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Enforcing Satans defeat
By
Charlie Rogers ministries
Introduction
Have you ever
asked yourself, "Is this all there is to being saved?" I
once asked that same question. The answer is no! The
same one who would convince you that there is nothing
more to being a Christian is the same one who will
convince you of other false things. It’s very obvious in
the Word of God that life is not just about being saved.
That’s not the perfect will of God. The perfect will of
God is that you take your vengeance out on the devil,
and through that you lay up fruit to your account in
heaven.
7 In
Him we have redemption through His blood, the
forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches
of His grace 8 which He lavished on
us. In all wisdom and insight 9 He
made known to us the mystery of His will, according to
His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with
a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of
the times, that is, the summing up of all things in
Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.
In Him 11 also we have obtained an
inheritance, having been predestined according to His
purpose who works all things after the counsel of His
will,
Eph 1:7-11
(NASB)
Did you
know that He has a will for your life? Did you know that
God has a perfect plan for each person reading this? You
may not be called to the position that I am, but you’re
called. He has a divine purpose for you. It’s up to you
to fulfill it. You start by making the decision. Do I
just want to be saved or do I want to go on with the
perfect will of God?
Resisting
the Enemy Begins with You
I’ve found
the further you move into God the more He tells you
about the enemy. Be ready for this. When you move into
God and into your calling, He tells you more about how
Satan comes to neutralize you and keep you from proving
the perfect will of God in your life.
Knowing Your
Enemy
It is
important that you understand your enemy’s tactics.
Satan will come like a thief in the night seeking whom
he may devour. He will use whatever he can to keep you
from fulfilling your calling. His only weapons against
you, however, are things inside you that are not of God.
Satan can only use what is in you to turn you away from
the perfect will of God. He manipulates you using the
ungodly things in your life to lead you off the path God
has chosen. It is not Satan that actually destroys you.
In essence, you become your own destruction.
You will
learn how Satan attacks a move of God. Satan has certain
behaviors that are common to all attacks. For instance,
you don’t see the enemy attack in the middle of a big
move of God. Instead he’ll work along the outer fringes,
anywhere that he can, seeking whom he may devour. The
enemy comes in to see if he can lure one person away
with some temptation or deception. He preys on people
who don’t fully submit themselves. He is always around
the outer fringes seeking anyone who he can influence
and use. The more you move into God the more you will
understand and identify when Satan attacks like this.
You can
watch the enemy’s work manifest in a person’s behavior.
Satan accentuates character flaws that cause people to
lie and torment others. If there is a component of a
person’s character that is ungodly, it is a weapon for
Satan to use against them. The enemy will use these
weapons to neutralize ministries, destroy people, and
sometimes even steal their salvation.
There is a
definite pattern that the enemy uses to keep people from
fulfilling the perfect will of God. When a person starts
to seek more of God through prayer and fasting, Satan
brings his heaviest attacks. Fortunately, Satan cannot
succeed unless he finds something inside of you to use.
Many people have a hard time accepting this message.
People don’t want to accept this level of
accountability. If Satan devours you, he is victorious.
The only way Satan can have a victory is if you give it
to him. Everything you need to enforce the devil’s
defeat was given to you through the grace of God. You
cannot fail!
I’ve seen
seemingly strong Christians come and go. Many of them
started out trying to fulfill their calling and became
neutralized, sitting in one spot, not doing anything for
God and barely making it to church on Sunday.
Just as God
has a plan, Satan has a plan over every country, every
area, every city, every group, and every individual.
It’s his war machine that Paul describes in Ephesians
6:12. Nothing happens by chance. Satan has a design. He
has a plan of destruction. He would like to steal your
salvation, kill you and take you to hell with him. How
does he do this? He uses your cares against you. Don’t
underestimate him.
Stopping The Thief From Devouring You
The War
Machine
12 For
our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against
the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces
of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of
wickedness in the heavenly places.
Eph 6:12 (NASB)
Satan
doesn’t do anything. He has somebody that searches for
Christians that can be devoured. He has a well-oiled
machine. He has a war machine. He describes it in the
previous verse. I will define it piece by piece. Powers
are assignments against areas. Rulers of the darkness of
this age are over cities. They are the strong men that
make sure your church does not see revival. Rulers of
the darkness of this age are devils that Satan sends in
when good things are happening to try and divide a
church. They try to steal the revival that was given to
the church two thousand years ago.
Spiritual
wickedness in heavenly places describes low-level devils
like bitterness, envy, jealousy, strife, division, and
unforgiveness. He’ll use those low-level devils to try
and cause strife in the church. If that doesn’t work,
the strong man is sent to prevent revival.
Some people
are so close to God that if they quit right now, Satan
would still try to destroy them. Some of you are too
dangerous to him. There is always danger of you turning
back towards the plan of God and begin to walk in it
again.
Many times
Satan doesn’t need to send the strong man throughout the
churches. There’s enough spiritual wickedness already
operating there. He doesn’t have to send the strong man
when the whole church is being controlled by spiritual
wickedness in high places. If that person or group of
people begins to turn toward prayer and fasting, and
wanting more of God, then he’s going to send an
assignment of the strong man.
