Overcoming Warfare

Welcome back to DAUTR! 

Today we are talking about Ephesians 6 and what it means to put on the full armour of God. We are promised warfare in this life but Jesus has the victory, learn how to walk in it! 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

D A U T O Daughter. Welcome back to another episode of Daughter. I'm so glad that you guys are here. If you're new, hi, my name is Cecily. I'm your host. I created this podcast really to have women know their sense of identity when it comes to the kingdom of heaven and what that means to be a daughter and what that means to be in Christ. Because I've been walking with the Lord now for like almost three years, but for two of those years, like I really did not know what it meant to truly be a daughter. I didn't know what it meant to be like really my identity when it came to Christ. And this was birthed out of Isaiah 43. And I had just like this insane moment with the Lord when He showed me who I was through that scripture, and hence birth daughter. So I yeah, I just want to create a space where people can feel the same way. Um, and yeah, just give us space to know that people are loved, they're chosen, they are worthy that you are here for a reason and the Lord loves you so much. So today we are talking. Also, wait, quick side note. I got a new plant. If you're watching this online, look at my plant, it's so cute. I got it from my IKEA. They have great little ferns and things. Uh, I don't even know what type of plant this is called. It's actually dying because it's right under my AC. Um, but I don't want to move it because, like, the aesthetic, this corner is giving exactly what it needs to give. But yeah. We're talking about warfare today. That had nothing to do with it. Um, just wanted to let you guys in on my little home life. We are talking about warfare today, and this is something that I felt really ill-equipped with when it came to my walk. I grew up in the church, but I feel like this was never really talked about. The reality of the spiritual realm was never talked about. But I also think that in this day and age, we also can get a little too spiritual with it and we forget like the natural law of things. Um, and I just kind of want to talk about like what it truly means to walk with your armor on, what warfare really is, and how we defend ourselves, because how we defend ourselves is very simple, and it's all laid out in Ephesians 6. So that's what we're talking about today. So let's pray. We're gonna get into it. Um, dear Lord, I thank you so much for this space, God. I thank you for this podcast, Lord. I thank you for this topic of warfare, Lord, that you didn't leave us stranded, God, you didn't leave us in a battle unprotected, but you have given us every single thing that we need, Lord. So today we come into agreement with what it truly means to fight with your armor, what it means to fight with the power of Jesus, with the Holy Spirit, God. We believe in the power of the resurrection, God, as the basis of our faith, Lord. So we believe that every single power that is coming against us cannot stand against Jesus. Lord, there is no battle that you will not win, there's no warfare that you can't win, God. And we believe that we have the victory, Lord. We believe and we're coming in agreement today that we have the victory over the enemy and we don't have to roll over, God. We get to stand up, we get to take heart in this battle because you are the one fighting for us, God. So, Lord, I today, as I talk through this, God, I pray that your presence will be with your people, Lord. I pray that every single mindset that is coming against um the victory, Jesus, will be broken down today, Lord. I pray that your presence, they'll just know, like, it doesn't matter what spiritual battle they're fighting, God, that you are always with them, that you're always speaking, that you're always moving, God. And even when they can't see you, you are defending them, you are. So, Lord, we pray today just a new revelation of your power, of your strength, of what it means to be clothed in righteousness and what it means to be um just like a sacrificial follower of you, Lord. I just even rebuke any lie that the enemy's coming after that if we give our whole lives to you, our lives are gonna get worse. Lord, I just feel like that's such a notion in our society that our lives are gorse when we come to you. That's the exact opposite. That's the lie he wants us to think, but our lives are so much better with you, Jesus. We get freedom, we get joy, we get peace, we get liberation. Lord, let us seek after the things you tell us that the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the spirit is life and peace. That is a promise. Those are not false words, God's God. You don't speak false words. Lord, we cling to the promise today that we get to live in spirit and in truth, that we get to walk in freedom with you, God, that even though we deny ourselves every single day, you fill us up. We get more of you, Jesus. Lord, let that be the prize every single day that we get more of you, Jesus. We get to know your thoughts, we get to know what you're thinking, we get to know your heart, Lord. Let that always be the goal. Lord, I thank you, Lord. Anoint