Understanding the Battle

 

Understanding the Battle of Spiritual Warfare 

 

To understand the battle of spiritual warfare, we need to begin with acknowledging that we are in a war. Battles make up smaller components of the bigger picture. By definition, battles involve combat between two persons, between factions, between armies and they consist of any type of "extended contest, struggle, or controversy" (Webster-Merriam).  

As Christians, we are in a spiritual battle of some sort on a daily basis. In warfare, battles are fought on different fronts, for different reasons, and with varying degrees of intensity.

The same is true in spiritual warfare. Our spiritual battles and warfare are real, even though we cannot physically see the attacker. But, we can educate ourselves on how the battles are fought and how they impact our lives on a daily basis.

 

Jesus told us in Matthew 28:18 that, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” We now have the privilege of having an eternal relationship with God. Many of us enter into that covenant of salvation by grace.  

But the Matthew 28:18 verse is not only about our salvation; it is also about our everyday victory, which adds up to victorious living in Christ.

 Every day victory is achieved by knowing, believing and understanding the battles that we are enduring daily, regardless of if we are passive or active in the battles.

Do you want all that God has for you on this earth right now, or do you want to wait until you get to heaven to receive the victory and blessings?

 Understanding the Battle of Spiritual Warfare will give us a foundation on where, how and what the battles look like in our lives.

We are going to examine three main areas of where the battles are fought: the Spiritual Battle, the Worldly Battle, and the Battle Within Us.

 

Part I: The Spiritual Warfare Battle

What does the Bible say about Spiritual Warfare?

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 discusses the warfare of spirit, saying "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

The most important battle we will fight is not physical or mental. It is the spiritual warfare we undergo as devoted followers of God when the strength and conviction of our faith are continuously tested.

In this battle, we face not only external forces but the thoughts and passions within ourselves that may stray from the path of righteousness. Thankfully we can look to the wisdom of scripture and the Armor of God to encourage us in this spiritual war. 

Read Ephesians 6:10-20;

This kind of preaching needs to be done with caution.

Why? Because anytime we preach on the armor of God, we need to stress what this passage of Scripture is stressing, that is, we need to put on the WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD, not just a particular piece. The fact is, if we do not put on the whole armor of God, we might as well not put any on.

Why? Because once Satan finds that we have not put one piece on, that is where he will attack us.

 

Illus: Anyone who knows anything about boxing, knows that once the opponent finds a weak spot, that is where he begins to direct his attack. A boxer may be boxing with a cracked rib but his opponent does not know that until he lands a punch in his rib cage, and then all of a sudden pain becomes visible on the face of his opponent, and he knows that is the weak spot, and every time he gets a chance he will throw a punch at the rib cage.

 

The reason that some Christians today are suffering defeat after defeat is because the devil has discovered what piece of the armor of God is missing in their life, and he relentlessly attacks them in that area.

But if we have the whole armor of God on, we can wipe up on the devil any day of the week.

Today we want to turn our attention to the HELMET OF SALVATION. This the last piece of the defensive armor mentioned in the Armor of the Believer.

 

The helmet protected the head, which provided a vital part of the soldiers ability to stand and wage war in the battle. If a soldier was wounded in the head, it could cause disorientation, confusion, unconsciousness or even possibly death.

 

Paul did not mention the helmet last because it was the least, but because of it’s significance.

  

 

It is an important piece of armor because of…

 

I. THE ROUTE OF THE DEVIL

 

The devil follows the same route every day.

WHAT IS THE ROUTE? The devil loves to play with our minds.

Have you ever heard about someone who loves to play with people’s minds? There are some folks who are not honest in their dealings with others. They will tell people they come into contact with all kinds of things to twist their minds.

This happens in :

 

• POLITICS: There are times when politicians will say all kinds of things that they know are not true, but they are trying to twist people’s minds into thinking certain things.

 

• DATING: There are men and women who tell their dates all kinds of things. Why? They are playing with their mind, and they are trying to make their date think of them in a way that is not true.

 

• NORMAL RELATIONSHIPS: There are people who go around stating things that are not true, trying to get people to think about them in a way that is not accurate.

These are people who are playing with other people’s minds.

 

The HELMET OF SALVATION is directly related to the SAFETY and SOUNDNESS of the believer’s mind in the spiritual warfare we are in.

 

The most difficult battle we face each day is the battle within our own minds. It is the warfare which is waged in our thinking, that can leave the best Christians ridden with guilt, defeated and virtually feeling useless to do anything good for God.