Spiritual
wickedness can vary. For some it may be care, for others
it may be lusts. For others it may be love of money and
greed. People who are consumed with greed might be very
rich and unwilling to serve the gospel. The
deceitfulness of riches has taken them out. Also poverty
can take them out when people think it’s godly or humble
not to have lots of money. Satan is devouring them
because they have something for him to use. Remember, he
can only devour you if you’ve got something in your life
that he can grab on to. He’s a defeated foe. We’re here
to enforce the defeat of Satan. We can’t enforce the
defeat of Satan if we can’t even enforce the defeat of
the spiritual wickedness.
The book of
Jude states there are ungodly people that have crept in
to the body of Christ. Wouldn’t you agree that today
some churches are allowing ungodly men to creep in? Just
look at some of the people that are being ordained in
some of today’s churches? Maybe the Book of Jude was
written for today.
12 These
are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts
when they feast with you without fear, caring for
themselves; clouds without water, carried along by
winds; autumn trees without fruit,
Jude 1:12
(NASB)
You are
holding communion with these ungodly people. You are
ignoring the sin that they’ve committed. You are
accepting their lifestyle by the grace of God. They’re
self-serving, self-exalting and self-worshipping, They
only think of themselves. They are clouds without water.
In other words, when it comes time for the anointing to
rain down, they are dry. They look good but they have no
substance. They’re spots in your love feast, carried
about by the winds, laid out on trees without fruit,
twice dead, pulled up by the root. They’ve accepted a
lifestyle of getting out of the body of Christ, crawling
back in, then falling back into flesh. They try to walk
in both kingdoms, and convince themselves that it’s all
right.
17 But
you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were
spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus
Christ, 18 that they were saying to
you, ``In the last time there will be mockers, following
after their own ungodly lusts.'' 19 These
are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded,
devoid, of the Spirit.
Jude
1:17-19 (NASB)
Every
movement, every decision, every reaction, and every word
out of their mouths are ruled by the senses instead of
their born again spirit. These people are ruled by
circumstances. What their eyes see and what their
natural mind perceives rule them.
20 But
you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy
faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,
Jude 1:20
(NASB)
In other words,
you can’t keep yourselves in the grace of God unless you
build yourself up on your most holy faith by praying in
the spirit. It delivers you unto the love of God. It
moves you. It changes your life. You leave behind the
sense-ruled realm. You leave behind the things of the
soul and of the flesh that dictate your actions. Those
things no longer dominate you.
22 And
have mercy on some, who are doubting; 23 save
others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have
mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the
flesh.
Jude
1:22-23 (NASB)
How can you
serve God without the Holy Spirit? How can you even be a
vessel of God unless you turn yourself over to the Holy
Spirit? How will you keep from being deceived and
devoured like these spots of the love feasts of the
early days? Some have crept in and made a mockery of the
grace of God. The same Holy Spirit that brought them up
out of that sense ruled realm brings you out of it too.
The enemy’s
job is to steal, to kill, and to destroy the works of
God that could be done through you. He goes about
seeking someone whom he may devour at some part of his
or her life that he may devour. If he can find those
spots in your life he’ll start devouring you. Then all
of a sudden you become a grumbler and complainer. All of
a sudden you start justifying and excusing things in
your life that are not of God. You can become a spot
upon the love feast of the body of Christ. This is what
Jude is warning us about. People like this go back to
the flesh and the law and the world. They sway back and
forth between their flesh and Christ. They justify their
behavior through the grace of God. When that evil day
comes and you’ll have nothing to stand on. When your
evil day comes, regardless of what it is, you won’t have
the tools and the things in the word of God that are
necessary overcome. You won’t have the faith in God
necessary to withstand the evil day. That is Satan’s
ultimate plan.
The Victory
God will
also show you that you already have the victory. You’ll
learn that all the necessary equipment has been given to
you to enforce Satan’s defeat. There is only one way to
stop the enemy from using you against yourself. You must
submit yourself to God. Let him transform those things
inside you that are not part of His image. When you let
Him change those things, you are proving the perfect
will of God in your life. By proving the perfect will of
God, you are doing what you’re called to do. You are
enforcing Satan’s defeat.
Don’t wait
for the victory. He already gave the victory! Everyone
is called to enforce Satan’s defeat. God has already
given you the victory over him. If Satan devours you,
you give him the victory. Resist the enemy steadfast in
the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are
experienced by your brotherhood in the world. In other
words your problems aren’t unique. Satan doesn’t have
any new tricks. No matter what the problem is, somebody
else has faced it before.
6 And
without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who
comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a
rewarder of those who seek Him.
Heb 11:6
(NASB)
Without
faith it is impossible to please God. Do you want more
faith? Seek the author and the finisher of your faith!
His name is the Lord Jesus Christ! He’s a rewarder of
those that diligently seek Him.
The devil
has a plan for every angle. He has no new tricks, but
don’t shortchange him. He’s been studying us for
thousands of years. He knows what works against us.
He’ll go after anything in your life that he can use to
destroy you. Satan is good at what he does. You can’t
rest in the fact that Satan is a defeated foe. That’s
not what Jesus said.
10 The
thief comes only, to steal and kill and destroy; I came
that they may have life, and have
it abundantly.
