. so here we find ourselves with this new knowledge, we are engaged in battle! We find ourselves in this spiritual warfare, not having much to do with this ever before, what gives? Does this mean that we must always walk around so serious, with a frozen face or a stern look, having no joy and unfriendly to all? Not so, in fact it is just the opposite. If we did this it would be perfect for our enemy, the last thing that he wants is that we should have friends! Divide and conquer is his way, while our loving God desires to unite us together with Jesus! Yes, we must be vigilant, ready and alert because our adversary is always on the hunt, but this doesn’t mean that we cannot have joy in our life! Joy is our friend, even our strength, as we read, “Then he said unto them, go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord; neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10 the joy of the Lord is our strength, so we obviously can see why our adversary would not want us to have it! The devil hates when we are happy! He has come to steal, to steal our joy, and to kill, kill our hopes and dreams, and to destroy our relationship with God and with others in the attempt to divide us. So one of our greatest assets and weapons is JOY, Let me go a little further and answer this question, “How do we get the joy of the Lord?” Earlier we started with praise, first we praise God and joy will come, we can understand that God inhabits our praise, “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” Psalm 22:3 “Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of the saints.
Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their king.” Psalm 149:1,2 The joy of the Lord follows praise! So we praise him, we sing hymns and songs, and we build friendships, relationships in Christ as these will strengthen and sharpen us. “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.” Proverbs 27:17 9 This building of relationships is for this cause, that none should walk into darkness alone, that none would be divided and an easy prey, and that none will be lost from God and taken by a wolf in waiting! Skill for the battle includes the ability to be full of joy, Joy unspeakable and full of glory! “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” 1Peter 1:8 friends, it is the same with answers to our prayers, though we see them not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory! Let me say this again,
“Friends, it is the same with the answers to our prayers, though we see them not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory!”
One might say, “I just can’t seem to be able to be joyful about my situation” again, “though we see them not, yet believing, we rejoice,” We do not have to see the fix before we can rejoice, no we rejoice in faith seeing the fix to our situations as in Christ. In Christ it is finished and how shall we be when we see this complete? We shall be rejoicing! So now we have talked about the power of praise and the strength of joy, but is their more? So we have just begun that’s all! Most people have heard about the Armor of God and I have delayed to write about this because we cannot suit up until we first praise the God who made us with His design at hand. Yes, there is an Armor of God, and we will discuss this as we approach Ephesians chapter six, but before we go there it must be told that there is a lot more to this battle than dawning this suit. Our awareness, our emotions, and believe it, the knowledge of the “Modus Operandi” that our enemy is known for. These are vital to how we understand this suit. Before we dawn this suit we must understand every portion of it and why it’s designed the way that we find it. This suit is a suit made many generations ago, made for all ages, and designed to save us from any enemy! We must be trained about this suit. Understanding our weaknesses when we do not have this suit on,
SKILL FOR THE BATTLE
"Praise the Lord, who is my rock, He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle." Psalm 144:1
Ready to Suit Up? (Our Loins!)
It does no good for us to suit up for battle without first understanding and equipping ourselves with skills that enable us to utilize this armor. We need to renew our mind to understand why we need this armor! Our emotions, our passions, our vigilance, and our willingness and readiness to contend for the faith will determine our ability to endure as a good soldier as we have been encouraged to. “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” 2Timothy 2:3 our great God, knowing this teaches us to think other ways, for example, God tells us so many times, “Fear not, neither be dismayed.” Deuteronomy 31:8, Or “Fret not thyself over evil doers.” Psalm 37:1, and “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Luke 12:32 Our God knows us, our emotions, and our fears. These things are never hidden from God and for this cause God tells us to fear not! The absolute greatest emotion that we will struggle with is, Fear! “Fret not thyself over evil doers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.” Psalm 37:1, all throughout the Bible God instructs us to not fear, to rejoice, to not be irritated or agitated, so many things that deal with our emotions. It is our emotions that can be our enemy in battle! So moving forward, getting ready to suit up with the whole armor of God in this battle, we find that we must first get our emotions in check. So now we are instructed to put on the whole armor of God, as we read, “Finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the whiles of the devil. For 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. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all to stand, stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of peace; above all taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the 11 wicked, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always, with all prayer and supplication for all saints.” Ephesians 6:10-18 Whew! That was a lot!