 

We know Satan does this, but we need to find out HOW HE DOES THIS. Let’s look at the

 

A. THE INTERFERENCE OF SATAN

 

Satan seeks to interfere with the plan of God by interfering with the lives of the people of God.

 

HOW DOES HE DO THIS? He knows if he can control the mind, he can control our lives.

This is the ROUTE he takes every day.

 

• All around us you can see the casualties in the army of God, because Satan has gotten into the minds of believers and defeated them

 

• They are left with tears of sorrow and a life of defeat

 

But it does not have to be this way. God has given us a piece of armor, THE HELMET OF SALVATION, to protect our mind from his interference.

 

There are three areas which a believer must give attention to in relation to the battle which is waged against the mind.

 

1. IMAGINATION

 

Something we often do is allow Satan to play with our minds and cause us to IMAGINE things.

 

For example, someone can come into the same room that we are in, and the devil will start to play tricks with our mind that will cause us to imagine things. He will whisper in our mind “That person does not like you.”

 

And then you will say, “Well, I do not like them either!” And you treat them with coldness, and the devil will go to that person and say, “They do not like you, see how they snubbed you when they walked by?”

 

And now we have two people who cannot stand the sight of each other because they allowed Satan to get in their minds and cause them to imagine these things.

 

Many people’s lives have been destroyed because they IMAGINED THINGS that were not true.

 

They have no facts to base their imaginations on, but the devil has convinced them if they imagine it, IT MUST BE TRUE! There is a great difference between IMAGINATIONS and FACTS.

 

This is the route the devil takes every day in defeating many Christians.

 

WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT? The Word of God tells us. Look at 2 Cor. 10:4-5, we read, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

 

Remember…

 

• Do not let Satan cause you to imagine things, because most of the time the things we have imagined to be true are not

 

• It has been estimated that 90% of what people imagine is not true, nor will it ever be true

 

Paul suggests that these IMAGINATIONS be cast down. You do not play around with them, because they will destroy your happiness and your testimony.

 

He works through our mind to defeat us through IMAGINATIONS. But also he works through our minds to defeat us through -

 

2. CONTEMPLATION

 

Look at Phil. 4:7-8, we read, “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (How? Verse 8 will tell us.) Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

 

The secret to getting control of our thought life is to CONTEMPLATE on the good things and there will be no room for the bad things. Notice, Paul said, “THINK ON THESE THINGS.”

 

We CAN control our thought life. If we couldn’t, God would not tell us to THINK ON THESE THINGS! Remember, if you give the devil an inch he will take a mile. 

 

Illus: A preacher was in a Chinese restaurant one day and the television was on. He was reading a book, but they were playing it so loud that it was disturbing him. He laid the book down, and watched a portion of one of the “Slop Operas” they were watching. And he noticed they would go to one group of people for a few minutes, and then they would switch to another group.

 

But he could not help but to notice it seemed like every group was mad. They were fussing and hollering at each other during the program. He could not help but to wonder why the producers of the show would make such a show. And as he thought about it, he concluded that it was the way most folks are. They live their life every day, angry. That is, they spend their life CONTEMPLATING things they should not be CONTEMPLATING, and the more they think about it the more angry they become.

 

Many of these people come to church angry. They cannot tell you why they are angry, they have no facts to base their anger on, but they stay angry all the time.

 

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? The problem is that Satan has gotten into their minds and caused them to think about certain things, and the more they think about these things the more angry they become.

 

This is why God’s Word tells us to CONTEMPLATE on the right kind of things. Why? Because if we THINK WRONG we are going to LIVE WRONG! If we are going to be victorious over Satan, we are going to have to have to CAST DOWN IMAGINATIONS and CONTEMPLATE on the right kind of things. But we need to consider something else-

 

3. SATURATION

 

Look at Col. 3:16, we read, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

 

If we are going to be victorious over sin, we are going to have to SATURATE our minds with the Word of God. The best thing you can SATURATE your mind with daily is the Word of God.

 

Notice, in 1 Cor. 3:16, the Bible tells us to allow it to dwell, “In you richly.”

 

The word “Richly” is the word “Plousios” (Pronouned as, Ploo-see'-oce, it means we are to allow the Word of God ABUNDANTLY to dwell in our minds.

 

• This is one of the reasons I love Christian choruses based on the Word of God, and every church needs to teach them to their members. Why? So that they can sing them to themselves throughout the day

 

• This is the reason Christians ought to attend Sunday School to get as much of the Word of God in their life as they can

 

• This is the reason Christians ought to attend a Bible-preaching church so that they can hear the preaching of God’s Word

 

• This is the reason Christians ought to make time to read the Word of God every day

 

The more we SATURATE our minds with the Word of God the better off we are.

