(Ep15) Spiritual Defense: Inside the Fortress

As we wrap up our basic characteristics of spiritual defense, i wanted to provide you an idea of what this can look like when applied to the imagery of a medieval castle.  Before diving deeper into our types of defense, we look at the general application of awareness, security, disruption, response, and mass effect.  For a community of Christians, this means having awareness, a guarded heart and mind, love, surrender, and holiness.

Transcript

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Hey guys, and welcome back to our series on spiritual warfare. Get comfortable and settle in as we step into this next episode of Joining the Fight. A complete look at our basic defensive characteristics applied to the imagery of a medieval castle. We're going to do this with all five of them so you can get a better understanding of how they work together and what they look like in practice. I'm Kyle Clark from Standing Work Ministries, a Christ-centered ministry dedicated to equipping believers with solid biblical truth and practical training. We create scripture-based curriculum and resources like our workbook joining the fight to strengthen discipleship, deepen the understanding of all the believers around us, and help every one of us live with purpose as we stand firm in truth and carry the message of Christ forward. If you want to explore more teachings or grab this workbook, head over to standingword.com. Over our last few episodes, we've been building the framework for a strong spiritual defense. We've talked about why we need strongholds in the first place, and we looked at the five key characteristics that make any defense effective. Preparation, security, disruption, response, and mass effect. Before we move forward into the next part of our journey, which is going to be looking at specific layers of defense and how they're applied specifically, I want to give all of us a picture that we can hold on to for these characteristics. Something simple and memorable that helps us see every piece working together under Christ. So imagine a medieval castle. I'm sure you've seen a movie that has some form of castle that's being used to defend characters in a story or a movie. Every wall, tower, gate, moat in that castle had a purpose. In the same way, our spiritual defenses work together as one unified structure, protecting what matters most. So let's walk through the image together so we can see how this fortress is built with all these characteristics side by side. First up, we must look at the high places that help keep us alert to incoming enemies. When we talked about preparation, which is also awareness, understanding your vulnerabilities and understanding where you must prepare and be ready for. The best analogy of this is the watchtowers on a castle, the towers themselves that overlook the surrounding area. Watchtowers were the first line of awareness for a medieval castle, guards high above the ground, scanning the horizon before any attack ever reached the walls. First Peter 5.8 alludes to this when it talks about being alert and of sober mind because your enemy, the devil, prowls around those watchtowers, that awareness, are the guards of our castle up on this high place, looking out for any incoming enemy. Spiritually, these are our moments of preparation. They're not panic, but they're an awareness to the enemy's tactics and the fact that the enemy is out there on the hunt for anyone he can attack, searching for our vulnerabilities. And so we must be aware of our own vulnerabilities and what God has entrusted us that must be guarded. This ties straight into the position of spiritual vigilance we talked about in episode three, when we talk about guarding our hearts and fixing our eyes, watching our steps. Picture it like this just like any soldier that's on sentry duty that's standing guard in combat, we must stay awake to what's coming. We must be prepared because we know the enemy's out there and we can't get caught off guard. One way that we can apply this throughout the week is take five minutes each morning to ask, Lord, where do I need to be more alert today? Write down one specific vulnerability or tactic you're watching out for that you know the enemy likes to come at you with. Pair this with first Peter five eight and pray it over your family and your church. And from the watchtowers that spot the threat, now we must strengthen the walls that hold the line. Now watchtowers are great, but without walls surrounding a defensive position, a castle is kind of useless. And so our security we talked about two episodes ago, that security that guards our hearts and our minds, those are the walls of our castle, castle walls that are thick, strong, and steady, built to stop attacks before they ever reach the center. Philippians four, six and seven remind us of this. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by petition and prayer, with thanksgiving, present your request to God, and the peace of God will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ. These walls are our security in the Spirit. The walls that we build around our hearts and our minds provide that interior structure that we can defend, built through prayer, through God's word, and through act of faith, they connect directly to the usage of our armor when we put it on. When we are believers standing with the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, and the shield of faith, we help to guard those walls. We help create those walls because when those pieces are fitted together, the blows of accusation, fear, and lies don't land in those vital spots. Picture it like this in battle, a solid fortification lets the troops inside focus on the mission instead of a constant defense being constantly spun up and ready. Our walls do the same thing. When we actively guard our hearts and minds through prayer, God's word, and our active faith, we can preserve the peace that we should have in Christ so that we can keep moving forward and we can launch our attacks from a place of safety. Here are some things to try throughout this week that's going to help you understand this idea better. Choose one daily rhythm, scripture before you ever look at a phone, a short prayer walk in the middle of your day that helps you to build these walls. When anxiety or accusation hits you, pause and declare Philippians four seven out loud. Tell God that you understand that His peace is guarding your heart and your mind, and rely on that. Now our walls give us security, but the access is always controlled by a gate in a medieval castle. And when we look at the gate of a Christian stronghold, that gate is love. Every castle had a gate or a drawbridge. It decided who came in