John 10:10
(NASB)
Fortunately, He sent us the Holy Spirit. He’ll help you,
comfort you and guide you into all truth. You don’t have
to stay in deception. You don’t have to be deceived for
the next thirty years like you were the last thirty
years. You can walk out of it. But there’s just one
problem. You must abide in Him to have that anointing;
you cannot live how you have lived. You cannot abide in
the world for 23 hours a day, and in Him 1 hour a day.
You must live it.
Submitting
To God
I can’t
resist the devil alone. Only when I walk closer to God
and submit myself to Him do I have what it takes to
resist Satan.
Often
people in healing lines will say, "I’m standing against
this disease.
I ask,
"You’re standing? What are you standing with?"
Usually
they reply, "Well, I don’t know but I am standing." They
are not standing. They are wishing. If you want to stand
against the enemy, you must submit yourself to God. To
submit yourself to God you must know Him. The best way
to get to know God is through His Word.
Submitting
yourself to God means striving to know Him and His will
for you. The good news is He has given us everything we
need to know when we submit ourselves in His Word. We
have everything we need to resist Satan in any area in
which he may attack. You must simply draw upon the
things in His Word. If you aren’t happy with something
in your character, submit to God’s image. Find God’s
character in His Word. If you have the problem with your
character of no one being able to trust you, get into
the Word and find out what the image of Christ is
concerning trust. The Word of God says that if you
submit to God and resist the enemy he’ll flee. He has no
choice.
10 Finally,
be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might
Eph 6:10
(NASB)
Notice that
He divides this verse into two mandates. Be strong in
the Lord and be strong in His power and His might. Just
being saved isn’t enough. You must also have that power
working in your life. You can be saved and cancer can
come upon you and take you to heaven. You might get a
trip to heaven, but you won’t finish the work God has
planned for your life. You may get to heaven but at what
cost? Is it worth going to heaven early if Satan’s
defeat is not enforced and more souls are lost?
7 Submit
therefore to God. Resist
the devil
and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near
to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands,
you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
James 4:7-8
(NASB)
This is
just like God. He tells you exactly how to resist the
enemy. Submit to God. When you submit to God and draw
near to Him, you begin to operate in His grace. His
grace is necessary to resist Satan and enforce his
defeat.
Believers
often say, "I resisted the devil and the torment was
worse. I thought the torment was bad before I started.
When I submitted to God the torment increased." This can
be expected when you do not continually submit yourself.
You need to submit to God for a little longer than 5
minutes. You need to submit to God more than 1 day. If
you continually submit yourself, Satan has no choice but
to flee. It is not good enough to know that the Word of
God is true. It is not enough to know that Jesus gave
you all authority over darkness. You must put the Word
inside you and practice that authority. You need
something to pull upon when the enemy comes to test your
ground. You need to be able to discern that he is
coming. Otherwise, you will walk in deception, trying to
justify those ungodly things in your life. As long as
you can justify ungodly things in your life you are not
able to enforce Satan’s defeat. You are not able to do
what you are called to do.
To take
full advantage of God you must be humble. To be humble
is to be teachable and yielding. God resists the proud.
If you want to submit yourself to God you must surrender
your pride and be humble. Humble yourself with the Word
of God and to the principles that He’s given you to help
you transform. Yield yourself to the hand of God that He
may mold you, shape you and eventually exalt you to that
position where He wants you to be.
5 You
younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and
all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one
another, for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES
GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.
1 Peter 5:5 (NASB)
You must
say, "If there is any pride in my life I want it out."
Then the Lord will begin shining the light on the pride.
He will give you a chance to break it with His power. As
long as you hate it and surrender to Him, He will walk
through hell with you and shine the light on it every
time it pops up, giving you the power to overcome. God
resists the proud but He gives grace to the humble. This
grace is a necessary component to resisting Satan.
The Lord
desires for you to walk in all of the anointing He has
for you. You determine how much anointing in which you
walk. You determine it by how much you submit yourself
to God for transformation. Your anointing is determined
by how often you utilize the principles you are given in
the Word of God such as prayer, fasting, worship,
meditation and confession.
Pride will
destroy you. The enemy will not need to do much because
you will destroy yourself with pride. My desire is that
every bit of the mind of Christ comes into my life and
is manifested outwardly. The more of Christ that is
manifested in my life, the more He can exalt Himself in
me. Whenever you begin to take things into your own
hands, you are not only making a false exaltation in
your life, but you’re opening yourself up for the enemy
to come in and devour you.
You must be
humble as to not disturb God’s timing. The timing of
the Lord is everything. You can have the mind of the
Lord and have the will of God but it doesn’t stop there.
If you will humble yourself under the hand of the Lord
in due season He will exalt you.
6 Therefore
humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He
may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting
all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.
1 Peter
5:6-7 (NASB)
Casting Your
Cares
Casting
cares on God is when the peace of God comes in and
begins to consume your life. Then all dependency in
every situation, whether it is finances, family, health,
or ministries is cast upon Him. There are several things
you can do to begin casting your cares on Him. Prayer,
fasting, worship, meditation and confession of the Word
of God are different ways you can prepare yourself to
cast your cares on Him. You must take advantage of these
tools to cast your cares, submit to God, and resist the
enemy.