 

Look at Romans 12:2, we read, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

 

Christians today are not getting enough of the SATURATION OF GOD’S WORD! In Philippians 2:5, we read, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”

 

We are to let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly by SATURATING our lives with the Scripture.

 

The helmet protects the Soldier of the Cross from the attacks of Satan that could render him useless or even take him out of the battle because of a fatal blow to the head.

 

To prevent that from happening to us as a child of God, let’s look at-

 

II. THE RESOURCE OF THE BELIEVER

 

The resource to protect the believers mind is the helmet of salvation.

 

A. HELMET

 

Notice the Bible says, “…and take the helmet…." It is not going to be forced on any of us. We must take possession of it.

 

The purpose of the helmet of salvation is to protect us against doubt, discouragement, confusion and possibly even a fatal fall and loss of our testimony in the battle of life.

 

B. SALVATION

 

Notice it is referred to as the, "helmet of SALVATION". The helmet is called the "helmet of salvation", so it is connected with salvation in some vital way.

 

There are three aspects of salvation in relationship to New Testament believers.

 

Look at 2 Cor. 1:10, we read, “Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.”

 

(1) PAST (This is Justification)

 

Look at 2 Cor. 1:10 again, “Who delivered us from so great a death…”

 

Every believer was once dead in the trespasses of sin. But He has delivered us, and today, in the sight of God, every believer STANDS BEFORE GOD AS IF THEY HAD NEVER SINNED.

 

Why? Because God’s Son who has paid the price for our sins, took our sins, and we took His righteousness, and now we stand before God as if we have never sinned.

 

To be justified is to be declared righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, the Christian is to put on the helmet, the assurance that through the blood of Jesus Christ he has been forever purged from the condemnation and guilt of sin.

 

Believers can have perfect peace and absolute confidence that they are eternally saved, based upon the merits of the finished work of Christ. No believer need walk around doubting their forgiveness and fullness of salvation in Christ.

 

But notice this salvation that Paul talks about in 2 Cor 1:10 also deals with the-

 

(2) PRESENT (Santification)

 

Look at 2 Cor. 1:10 again please, we read, “Who delivered us from so great a death (Past), and doth deliver (Present)….”

 

Sanctification is the present work of deliverance wrought by the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, delivering him from the power of sin through His mighty power, and conforming him to the image of Christ.

 

• Look at John 17:17, we read, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”

 

• Look at 1 Thess. 4:3-4, we read, “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour.”

 

As you look at these two verses, notice, that the Spirit of God applies the Word of God, and with His power enables the believer to have victory over the power of sin in the present.

 

(3) FUTURE (Glorification)

 

Glorification is the complete deliverance of the believer from the very presence of sin by removal from this world (Rapture), and the change of the body into the complete likeness of Christ.

 

We HAVE BEEN sanctified, we ARE BEING sanctified and one day WE SHALL BE sanctified.

 

Sometimes in the struggles we have in this world, we forget that this world is not the only world we shall live in. The land we are traveling to will be unlike this world, and our bodies will be changed to be like unto His glorious body before we arrive there.

 

Look at 1 Cor. 15:51 55, we read, “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”

 

We know that the victory was won on Calvary, we can overcome the daily fights by faith, and we shall be safe one day on Heaven’s bright shore.

 

Conclusion:

 

The helmet of salvation guards the mind. It is the assurance of salvation or the confidence of ultimate and complete victory in Christ.

 

I. THE ROUTE OF THE DEVIL

 

II. THE RESOURCES OF THE BELIEVER

 

 

A Spiritual Warfare Prayer

Strengthen my faith, Lord. Forgive my sins, so that I may be clean in your righteousness. Make me brave, so I can stand and fight the spiritual battles in my life and in our world. Give me your wisdom and discernment so I won't be caught off guard. Together, Lord, we'll win, because in truth, you already have. While evil still roams, the power of Your name and Your blood rises up to defeat and bring us victory against every evil planned against us. While malicious actions may disturb us, we use the armor of God You have given us to stand firm. You will bring justice in due time for all the harm and needless violence aimed at Your children. Until then, we remain in Your presence, aligned with Your purposes, and we look to You as our Supreme Commander and Protector. Help us to avoid temptation, and deliver us from evil, Lord. You are the Mighty One, the One Who will ultimately bring all evil to light. With You, Jesus, we are safe. Amen.