and who stayed out. John thirteen, thirty four through thirty five says this by this everyone will know that you are my disciples. If you love one another, spiritually love functions as our gate. It defines who we belong to. We are in the family of Christ. It reveals our true identity and it actively disrupts the enemy's favorite tactic, division. Where real love is practiced, unforgiveness and isolation will struggle to take root. This is the stance that we talked about in previous episodes when we looked at how to be courageous and have Christ like love that binds all of us together. The gate isn't just an open door, it's a statement that says the enemy does not get to separate us because we have Christ's love. And some ways that we can apply this this week is to pick one person or relationship and do one tangible act of love for them, maybe a note of encouragement, a prayer, or just listening to them and the issues they're having this week. Ask God to make your love the thing that confuses and disrupts the enemy's plan each day in prayer. Because the gate will only open and allow us to enter in to the stronghold that God has created when we have Christ like love. And now with that gate secured by love, we now must talk about the soldiers inside who make it all work. Every castle has a reaction force that responds to when the wall is being attacked, when areas of the defense must be reinforced. And for us, surrender is that response. When we look at James 4 7, it says, Submit yourselves then to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. This is our response. Surrender to Jesus, our commander. And this submission isn't weakness. It's the key that activates everything else. When we obey quickly, when we surrender to God, God is that response force. Our surrender is what reinforces our walls. Our surrender is what snaps us back into place when we've wandered and lost our way. It ties straight into what we've talked about when we wear the armor, and that that armor is not our power, but God's power that's been given to us, and that we have full reliance on Him. Look at it this way Soldiers who trust their commander and move with confidence instead of confusion respond faster to the threats of the enemy around them. They become a hard target. They become an immovable force, and they sow fear amongst the enemy. One way that we can look at this throughout the week is to identify one area where you're holding back from fully surrendering to God and bring it to Him in prayer each day. Practice this simple rhythm. Before you do anything else, submit to God and then resist what the world and the devil is pressuring you to do. Say it out loud when that pressure arises. Inside of that surrender we are protected, but there is one final layer that surrounds all of it. A medieval castle has a moat. Many castles in medieval Europe were surrounded by a moat, water that created distance and made invasion far harder because the moat surrounded the entire castle. When we look at Psalms 46 1 and Psalms 125 2, it says God is our refuge and our strength, an ever-present help in trouble. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people. That is what we call in modern warfare a mass effect, something that affects the entire battlefield. And for us and our castle, the castles that we create, holiness is that same protective barrier. It's not a rigid rule-keeping environment, it's a beautiful separation that lets God's presence surround us like a moat. When we surrender to Him, we pursue Him and His holiness. This is the mass effect that allows us to live apart, to be set apart, to become a fortress the enemy struggles to penetrate, because the enemy must get through God's holiness. And nothing gets through God's holiness. And God's holiness flows out of his righteousness and brings us peace daily when we pursue it. Picture it like this the moat turns the whole structure into something the enemy has to contend with that the enemy can't easily cross. God's holiness does this for us. And one of the ways that we can look at recognizing and applying God's holiness to our life in the case of spiritual defense this week is to choose one practical step of holiness this week, establishing a boundary, doing away with a bad habit, and replacing it with a God habit, or a conversation you hand over to God, a situation that you place at God's feet, a promotion, a desire, whatever it may be, that you give it to him, make it an offering to him, give it away, and ask him to make a moat of protection around you. Submit to him and rely on him and pursue a holy lifestyle just like the scripture asks you to. When we do that, we surround ourselves with that mass effect that the enemy cannot easily penetrate. Now let's close in prayer as we wrap all this up. Father, thank you for building a fortress around us in Christ. Raise our watchtowers, keep us alert and prepared, strengthen our walls, to guard our hearts and minds with your peace, secure our gate with love that disrupts every scheme of division. Train us as surrendered soldiers inside, quick to obey, strong to resist. Surround us with the moat of your holiness, so your presence is the safest place on earth. May our lives together be a castle that honors you and protects what you've entrusted to us. We fight from victory, we stand in unity, and we rest in your surrendering love in Jesus' name, amen. When we put the whole picture together, the watchtower of preparation, the walls of security, the gates of love, our response force of surrender, our moat of holiness, all working as one, and right in the center of that castle is the living God, the living presence of God Himself. That's how we gain protection. That's how we protect the ones we care about, our church families, our communities, the Christian believers around us. And we must also recognize that a strong defense doesn't happen by accident. They're built, they're strengthened, they're maintained every single day as we walk with Jesus. Next time we'll keep pressing forward in this series. Before we wrap up, before we close up, I want you to take a moment and let's reissue a challenge for all of these things. When it comes to the watchtower, what one area are you committing to watch this week? When it comes to your walls, which daily habit will you use to build security in your heart and your mind? For your gate, who will you sow disruptive love to this week? And as far as your response, where do you need to surrender to God fully? And for your moat, what is one step of holiness you will take to move closer to God and to let Him surround you with His presence? Remember, guys, we are in this fight together. Keep building your fortresses, and we'll see you next time on Join the Fight. God bless.