my tongue today. Yeah, we should pray this all in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Let's do it. Okay, so first we're reading from Ephesians 6, starting verse 10. Uh finally be strengthened by the Lord and his vast and by his vast strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take stand against the schemes of the devil, for our struggle is not against flesh and bud, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of the darkness, against the evil spiritual forces in the heavenly realms. For this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, having prepared everything to take stand. We're gonna stop there and we're gonna walk through this first, and then I'm gonna go back and like explain more of the armor. So as I was reading this, I was so struck by the first line. And the Lord just gave me a complete new revelation of Ephesians 6, because I always hear people say, put on the full armor of God. But what we forget to mention first is verse 10. Finally be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength. Before we put on any armor, it tells us to take heart in the Lord. It says we are to take up his strength. Why? Because the enemy is not scared of you, the demons aren't scared of you, nothing is scared of you, but they're scared of Jesus. And it is by his stripes we are saved. It is by his strength that we are able to persevere. It is by his strength that the battle is won. It's by nothing that we have ever done. We come into alignment with what he did on the cross, but it has never been about us. So if you are putting on your armor without taking heart and being strengthened in the Lord, it's not gonna work because it's his strength that sustains you, not ours. And when you have that concept, that's when you then put on the full armor of God. But one thing that just really struck me as well with this is like everything in our faith comes down to trusting God. Our whole relationship with Jesus is built off of trust. And if you do not trust, then it's not gonna work. Like these promises never go unfulfilled. Like, God does not change based on what you feel. You may not feel like trusting him, you may not feel like he's protecting you. But if it says it in the Bible, it's true. But the more you start to trust and believe it, your life gets a lot easier because you're coming to alignment with the character of Jesus and you're coming to alignment with God. And that's such a beautiful thing. And the more you come into alignment with God, the less chaotic your life starts to feel because you have such a firm foundation in who he is. And when you have that firm foundation in who he is, nothing can shake you. It doesn't matter what the enemy throws at you, you cannot be ripped out of the hand of God. If you know that he has you so secure and so tightly, like the enemy can throw anything at you and you will not be phased because you know that Jesus has you. And even when we're talking about warfare too, like I want to give a little bit more context on what warfare actually is. Um, because I feel like sometimes we over-spiritualize it or we under spiritualize it. So a lot of people will either like give the enemy way too much power and way too much credit, or they won't give him enough. And the enemy has limitations, so the enemy is was created by God. I just do we forget that sometimes, like he was created by God. Now he rebelled against God, he didn't submit to him, he didn't believe in his authority, he took his own pride and got kicked out of heaven. But God created him, so anything that the enemy has, like there is limitations. The enemy has to ask permission by God, and God allows it or he doesn't. And the reason that the Lord allows warfare in our life is because it draws us closer to him. If we're always living these perfect lives and we never went through trials and tribulations, um, we wouldn't have to rely on him. And it's just part of getting to know him deeper, trusting him deeper. And the also, like, we get this perception, I feel like sometimes like the enemy can make me sin, the enemy can make me do this, the enemy can't make you do anything. All he can do is tempt you in Matthew four, Matthew four, in Matthew Four, it's Matthew 4. Um, it's right after Jesus gets baptized and he goes into the wilderness for 40 days to fast, and the enemy tries to tempt him, and that's all he can do is he tempts him and he tempts him and he tempts him. But what does Jesus do? He combats it with the word of God, and that's why we have to read our Bibles is because your answer is always gonna be in the word. Every time the enemy tries and deceives you, he's gonna try and lie to you. He is the father of lies. That's all he could do, though. He deceives and he lies, and he makes he makes you think that he has so much authority over you. The enemy does not have authority over you, but he can't have power. Authority and power are two different things. Power is like almost an influence. He feels like he can influence you, but authority is ownership. The only person that has ownership over you is Jesus Christ, and when you know that, the power of the enemy becomes a lot less significant in your life because you know that he can't overtake you. It tells us that he who was