Spiritual Warfare – Dr. David Jeremiah

God is saying to you today:

“You’ve cried so many times in private. I’ve seen every one of your tears. Fear not, for I am with you. Continue to wait on Me. My hand is upon you. Be still and know that I am God.”

In The Book of Signs, Dr. David Jeremiah offers answers to questions including:

• What does the Bible tell us about the future?
• How much can we understand about biblical prophecy and its application in our lives?
• What signs and signals will precede the end of everything as we know it?
• Which of those signs and signals have already come to pass, which are we experiencing now, and which are still to come?

An epic and authoritative guide to biblical prophecy, The Book of Signs is a must-have resource for Christians seeking to navigate the uncertainties of the present and embrace God’s promises for the future with a renewed sense of hope and purpose.

Chapter 10 Spiritual Warfare. The vast majority of books on military strategy appeal to a limited audience, namely those people who are involved in military strategy.
But there’s one book that has a much broader appeal.
This book is recommended reading for every officer in the central Intelligence agency and has been listed in the US Marine Corps Professional reading program for years as you might expect.
But this book is also read and referenced today by leaders in business, entertainment, education, sports, politics and many other fields.
Such broad appeal is all the more surprising because this book was written 2600 years ago in Ancient China.
That book is The Art of War by Sun Zoo.
If you read it, you’ll find dozens of principles spread out over 13 chapters. But it’s Principle 18.
The last principle in chapter three that I believe is critical information for members of the church. Here’s the principle.
Hence the saying, if you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of 100 battles.
If you know yourself but not the enemy for every victory gained, you will also suffer a defeat.
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
It’s because of this paragraph that soon Zoo is often credited with coining the phrase know your enemy.
But this common sense idea is even older than Sun.
Zoo Moses knew the value of this principle, which is why he sent the 12 spies from Kish into Canon to quote, see whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak.
Few are many end of quote.
Numbers 13, 18, Joshua did the same from the East bank of the Jordan River before entering Canon sending spies to assess the strength of Jericho Joshua 21, even Jesus Christ taught the importance of knowing your enemy.
He said, what king going to make war against another king does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000.
Luke 14 31. Maybe you’re wondering why do I need to hear about knowing my enemy?
I’m not a soldier, I’m not involved in a war, but that’s not correct.
If you are a disciple of Jesus, then you are in a war, a spiritual war.
And if the idea of knowing one’s enemy makes sense in a conventional battle, it makes even more sense in our spiritual battle because our enemy is stronger and the stakes are higher, what’s more as the end of the present age approaches, we can be sure that satanic activity will increase the spirit expressly says that in latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.
First Timothy 41, the biblical writers spared no effort in giving us intelligence on the nature of our spiritual enemy.
Satan himself. Indeed, they covered both of Son Sue’s requirements for victory, know yourself and know your enemy.
Our task is to embrace what the Bible tells us and be prepared for the battle we must certainly face.
So let’s begin our study of this important topic by acknowledging the reality and the nature of our enemy.
Spiritual warfare is real. God’s word tells us.
Satan is a fallen angel originally named Lucifer Isaiah 14 12.
It also traces his presence in our world from Genesis to Revelation.
Genesis tells us how the devil went to Eve as a serpent, convincing her she could be like God.
If she would only eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil Genesis three.
In the book of Revelation, we see that in the end, God will banish Satan among others.
The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Revelation. 20 verse 10. That’s good news for the future.
But between the first human sin and the Garden of Eden and God casting out Satan.
In the final days, the Bible clearly warns us to be aware of the devil, his power and his intentions.
Ephesians 6 12 says we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against Principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
That’s our reality. And we need to remember that reality because it reminds us that other people aren’t our true enemies.
We often blame those who lie, deceive, divide and destroy for everything wrong in this world.
Yes, the people who do those things must be held accountable and God will do that in his time.
But our true enemy is Satan who uses people for many of his evil actions in a commentary on the books of Ephesians and Philippians.