So now here we stand, fed up with our enemy, tired of losing the battle, and longing for that victory, and for God’s love and protection. Here we stand naked in the spirit, cast down, and ready for God to step in and help. Here we stand ready to suit up! We have put off all of our former lust and desire for sin, for all of the fruit of the flesh, and for all of the ways and thoughts of the past. We can find these in Galatians 5:19-21 “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” See here, these are why we need God, and the whole armor of God. So that we can suit up and be ready to defend ourselves against these works that our enemy continuously strives to pull us into. Do we do these things? Absolutely! All of us have at one point in our life have fallen short of God’s glory and have committed such things as these, so we conclude that all of us need to suit up! So how do we begin? We need to understand each part of this suit.
Starting with our loins and girting them about with truth, of course this is not just any imagined truth, this truth is the truth of God! Why the loins? What’s so important about our loins? More than 50% of all of our struggles originate from our loins, more than 50% of the world’s sin is that which is caused by our loins. Our loins can be also referred to as the area of our body where the genitalia is found. God created us to procreate and we know that what god has created is good, but it can be and often is abused. So we need to girt it about with God’s truth lest we misuse this gift that God has given to us. God’s truth is what can be called our loincloth! We need to walk having our loincloth on. Fully clothed, this is a requirement in society for the respect of our laws. If we should be without this loincloth, without God’s truth, and rebellious against the laws of God and society there are consequences. Beyond this, when not having our loins girt about with God’s truth there can be much more serious consequences, such as sexual diseases, divorce, unplanned pregnancy, sin and it’s many wages, and more.
So we begin first with protecting our loins. Our adversaries are more than happy to pull us away from God’s truth in their effort to deceive us in this area of our lives, by saying things like, “O cmon, it’s ok, everyone is doing it!” but our God knowing how damaging these consequences can be to us, has made a way for us to protect ourselves and this way is for us to live in His truth! Another example of this is the athlete. If we are to study the athlete, in specific the runner, we see that the loins are a most needed part of the runner’s body. In conditioning the athlete will perform many stretches, moving their loins from side to side, and strengthening themselves in this area to insure that they are agile and ready to race! Our loins carry us to wherever God calls us to go. If we should suffer injury to our loins, more than likely we will have a difficult Our loins carry us to wherever God calls us to go. If we should suffer injury to our loins, more than likely we will have a difficult time move forward. We girt our loins about with the truth so that in all ways we will remain healthy and fit for our calling. If we should feed our loins a lie from the devil, we will engage in behaviors that can potentially destroy us even deeply into our soul. As it is written, “Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that commiteth fornication sinneth against his own body.” 1Corinthians 6:18 We start here first. We suit up with the whole armor of God, starting with girting our loins about with the truth. This area is so powerful, yet potentially so destructive! If can be used to bring forth fruit as in the fruit of our loins, even God’s reward, even our blessed beloved children, but it can also be used to destroy us if we live without God’s truth regarding this area in our life.
SKILL FOR THE BATTLE!
"Praise the Lord, who is my rock. He trains my hands for war, and gives my fingers skill for battle." Psalm 144:1
Ready to Suit Up? (Our Heart!)
Friends I find it very interesting that God directs us to cover our loins with truth. Next we see before us a breastplate to cover our chest. This breastplate of righteousness covers our heart from all angles of attack. So here we are, we stand ready to dawn even more of this suit as instructed, “Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand, stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;” Ephesians 6:13, 14 Friend, we need to guard our heart! Our heart is guarded by righteousness, when all things are right our heart rejoices, but when things are wrong or go wrong our heart is saddened to say the least. When others do us right we have a good and peaceful feeling, but this is not so when we are done wrong! God wants us to protect our heart, as it is written, “Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you.” John 14:1, 2
It is important in this battle that we maintain a healthy heart, that we are not cast down, but rather that we remain confident, as we read, “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.” Hebrews 10:35 Remember how we have said before that God repeatedly instructs us to “Fear Not” if we should fear, we lose confidence. When fear comes into our heart there it will war against our faith, and whichever of the two is the stronger will decide our condition. “Have faith in God” “Fear Not” “Trust in the Lord with all of thine HEART” see here our heart is under attack and therefore God has provided this armor especially made for this area! Friends, Heart Attacks are a serious killer, according to the Center For Disease Control one in every four deaths are due to Heart Attacks, again we see here God’s love for us in that He also is aware of this killer, and remember our enemy, the thief cometh but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy! Heart Attacks are one of the most widely used ways that he prevails prematurely, because people fail to guard their heart, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. He creates lies, fears, depressions, distractions, distortions of God’s truths, and more. All this to get in our heart! By God’s grace he has designed this suit that we are learning to use, he has designed it with defenses built in to protect us. 14 Ready to Suit Up? (Our Heart!) When we have put on our breastplate of righteousness we have the ability to deflect all of the lies of the devil that is working through many sources and ways to infiltrate our heart. If he can get into our heart he is able to plant seeds of doubt and confusion that will war against our faith and eventually wear down our confidence and trust in Jesus. Guarding our heart is vital to walking in joy and walking in strength, so now we stand ready, we have learned a little of our enemies tactics where he might try to attack, we have covered our loins, and now our heart, we ought not to think that we now are not vulnerable. There are yet other areas that are exposed.