in you was greater than he who was in the world, and that is a promise. Like the Holy Spirit that dwells inside of you is so much greater than the power of the enemy. But he just wants you to think that it's the opposite way, but he has limitations. He can lie to you, he can deceive you, um, he can plant things in your head that are gonna be out of alignment with the word of God. But that's what he does is he tries to make you doubt yourself, he tries to make you doubt the character of God, he tries to make you doubt that the word of God. That's all he does, is he tries to make you doubt who God is. Why? Because he knows that God is more powerful. He knows, he knows that the battle's already lost, which is why he's so adamant and trying to lie to you, because that's all he can do. He really has no real authority over you at all. And when you understand like the limitations of the enemy, the battle also seems like a lot more into perspective because you know you've already won. Like when you know you've already won a battle, you were going to treat it completely different because you know where the victory lies, you know what's on the other side of this is that Jesus won. He rose from the dead. Amen. Thank you, Jesus, the heroes. One thing when we're talking about warfare and we're talking about the enemy tempting and lying and deceiving and all of these things, one thing the enemy cannot make you do is sin. So we have free will. He can tempt you, but it also tells us in the Bible that he cannot tempt us, or the Lord will never allow a temptation to overtake us. And every single time that there is a temptation, he gives us a way out. You have a choice to either walk with Jesus, to walk in the commandments, to walk and be faithful with the Lord, or you have, or you have the choice to sin. And he wants to make you think that sin is not that bad. He wants to make you think that your sin does not have consequences, but it does. Our sin always has quant consequences. And yeah, we have to take ownership in our own part of this too. Of like sometimes we'll call it warfare, and this is just your plain old sin. You're having anxiety because you're sinning, you're depressed because you're sinning, you're sad because you're sinning. Like, warfare is not always what we think it is. Sometimes it's just our own sin, and you have to start walking in obedience to the call of God because there's always gonna be a weight on you if you are walking in sin because it's causing separation. When you have the Holy Spirit, you start to get conviction, and the conviction is birthed out of so much love. It's such a beautiful thing. Like, all every single time it tells us that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, but that conviction is meant to draw you closer to God, it's not just meant to like be brought up and be like, Oh, okay, like thank you, Lord. Like, no, it's brought up so you are meant to be drawn closer to him. That's everything he does is to make us be closer to him. Um, and on the flip side of that, when it comes to sin and warfare, there also is a real response that our bodies can have to warfare. And I'm someone that has struggled with this a lot. Of I've dealt with a lot of sickness, I've dealt with um just so many different things. And the enemy had gotten so inside of my head when it had come to sickness. So, a little bit about my testimonies, the Lord delivered me and healed me of Lyme disease. And when he touched me, I knew for a fact the disease was gone, and I had test results and everything to prove it. But over the last two and a half years, it has been a process of me undoing the lies because I believe the enemy when it has come to sickness still in my life. Like, I was not sick, but I was convincing myself I was sick because I've lived so much of my life in sickness, and the Lord had to show me, like, says, You are not sick, you're not, but you're letting you're believing the lies of the enemy instead of trusting me. And that can happen with so many of us, and may now it might look different, it might not be sickness, but you I think you have to ask the Lord, like, God, where am I letting the enemy have reign in my life in an area that you have delivered me from? Because he's gonna answer you and he's gonna show you, and he's asked him then to like give you a scripture to cling on to, so in that moment, you could always have something to run back to. Everything comes back to the word of God. So now I want to talk about like the actual armor. And Paul was writing this to the Church of Ephesus out of jail, so he actually spent a lot of time around Roman guards, and it's such an interesting depiction because he gives us the armor exactly the armor like that Roman guards would have put on every single day. So he gives us a very literal picture of the spiritual battle, so we know what we're fighting against. And when you also look up the armor, you see that we're covered head to toe. Like there is no place in our body that is uncovered. Like the Lord has truly covered us from head to toe with every single attack of the enemy. So we're starting in verse 14 now. Stand therefore with the belt of truth around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, and your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In