John Phillips wrote, Satan may use people to persecute us, lie to us, cheat us, hurt us and even kill us.
But our real enemy lurks in the shadows of the unseen world moving people as pawns on the chessboard of time.
As long as we see people as enemies and wrestle against them, we will spend our strength in vain.
Satan uses people to do his dirty work.
Yet the tragedy is we fight against those people instead of fighting against him, we must concentrate our efforts against the being who disguises himself as an angel of light instead of the destroyer.
He is second Corinthians 11 14, the Bible tells us Satan has a strategic plan that is very well thought through, put on the whole armor of God says the word that you may be able to stand against the wilds of the devil.
Ephesians 6 11, the word wilds comes from the Greek word Madia, from which we get our word method.
Did you know Satan has a strategy for you and for me and for every other person on this planet, it’s not a strategy for good.
It’s a strategy for evil before we can learn how to fight Him with the provisions. God grants us.
We need to learn how to recognize a strategy. Let’s look at three common ways.
Satan wages war, deception, division and destruction.
Satan deceives John 8 44 says Satan does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in Him.
When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources for he is a liar and the father of it in some translations of this verse, he is called the father of Lies.
The late evangelist Billy Graham said, the devil can be very convincing.
After all, he doesn’t usually come to us and say, listen, what I’m about to tempt you to do is a lie and will lead you down the path to destruction.
No, he is very clever and he will do everything in his power to convince us that his way is best and God’s way is wrong.
Revelation 12 9 says, Satan deceives the whole world in the last days.
He will bring us the antichrist whose deception will inflict untold damage that day of Christ will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped so that he sits as God in the temple of God showing himself that He is God.
Second Thessalonians, 23 and four. We need to be armed against this deception.
Satan divides one of Satan’s methods of attack against God’s kingdom is to divide us so that we don’t benefit from the unity Christ desires for us.
Paul implored the church at Corinth to remember the value and necessity of unity.
After he’d heard they were having problems with one another. He wrote.
Now I plead with you brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
First Corinthians 1 10. Although it feels like there’s plenty of blame to go around.
Who do you think is truly responsible for the increased division and polarization in our country today, in our world?
And what about our churches where petty arguments and bullheadedness often lead to division and splits which are a terrible witness to those watching from the outside.
The answer to each of those questions is Satan, the ultimate divider.
Paul said to the Romans watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles.
Contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught, avoid them for such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites and by smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive Romans 16, 17 to 18 in the E S V.
Satan destroys during the tribulation, demons will be allowed to leave hell and invade our world to kill and destroy.
We’re told this about the one who will be leading them.
His name in Hebrew is Adan, but in Greek, he has the name Apollon Revelation 9 11, Abba and Apollon both mean destroyer.
In John 10 10, Jesus also calls Satan a thief.
He says the thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy.
Yet in that same verse, Jesus said I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.
Satan’s intent is nothing like Christ’s.
He doesn’t give, he takes he doesn’t preserve, he destroys, he doesn’t increase he lessons, he doesn’t give life.
He sucks it out of us while we must study Satan’s strategies.
The good news is we don’t need to fear him or assign to him more power than he actually has.
Author Randy Alcorn explains when asked to name the opposite of God. People often answer Satan, but that’s false, Michael.
The righteous Archangel is Satan’s opposite. Satan is finite. God is infinite. God has no equal.
Thankfully, we are not alone in our efforts to resist the devil.
God offers us his power in our struggle against Satan.
When we by faith, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, we clothe ourselves with his strength and we turn the tables on our enemy because He Christ who is in you is greater than He Satan who is in the world.
First John four verse four, spiritual weapons are required now that we understand the nature of our enemy.
Let’s get to know the spiritual weapons that will help us stand strong in the battle.
In Ephesians six, we are told that our armor consists of five defensive pieces, the girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of preparation, and the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation.
And one offensive piece, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God verses 14 through 17, with the defensive armor, we are able to resist Satan’s attacks and with the offensive weapon of the word, we are ensured that Satan must flee from the authority of God’s truth.
