Spiritual Warfare - #006

We can find ourselves in the midst of a spiritual battle at any more unless we're put on the full armor of God. How do we stay grounded in Him and how can we live in confidence through that? 

Resources:

Your Story Has a Villain - Jonathan Pokluda

https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/resources/spiritual-warfare-in-a-material-world/

https://www.focusonthefamily.com/family-qa/spiritual-warfare-winning-the-battle/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Hey, welcome to this week's episode of the Holy Work. Um, today we're talking about spiritual warfare. It's a big it's a big topic. Yeah. Um, and I wanted to start today's episode out with scripture. So I'm gonna read Ephesians 6, 10 through 17. It's a little bit of a chunk of scripture, but I would just, I guess my prayer is that you would hear this word today um with new in a new way. Like the Lord would reveal something new to you in it. Um so Ephesians 6, 10 through 17 says, Finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. And after you have done everything to stand, stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Whew, that's that's so much. Yeah, it is so full of everything. And I like I just want to say when we start talking about like spiritual warfare, it can be very taboo, it can be very uncomfortable. We acknowledge that. Um, and we're not biblical scholars. We're, you know, we're far from experts, but we are like we want to follow Jesus with everything. Yes. And um, we believe that there is a spiritual realm. And we also believe that we're pretty distracted people and we don't pay attention enough attention to it. Correct. Um, you know, for me personally, I I grew up with uh a lot of attention drawn toward the spiritual realm. And there um there was good, but then there was also just some fear that was stirred up in me as a young girl. And so I've had to kind of navigate that throughout the years, and I think it's important to have these kinds of conversations. Yeah. And I know, Carrie, you have been talking about like you felt like the Lord has just been putting this in front of you a lot lately. Yes, so all over the place. Yeah. So we we thought, why not just let's talk about it together? You know, let's talk about it together on the show and and see maybe what the Lord would want to do with it.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Yeah. And so it kind of ties in with everything we've talked about in the last couple of episodes with miracles, and we talked about strongholds, and this all kind of started with Pastor Jack's sermon on miracles before Easter. And when um I was talking with a couple of friends about miracles, um, the strongholds came up, but then within the strongholds comes the spiritual warfare and how we are in a daily battle. Um, we don't pay attention, like you said, we're distracted. We don't pay attention to what's going on, but Satan is at work and we really need to be more vigilant on that. Um, we do have to put on our armor daily and fight it. Um, but we also have to remember we're on the winning team. Amen. Now, yeah, it may not seem like that every day, and it may seem like, wow, when is this winning team gonna win? Right because it's a daily battle. But um, but we just shouldn't be surprised at that because like when something hits us, this is something I just recently heard in a podcast. They were like, Why are we surprised when we get attacked by Satan? We are in a war. Yeah. When especially when we say we are a Christian and we accept Jesus as our savior, and now we want to follow that, then Satan's like, target right there. We gotta try and win them back. We don't want people going and following Jesus. Yeah. Um, and so we have a target on us. And that is something that spiritually it can manifest in so many different ways that we don't even realize it. It could be our health, it could be just our financial situation, it could be our children and their obedience or disobedience or whatever. Um, could be a job issue. Just it could be anything that causes havoc in our life.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

That takes us to the world.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

I think we also we also have to ask ourselves some of those questions of like what are we entertaining? I know we've talked about that in previous episodes. Like what doors have we cracked open? You know, that we are allowing the enemy um territory in our lives, you know. I think that that that there needs to be just an honest evaluation and what we're consuming and what we're watching, what um what we're listening to. And and it's not even just through like media, but I mean it on all fronts. You know what I mean? Like so it we can if we can have that awareness, you know, to to do some evaluation on those things. I think the Lord can use that and point us in the right direction to to know like what are the things that need to go and what are the things that we need to like remove ourselves from, you know what I mean? Um but it's definitely something that I think the enemy can be uh crafty in how he kind of like sucked you in there. Like it can start with something good and then it just turned to something bad. But um being just aware that like there is an enemy present, and it's not to give him more power or anything like that. It is just to be aware, though, and to say, Absolutely, okay, you know, and now as a child of God, how can I use my authority that's been given to me through Christ Jesus to take the steps in the right direction to defeat those attacks and and to shut those attacks down?