every situation, take up the shield of faith with which it 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. Pray in the spirit at all times with and with every prayer and request, stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints. So the first thing is the belt of truth. And this was really interesting. When I was doing research on the belt of truth, it or on the on like a belt and what that looks like in Roman armor, it actually was something that holds the foundation of the rest of the armor, but you can't see it. It's put underneath, so you actually would never be able to know that it's there. But if you don't have that belt wrapped around, all of your armor will fall off because it's what like fastens it and secures it. And I think it's so interesting how the Lord decided to do truth when it comes to um actually like having that foundation because our whole faith is built on the truth of Jesus Christ, it is built on the truth that he is our Lord and Savior, that there is no other God but him, that he rose from the dead three days later conquering evil, that he was a blameless, sinless man. That is the truth of what we believe, and that is the basis of our entire faith. And you, if you don't believe in the truth of the gospel, if you don't believe in the truth of who Jesus really was, if you don't believe in the truth of who God says he is, your armor will have cracks in it and it will not be able to withstand the day of the enemy. Why does our life why does the Lord tell us to build our life on him? Because he is the cornerstone. That song always comes to mind like rain came, wind blew, but my house was built on you. If your house is not built on the foundation and the truth of Jesus Christ, your armor won't matter. Because it is by his stripes we are healed, it is with his power we overcome anything. It's not our own power, it's not by our own doing. We cannot work our way up through these battles, we can't fight our way through these battles. It is by only the strength of God, and you have to lay your whole life on that foundation that it is He, Him, Him who was gonna carry you through. It's Jesus who's gonna carry you through. And the next one being uh righteousness like armor on your chest. And when I was looking at the breastplate, it covers all of your vital organs. And when I think of righteousness, I think of the heart. And I also think of the second commandment, which is love your neighbor as thyself. And I feel like the armor of God is so interesting because it just like comprehends, or I guess it hits like every single aspect of where we're we could be struggling, and that is a commandment to love thy neighbor as thyself. And when I think of righteousness, Jesus is the ultimate picture of righteousness. He was sinless, he was blameless, he sat with tax collectors, he sat with no one, was with the people that no one wanted to sit with. People were so confused on why Jesus sat with the lepers, with the prostitutes, and all of these things, but that's the God that he is. He leaves the 99 to find the one. And when we think of righteousness in our own hearts, like, are we so focused on ourselves or are we still carrying that command out? And two, with warfare, like, are you still able to love someone when they're bothering you? Are you still able to love people when you're under spiritual attack? Are you still able to give to others even when you might not feel like it? Like, are you able to uphold this standard of righteousness? And it's not by doing like a bunch of good things, it's by coming into alignment with Jesus because it's his character. We can't just work our way up. It's this is not a faith-by-work situation. This is coming into alignment with the person of Jesus and his righteousness. I hope I'm making sense on that day. The next one is and your feet sandal with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. Why are your feet so important? Because that's how we walk forward. If you have all the rest of your armor on, but there's something wrong with your feet, you can't walk forward. And we get a promise to walk in this life with peace. When you are aligning yourself with the word of God, you get peace. It tells us in Romans 8 that the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the spirit is life and peace. And this talks about there's so many other verses that talk about peace and life with Jesus is peace. The more you disconnect yourself from the world, you get this life full of peace with him. It's such a beautiful depiction of like the readiness aspect of it. Of we don't have to be afraid of this battle, we don't have to be like over hyper alert of this battle. We just have to be aware of it and know that yes, we're ready for the battle any moment, but even within the battle, we have peace. You can be walking into the hardest season of your life, but you still have peace because Jesus gives you that peace that surpasses all knowledge. Like it doesn't matter what's going on around you, you will always have peace in the midst of your battles. I think that's something too to really cling on to in the midst of battle because the enemy attacks us all differently. But I know for me personally, like peace is the first thing to always