SKILL FOR THE BATTLE
"Praise the Lord, who is my rock. He trains my hands for war, and gives my fingers skill for battle." Psalm 144:1
Ready to suit up? (Our Feet)
So what next? “And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;” Ephesians 6:15 Friend, scarcely will someone be brave enough to walk upon a bed of nails or upon coals of hot fire! Never mind the idea that they would do this barefoot! Nails, Hot coals, rocks, broken glass, and more. All of these will definitely hurt if we should walk on them without protection, but if we should have shoes that are made to cushion our feet while we walked through these tough things in life, then we would press forward towards the mark of His high calling (Philippians 3:14) without interruption. Our wise, all knowing God has realized that our enemy would lay before us strips of sharp things in life that would slow us down, fires to heat the pavement beneath our feet in the effort to burn them, or discourage us in our walk, and fears that would turn us back from pressing forward. Therefore God has instructed us to prepare our feet with the gospel of peace. God knowing that peace is the greatest cushion and protection, He himself is the Prince of Peace, He brings peace to us that we may wear this beneath our feet. This peace is that peace of God which surpasses all understanding, as we read, “And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7
Now here’s the thing, when we received this pair of shoes they came with more. They came with a package that no other pair of shoes in your life has ever had. These shoes were specially designed by God to place us in authority anywhere that we walked! These shoes are supernatural! Listen closely, in Christ as a Christian with our feet shod with this preparation of the gospel of peace all things are now under our feet! These shoes come with authority! Read with me as King David speaks to God about this, “What is man that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands: thou hast put all things under his feet.” Psalm 8:4, 5 again, “But one in a certain place testified saying, What is man that thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownest him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands; Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him.” Hebrews 2:6-8 Friend wherever we walk we have authority, we shall bruise our heel upon the serpents head (Genesis 3:15) With our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace we are able to walk anywhere that God has led us to go. Never will we say, we can’t, because of Jesus we can do all things! If then all things are under our feet, how important is it then that we have put on the right footwear? Just as it says, “And your feet shod with the preparation of peace.” We should walk in peace with all peoples wherever we walk. Imagine this authority where all evil and all of our enemies are under our feet! Friend this is exactly how it is, so why then do we see Christians full of fear, cast down, depressed, and with many like things? Because many do not operate in this revelation of God's truth! The gospel of peace cushions our feet wherever we shall walk!
SKILL FOR THE BATTLE
"Praise the Lord, who is my rock, He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle." Psalm 144:1
Ready to Suit Up? (Our Mind)
So we now have our loins, our chest, and our feet suited up and prepared for battle, what’s next? Next, and so very important lies before us the Helmet of Salvation. Why do we need a helmet? A helmet is used to protect our mind, when we come to Christ Jesus we are instructed to be renewed in the mind, having put on the mind of Christ. “ (Philippians 2:1-11) we are also instructed to “cast down every imagination that exalts itself against the word of God. “ (2Corinthians 10:5) in addition to this we are told how we ought to think in Philippians 4:8,9 as we read, “Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do, and the God of peace shall be with you.” We need the helmet of salvation over our mind so that our enemy’s lies do no infiltrate it. God knows our weakness, and our frailty, and how easily our minds can be pulled away from His truth. God knows that should we fail to protect our mind and allow it to be subjected to attack from our enemy, we will easily fall away from Him, therefore, as with the rest of this armor, God has provided for us this helmet. Now why is it called the Helmet of Salvation? God has saved us, but the first line of attack that tries to hit our mind from our enemy is, “Are you really saved, did God really say?” For this reason God has named this helmet appropriately, the Helmet of Salvation! Our minds will always know that we are saved when we have this helmet on. God saves our soul, and He saves our mind! In fact, “No weapon that is formed against us shall ever prevail!”