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um we wonder, you know, when did this start? Well, in Genesis. Yeah. Way back. Yeah, the beginning when Satan tempted Adam and Eve, and it's he well, it happened before that because he is a fallen angel and he took a portion of those angels with him, and he that is his army. And so we have to remember that he is real and he is fighting against God all the time. But we also have to remember 1 John 4 17 says, Perfect love casts out fear. And so we are not supposed to fear, even though we are fighting daily. Um, we have to remember that God is on our side. And I listened to a podcast with John Elridge. Um love John Eldridge. Yeah, he's great. Um, it's called Wild at Heart. And there was a a series, an episode, not a series, about spiritual warfare. And he talked about John 10:10. This the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. Only that. There's nothing good in the thief. But I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. So we need to remember that that Satan has no good intentions whatsoever. But we have to make sure that we know who Christ is and know that he is on our side. Um, but we also need to to pay attention to, like you were saying, what what door have we opened to put a foot in the door for Satan? Um, we are sinful by nature. Right. We are that's one of our problems, but we also have weaknesses, and we have to focus on like somebody who might be an alcoholic.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

They're gonna stay away from drinking. That's not really a problem for me. You can put alcohol in front of me. I'm not really gonna drink it. That's not something I've ever really been interested in. Um, smoking, same thing. Yeah, those are not weaknesses for me, yeah, but that is a weakness for somebody else. So you have to figure out what your weakness is because Satan is going to abuse it and pull you in. And so those are things we need to be see, what we are tempted by. And then we need to define that and we need to call it out. And we need to say, you know, Satan, you're not going to get a hold of me. And I know this is a weakness I have, but I know through God's power I can resist you.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

Yeah, yeah. And I I do, I do believe like when we can call it out loud with our words, because our words have power. They do. Um, we God uses that. Like he that is his power, he uses through us, is through when we can even just speak his word back on it, that authority as as his child, um, he gives us that. He gives us that right. And it is, it's something that I I don't think that we maybe we don't fully understand how to use it. I know I'm still learning how to use that, you know, as as a child of God when it comes to like my authority. I I know like in my prayer life and things, um, like I've had people come and ask me, like, hey, can you pray about this? And I mean, I I absolutely, yes. I'll pray, I'll pray over this and we'll declare God's goodness and his mercy over this situation and and all of that. Ultimately, though, like I he's he's in charge, you know, and I I I think that um the only way that we grow in this is to practice it. Yeah. Is to practice it. But if we don't ever become aware or we completely just like disregard, like, even though you know that's a weakness, but you just kind of keep ignoring it, you know, and just keep turning, turning your face away from it like it's not there. Um it's not gonna go anywhere. Like it's still gonna be just right behind you, like, hey, you know, I just think um it it's so important for us to recognize those things, become aware, and then call it out out loud with our words.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Yeah. Um, Beth Maxwell actually gave me some really good advice about that. She said, God can hear our thoughts because you know he's omniscient, knows everything. Satan cannot. So if we're trying to call something out, we can talk to God in our head and not speak it, but Satan has to hear us speak it verbally. And I was like, Okay, yeah, never heard of that before, but that is so brilliant. And I'm like, okay, yeah, Satan doesn't know what my thoughts are, but yeah, I need to speak it verbally. I think so many of us think that he does, though. I know for real, he can consume our thoughts and he can put stuff in our head, but he doesn't know what we're thinking. And if we're saying in our head, in Jesus' name, like stop, yeah, he can't hear that. We have to verbally say, Yeah, Satan, get away.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Get out. Yeah. I mean, even Jesus, Jesus did it. He did, he did it. He was like, but he had to verbally say it, you know, like it he wasn't just pointing his finger, like he had to command him to go.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