How do you
know what you have at your disposal if you haven’t read
and meditated the Word of God? How can you resist Satan
without confessing the Word of God? How can the Word
become a part of you? How can you resist the enemy if
you have nothing to resist him with? You cannot walk in
the undevourable peace of God if you don’t strive to
know God’s mind and God’s will.
Many
ungodly things in your soul (such as character flaws)
are cares. Self-exaltation is a care. Think about it.
You are taking on the care of whether you’re going to
advance or not. You’re pushing yourself into a position
that isn’t for you. You’re pushing yourself into an area
which you have not walked and in which God has not
exalted you. You’re taking on that care. You are trying
to be God by exalting yourself.
Whenever
you cast your cares on Him you take the principles in
the Word of God and begin to let Him change those areas
of your life. Then that care that was in your soul (that
ungodly thing that Satan uses to destroy you) is not
there for the enemy to manipulate. When it is not there
for him to manipulate, you begin to walk in the peace of
God in that area. That peace of God is another way you
resist the enemy and enforce his defeat.
When you
have peace you can begin to receive His fullness. He
wants you to be anointed so He can use you to flow
through and touch others. You can become that apple tree
for others to pick from. If you’ll just begin to turn
yourselves over to Him, He’ll begin to change you and
start producing the fruit that is necessary to touch
others.
Things Don’t
Just Happen
Learn to
Forgive
Do you know
that you cannot receive anything if you’re walking in
unforgiveness? You cannot be blessed if you cannot
forgive. You can’t ask God to give you something that
was bought with the blood of Jesus unless you can
forgive. He did not die just for you. He died for that
person you are holding a grudge against too. He died for
you even though you didn’t love Him. He loved you.
Christ bought all of our forgiveness. No person has the
right to withhold it from another.
When you
ask God to touch your life, the Holy Spirit illuminates
unforgiveness in your heart. Then we get to make a
decision whether we can take that thing, surrender it to
the cross and go on, or whether we are going to continue
to justify it.
God cannot
bless anything that you continue to justify. That’s why
submitting yourself to God is so important. You can be
walking in total unforgiveness, but if the Holy Spirit
comes and lays it out, you must surrender.
Worship
Do you know
that worship will carry you through the worst times?
Worship also transforms you. If you are going through
some bad times and you don’t even feel like praying you
can worship.
15 Therefore
be careful, how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise,
16 making the most of your time,
because the days are evil. 17 So,
then, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of
the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk
with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with
the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and
making melody with your heart to the Lord; 20 always
giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;
Eph 5:15-20
(NASB)
In this
verse the Word of God tells that there will be evil
days. It also tells how to survive and break through any
attack of the enemy. Worship will help you break that
onslaught of the enemy. It will carry you through to the
point that you are back praying again. It can keep you
from being neutralized. We are to saturate, submerse
ourselves with the presence of God that we will not only
survive Satan’s evil onslaught but come out victorious.
Fasting
Through the
power of the Holy Spirit you can begin to put to death
things in your life through fasting. Fasting helps us
break off doubt and unbelief in our lives that we didn’t
realize was there. Fasting brings us face to face with
ourselves and puts to death those things that are
holding us back.
Praying in
Other Tongues
When you
begin to pray in other tongues, you pray down the
mysteries of God into your life. You are praying down
the mind of Christ, everything Christ is to you and
everything He can be through you. If you want to know
the plan of God, let the Holy Spirit show you. Only the
third person of the Godhead can take you into the
perfect plan of God. His name is the Holy Spirit.
Offer
yourself to Him and say, "I want your perfect plan in my
life." Begin to pray in other tongues. Let the Holy
Spirit come and reveal things time after time and exalt
you above those things in your life that you don’t like.
I am not talking about a one-time experience of speaking
in tongues. I am talking about a way of life!
14 For
this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from
whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its
name, 16 that He would grant you,
according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened
with power through His Spirit in the inner man,
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts
through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded
in love, 18 may be able to comprehend
with all the saints what is the breadth and length and
height and depth, 19 and to know the
love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may
be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Eph 3:14-19
(NASB)
Pray this
prayer in Ephesians. Meditate on it. Get all you can out
of it through the Spirit of God. You will be
strengthened through His spirit in the inner man. You
don’t want your flesh to be strengthened. It is already
strong enough. The flesh needs to be put in its place.
The only way you can do that is by giving that place for
your spirit man to rise. Strengthen your inner man by
the Spirit of God, according to the power that works
within. You want to become less devour able? Be filled
with the fullness of God according to the power that
works within. Do not settle for less when you could have
more.
You can’t
help, but begin to change, little by little, when you
offer yourself over to the third person of the Godhead
and let Him begin to do your praying for you. Let Him
begin to build you up on your most Holy Faith, leaving
behind the lust of the flesh. He’ll help you leave it
behind and take you to a higher place. God will begin to
do the exalting. You won’t have to exalt yourself any
longer. All you have to do is submit yourself unto God;
the devil will begin to flee in areas that he hadn’t
fled before, because he could find nothing there to gain
a foothold.