Ready to Suit Up? (Our Mind)
As we read, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.” Isaiah 54:17 Our enemy would like us to forget this though, he doesn’t want us to remember anything that Jesus has done for us! He would love to convince us that we were never saved, he will say lies such as we are too terrible to be saved! That Jesus would never considering saving someone like us! The devil is a liar! “For God so loved the world that WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH ON HIM SHALL BE SAVED! God is not willing that any should perish, it is God’s perfect mission that he should seek and save the Lost! This is why He came from heaven to the earth, so that we can be saved, as it is written, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10 our helmet, even the Helmet of Salvation protects our mind, keeping our mind stayed upon the Lord Jesus at all times. Of the whole Armor of God this may be the last thing that we put on, the putting on of this suit being a defensive way that we shall protect ourselves against the whiles of the devil. Now let’s consider the offence! How shall take an offensive attack to our enemy before he can get to us? To do this God has provide a sword! Again note here that a sword is not our defensive tool, but rather an offensive weapon that we can skillfully use in this battle. With this sword we are not limited to holding it up as to defend ourselves against the deceitful lies of the devil, but now we have in our hand a valuable and extremely sharp weapon that we can use to engage our enemy with God’s truth.
Ready to Suit Up? (Our Mind)
This sword is called “The Sword of The Spirit” which is the word of God! This sword is sharp and powerful, as we read, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two – edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of souls and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12 There is absolutely nothing that can prevail against us when we suit up with the Whole Armor of God! With this sword we are definitely on the attack and not willing to be the weak and slothful anymore! Furthermore it makes little sense for us to use our sword as merely a defensive tool when already God has provided Armor that cannot be penetrated by anything! So how can we have a sword in our hands and consider ourselves under attack! If we have all that God has given to us and lay it down failing to use it properly for fear of offending shall our God hear us when we call? Of course He will save us when we cry out to Him, but in saving us do we think that he will not train us to defend ourselves, to put on this Armor the right way, and to stand against all enemies of His kingdom? God will save us and train us for battle, he doesn’t save us and then remove us from any future battles! Our sword is the word of God and so many will hold up the word of God to defend themselves only and then still wonder why they are losing! We are losing ground because we fade away from the fight! We are losing ground to the devil because we are not trained to attack the lies with God’s truth!
http://souls-for-christ.com/id12.html
SKILL FOR THE BATTLE
"Praise the Lord, who is my rock, He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle." Psalm 144:1
Ready to Suit Up? (Our Mind)
So while our sword can be used as a defensive weapon, it makes little sense for us to use our sword to shield our mind, or any part of our body when God has already provided armor for that! Our sword is the word of God and so many use this to simply defend themselves despite already having the Armor of God covering them. Are you getting this? The sword is not meant to be used to defend ourselves it is meant to be used to slash through the darkness of this world, it is meant to be used to attack those principalities, powers, and rulers of the darkness of this word, and it is meant to kill the lies of the devil, yes I said kill, as in put an end to the lies of the devil! Rarely do we realize that our sword, even this word of God, the sword of the Spirit, is powerful and meant to be on the offensive! Attacking the darkness of this world! For this cause God has said, Go ye into the world and preach the Gospel, as we read, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” Mark 16:15, 16 Some might say, O’ how can I go into this world? How can I go into this darkness? I am not called to do this! Friend, wakeup! You have a sword at your side, you are completely protected by the suit of armor that God has given you, and you are called to do this, otherwise why should you be given this? Do you have a sword? If you answer yes then you are called to preach the gospel! Oh but of course the devil would tell you this is not true so that you will not be bothered by others that can fend for themselves! Why should we care about those that are burning in their sin? Because Jesus cared for us when we were burning in our sin! We deserved death, yet Jesus saved us and did not give to us what we deserve. Friend we don’t have to wait for a word from the Lord that tells we can. He has already given this word to us! So go! Our enemy is roaming about seeking whom he may devour while we are sitting in pews or at home at our computer or television do nothing for the lost! Get up!