Correct. And if we do resist, well, if we don't resist, Satan wins. Yeah. If we do resist, he has to flee. And James 4 7 says, Submit yourselves then to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

And so um, it's a three-part of that. One, you have to break the control, like we said, close any door that Satan might be trying to come through, and don't let him have that foothold. And then two, you need to forgive people. Oh, yeah. Ouch. Gotta do it. Oh, yeah. Because we also need to have forgiveness out. We need to ask for forgiveness. And remember, God, it we want God to forgive us. We also have to forgive everybody else. Yeah. And so that's a hard one, but we need to do it. And then three, we need to take it to the feet of Jesus. Amen. We need to give it to him and not take it back.

unknown 12:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

That is my worst thing. I know. You're God, take care of this. And then I go, Oh, yeah, well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna help.

unknown 13:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Yeah. Yeah. I so we just gotta that.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Yeah. But he is our defense, and we gotta make sure that we're paying attention to that. He was tempted and he was successful at not falling to that temptation. Um, so we've we know that we have that Holy Spirit in us that can help us get through struggles.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

Yeah. Uh first John 4 4 says, Greater is he who is in me than he who is in the world. Amen. It's so good. Yeah. So um, do you want to talk about just the spirit world a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Oh, wow. So yeah, there, like I said, there have been so many things. Like, um, it started out with a friend sending me this podcast. It's called Blurry Creatures, and it's yeah, quite interesting. There's over 400 episodes in the world. Oh my goodness. This is interesting. Um, okay. And so that started me thinking, and then other people have sent me things just like bombarded recently with spiritual warfare.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

And I'm going, okay, this is interesting. And I've It caught your attention. It did get my attention. And you were sitting in the office when Pastor Jack came through one day, and I kind of just threw it out there to him, and he was like, You really need to read this book. And so I'm I'm trying to get this book, your story has a villain. And so I'm like just seeing it everywhere. And there are demonic forces all around us just waiting.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

And, you know, we don't have danger just go, hey, I'm gonna hit you tomorrow afternoon. You good with that? It just comes upon us. We get no warning.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

I I know that there have been times like when I'll walk into a room and I can just I can feel something is off in my spirit. Yeah, you know, and that when I was younger, I I I think I didn't take it as kind of like the warning from the Holy Spirit. It was more so like I felt like I would internalize it and make it personal, like something's wrong with me, like people are acting this sort of way because something is wrong with me or something like that, you know? Yeah. But then like as I got older and that kept happening more, I was like, uh I actually think, Lord, this is the Holy Spirit, this is you. Like, I think this is the Holy Spirit just giving me discernment that something is off right here. And to pay attention, it's not to scare me, right, but it is more so of like, it's like an alert of like, I need you to pay attention. I need you to be awake and sober-minded right now. Um because he is at work, you know. The enemy is at work, but the Lord is at work, okay? The Holy Spirit is at work. And so wherever light comes in, darkness has to flee. But there are times though that I I do, like I'll walk into a space or something, and I'm like, something just doesn't feel quite right in my spirit. And I and it sometimes I get clarity on it and sometimes I don't. Yeah. And I I think I also had to kind of release that shame of feeling like a bad Christian because I couldn't get it figured out, you know, and just release that and like, okay, Lord, you are going to reveal to me what I need to know about this situation. I'm gonna trust you for that. I'm gonna pray that you give me discernment and wisdom. Right. But um, it didn't always come and the moment would pass, you know? Yeah. But it's just so interesting um being in situations like that when you when you allow yourself to be more aware.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

Right. Yeah, yeah. Um, and I've heard of things like people being on the mission field and going into third world countries where there's a lot of like voodoo and witchcraft and things going on, and that spiritual negative force is very palatable.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