Meditation
and Confession
For though
we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the
flesh, 4 for the weapons of our
warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for
the destruction of fortresses. 5 We
are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised
up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every
thought captive to the obedience of Christ,
2 Cor
10:3-5 (NASB)
Not only do
wrong thought patterns and arguments of the mind have to
be torn down, but you have to have something to tear
these patterns down with which is the word of God. They
then have to be replaced with truth, how God thinks.
This is how confession and meditation of God’s word
plays a big role in enforcing Satan’s defeat. God’s word
is truth; wrong thinking and false doctrine can all be
replaced with His word. Our lives and thought patterns
must be brought into captivity to obedience of the mind
of Christ.
Jesus
speaking in Mark 4: 14 "The sower sows the word."
20 ``And
those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good
soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear
fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.''
Mark 4:20
(NASB)
The word of
God is the thing that produces fruit in our lives. We
receive the word of God and it produces 30, 60 and 100
fold. It’s the Word that causes a harvest after it is
sown in our life. We control this process by using
meditation and confession of His word as part of the
weapons of our warfare. We stop Satan by replacing the
strongholds in our minds with the word of God.
The Grace of
God
The grace
of God is the power to get rid of things in you that are
not of God. His grace is sufficient to walk with you and
take you through to victory. His grace will be with you
as long as you hate the ungodly things in your spirit
and want them out of your life.
Every godly
thing in our lives comes by His grace. All of these
things (peace, wisdom, etc.) have been given to us
freely. Everything that you could not earn, that was
given to you as a gift, can be activated in your life if
you submit yourself to God. Every time that you fall,
the grace of God is going to lift you up and set you
back on track. You cannot fail.
Have you
ever said, "Everyone is going to have to accept me like
I am?" When you say things like that, what you actually
mean is, "Just because I’m self-exalting, make a fool of
myself and I destroy other people’s lives, they’re going
to have to accept me."
The grace
of God is not with you. He said He gives grace to the
humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty
hand of God that He may exalt you in due time. Most
believers have trouble with that concept. They want to
be on top right away. Actually, if they make it to the
top under their own hand, they’re opening themselves up
for destruction by taking on that care. If God doesn’t
do the exalting it can be taken away. He says if you’ll
humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. He will
lift you up.
You must
also understand why the grace isn’t already activated in
your life. No matter what your circumstances might be,
if there is torment in your life, you have not activated
His grace in that area. God is not to blame for this.
God is not the one that has moved out of focus. He’s not
the one that has stepped off the path and lost sight of
your calling. We are the ones that step off the path. We
must walk closer to Him first. If we move off the path
and stop drawing near to God we are unable to resist the
enemy. Consequently, Satan will not flee.
The
problems start when you justify things, ungodly things,
and use His grace like a pill that cures sin. His grace
is not a little pill that allows you to go ahead and
sin. As long as you hate your sin and you want it out of
your life, He will walk through everything with you
until you can walk out of sin. You must hate the sin as
much as He does.
The Armor of
God
For our
struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the
rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of
this darkness, against the spiritual forces of
wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore,
take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able
to resist in the evil day, and having done everything,
to stand firm.
Eph 6:12-13
(NASB)
The phrase
"evil day" might be different for you than it is for
somebody else. A Pastor friend from Peru faced his evil
day. And time after time, the devil sent guerrillas to
try to destroy him and try to cause him to turn against
Jesus. They would put a gun to his head and tell him to
deny Jesus and spit on his Bible. He refused. That was
his evil day. He ended up getting most of them saved.
Your evil
day might be heart disease. It might be cancer. Your
evil day might be the bankruptcy of your emotions, or
bankruptcy of your finances. Paul said to put on the
armor of God, that when that evil day comes you’d be
able to stand. You’ll be able to withstand during that
evil day.
11 Put
on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to
stand firm against the wiles of the devil.
Eph 6:11
(NASB)
The word
"wiles" means constant penetration and pressure. It’s
the kind of pressure that occurs when a waterfall hits a
rock in the same place with a drop of water every second
of the day. Eventually the rock will be penetrated by
water. The biggest problem that we have is we wait until
the enemy comes to see if we can be devoured, and then
we decide it’s time to walk into the armor of God. But
God said, "You’ll be able to withstand in this evil day
having put on the armor." Do you know that the armor of
God is not standing up in the morning, getting out of
bed, and putting on the helmet of salvation?
Don’t wait
for your evil day. Begin to walk into the armor of God
right now. Begin to walk into that place in Him before
your evil day comes. The word of God is not just
something to get us out of a bind; it’s a way of life.
Putting on
the armor of God facilitates a personal relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ. As long as you head toward a
personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, you
will not fail. It doesn’t matter what your call is. It
doesn’t matter what you need to be delivered from. As
you keep the focus of a personal relationship with the
Lord Jesus Christ, you can withstand your evil day.
God’s grace has provided all that is necessary in the
Word.
Many people
teach that putting on the Armor of God is something you
do before you leave the house in the morning. You gird
your waste with truth, put on the helmet of salvation
and go to work. This teaching takes away from what God
is trying to tell us. The armor of God is
something you always have at your disposal. It is a way
of life; it’s a walk with God. If you want to
survive the enemy’s war machine, you must always walk in
the armor.