Let’s look at each of these weapons. One at a time, the belt of Truth.
Paul’s first instruction is to stand there for having girded your waist with truth.
Verse 14, the belt had a central function in Paul’s Day that was vital to most of the soldiers armor and weapons the soldier’s basic attire was a tunic, a shirt like garment that draped from shoulder to knee over this.
He wore metal torso armor and long protective leather strips that hung from his waist to his lower thighs around his entire body.
His belt was a band of wide thick leather with loops and slots that clamped over these items and from it hung a sword, rope, rain sack, money sack and darts.
Everything the soldier needed in hand to hand combat was on his belt right there at his fingertips.
When running the soldier pulled up his tunic and tucked it in his belt, freeing his legs for speed and maneuverability.
This was known as girding one’s loins.
And while the belt had no offensive function of its own, it was the piece of equipment that essentially held everything else together, keeping the soldier ready for anything he might face.
Here’s what this means for us today.
Truth is what fits us for the life of a Christian truth holds everything together and makes us ready at the center of our lives.
We place the truth that is in Jesus Ephesians 4 21. Why is truth to be our primary concern?
Because the weapons of Satan’s major attacks against believers are falsehood and deception. He is the great deceiver.
This is how the Bible describes the devil.
When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources for he is a liar and the father of it John 8 44 the breastplate of righteousness.
The breastplate of the common Roman soldier was a piece of armor made of hardened reinforced leather.
For an officer, the leather was covered with metal plating for extra protection.
The breastplate covered the torso and protected the soldier’s vital organs, especially his heart, a wire without his breastplate was vulnerable and dangerously exposed to the enemy.
In his letter, Paul used this literal breastplate that protected the physical heart as a metaphor, righteousness.
He inferred acts as a breastplate to protect the figurative spiritual heart of the Christian, the spiritual center of one’s life.
How do we put on the breastplate of righteousness? Pastor Irwin Lutz has given us a good illustration.
Imagine a book entitled The Life and Times of Jesus Christ.
It contains all the perfections of Christ, the works.
He did his holy obedience, his purity, his right motives, a beautiful book. Indeed.
Then imagine another book, The Life and Times of insert your name.
It contains all of your sins, immorality, broken promises and betrayal of friends.
It would contain sinful thoughts, mixed motives and acts of disobedience.
Finally, imagine Christ taking both books and stripping them of their covers.
Then he takes the contents of his own book and slips it between the covers of your book.
We pick up the book to examine it. The title reads the Life and Times of your name.
We open the book and turn the pages and find no sins listed.
All that we see is a long list of perfections, obedience, moral purity and perfect love.
The book is so beautiful that even God adores it.
Having received the righteousness of Christ by faith, we can now put on his righteousness in practice.
We can take on the obligation and determination to live as closely to God’s word and as closely to jesus’ example, as we are able, the shoes of the gospel of peace.
Paul describes the third implement of warfare in Ephesians 6 15 stand.
Therefore, he writes having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace.
Verses 14 and 15, the new living translation renders this verse for shoes, put on the peace that comes from the good news so that you will be fully prepared.
The shoes Paul used for his illustration were not the average person’s shoes.
They were open toed leather boots worn by Roman soldiers made with nail studded soles designed to grip the ground.
They resembled our modern cleated football shoes. These boats were not made for running or even for marching.
Instead, they were specifically designed for one primary purpose to give the soldiers stability in hand to hand combat against the enemy.
The Christians of that day would have understood what this meant in hand to hand combat.
The first to accidentally lose his footing is the first to fall.
Just as the Roman soldier studded shoes anchored him firmly to the ground as he faced his opponent.
Peace anchors us firmly to God as we face the troubles and uncertainties that assail us in this fallen world.
The shield of faith.
Now we come to the fourth military implement listed in the closing verses of Ephesians six above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
One verse 16, Paul was describing the large shield. Roman infantry used to protect their whole bodies.
These shields were four ft tall and 2.5 ft wide, made of leather stretched over wood.