Ready to Suit Up? (Our Mind)
Take out that sword and take it into the world! Should ohttp://souls-for-christ.com/id12.htmlur sword simply hang at our side? Should our sword stay in its case? No! Friend you have been called to unsheathe your sword and take it into the world! Our mind needs to set in motion the lifting up and the swing of our sword! Let us be proactive! You are the one that is going out into a world that is unprotected, you have the whole armor of God and every day you will pass people that is unprotected! So many around us are not ready, they are not protected, and have nothing to defend themselves with! Yet we are saved, we are protected, we are shielded, and we is all that matters??? No! We are not all that matters, they matter! And they are perishing without someone to fight for them! Friend I met a man whose eyes were on fire for me! His eyes were on fire for you, and His eyes are on fire for the lost that has not been saved yet! How can we dismiss this and not be held accountable?
SKILL FOR THE BATTLE
"Praise the Lord, who is my rock, He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle." Psalm 144:1
Ready to Suit Up? (Prayer)
And how important is this next weapon? It will make our enemy tremble with fear! Run while screaming! And beg us to STOP! Our next weapon and for sure the most powerful is our prayers to God! We are now instructed after having suited up with the whole armor of God, and after engaging our sword into this battle, we are instructed to pray, as we read, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.” Ephesians 6:18 Friend this is an intense battle, not to be taken lightly, and not one to be forsaken! We have all heard the term, “Prayer Warrior” a prayer warrior is not a prayer contestant, but they are warriors! The prayers that these warriors offer to the Lord are sent up to do battle! These prayers are heard and answered, because these prayers come from the faithful and bold! God delights in our prayers, He inhabits our praise, and He responds quickly to our fervent and passionate petitions! God knows we are in a war, this is the whole reason He trains us! Our eternal life may rest upon our preparation and training. The skill in which we walk with this whole armor of God knowing that we are called to be vigilant and always praying will make our enemy shutter in fear! This is what happens when God’s faithful pray!
The Power of prayer is well documented in history. There are endless stories of salvations, healings, and miracles! The last thing that our enemy wants us to do is pray, yet God instructs us to pray always. Listen friends let’s reason this out, the devil does not bother to war with those that are not a threat to him. 22 Ready to Suit Up? (Prayer) The devil doesn’t waste his time, but regarding YOU this is a different matter, because you are walking around with Jesus in you, Jesus on you, and Jesus all around you, every step that you take matters, every word that you utter matters, and every action that you engage in makes him freak out! YOU are for him a wrecking ball of disaster unto his kingdom! Now since this is true it only stands to reason that you have become enemy number one! Yes, YOU! Even you who are so nice and loving! This is why God has laid before you this armor and this is why we are learning to wear it! Take note to this, when a miracle is about to happen in our life, the devil ramps up his attack and dispatches all forces to intervene, seeking to disrupt and demolish it. Even after a miracle has happened they are there to convince all around that it was just a coincidence and not God at all! They seek to tell whatever lie that they can use to deny that God works!
Prior to a miracle happening the devil gets wind of it or maybe some idea that this is possible because we have been praying. This spooks him to no end! How can we tell a miracle is on its way? Usually there is an intense battle that is only won by the intense, fervent prayer to God. God will answer prayer as we read, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked way; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 2Chronicles 7:14 and for all who need to hear this from the New Testament “Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms. Isa any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” James 5:13-16
God calls us to pray continually, “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.” Acts 6:4
Ready to Suit Up? (Prayer)
This is a battle and as it is with any battle it is twenty four hours a day and seven days a week. Our enemy will not rest! Neither shall we! Having our minds stayed on Christ and our suits ready for battle, we shall commit to prayer continuously also! There is a miracle on its way unto you! Understand if you are Christian and you are going through an intense battle there is a reason! Sometimes we will fight many battles, but why? BECAUSE WE ARE A THREAT! We are a threat to the darkness in this world. The last thing that darkness wants is light, and you are light! In fact the light of Jesus is in you, comes from you, and chases darkness away! You are a threat! Take heart, deliverance and a miracle of God is on its way, God will not leave you nor forsake, you are his light, his child, and the light of the world! God has prepared a miracle for you! I am convinced that if you are a believer in Jesus and have received him to be your Lord and savior the enemy is trembling, because there is now, more light in this world! Yes its true, because of who you now are in Jesus you have become a target for spiritual forces to fire their fiery darts at. Why? Because the last thing in this world that darkness wants to see is light, the greatest fear our enemy has is that our light that we spread will expose his lie! Satan doesn’t want to be seen! He just wants to do what he does without anyone noticing! Here’s what he does, as we read, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: but I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10 If you are not a threat the devil doesn’t bother you, he won’t waste his time, except to make sure that he has you sold out to him, and far removed from God, therefore these unbelieving folk typically are left alone and often exalted to high places, but they will not last! Again this is a ploy of the devil! It is as another has said in times past, “Tough times do not last, God’s people do!” In other words a Christian may wonder why they are struggling through difficulty while others seem to have a life of ease, for sure those with a life of ease are doing no damage to our enemy.