What is
your evil day? Well, for one person it might be that
when cancer comes for your life. For another, it might
be when divorce comes to their life. Bankruptcy, a
nervous breakdown or any other personal crisis that
comes to challenge your ground can be your evil day.
Before that evil day comes, take up this armor that will
stop the wiles, the war machine of Satan.
14 Stand
firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and
HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS,
Eph 6:14
(NASB)
It’s
interesting that he mentions girding your loins with
truth before the rest. There is a reason for this.
The reason soldiers gird their waist is to stop the
penetration of a spear, or in modern days, a bullet. A
spear in the stomach was guaranteed to bring a slow
painful death. Nobody could do anything for you. He
wants you to walk in truth. You don’t have to walk into
a lie. You don’t have to be a part of a lie. It isn’t
just standing up in the morning and girding my waist
about with truth. It isn’t about going through those
motions and then walking out of the house. He wants you
to walk and live in truth.
Why would
he make a correlation with girding your waist in truth?
Because lies last a long time. A lie from five years ago
can have a slow agonizing death. It might not come to
fruitation until ten years later. To gird your waste
with truth is to stop lying and begin to walk in truth
in every aspect of your life.
Next he
mentions the Breastplate of Righteousness. Having put on
the breastplate of righteousness, begin to walk in the
righteousness of God. Submit to God. Begin to seek the
Kingdom of God and His right standing, meaning the right
standing of God for you spirit, soul and body. His
righteousness gives you the right to walk in health and
peace of mind. His righteousness is that you have been
given in the word of truth and how to get it inside you.
15 and
having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL
OF PEACE;
Eph 6:14-15
(NASB)
You can
walk through anything that hell throws at you as long as
you have the peace of God. When the devil comes, you
will walk through it because of the peace. You are able
to walk in peace, regardless of the circumstances,
regardless of the devourer and his scheme. You won’t
take on the care, but you’ll walk in the peace of God.
You will withstand that evil day when the enemy comes to
take your family or your life. The peace is
undevourable. You might say, "I don’t have the peace of
God", but you can start now attaining it in your life. I
do not have all of the peace of God that I want, but I
have more of it than I had ten years ago.
16 in
addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with
which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming
arrows of the evil one.
Eph 6:16
(NASB)
6 And
without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who
comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a
rewarder of those who seek Him.
Heb 11:6
(NASB)
Above all,
take the shield of faith. Without faith it is impossible
to please God.
God is a
faith God. You must believe that He is who He says He
is. Faith is KNOWING your God! If you worship
Satan, then you’re going to have faith in Satan. If your
god is cocaine, and it gets you through the day, you
will have faith in your drugs. If you have faith in God
and worship Him you will not be devoured.
To get
ready before that evil day comes, BEFORE
THAT EVIL DAY COMES, put on this armor. Take the shield
of faith so you can quench all the fiery darts of the
wicked one. He cannot harm you if your faith is upon
God. It says, submit under God, resist the devil, and
he’ll flee. But first you have to submit to God. You
must have faith in Him enough to submit. Without faith
it’s impossible to believe God. Take up the shield of
faith, begin to walk and turn yourself over to God, to
the point that all your dependency is not upon men, on
men’s traditions, but it’s upon God and His power.
He says,
take the Helmet of Salvation. Begin walking into a
renewing of the spirit and of your mind. Remember that
you’re born again, that the new man is coming forth, and
the old man is buried. Begin to walk in that salvation.
Let the new man come forth, and be renewed. Let the Holy
Spirit teach and train this born again spirit. You were
spiritually dead before you were born again. You
couldn’t receive anything from God. Now you can!!!
The Sword
of the Spirit is the word of God. You cannot fight
without a weapon. The enemy comes to see if you can be
easily devoured. You can say, "No, I’m not easily
devoured because I put all my cares upon Jesus. I put
His yoke on; that born again experience, that I entered
into. That Sabbath I entered into with my life. You must
know this so you can use it. You have to have something
to slice that defeated foe’s head off.
If the
devil says, "You’re going to go under if you don’t have
enough finances. Don’t write that check out for that
offering." You can say, "My God shall meet all of my
needs. By Him I’ll prosper. No weapon formed against me,
Satan, that you have, will prosper against me. He took
on my poverty and I took on His riches in heaven."
18 With
all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit,
and with this in view, be on the alert with all
perseverance and petition for all the saints,
Eph 6:18
(NASB)
The first
thing that he said was be attentive be sober and
vigilant about your enemy that comes about seeking whom
he may devour. How can you know if the enemy is coming
to destroy your family or your finances if you’re not
walking in the place where you can see it? You can’t
expect to see the things of the Spirit if you are always
walking in the natural. The only way to know the
spiritual things is to be watchful, praying always with
all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being
watchful to this end with all perseverance and
supplication for all the saints. The enemy will not stop
after one attack. First it’ll be money, then women or
men, and then it’ll be both money and people. He has a
plan, a methodical plan for your life. He’ll try to
devour you constantly with spiritual wickedness in high
places. He’ll send that little demon of doubt and
unbelief, speaking in your ear. He couldn’t do those
things in the natural. He has to try something else.