I went to um Haiti actually when I was 20 years old, went on a mission trip to Haiti, and I have actually felt that very thing. Like as soon as we got there, I was like, what in the world? And I I mean I was young, like I didn't know, but it just felt the best way I can describe it was just it all it kind of made my stomach hurt. Just to feel like you could just feel the oppression, you could feel the darkness. Yeah. And then it was. It was, and then at night, like you could hear the voodoo going on at night. Like it was wild. I have not been back to Haiti, but um, my my husband did several mission trips there, and it that is very real. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Well, I remember when we were in Honduras one time, Bonnie was talking about when she had had to go to the courthouse for one of the girls, and she said she was never fearful when she was down there. And there was one time she went and there was this man who was being escorted by her, and she said she was actually fearful. Like his eyes looked just so dark and demonic and evil. And she was like, I could feel the negative energy and the negative presence in there. And she was like, It was it was scary. Yeah. And there is it, it's there, it's there, it's real, it is a very good thing. We have to acknowledge it because again, we can't just shy away from it. It's it's gonna it can overwhelm us and consume us. Yeah. So we've got to make sure.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

Um I have to tell myself often, God, you did not give me a spirit of fear. Yeah, that is power, love, and a sound mind. That is what you've given me. You've not given me a spirit of fear. But like I said, when I when I was growing up, that was um I was made aware of the spiritual realm. And I remember being young and having dreams and things like that. And I it would scare me. It really would. It would terrify me. Um and I would shy away from it as I got a little bit older. But then, you know, I I just think it's God's grace that um he brought certain things to my attention so that that I could be in a healthy mindset with it all, you know, and and not be like super fearful of it, but just be aware. Again, this I feel like that's like the key buzzword in my life right now is awareness.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

That's a good one to be. Yeah, and I think um I just want to read Ephesians 6.12 again out of that whole thing. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, which sometimes I'm gonna just pause there. It's not, we're not fighting against each other. Right. Even though it seems like we are, we're fighting against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. And that's what we have to remember. We are not fighting against each other. We are all God's children.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

But Satan wants us to fight each other.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Yeah. A mentor of mine says, the enemy is the enemy.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 20:03

You're not the enemy, you're not my enemy. Yeah. The enemy is the enemy. And to know like who you're you're fighting against is huge and massive in when it comes to how the body of Christ can come together and really um be united, be like a united front.

SPEAKER_00 20:21

Right. Um, so we want to just close today by talking about some things that you can um try and uh wrap your head around this very complex topic. And we have just maybe barely scratched the surface. Yeah. Um, we uh praying is the first thing. You just gotta pray for wisdom um and discernment, awareness, all of those things that we were just talking about, and asking the Holy Spirit to reveal things to you and just bring to light, like you said, when you walked in the room and you felt differently, that you can really understand okay, this is not okay. Yeah, something's going on, and I really need to pay attention to this. Um, and then read the Bible, know the truth in God because Satan even tried with Jesus to take that and twist it. Yep, take it and twist it. And we need to know what the truth is in God and be able to then use it back on him.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

And um study, um, study God's word, um, study um valid people who sound teaching. Sound teaching. Yeah, yeah. Um don't chat GPT it. Please don't Wikipedia it, but find those sound teachings that um you know are well I sound like I'm an educator right now. Find a reliable source. Find a reliable that's true though, but it is you have to look and see where is this information coming from? Where is the source of all these things? And we may do another podcast later on and get some more knowledge we'll get. People than us because we just want to throw this out here and just get you thinking about this topic because it is something that nobody really discusses. It's taboo, but it's there and we have to be aware of it and start paying attention to it. Yeah. Um, and we'll throw some resources in the little section of our podcast that you can go to that we kind of looked at to get some more information on it. And that is just very minute. So yeah. But they're helpful. So hopefully they'll be helpful to you too. So anyway, um, we will see you guys next time. And we thanks, thank you for listening to us. All right, see you next time.