So here we are, we started with praise and worship to invoke God’s presence, as we know that God inhabits our praise, “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Psalm 22:3 God is in our presence. God is present as we suit up, and we find that the next instruction to us is to pray, now what shall we pray? This is the beginning of a revolution! Remember how I told you that Satan does not ever want to be exposed, this is why! He does all that we will not pray, and pray specifically to break down strongholds that he has erected, to set captives free who he has incarcerated, to heal those that he has afflicted, and to bring joy to those that he has oppressed! You are the light of the world so that darkness is exposed so that the exposed things that are present in this light will be prayed for! What shall we pray? Here it is! That darkness be exposed, that our land may be healed! Prayer in spiritual warfare is not a new thing it is the most important do thing! When we pray God’s will be done, we are surrendering all of our life and all of our plans to God in exchange for what He has planned for us! Let’s see how this is done looking first unto Jesus, “Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee (James and John), and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith He unto them, my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here and watch with me.” Mathew 26:36-38 Note here that Jesus himself is in a battle and is aware of an up and coming distress, for this cause He has set the mood so to speak in that His soul is exceeding sorrowful! The life of a Christian may be exposed to similar sorrow! It is not new! We also see that He communicated to those close to Him, how many people shut their loved ones out and fail to communicate when they are going through hard times? When Jesus became sorrowful even unto death He told others, and He asked others to assist Him, as we read, “tarry ye here and watch with me.” Friend we are exposed to many dangers when we shut our fellow Christian out!
Be a part of a group, sharpen each other, carry one another’s burdens, and be there when someone else is suffering!
SKILL FOR THE BATTLE
"Praise the Lord, who is my rock, He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle." Psalm 144:1
Ready to Suit Up? (Prayer of surrender)
Now we see Jesus, sorrowful and obedient, after reaching out to others, asking them to pray with him He then goes a little farther and falls upon His face and began to pray, saying, “O my Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Mathew 26:39 Here we see surrender. Jesus surrenders His life and His will to God His Father. Jesus knows that His life is meant for God’s will. Jesus’ hour now is upon Him and as always He surrenders to His Father’s will. If there was ever a time of testing Jesus’ inner strength as a man this was it! He was in such distress that He began to sweat drops of blood, such strain that He pleaded for this to pass by Him. Now this is suffering, looking death in the face and accepting it as fate. Jesus knew Hid hour was come that He would lay down His life for the many lives of us, that we may live to have opportunity to be with Him again. Knowing this Jesus went a little further and fell on His face in the Garden of Gethsemane. He began to pray, Jesus never looked to run away from God’s plan. Now I know that God has given to us the whole armor that we may wear it as our protecting, but what is the only area that we shall be vulnerable to the enemies attacks, friend the only way the enemy can assault us and prevail is if we should run away from God’s will! You see we are protected everywhere by this armor except our back side! For this reason we never run away! Jesus didn’t run away He fell on His face and began to pray! Sure Jesus was taken to a mountain to a mountain to be tempted by Satan and we read about this in Luke 4:1-13, we also see here that Jesus passed all the test that was laid before Him, but here Jesus is subjected to the furthest of pressure points ever before, he could have ordered His disciples to rise up and fight, and He could have attempted to slip away in the night.