go. And I have to remind myself every single day, like, no, Lord, you tell me that peace is a promise. Walking with you, that peace is a promise, and I have to cling to the truth. Um, that peace is one of your promises. In every situation, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. So the shield is not like a mini little circle shield that just like defend yourself against a few things. No, these are like full body shields. And I love this picture of like the shield of faith extinguishing every flaming arrow of the evil ones because why? It doesn't even tell you that's gonna hit you. He tells you it's gonna extinguish it. What does it mean to extinguish? Put out the fire. The flaming arrows that the enemy wants to throw at you, if you have faith in Jesus Christ, you believe that those arrows can't even touch you. Psalm 23. When I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Like, you have to have faith that he is always with you. You have to have faith that he's gonna win the battle, you have to have faith and trust that like he is the God who he says he is, he's the God that delivered the Israelites, he's the God that kept coming and winning the battle for David. Like, this is the same God, he's the exact same, and he's winning your battle. How special is that that the God of the universe wants to fight your battles, and all you have to do is have faith. And it also requires you to let go of control. Like, you have to let go of control and trust and believe that God will do it. We are so quick to try and fix the battle for ourselves when God is like, I actually just want you to sit here and I want you to pray. And I want you to believe in faith that everything that's being thrown at you, I'm gonna handle. And verse 17, take up take the helmet of salvation. The helmet of salvation protects the mind, and that's one of the biggest areas that the enemy can get you is your mind. What can he do? He can lie, he and he can deceive you. And when you are so confident in your salvation in Christ, the lies start to diminish. And how do you actually like defend yourself when it comes to the lies? It's by knowing your word. Every single lie that comes your way, you have to combat it with truth. And this is why Paul tells us that we need to take every single thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. So, an example of this would be I hear people say all the time, I'm ugly. Well, you know what the Bible says about that? That we were made in the image of Christ. I'm lonely. Isaiah 43. When you walk through the waters, I will be with you and they will not overtake you. I'm afraid the situation's not gonna work out. Psalm 34. I sought the Lord, he answered me, and he delivered me from all my fears. Every single lie that the enemy could possibly have, you have to combat it with scripture, and every single thing I promise you will be in your word. And this is why you have to know your word. I will say again and again and again on this podcast: you have to be reading your word because it's alive, it's inside of you, it's how you defend yourself, it's how you get to know more of Jesus. Like there are so many false images of Jesus in our day and age. I've seen it in churches, I see it on social media. There's prosperity gospel is raging, but Jesus is the center of everything. He is sacrificial, we lay our lives down for him, and don't if anyone ever tells you that you don't have to lay down everything. For Jesus, that that is not the true gospel. It tells us we have to deny ourselves and take up our cross every single day. Those who find their life will lose it, but those who lose their life for my sake will find it. We have to lay down everything for him. And that's why it's so important that you have to read the word for yourself because there is a lot of false prophets, there is a lot of false teachings out there. And if you don't actually know the truth, you're going to get your mind um caught up in that deception. And finally, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And this is so interesting because the word of God, as I've talked about multiple times on this podcast, it is your defense. And when you think about this whole armor, every single thing is your defense, but the word of God is your only offense. That is how you fight back with the enemy. You don't fight back by your own works. You fight back by knowing the Bible. You fight back by knowing Jesus. You fight back by knowing what God says. That is how you fight this whole battle is what does God say? And what God says always reigns. We make it so much harder than it has to be when all God wants us to do is cling to the truth of his word. And that's it. And that's how you fight. Like you fight with him. But I'm also not gonna sit here and say it's not always difficult. Like this is a difficult journey. There is moments where war feel warfare feels so intense and so difficult, and like I'm never gonna get out of it. But the Lord always brings me through it. And when I always come back to truly trusting and believing in the word of God, that's how I come out of alignment with the way that I'm feeling. Really, that's all I got. But I pretty much want to encourage you guys in this walk. Like, we don't have to roll over, we