Posts Tagged ‘army of God’
“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.” Eph. 6:12Eph. 6:12
English: World English Bible - WEB
12 For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
WP-Bible plugin
Often in our Christian walk we find people are opposed to us. They may ridicule us or ostracize us. They may thwart our plans and make our lives difficult. If we live in one of the countries where Christians are in a minority, they may do far worse, denying us employment or education, even throwing us into prison and killing us.
As we face that opposition, however mild or severe it may be, we need to understand that our primary problem is not the people, but the forces that lie behind them. Certainly, the people have a free will and have chosen to align themselves with those forces. But having made that choice, they are now captives. (What, you’ve never made a wrong choice in your life?)
What lies behind them is nothing less than the army of satan – an army which has its generals and commanders, and ranks right down to the lowest private (demon). This army is highly organized, mercilessly disciplined, and bent on just one thing: world domination. In the effort to achieve that end, its forces will manipulate and maneuver the people who are available to it to attack the people of God in every possible way.
The closer we get to the return of Jesus, the more active the forces of satan are in the world. I see it as I read the news from the persecuted church: more Christians are suffering torture, imprisonment and death for their faith today than have at any other time in church history.
If we try only to deal with the human side of the equation, we are only putting Band-aids on a cancer. The truth is, Jesus Christ defeated satan at the Cross. Satan continues to get away with his attack on God’s people only because we are silly enough to waste our time battling with people, instead of standing in the victory that Jesus has already won for us, taking up the Sword of the Spirit, and tearing down the demonic strongholds that are our real opponents.
Called to Battle Spiritual Warfare Seminar
Find it at http://christianspiritualwarfaregtk.com
Free e-course: Put on the Armor of God
Find it at http://armorofgod.lynnbfowler.com
There is one God, and one mediator between God and people, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:51 Timothy 2:5
English: World English Bible - WEB
5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
WP-Bible plugin)in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9Colossians 2:9
English: World English Bible - WEB
9 For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily,
WP-Bible plugin)and Whom God the Father has exalted to the highest place, giving Him the Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11Philippians 2:9-11
English: World English Bible - WEB
9 Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name;
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
WP-Bible plugin)
A couple of days ago I was listening to a DVD lent to me by a friend. I won’t give the speaker’s name, but I was greatly disturbed by what he had to say.
Let me start by saying that, as long as he kept to the role of teacher, he was quite good. Unfortunately, he was not prepared to remain in that role, and kept trying to venture into the office of prophet: and every time he did, he became an accuser of the brethren.
In the two messages I watched (there were five more in the series, which I didn’t even bother with) he repeatedly named both individuals and organizations that he claimed were away from God. He did this giving very little reason for his judgments, and in the few cases where he did give explanations they frequently related to events in the individual’s life before he or she was born again.
Now I am the first to acknowledge that there are many things in the church today that are not according to the Word of God, and that should not be acceptable to the people of God. I am also the first to say that, in relation to the “revivals” of the last fifteen years or so, there has been much accompanying them that has not been of God. In fact, for a while I left the Pentecostal movement because of the excesses that came with the Toronto revival. And yes, I very definitely believe that we should be willing to expose false teaching and ungodly practice.
That does not, however, mean that we can write off entire movements as “not of God”. The fact that there are counterfeits and excesses may actually be evidence that the movement itself is of God – you can only counterfeit that which is real. (Ever seen a counterfeit $99 note? Nope – because there are no real $99 notes!)
Nor does it mean that we have the right to attack individuals. Something about “judge not lest you also be judged”! There is a great difference between saying that what someone is doing or teaching is wrong, and saying that the person himself is not of God or is unsaved.
What does this have to do with spiritual warfare? Simply this: the Word tells us that the devil is the accuser of the brethren. (Rev. 12:10Rev. 12:10
English: World English Bible - WEB
10 I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now is come the salvation, the power, and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ; for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night.
WP-Bible plugin) When we accuse the brethren, we are standing on the devil’s side against the Body of Christ. We cannot be on both sides of the battle at once: either we are in God’s army, or we are in the devil’s.