Ready to Suit Up? (Prayer of surrender)
No friend Jesus came for to do His Father’s will and was determined to complete His Father’s will. Jesus never considered running away, nor did He ever consider fighting back, He accepted His Father’s plan for His life, knowing that His Father’s plan was that of perfection! Jesus committed all unto His Father! Do we commit all of our ways unto the Lord? If we do then we are guaranteed to have success, as we read, “Commit to the lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3 Jesus committed His life to His Father’s plan, a plan that required Him to become that sacrificial lamb that gave His life to redeem us from death! Even in the face of death Jesus did not run! Sure He asked His Father if it was possible to let this pass from Him, yet He knew what needed to be done and did it! Jesus surrendered to His Father’s plan and denied Himself. Can we do this? Can we surrender our lives unto our Father’s plan and deny ourselves? Yes we can when we commit to the Lord all that we do. It was God’s will that Jesus requested by committing to His Father, and it is God’s will that we request when we commit our lives unto our Father. We surrender to Jesus’ plan for our life! This is our prayer of surrender! Here we see Jesus surrender to His Father’s plan and what did He say? “Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” John 4:34 Are you ready to say this? “Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” How many things do we deny ourselves for the sake of winning a soul or for the sake of helping others in need. Really what are we denying ourselves? Jesus knew His hour had arrived, it was the time where all that He came for, all that He spoke about, and all that He knew was right was come and in this hour He prayed for strength to go forward and complete God’s will. For many years we have talked about surrendering, committing, and denying ourselves for the sake of others, but when the time comes will we do it? In this hour many disciples turned away from Jesus! Here is the true test! Will we ask, “if it be possible let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” or will we run away as many of the disciples did? This will be a test that comes to all of us one day too! What shall we do?
SKILL FOR THE BATTLE
"Praise the Lord, who is my rock, He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle." Psalm 144:1
(SURRENDER)
Jesus has set the example for us, has told us to consider this example, and expects that we will follow His example. We read His instructions to us about this, “For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” Hebrews 12:3, 4 considering the example that we have just witnessed by reading about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane what shall we do? We shall surrender our will, all of our dreams, hopes, and desires and we shall exchange these for God’s perfect plan for our lives. In prayer the first thing we must be ready to do is to surrender to God’s plan, if we are unwilling to do this then we must ask ourselves the question, “Do we trust God?” If we trust God with all of our heart we will trust that God knows best and it will be easy to surrender to him. At the time God’s plan may not be clear to us, we may have many questions, and we may be hesitant to relinquish control of our life over to God, but although it may not be what we want, or even close to the way that we would do things, we must surrender to God and fully trust him that all things are working towards his perfect plan for us. Now you may be saying, “What does this have to do with spiritual warfare?” Friend this is the most important thing that we can do when we engage in this spiritual warfare, and why is that? Because it is God that wins the battle for us! We cannot win without him! In fact we will most certainly be defeated should we attempt to do things a way that seems right to us, if that way is not the way that God instructs! As we read, “There is a way that seems right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Proverbs 14:12 Friend, we need to surrender our will unto God and trust God that his will is right for us! So we have seen one example of Jesus during spiritual warfare, and we have witnessed His example unto us. Let us look at another example of this. In our first example we see Jesus surrender to God’s will,
In this second example we will see Jesus take authority! Turn with me to Luke 8:22-25 Here we read, “Now it came to pass on a certain day, that he went into a ship with his disciples; and he said unto them, Let us go over unto the other side of the lake. And he launched forth. But as they sailed he fell asleep: and there came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy. And they came to him, and awoke him, saying Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm. And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this? For he commandeth even the winds and the water, and they obey him.” Luke 8:22-25 Now this time Jesus does not say to the disciples gather around and let us pray, there is not one thing here that says Jesus is sorrowful, afraid, or out of control! In fact Jesus rises to the occasion with authority. Here we see different circumstances, first in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus was surrendering to God, but here Jesus is rising to the occasion. For us then how should we be? We ought to do both if we should follow Jesus. We ought to surrender to God and when we do he will give us authority that will enable us to rise to the occasion. Make no mistake, there is no mixed message here, what we learn is that God our Father is our source of strength by our submission to his will. See here that there is an order that we must follow! VERY IMPORTANT TO GET THIS! First surrender to God’s plan and then we will be able to accomplish what we set out to do. Remember, “Commit to the lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3 There was a calm, do you desire a calm in your life? Do you say to Jesus what manner of man is this? Does he say to you, “Where is thy faith?” Who is Jesus to you? Is Jesus the one that is able, has he given you the ability to take authority? Do you have faith to believe? These questions are very important and imperative that we are able to answer them.
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Cary McQuaid | Create Your Badge
Jesus Saves! - Souls For Christ Ministries
Souls For Christ Ministries
Naples, Florida U.S.A.
EMAIL US AT: sfcword@souls-for-christ.com
