2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Today God leads me to begin a new series of messages on spiritual warfare, a subject that impacts every believer world-wide. In this country our complacency with regard to our freedoms has been seriously shaken with the attacks on 9-11-01 on the World Trade Center in NYC and the Pentagon. The plane crashes that took place that day, including the one in PA made us realize that the forces of evil are real and that we are their target. When one spends every day in the Scriptures and believes what is there on the printed page of the Bible, he can see this attack is part of a larger war that rages daily between the forces of a God-centered belief system and the forces of a man-centered one. The latter has it's origin with the evil of the adversary and his followers. Our president speaks of us being at war now, and with troops battling against Osama bin Laden's El Aqaeda and the Taliban, he speaks the truth. But the spiritual war has been going on ever since God cast his once-beloved chief angel in charge of worship, Lucifer, along with one third of the heavenly host out of heaven. IS 14: 11-15, "You [Lucifer] used to be honored with the music of harps; but now here you are in the world of the dead. You lie on a bed of maggots and are covered with a blanket of worms. King of Babylon, bright morning star, you have fallen from heaven! In the past you conquered nations, but now you have been thrown to the ground. You were determined to climb up to heaven and to place your throne above the highest stars. You thought you would sit like a king on that mountain in the north where the gods assemble. You said you would climb to the tops of the clouds and be like the Almighty. But instead, you have been brought down to the deepest part of the world of the dead." The war, both physical and spiritual, is being waged, and we need to be aware of it. We have been called to battle spiritual warfare, because we are believers. But that call has not come from God without His equipping us for victory through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
What I believe the Lord wants me to convey in this series is a better approximation of His understanding of how to recognize spiritual warfare, why the devil was created, if we need to fear, how to avoid getting sucked in to Satan's lies, how God helps us wage spiritual warfare, if Satan can be defeated, how has God equipped us for this battle, and how to wage this battle against the powers of evil with success. Before we can begin this series of devotions successfully, we need to pray.
PRAYER: O Lord, we come to you as sinners in need of Your direction and of emptying our spiritual vessels of human agendas, so Your Spirit can fill them and be in control of our thoughts, decisions, actions, and openness to effective discipleship. To wage the war against the forces of evil, we need to present ourselves to you and before each task You command us to do, ask for the Holy Spirit to be in control, directing our lives. We dedicate ourselves to spending time with you every day through studying Your word, obeying Your commands and those of the Son, and remaining connected to you in prayer. You have called us to faith, trust, and obedience not as an act of Your ego, but instead, to bless us with the hope of the resurrection and with eternal life. That call to faith is a privilege balanced by responsibilities. The latter are to wage spiritual warfare using the tools You gave us, endure in our faith over the temptations and pain the adversary sends us, and to spread our faith in You to others who desperately need to find salvation. Salvation can only come from You through our faith in Your Son. We come to Your altar in humility to confess our sin, to present ourselves to You, to ask that You fill us with the Holy Spirit, and to offer You our adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, honor, glory, trust, obedience, praise, and profound thanksgiving for being the Lord of our lives. We also appeal to You to rebuke Satan and his followers at every turn, thwarting their efforts against all that is righteous. In Christ's name, amen.
Before we can wage spiritual warfare effectively, we need to recognize what it is. To do that, we need to understand that we were called before that foundation of the world to have faith and be saved. As I have said in previous messages, Judao-Christianity is the only faith system that believes that the One and only Deity initiated this call to come to Him to us while we were still His enemies. All other faiths believe that mankind has to reach up to God first. Many times I have cited COL 1: 15-20 and 1 PET 1: 20-21 as evidence that there was a pre-Creation council in heaven at which God determined that His Son, Jesus Christ, would be sent to earth for His incarnation and then become a once-for-all, sufficient sin-sacrifice on the cross, so that mankind would have the opportunity to be saved. RO 8: 30, "And so those whom God set apart, He called, and those He called, He put right with Himself, and He shared His glory with them." In a section of his little book, the minor prophet Joel, spoke about the Day of the Lord. JL 2: 32, "But all who ask the Lord for help will be saved. As the Lord has said, 'Some in Jerusalem will escape; those whom I choose will survive.'" I realize that this Scripture is directed at Jews being granted entrance into God's Kingdom for coming to faith. But the same message is expressed under the new covenant of Grace to all, Jews and Gentiles alike, who come to faith in RO 10:11-13. "The Scripture [IS 28: 16] says, 'Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed,' This includes everyone, because there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles; God is the same Lord of all and richly blesses all who call to Him. As the Scripture [JL 2: 32] says, 'Everyone who calls out to the Lord for help will be saved.'"
Not only are we called to have faith and have been since before the Creation, but we are given specific direction on how to conduct our lives as faithful people. 1 THESS 2: 12, "We encouraged you, we comforted you, and we kept urging you to live the kind of life that pleases God, Who calls you to share in His own Kingdom and glory." MT 22: 37-40, "Jesus answered, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and the most important commandment. The second most important commandment is like it: 'Love your neighbor as you love yourself.' The whole Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets depend on these two commandments."
Those people who were chosen to come to faith are also given God's promise of protection. This promise didn't include avoidance from suffering or from having to wage spiritual warfare, but it did promise survival and protection. Look at these citations from the Olivet discourse which reveal this. MT 24: 21-22, 24, & 31, "For the trouble at that time [referring to the Tribulation] will be far more terrible than any there has ever been, from the beginning of the world to this very day. Nor will there ever be anything like it again. But God has already reduced the number of days; had He not done so, nobody would survive. For the sake of His chosen people, however, God will reduce the days...For false Messiahs and false prophets will appear; they will perform great miracles and wonders in order to deceive even God's chosen people, if possible....The great trumpet will sound, and He will send out His angels to the four corners of the earth, and they will gather His chosen people from one end of the world to the other." We who believe have every reason to find this comforting, because God never lies as Satan does.
Tomorrow, I will complete looking at some of the citations that help we who believe to better understand our loving Abba's call to faith. Then, we will begin looking at some of Satan's arrows in an effort to better recognize spiritual warfare when we are faced with it. In the meanwhile, it is my understanding from God that the best way we can have the discernment we need to tell the truth from a lie is to keep delving into His word daily and remain in active contact with Him through prayer as the Lord Jesus Christ always did. Our God loves each one of us and knows the content of our hearts. He is always there for us, and we must call on Him often. His help leads to protection and salvation.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn