Battle of Spiritual Realm

“But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and  as a helmet the hope of salvation .” — 1 Thessalonians 5:8 NKJV “ as a helmet the hope of salvation ” — When you pray in the Spirit, the first thing you will receive is the helmet of salvation (Eph. 6:17–18), which refers to the helmet of the hope of salvation here in 1 Thessalonians 5:8. When we teach people that they can do something to lose their salvation, this results in damage to their helmet. Once a person is not assured that they are saved, it is as if there is a hole in their helmet and it no longer protects their minds. The Ten Commandments were once what God’s people had to be under, but we are no longer in that day and age. Today, we have only one commandment: to love one another as Jesus has loved us (John 13:34). It is the only commandment that we can keep because the last part makes it possible—“as I (Jesus) have loved you.” The more you find out how much Jesus lov...

The armor of God is not something we mentally visualize ourselves putting on each morning before we begin our day.  Instead, each piece of the armor has to do with doctrines based on the gospel of grace.  It has nothing to do with the old covenant, but rather, the new covenant. If you have a wrong belief in any of the areas represented by a piece of the armor, it can become an area where the devil can attack and try to shake you from your position of victory in Christ. “Stand therefore, having  girded your waist with truth , having put on  the breastplate of righteousness ,” — Ephesians 6:14 NKJV “girded your waist with truth” — Back in that time, Roman soldiers used their belts to hold their sword, small daggers, and other possessions. So the belt was important for keeping their weapons with them. Today, the belt of truth is the gospel—the truth that sets you free. If you have heard the truth of the gospel and it has set you free, leading to you being s...

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. . . . These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:7–8, 11)   Prayer pursues joy in fruitful fellowship with Jesus, knowing that God is glorified when we bear fruit in answer to prayer. Why do God’s children so often fail to have consistent habits of happy, fruitful prayer? Unless I’m badly mistaken, one of the reasons is not so much that we don’t want to, but that we don’t plan to. If you want to take a four-week vacation, you don’t just get up one summer morning and say, “Hey, let’s go today!” You won’t have anything ready. You won’t know where to go. Nothing has been planned. But that is how many of us treat prayer. We get up day after day and realize that significant times of prayer should be a part of our life, but nothin...

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. (Psalm 56:3) One possible response to the truth that our anxiety is rooted in unbelief goes like this: “I have to deal with feelings of anxiety almost every day; and so I feel like my faith in God’s grace must be totally inadequate. So I wonder if I can have any assurance of being saved at all.” My response to this concern is: Suppose you are in a car race and your enemy, who doesn’t want you to finish the race, throws mud on your windshield. The fact that you temporarily lose sight of your goal and start to swerve does not mean that you are going to quit the race. And it certainly doesn’t mean that you are on the wrong racetrack. Otherwise, your competitor — your adversary — wouldn’t bother you at all. What it means is that you should turn on your windshield wipers. When anxiety strikes and blurs our vision of God’s glory and the greatness of the future that he plans for us, this does not mean that we are faithless, or that we will ...

In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:16–17) image When I am anxious about getting old, I battle unbelief with the promise, “Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save” (Isaiah 46:4). When I am anxious about dying, I battle unbelief with the promise that “none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Romans 14:7–9). When I am anxious that I may make shipwreck of faith and fall away from God, I battle unbelief with the promises, “He who began a good work in you wi...

Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. (1 Corinthians 15:24) How far does the reign of Christ extend? The next verse, 1 Corinthians 15:25 says, “He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” The word all tells us the extent. So does the word every in verse 24: “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.” There is no disease, no addiction, no demon, no bad habit, no fault, no vice, no weakness, no temper, no moodiness, no pride, no self-pity, no strife, no jealousy, no perversion, no greed, no laziness that Christ will not overcome as the enemy of his honor. And the encouragement in that promise is that when you set yourself to do battle with the enemies of your faith and your holiness, you will not fight alone. Jesus Christ is now, in this age, putting all his enemies under his...

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:6) One of the things we are thankful for when we let our requests be known to God is his promises. These are the ammunition in the cannon that cuts down the unbelief that produces worry. So here’s how I fight. When I am anxious about my ministry being useless and empty, I fight unbelief with the promise of Isaiah 55:11. “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” When I am anxious about being too weak to do my work, I battle unbelief with the promise of Christ, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). When I am anxious about decisions I have to make about the future, I battle unbelief with the promise, “I will instruct you and te...

[Cast] all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7) Psalm 56:3 says, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.” Notice: it does not say, “I never struggle with fear.” Fear strikes, and the battle begins. So the Bible does not assume that true believers will have no anxieties. Instead, the Bible tells us how to fight when they strike. For example, 1 Peter 5:7 says, “[Cast] all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” It does not say, you will never feel any anxieties. It says, when you have them, cast them on God. When the mud splatters your windshield and you temporarily lose sight of the road and start to swerve in anxiety, turn on your wipers and squirt your windshield washer. So my response to the person who has to deal with feelings of anxiety every day is to say: that’s more or less normal. At least it is for me, ever since my teenage years. The issue is: How do we fight them? The answer to that question is: we fight anxieties by f...