They were reinforced with metal at the top and the bottom.
In ancient times, enemy soldiers would dip the tips of their darts or arrows into a solution of lethal poison.
Even if those darts only grazed a soldier’s skin, the poison would spread through his bloodstream, producing a swift and painful death.
On other occasions, the enemy would dip their darts in pitch and ignite them before shooting them into the Roman camp.
Setting it on fire of all the implements of warfare included in Paul’s description of the Roman soldier.
This is the only piece that is given a plainly specified purpose.
Paul tells us that the purpose of the shield of faith is to protect us from all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
According to New Testament scholar Peter o’brien, these fiery darts represent every kind of attack launched by the devil and his hosts against the people of God.
They are as wide ranging as the insidious wilds that promote them and include not only every kind of temptation to ungodly behavior, doubt and despair, but also external assaults such as persecution or false teaching the helmet of salvation, crisscrossing the nations of the Roman Empire.
Throughout his ministry, Paul saw the helmets of Roman soldiers everywhere in the Roman army, helmets of common soldiers were made of hardened leather officers, helmets could be augmented with metal, senior officers, helmets were topped by plumed crests, all serve the same purpose as today’s counterparts.
And that is to protect the skull and brain from blows inflicted by the enemy.
The helmet first became a metaphor for salvation.
In Isaiah 59 17 where it referred to the salvation Christ would bring to humanity.
In Ephesians 6 17, Paul picked up this metaphor when he said to Christians and take the helmet of salvation.
In Ephesians. Paul was writing to believers, people who’d already received salvation.
So the purpose of the spiritual helmet was not to impart salvation, but to protect the believer’s assurance of it.
This assurance gives believers courage to fight their spiritual battles against mankind’s great deceiver.
This idea is reinforced in first Thessalonians 58 where Paul called the helmet, the hope of salvation just as a physical helmet protects a soldier’s brain.
The spiritual helmet protects your mind from the assaults of Satan’s lies, corrupt philosophies and confusion of thought the weapons he uses to undermine your commitment and conviction of security.
In Christ. More specifically, the helmet is a metaphor for the mind of Christ. Paul called Christ.
The wisdom of God first Corinthians 1 24. And the wisdom from God verse 30.
When you put on this helmet, you put on the assurance of your own salvation and you protect your mind from Satan’s deceptions with the wisdom of God.
This wisdom comes to you through the person of Jesus Christ, the sword of the spirit.
The sword refers to a dagger anywhere from 6 to 18 inches long.
It was carried in a sheath or scabbard at the soldier side and used in hand to hand combat.
The sword of the spirit is not a broad sword, you swing or flail around hoping to do damage, it’s incisive, it must hit a vulnerable spot or it won’t be effective.
Ephesians 6 17 leaves no ambiguity as to what the sword metaphor means for the Christian Paul tells us plainly that the sword of the spirit is the word of God.
But there are two Greek terms commonly translated into the English as word. The first is Lagos.
The more common of the two.
It’s used to describe the overarching revelation of God that we have in the Bible.
It’s an all encompassing term denoting the whole of the Bible, what we often call God’s word, the Bible in its totality is the logos of God as in, remember those who rule over you who have spoken the word or Lagos of God to you, Hebrews 13 7.
But Lagos is not the word we find in Ephesians 6 17, the Greek word for word in Ephesians 617 is Rama.
The Rama of God means a saying of God. We could translate the verse this way.
Take the sword of the spirit, which is a saying of God.
Now, the difference between the Lagos of God and the Rama of God is critical to our understanding of this weapon.
Lagos refers to the complete revelation of what God has said in the Bible.
But Rama means a specific saying of God, a passage or verse drawn from the whole that has special application to an immediate situation.
Ray demon has a helpful word concerning the way the sword of the spirit works in our lives.
He wrote sometimes when you are reading a passage of scripture, the words seem suddenly to come alive to take on flesh and bones and leap off the page at you or grow eyes that follow you around everywhere you go or develop a voice that echoes in your ears until you can’t get away from it.