It’s your
job, your call, to produce more fruit. We’re called to
produce more fruit. You may not be called to this pulpit
ministry like I am, but you are called to bear much
fruit. You’re not called to sit in a pew and let
somebody teach you false doctrine. That’s not God. He
called you to bear much fruit. God wants you growing.
God multiplies and produces. He believes that I’m going
produce more of what’s in me. He believes that I’m going
to produce more healing evangelists, miracle
evangelists, and entrepreneurs for the gospel. God said
go forth, be fruitful, and multiply. He didn’t say, go
forth, stay small, and don’t grow.
The Choice
Is Yours
If we want
to resist the enemy the first step is to realize on whom
your dependency falls. All dependency must be in God -
in every area of your life. If you are facing financial
difficulties, you might as well give them up. Put your
dependency on God. The Word says He is a God that will
supply all of your needs. The Word doesn’t say He will
supply part, a few, half, or three quarters of your
needs.
Let the
Holy Spirit bring you into that new peace that you’ve
never experienced before. Let Him give you peace that is
everlasting and that will not leave at the end of the
worship service. You determine how much peace and
anointing in which you walk! God doesn’t determine it. I
don’t determine it. The Pastor doesn’t determine it. You
determine whether it carries on!
You may
say, "I don’t know whether I want that responsibility."
It doesn’t
matter. You determine it. You make the choice whether
you’re going to apply those things and begin to walk
into the peace of God. You determine whether or not the
devil can manage you. Put the old man to death. Let the
born again man come forth. You determine whether you are
going to be devoured or not. You determine whether you
are going to take what you read here and use it. You
determine whether you find yourself on the outer fringes
being devoured by the enemy while everyone else is in
the flow of God. YOU DETERMINE.
8 Be
of sober spirit, be on the alert.
Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring
lion, seeking someone to devour.
1 Peter 5:8
(NASB)
He didn’t
say he was a roaring lion. He said your adversary is
like a roaring lion. You determine whether he has
the power to harm you. You determine whether he becomes
that lion or not. If you are enforcing his defeat he
cannot devour you.
But resist
him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same
experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your
brethren who are in the world. 10 after
you have suffered for a little while, the God of all
grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ,
will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and
establishes you.
1 Peter
5:9-10 (NASB)
You get to
determine how fast you are able to resist the enemy. You
get to determine whether you’re devourable or not. When
did you start to decide that you’re going to become
undevourable? Just when did you make that decision? When
did you make that decision to start applying the things
in the Word of God? That will determine just how much
you have to go through. When you make that decision that
you’re not going to be devourable you’ll start applying
the Word of God.
Take this
into account with each decision that you make. "The
devil is defeated, and I’m here to enforce his defeat. I
am not here to become a casualty on the outer fringes.
Because of the full redemptive plan of Christ I become
born again, washed in His blood, filled with the Holy
Spirit and became able to carry out the perfect will of
God for my life. I will carry out His plan until the
time of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. "
It seems
more often I am finding some men and women of God that I
held in high esteem in the past may have stopped too
soon and settled for too little. Even though it might
seem on the surface and on T. V. that they have it all,
I’m beginning to wonder if they’ve been neutralized a
little bit. Perhaps they’ve stopped a little short of
what God wanted. It isn’t that they aren’t doing good
work for the kingdom, but perhaps He had just a little
bit more for them. Maybe something came along and
changed their minds and talked them out of having more
of God.
I’m not
going to settle for being stopped with just a portion of
what God has. If He has called me as a healing
evangelist, then I have my eyes on all of the
wheelchairs being emptied. I’ll not leave Peru with
someone in a wheelchair. That’s in my vision. Maybe it
is different for you. If you’re an entrepreneur, maybe
you don’t want to stop with just a hundred thousand
dollars. Maybe you want to go just a little further. I
believe that some in the body of Christ are settling for
less. They are settling for what they have right now.
They don’t want to submit.
Start
seeking those things in the Word now. Stop making
excuses. Decide that you’re not going to settle for what
you have in the body of Christ right now. It starts with
a decision from you. The decision can’t be forced on
you. All I can do is present the truth.
You can’t
make a decision for anybody. We as individuals must make
the decision. It begins with you. Will you settle for
what you have, or do you want more? Will you settle for
that same old cycle in which you’ve been living? It has
to begin somewhere with a quality decision. Then you
begin to apply the things in the word of God. You can’t
just make the decision. It takes more than that. You
must apply the things that are being taught to you. It
takes action.
Your spouse
isn’t going to stand before Jesus with you and answer
why you didn’t serve God. You have to stand before Him.
I have to stand before Him. We each have a personal
relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We can take it
to the extent that we want to take it. It’s our
decision. You can have all of God or just a little bit
of Him. The more things that you exalt above Him the
more devourable you become by Satan.
All He
wants to do is get you started in the right direction.
He wants to increase the hunger in your heart so you can
begin to apply more of the Word. God wants you to become
such a machine that there is no stopping you. He wants
you to have everything in your call, everything in your
life and everything in your family’s life that He has
for you. He doesn’t desire Christians that just start
with a little bit and stop. That’s how denominations get
started. They get a little bit of God, and then they
stop at a certain place. They only get part of a message
in the word of God. They only get a part of what God has
for them because they don’t continue to apply the things
in His Word. They give in to pressure; continue with
programs and an arm of the flesh.