Larry Sparks, Dallas, Texas I don't have a prophetic word about the coronavirus...I do, however, have a very clear word from the Lord about a supernatural key that will help the Church silence the all-consuming roar of fear right now, starting with our own lives. When fear boasts loud, it should be a convicting call for the praises of God's people to become even louder. We don't praise God for a result; we praise Him because He is worthy – no matter what is going on around us. The Lord Is Restoring the ROAR of Praise! I prophesy that the Lord is restoring the ROAR of praise, for the ROAR of praise and the SHOUT of the King will empower the people of God to war victoriously against the prevailing spirit of fear that is contaminating the earth. Wash your hands, yes. Buy appropriate supplies and food (and toilet paper!), absolutely. Be prepared and operate in wisdom. But there must be a sound of praise roaring once again from the Church. For the last 1...

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few weeks you have probably seen, heard, and read about the coronavirus that is disrupting life all over the globe. And it is quite likely that it has had a direct impact on you, even if you have not yet gotten sick from it. Social distancing has become a new by-word in the past few days. The banning of large gatherings, including churches, and the closing of many establishments where people gather are common. Empty shelves at the grocery store are a normal sight. And there is the expectation that things will get worse before they begin to improve. Many people automatically look to connect any large-scale disaster to Revelation and see in it a sign of the end. But should we? This article will look at this virus and its relationship to Revelation. And then at how, as Christians, we should respond to it. What Is This Coronavirus? There seems to be a lot of confusion about this virus, starting with its name. Cor...

Prayer is a response to promises, that is, to the assurances of God’s future grace. Prayer is drawing on the account where God has deposited all his stores of future grace. Prayer is not hoping in the dark that there might be a God of good intentions out there. Prayer banks on the promise of God, and goes to the bank every day and draws on stores of future grace needed for that day. Don’t miss the connection between the two halves of this great verse. Notice the “that is why”: “All the promises of God are Yes in Christ.  That is why  (therefore) we pray Amen through him, to God’s glory.” To make sure we see it, let’s turn the two halves around: When we pray, we say Amen to God through Christ,  because  God has said a decisive Amen to all his promises in Christ. Prayer is the confident plea for God to make good on his promises of future grace — for Christ’s sake. Prayer links our faith in future grace with the foundation of it all, Jesus Chr...

Tolkien's Faith and His Writings The first installment of the epic Lord of the Rings Trilogy was first published in 1954. Since that time, the world of Middle-Earth has fascinated readers and transformed lives. Today, I desire to delve into this incredible story and share with you how Tolkien’s enduring faith is expressed in his novels. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic and believed firmly in the truths of Christianity. Now before I begin, I want to state that The Lord of the Rings can be enjoyed without reading through Christ-colored glasses, and I will never accept the idea that The Lord of the Rings is a Christian allegory. On the contrary, Tolkien detested allegory and stated himself that his novels were never written with the intent of preaching religion; however, Tolkien was always quick to admit that all of his works were written in the Christian tradition and therefore were full of Christian symbols. In the entire canon of Tolkien’s pr...

He sat in his customary place by the wall, opposite Jonathan, and Abner sat next to Saul, but David’s place was empty. — 1 Samuel 20:25 In a season when many of us are gathering around the table with our family and friends, it seems apt to talk about who’s around the table. In 1 Samuel chapter 20, we see a picture of the person Saul has become. Having once been a man of God—to the point that God chose and anointed him to be King—with direct access to the voice of the Lord through his prophet Samuel, he’s now chased away that wise and just voice and replaced it with a yes man , Abner.   God directs people in and out of our lives. He sends the right people, to the right place, with the right plan. And if we are open to His voice, we will recognize these people in our lives. The problem is, the enemy does the same thing. He sends people into our path as well; hoping the distraction and ego stroking will cause us to invite the wrong people to sit at ...

  Exodus 13:21 And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. When the children of Israel were wandering in the desert, God led them by going before them in a pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. By day, God spread the pillar of cloud as a covering over His people in the desert to prevent the scorching sun from striking them down. The people were shaded and kept cool. Today, you are also under His covering. He will not allow you to be struck down (see Psalm 121:3–8), nor be oppressed by the “heat” of the day (see Isaiah 54:14). At night, when the desert became dark and cold, God gave His people the pillar of fire to light the way for them, as well as to keep them warm and safe. Today, as you walk with God, you wi...

A baby learns to sit first before he starts to stand and walk. The Christian life also begins with sitting. God “raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). How well we walk after that depends on how well we sit and rest in the finished work of Christ. The promised land was a land of rest where God promised His people “large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant” (Deuteronomy 6:10–11).   But for 40 years, God’s people wandered in the wilderness because they refused to believe that God had given them a land where everything had been prepared—the work was finished. They could not believe that God had given them a land full of good things to enjoy, a land which just flowed with His abundant supply. Today, there are believers who still cannot believ...

When you look in the dictionary the word fear has two main definitions: A distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, threat or evil whether the threat is real or imagined; and a reverential awe, as in the fear of the Lord.  With this in mind, what does the verse “God has not given us a spirit of fear” mean? Let’s start by looking at the whole verse which is found in 2 Timothy 1:7: “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” The New King James says it this way – “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” Based on the definition of the word, it can’t mean reverential awe because that wouldn’t make sense. Clearly fear means something else so let’s dig deeper to understand what it means. Let’s also consider the proper response we should have to fear. Photo credit: Unsplash/Aziz Acharki ...