This is the Rama of God, the sayings of God that strike home like arrows to the heart.
This is the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God prayer.
There is another spiritual weapon we have at our disposal. In the war against evil prayer.
In Ephesians 6 10 through 18, Paul instructed us to put on the armor of the Lord so that we might stand against the whiles and strategies of the enemy.
Now we come to the postscript of this famous section of scripture, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.
Verse 18, as someone once said, praying always means the telephone line to heaven is always open.
It doesn’t mean you’re talking on it every second of the day, but it does mean it’s an open line ready to be used.
Praying always is the same as Paul’s words.
Pray without ceasing in first Thessalonians 5 17 or Jesus words in Luke 18, 1, that men ought always to pray.
It doesn’t mean a continual stream of mumbling prayers under your breath to God.
Think of it more as a continuing conversation in which one commits to God all the concerns of the day as well as words of thanks and praise with all kinds of prayers on an ongoing basis.
Professor Donald Whitney of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary offers excellent advice.
He writes, if you’ve ever learned a foreign language, you know that you learn it best when you actually have to speak it.
And the same is true with the foreign language of prayer.
There are many good resources for learning how to pray, but the best way to learn how to pray is to pray.
Pastor and author Jack Taylor describes, for us one practical way we can put on the Christ’s armor through this prayer which he prays every morning as he prepares for the day ahead.
I choose now to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.
I confess that I am in the Lord and thus am located in the power of his might.
I choose to put on the whole armor that God has provided me.
In order that I might stand against the methods of the enemy.
I know that the battle is not with flesh and blood, but against Principalities, powers, rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places.
Therefore, I stand to accept the armor which is mine in Jesus.
I put on the breastplate of righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is made unto me, righteousness.
I am made righteous in him. I put on the girdle of truth.
I accept the fact that Jesus is truth and that truth has made me free.
I refuse deception and I accept the truth. I slip into the footwear of preparation in the gospel.
I am now ready to walk with him. I put on the helmet of salvation.
The certainty of my salvation covers and protects my mind and my outlook. I stand in that certainty.
Now I take up the shield of faith.
I now trust in the trustworthiness of God, I am covered from head to toe so that Satan’s fiery darts cannot touch me.
I now take my offensive weapon, the word of God declaring it to be true without error, reliable, powerful and alive God’s word to me.
And now I am dressed from head to foot for battle more than conquerors.
When you look back at the major wars that have been fought throughout history, there is almost always a single battle or event that served as the turning point, a specific decisive moment that ultimately led to victory or defeat.
For example, most historians agree that the battle of Gettysburg was the turning point in the American civil war.
The North victory in that battle was the key to victory in the war.
Similarly, the Allied forces surprise invasion of Normandy on D day was the beginning of the end of World War II.
As members of God’s Kingdom, we have the comfort of knowing that a similar turning point has already taken place in the war between Satan and God.
That turning point was the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Ever since that moment, God’s victory has been assured and Satan knows it.
I remember hearing a story about Napoleon Bonaparte during his attempt to conquer every civilization in the known world while meeting with his various lieutenants.
He spread out a large map of the world and pointed to a single spot, sir.
He said, if it were not for that red spot. I could conquer the world.
That red spot represented Great Britain, the same nation whose armies ultimately defeated Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo.
In a similar way, I can imagine Satan surrounded by his minions and talking about his plans for spiritual domination.
I can see our enemy pointing to the hilltop of Calvary where Jesus blood was spilled and I can hear him say if it were not for that red spot, I could rule the world.
And that red spot is what has made all the difference in our spiritual struggle against evil.
The truth is that we don’t have to live in fear of Satan, our enemy.
Nor do we have to live in fear of the demons at his command.
All we must do as soldiers in God’s army is take our place in the spiritual battle to which we have been called and stand.
And that’s the wonderful news we can stand because we’ve been armed with the truth that God’s ultimate victory over Satan has already been won right now.
You and I are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
And to that, I say thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, first Corinthians 15 57.