You beloved
who decided that even one hour a day of praying in
tongues was not enough will be built upon your most holy
faith. When that evil day comes you will be delivered.
The perfect plan of God will be delivered unto you and
you will walk through it because of the redemptive plan
of the Holy Spirit. You’ll find out when you get to
heaven and that fire comes to test those fruits. That
will be the proving day.
I think
that there are people that do not want to hear His
voice. Many preachers have talked themselves into being
neutralized. They don’t walk in the power He has for
them. They sound good on Sundays. They’ll give you a
nice little sermon with no real power. The message has
to do more than sound good. As preachers, we should be
setting the example for all the believers. We should
show everyone that there is something better out there
that is attainable. We shouldn’t just preach the Word of
God, but also be an example of how it works in a
person’s life. Somewhere along the line you must stop
and take a look at your life. Decide if what you are
doing lines up with the Word. Ask God, "What is it
that’s lacking in my life?" The message will come alive
to more people when it is delivered by a living example
of God’s power.
This power
is not just for preachers either. This is the walk of
believers. This is the plan of God for everyone’s life.
If your pastor is not an example of God’s plan, you are
not excused. You are also responsible for a personal
relationship with God. Believers must walk in the power
that is available to them if they want to fulfill the
perfect will of God. The world is tired of seeing
powerless preachers.
You say,
"Well how do you know that?" Well why do people turn to
psychics on television? They want to see the power. They
want to see the manifestation of power. So if the church
can’t provide it, they will go seeking it somewhere
else. We talk about a powerful God but not many are
ready to stop and let the power of God flow through
them. I know of preachers, of pastors, who will not pray
for somebody because they are waiting for God to move.
They don’t know if the anointing will be there when they
pray. They can’t be certain that God will heal someone
when they lay hands on them.
There is a
walk close to God where you don’t even question the
availability of His power. You know it will be there
every time, no matter what you need. There is that place
in your walk where you know that it’s there and
available every time. It’s called having faith in God.
You can get to this place if you put all of your
dependency on Him. That’s part of having a personal
relationship.
1 And
when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with
superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you
the testimony of God. 2 For I
determined to know nothing, among you except Jesus
Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was
with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,
4 and my message and my preaching were
not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that
your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on
the power of God.
1 Cor 2:1-5
(NASB)
Don’t fall
victim to the wisdom of men. In the previous verse, Paul
is warning us not to fall victim to intellect. You
should depend only upon the power of God, for whatever
you need. Don’t depend on humanity, or traditions, or
organizations. Depend on God for what you need in any
realm. This is how you resist the devil, steadfast in
the faith. This is how you keep your feet firmly
planted. You must know that God is who He says He is.
All your dependency must be upon God instead of the
wisdom of men.
6 Therefore
humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He
may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting
all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.
1 Peter
5:6-7 (NASB)
What is He
exalting you over? He’ll exalt you over whatever you are
suffering from. He will exalt you over whatever makes
you devourable. Are you suffering from a lack of
finances? There’ll come a time He will exalt you above
it. First, you’ve got to humble yourselves under the
mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.
Some people
want to take part of the word of God, but not the rest
of it. If He said believing upon the Lord Jesus Christ
could save me, I’m going to be saved. If He said that I
could be set free because of the blood that was shed on
the Calvary I want to be free. If He says that by His
stripes I was healed, I want to be healed. I want to
walk in divine health. I want the perfect will of God. I
love the second will of God, which is miracles and
healings. I can have those things whenever I need them.
I want the best that my Father in heaven has given.
Conclusion
Having said
all these things I will say this, there are usually two
groups of thought. One opinion is that the devil is
defeated and there is no need in fighting him. The other
opinion is that there is a devil behind every tree
waiting to attack us and we need to be on the look out
all the time. Both of these opinions are neither right
nor wrong.
During the
time Jesus walked here on earth He defeated Satan at
every turn in all things. (John 16:15) Jesus then turned
around and gave us every victory as our own. (Matt
4:3-11) When Jesus met Satan in the wilderness He
defeated him at every turn, body, soul and spirit. There
is three victories, one for each area. (John 19:30) At
the cross He cried out, "It is finished," meaning every
battle had been won, every positional standing was
complete. Victory is ours. So we see that Satan is a
defeated foe. However, if I were to ask any one person
if they felt that they had been attacked by Satan
lately, each would have to truthfully admit that they
felt Satan’s forces to some degree. So he is defeated
but yet we feel the effects of his attacks, sounds
somewhat contradictory.
This is the
key that draws it all together. Satan was defeated at
every turn. Jesus died for us and not only gave us
salvation but every victory with it. We are to be here
on earth walking as Jesus walked Enforcing Satan’s
Defeat, and keeping him in the place that Jesus
declared him. That’s how you and I lay up fruit in
heaven. By enforcing Satan’s defeat continually not
allowing him to have an inroad in our lives to any
degree. That is what you and I are to do. I do not
battle a defeated foe, but I certainly enforce the
defeat previously delivered to all believers.
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