don't have to live this life of like always being depressed and sad, and the enemy is always attacking me and all these things. Like, as much as that is happening, we are told that we get joy in victory in Jesus. And yes, it might be difficult in moments, but the joy of the Lord will always reign in our lives. If you truly believe that He is the God that He says He is, that is where we win the battle. And yes, you're gonna have seasons that are hard, but they're not gonna last forever. And I really encourage you through these moments to ask for more wisdom and discernment, ask for God like, is this truly a spiritual attack? Is this something that you're actually trying to teach me? Because that's also another thing that I really had to learn. Like a lot of these things that I thought were spiritual attacks was actually just the the Lord trying to prune me of things. He was trying to bring me to a new level with him, he was trying to have me walk with him in a deeper manner, but I was like rebuking left, right, and center all these things. He's like, baby girl, you can keep rebuking all these things all you want, but it's never gonna change because I'm trying to teach you a lesson. I'm trying to walk you through this so now you can live in more joy and more freedom and more peace and walk closer to me. So I really just encourage you, like, if this is a battle where you feel like this is never ending, ask God what this truly is. Is this a spiritual battle? Is this something you're trying to teach me? Like, what is going on in the situation? Because he's always gonna give you the answer, and that's so special. And like, I really encourage you to ask. Um, the Bible tells us, ask and it will be given. It might not be in your exact timing, but if you ask, he will always give you an answer, especially when it comes to the word of God. With this battle, like, I don't want anyone to ever be discouraged of like, I don't know scripture, I don't know scripture. Like, just start reading it, and the Holy Spirit's gonna help you. He is going to help you, and I even too like want to come against any lies of anyone who thinks that they can't read their Bible um and they can't memorize their Bible because listen, you can listen to your favorite song and know that thing in two seconds. I bet you can recite all of your favorite songs, all of these things. Our memories are very good, y'all. But the enemy wants to make you think that you can't do it, and that's a lie that I had to come out of agreement with. I'm someone who has had multiple concussions. I had a lot of trouble in school through almost all of college because I couldn't physically remember anything, and that carried over to my Bible, that carried over to reading the word, and I just felt like I couldn't remember anything. I felt like I was clouded every time I opened up my word, and God was like, Sess, you're letting the enemy reign in this part of your life. Do you believe that I healed you and freed you of all this concussion stuff? I'm like, Yes. Then he's like, Well, why can't you memorize your word then? I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm coming to an agreement with a lie that I didn't even know I was coming into agreement with. So, anyways, just believe the truth, ask the Lord to expose the lies, and you can read your word, you can memorize your word, it comes down to time and will to do it. Also, really good resources, too, are like the Bible project is awesome, enduring word is great. You might not always understand everything in the Bible because sometimes it can be very confusing, but there's so many resources. ChatGTP is also a great study tool. Um, I'm also such a visual learner, so I've actually been watching The Chosen, which has also really helped me bring like these scriptures to life. We live in a day and age where there is so many resources. Um, so use them because they're truly so many. Anyways, that's really all I have. I love you guys. I hope that made sense. I'm doing a new photo shoot for my podcast really soon. Very excited. If you've never looked at the Instagram, I don't think I've ever talked about this. Really, the way that I designed my social media was that I wanted to tell many stories. Um, and I don't know how long I'm gonna do this for, but like I just felt like when I was starting, I really wanted to tell many stories. The last one was about like the beauty of women and then also creation, and I kind of did that in a sense of doing like just different beauty shots, and then I also did like the story of nature in like a tropical destination, which I just feel like is one of my favorite ways to experience the beauty of God, and this next shoe, I'm kind of like flipping it and doing like a darker theme of kind of like a loneliness, but finding the Lord throughout that loneliness and the fast pace of the city, and kind of like what you think you'll want is not gonna be found in all of the world when you're chasing after like this fast city life. And, anyways, it's just like a really exciting story that I'm excited to do. So that's a little what's coming into daughter next. So excited. Season two, we're gonna get a real setup. Don't you worry, anyways. I need to stop talking, I need to go now. Bye. I love you guys.