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God says if
Insights on Spiritual Warfare
By Dr. Walter Martin
you want to
succeed in
Insights On
you must be
self-controlled
and alert
Reaching One Soul At a Time!
spiritual war,
Put On Spiritual Armor. Ephesians 6:11 tells us:
“Put on the full armour of God so that you can
take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” Are
you catching this? You can stand against Satan.
You can be victorious.
The Bible says we must stand against such
foes as Christian soldiers (2 Tim. 2:4). When
God calls you into the church of Jesus Christ,
you have enlisted in the army of God. You can
truthfully sing, “Onward Christian soldiers,
marching as to war,” because you are at war.
Learn to Endure Hardship. 2 Timothy 2:3 tells
us: “Endure hardship with us like a good soldier
of Christ Jesus.” If you want to be a soldier, you
need to get in shape. You can’t go out and fight
hand-to-hand combat when you’re loaded with
flab. If you’re sitting on your surpluses, the enemy
is going to have you for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You need to strengthen your spiritual muscles
and gear up your spiritual reflexes. You need to be
able to respond. If you can’t respond in physical
combat, you die. It’s as simple as that. Likewise,
you must learn to respond in spiritual combat, or
you become spiritually wounded.
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Be Self-Controlled and Alert. You must learn to
“be self-controlled and alert” for “your enemy the
devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking
for someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). There’s no
such thing as a sleepy, successful soldier. Sleepy
soldiers -- soldiers who are not alert -- have one
thing in common. They’re all dead. God says if
you want to succeed in spiritual war, you must be
self-controlled and alert. Only then will you be
able to spiritually discern and resist the enemy’s
subtle attacks.
Ephesians 6:10-20 speaks of the various pieces
of spiritual armor God has provided us. Nobody
goes out to war in their underwear. You go out
with 30 or 40 pounds of equipment.
There are Christians running around today in
their spiritual underwear, trying to conduct spiritual warfare against our powerful enemy. And
they don’t understand why the flaming arrows of
the wicked one are sticking out of their spiritual
derrieres.
You must put on the whole armor of God -- the
belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the
readiness to preach the gospel, the shield of faith,
the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the
Spirit, which is the Word of God (Eph. 6:10-20).
These are God’s gifts for spiritual conquest.
Maintain Faith in Christ. Faith is absolutely critical to victory in spiritual conflict. Scripture tells
us: “For everyone born of God overcomes the
world. This is the victory that has overcome the
world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes
the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the
Son of God” (1 John 5:4-5). Our faith is in Jesus
Christ -- the divine Conqueror -- who admonishes His followers: “Take heart! I have overcome the
world” (John 16:33).
Note that every piece of armor in Ephesians 6
is for the front of the body. There isn’t a single
piece for your rear end. Do you know why? Because soldiers do not turn around in the middle of combat, they go forward. And the reason
some Christians become ineffective and weak
and drained is that in the midst of conflict and
combat, they fail to believe in Jesus Christ and
they turn around and run away. And the flaming arrows of the wicked one have lodged in
their spiritual rumps.
Christ imparts the capacity of conquest to our
lives every single day that we are willing to believe Him. You need to get up in the morning and
say, “Lord Jesus, I believe you have conquered the
world. Conquer today through me. I believe in
you. Give me victory. Take away my doubts. Give
to me the measure of faith that is necessary for me
to survive today.”
There is only one way to get your strength back:
get down on your knees and confess your sins,
ask Jesus Christ to pull out the arrows, and then
apply what we’ve learned: endure hardship as a
soldier of Christ, be self-controlled and alert,
maintain faith in Christ, and put on the armor
of God. God will give you the victory. You can
count on it!
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