Satan does his job as accuser very well. He really does not need the Body of Christ to help him with it. In our warfare we should be seeking to pull our brothers and sisters out of the devil’s clutches, not condemn them to hell with him. By all means, denounce ungodly practices and false teaching; but when it comes to our brothers and sisters in Christ, don’t tear them down – just pray for them that God will bring them into truth.
Called to Battle Spiritual Warfare Seminar
Find it at http://christianspiritualwarfaregtk.com
Free e-course: Put on the Armor of God
Find it at http://armorofgod.lynnbfowler.com
There is one God, and one mediator between God and people, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:51 Timothy 2:5
English: World English Bible - WEB
5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
WP-Bible plugin)in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9Colossians 2:9
English: World English Bible - WEB
9 For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily,
WP-Bible plugin)and Whom God the Father has exalted to the highest place, giving Him the Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11Philippians 2:9-11
English: World English Bible - WEB
9 Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name;
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
WP-Bible plugin)
My daily reading recently included the story of Elisha and his servant. The king of Aram was at war with Israel, but whenever he plotted an attack, God revealed the plans to the prophet Elisha, who in turn told the king of Israel. Understandably, this made the king of Aram quite upset. Eventually he decided that he should deal with Elisha once and for all, so he gathered an army and sent them down to attack Elisha.
When Elisha and his servant woke up, they looked out to see a great army, complete with horses and chariots, encamped around them. And they were just two men!
It reminds me of an old war movie I saw once. The heroes had made a successful attack against an enemy fort, and were trying to make their getaway across the harbour in a tiny boat. Guns were firing at them from the shore, planes were flying overhead trying to bomb them, and somewhere offshore a ship launched a torpedo. All this against a tiny boat with a handful of men!
Life seems like that sometimes, doesn’t it? As we seek to go about our business of serving the Lord, we feel that we are surrounded by a massive force of enemies, and that we are being fired on from every side. We feel so small and helpless in the midst of it.
However, the massive army surrounding Elisha and his servant was less than half the story. Elisha’s servant was overcome with fear, and cried out in distress to his master. Elisha, however, saw beyond the natural. He prayed for God to open the servant’s spiritual eyes also, and when He did the servant saw the mighty army of God encamped around the army of Aram. It was not Elisha’s army, for Elisha to command, but God’s army of which Elisha was himself a part. And because he was part of that army, it would defend him.
Are you part of God’s army? Are you under His command, carrying out His orders and submitted to His will? Then you need never fear, no matter how great a force the enemy brings against you, or how strong the attack may be. Because you are part of God’s army, that army will always be there to defend you.
God’s army will always be greater than anything the enemy can muster, for four reasons:
-
God’s army goes forth in God’s power and authority. The best the devil can manage is bluff and illusion.
-
God’s army outnumbers the devil’s army two to one. Scripture tells us that when the devil rebelled one third of the angels rebelled with him. That means two-thirds remained faithful to God.
-
God’s army is not fighting to achieve victory. Victory has already been won by the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross. His army fights only to enforce the victory which has already been won.
-
The General of the army, the Holy Spirit, lives within each of the human members of the army.
We are not in command, but the one who is in command lives in us! No wonder the Bible tells us that “greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”
Got an army camped against you? Fear not, God’s army defending you is bigger. Being attacked from every side? Fear not, the battle has already been won, and you are on the winning side.
Often people ask me, “How do I get into spiritual warfare?” The truth is, if you are a Christian you are in spiritual warfare whether you like it or not. The only choice you have is whether you stand in that battle as a victorious warrior for Christ, or whether you fall helpless and defeated before the enemy.
Before you were saved, you were in the devil’s army, even though you might not have been aware fo it. When you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you defected from the army of satan and joined the army of God. You became an enemy of the devil, and he will attack you in every way he can.
The good news is, Jesus has already won the war at Calvary. The bad news is, the devil does not accept defeat easily!
Though this blog we will explore some of the ways to stand in the victory that is already ours in Christ.