We do not wrestle against flesh and blood!
15th of November
For about four years ago, I wrote a chapter called: Spiritual warfare. It came out the 8th of May in 2006 and you will find it under the title: gspirit, soul and body.h I will circle around some of the same scriptures and some similar thoughts might occur. The Bible is over 2000 years old, but it has the same topical interest as when it was written. I sense in my spirit that God wants to prepare His people for war and thatfs why the Holy Spirit has asked me to write this.
The headline is taken from Eph.6:12. We read: gFor we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.h
Wars are going on between individuals, between groups, tribes and nations. This is not new. The Bible writes a lot about wars and conflicts. These conflicts take place both outside and inside the Body of Christ. One should think that wars and conflicts belong to the world, but that is far from the truth. I have heard about more divisions within the church than ever and many churches are dissolved or divided. Both the secular and the Christian press are full of conflicts between sisters and brothers. The conflict might be of a personal character or they argue about interpretations and different teachings. Guess who is happy? Yes, the devil. The conflict often goes like this: I am right, you are wrong. One might use a lot of time and energy to prove that one is right and the opponent are totally wrong. We Christians are very good in throwing the Word at each other instead of eating the Bible. We are just as good in throwing dirty rags at each other instead of cleaning them. I hope you understand the symbolism.
Wars and conflicts will always have their roots in the devil. God wants us to love each other. He has not said that we always should agree, but we should bless each other, even our enemies. I can therefore say:We should never fight each other. PEOPLE ARE TO BE LOVED AND FORGIVEN. Always. Are you and making mistakes or committing sins? I believe that if we are honest, the answer is yes. We do. The next question is: gDoes God love us? g Yes, He does. He loved us so much that he sent His only begotten Son in order to cleanse us from our sins. Jesus makes it possible for us to live with God for ever. Since God loves us both with sins and without sins, He wants us to follow His example. We have no right to neither hate nor have any grudge against anybody. I can almost ghearh the protests coming against me. gYou do not know what they have done against me. You have not read the rumors written against me by the elders of the church.h No, I might not know and I might not have read, but I do know this: God has forgiven our sins and He does not hold forgiven sins up against us. God loves the sinner, but hates sins. We should do the same. We should hate the sins in ourselves and we might mourn over the sins in others, but we should love them into repentance.
When we fight people verbally or in any other way, we are fighting in the flesh. We will seldom experience any victory when we make a war in the fleshly realm. gAre you saying that we canft disagree?h No, I do not, but we should be able to say hello to each other and be able to go to the same church. Disagreement is not the same as hostility. We are often so full of pride and pride will prove onefs rights. Pride is part of our fleshly nature and in the worst case can be a demonic power. In 1.Pet.5:5 we read that God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. I need His grace.
Any kind of revenge is sinful.
If we should be rewarded according to our deeds, we would all be judged and doomed, but we have been saved by grace. God is grace and His nature is planted into our spirit.
It is not easy to keep peace with everybody, but we are not supposed to do it without the help of the Holy Spirit.
Are we supposed to just be kind and passive then? No, absolutely not. We must understand that we live in a constant war and we must fight. In James 4:7 it says that we should resist the devil and he will flee from us. We should not accept all his sly attacks. THE BATTLE IS IN THE INVISIBLE WORLD. We must understand that the devil is our enemy. He wants to destroy every Christian and Godfs plans for our lives. He wants to stop people from getting saved. It says in John 10:10 that the thief only comes to steal, kill and to destroy. John 8:44 says that the devil is the father of lies. It is often trough lies that the devil poisons our mind. It is not always easy to reveal his lies and we might be deceived. I was recently being accused of something that I never said nor meant. The other person was lead to believe things about me that is not true. The purpose is to destroy our relationship. How do we reveal his lies? BY THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH.
We live in a spiritual war and we must therefore use spiritual weapons. In 2. Cor.10:4+5 we read that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. In Eph. 6 it says that we should gird our waist with truth, put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shoes on our feet that are prepared to bring the gospel of peace. We should use the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. We should always pray and make supplications in the Spirit. When we pray in the Spirit, we strengthen our inner man and the spirit of God prays through us. I was recently in prayer together with a friend of mine. She and I wanted to pray through Godfs plans for ourselves and for our families. We praised God, prayed in the Spirit, used the Word and commanded the devil to leave certain areas of our lives. We called on the blood of Jesus before we started. We experienced real warfare and we thanked God for the fact that we were alone in the house. We cannot expect everybody to understand prayers that are like birth pains. We really wanted agbabyh We also asked angels to help us and they are serving spirits. We kept on until the Spirit allowed us to stop. We were glad that we were two since it is so easy to give up when you are alone. The devil doesnft want us to be victorious and he comes with drowsiness and strange thoughts in order to distract us. When one gets tired, the other one can pull you up. I have watched ski sports on television and I have seen that they change to be in front. It is rare that the one who was first in the beginning is the final winner.
If you want a change in the visible world, it has to start in the invisible world. This goes for your personal life, your marriage, your family, your working place, your relationships, your church, your city and your country. No victory without praying. Sometimes we lack knowledge of the Word and we might pray in the wrong way. Maybe we pray out of bitterness or wounds instead of through a spirit of love and forgiveness.
There are lots of demons out there in the invisible world and we have been given authority over them. We can read in 2.Cor.2:14 that God always leads us in triumph in Christ. He can do that since He has disarmed all principalities and powers(Col.2:15) and Jesus lives on the inside of us. We have received the name of Jesus and His authority, His blood and His Word, the Holy Spirit and the entire Host of angels. The nine gifts of the Spirit are also given to the Church.
USE WHAT GOD HAS GIVEN YOU TO WIN A VICTORY OVER THE DEVIL AND DO NOT FIGHT WITH PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mother Else