Spiritual Warfare

This is one of those messages that I wish everyone would hear. The matter is so vitally important! If you are a child of God you are involved in a spiritual conflict , and we are living in the most dangerous times. The enemy that will do you in is most likely the one you will not see. You will not see him because part of his strategy is to keep you distracted while he deploys his spies, his sniper...

There is no way to have peace with God without a pure heart, a pure mind, and a pure conscience. The pollution and corruption of this world makes it a very dangerous place for us to work and live in, physically and spiritually. Disease, germs, viruses, and poisons are a danger to our physical health, but the greater danger is the spiritual and moral corruption that we are exposed to everywhere we...

The devil wants to kill you, and he has a plan to do so. What he plans to do with you is more than just kill you; he intends to take you to hell with him for eternity. His strategy has two stages. First get you to say "no" to God; to deny God, and turn away from Him. Then to lead you on down the road to destruction of your earthly life. He will use every means, every person, every situation, every...

Purity means clean, not mixed with any other thing or substance. We can understand this truth in the physical realm. All sickness and disease is caused by something in our body that is not supposed to be there. Contaminates, pollution, infection by germs, viruses, or bacteria result in sickness and even death. In the spiritual realm it is much the same. Unclean spirits are mentioned more than any...

Purity of mind, heart, conscience, and soul is a major part of being a child of God. The word means "clean" and we are very attentive to cleanliness when it comes to food or drink. We want what we take into our body to be pure, but it seems that we are very careless about what enters into our mind, our heart, and our soul. The devil is on the rampage right now like most of us have never seen. Sin,...

The "world" that God commands us to be separated from is not the created things of this earth, but rather all that is under the influence and control of Satan and unregenerate human beings. This world system and all its means of influence over mankind is under the control of the devil. The only way to be a child of God is to forsake this present, evil world and become a citizen of God's kingdom. W...

Being alone and feeling alone are two different things. All of us feel alone and abandoned at times. It is part of life. It is a hard part of life for folks when they get older because they feel it a lot. The devil likes to push us into that corner because we are very vulnerable to his lies when we feel alone and abandoned. The thing that drives this kind of loneliness away is to simply realize th...

The devil never changes his strategy. An object is presented for our consideration. Then while we gaze upon it and consider it, a desire is born in our heart for it. Then a plan is formed to obtain it. Then we obtain it. This is the natural order of things for the good and for the evil. The problem we have is with the desire. We allow the desire to take control of our mind, and truth and reality a...

It is a marvel that the mind is so prone to forget the most important things and remember the most vain things; a mind that was designed by Almighty God to work and operate in his own image and likeness. Surely there is an influence at work that causes the mind to malfunction like this. Strive to not be a forgetful hearer of the Word of God. Strive to remember and hold dear that blessings of life...

The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. To pray according to his Will is to ask for those things which He has said in his Word that He is willing to grant. Not my will, but thine be done. Prayer is not to bring God on board with our plans and desires. It is not to inform God of the problem and tell Him how to fix it. The less of self that is involved in our prayers, the mor...

A carnal mind is not identified by sins and vices, but by how we interact with other people. Envying, strife, and divisions are the evidence presented in this Scripture to convict these people of being carnally-minded. Having a checklist of bad habits, vices, and other things we abstain from does not certify us as spiritually-minded. Our attitudes toward others and the way we esteem them reveals w...

Why does the "way" people think change? Look at what has happened to our world over the past few decades, and how the insanity has snowballed in the past few years. The "way" people think and reason has been changed, and is being changed at a much faster pace now. The only way to have a sound mind and sound reasoning is to have a mind that is stayed on truth. Lies, fantasy, and misinformation corr...

The mind is such an important part of our being. It is the power to reason, conceive, and judge, and if it is feeble in these matters our life will be one disaster after another. Feeble means to be weak and powerless, and therefore easily deceived. There are a number of reasons for a feeble mind, but none of them are hopeless because of the promise of God that He will give us a spirit of a sound m...

Our mind is our own and we can control it. Our spirit is our own and we can rule over it, if we simply WILL. If we do not rule our spirit and control the thoughts of our mind, we are wide open to spiritual evil. They move in quickly and establish strongholds in the mind through that inner dialog that only you hear in your thoughts. All this knowledge will do no one any good unless it is applied an...

Paul admonished Timothy to be "a good soldier of Jesus Christ." Also, to war a good warfare. The first business with any kind of soldier is training. He must learn to recognize the enemy and defeat him. He must learn how to stay alive keep from getting wounded by the enemy. Most people who profess to be Christians have no training at all and are absolutely impotent in the face of the enemy. We can...

The first time the devil tempted a human being he did it by convincing Eve that if it tasted good and looked good, then it was good for her. Temptation is always an appeal to the mind to set aside truth while under the influence of some desire that has been aroused in your heart by the sight of, or the thought of, some object. What kind of appetites do I have in my thought life? That secret place...

Appetite and desire are two words we need to consider. Appetite speaks more of a desire of the flesh for gratification, either of the body or the mind. There are natural appetites and there are artificial appetites. Having an appetite for food and drink is a natural appetite. Having a desire for tobacco, alcohol, drugs, or anything that is not life-sustaining and beneficial to the body or mind is...

Many people who call themselves Christians have fallen for a trap that the devil has laid for them. Being a critical thinker has become a kind of badge of honor that many boast of now, but they have taken the same bait that Satan gave Eve in the garden. The Bible tells us that we are not to believe every spirit, but we are to try the spirits to see if they be of God. The modern concept of critical...

To "think no evil" means to put the best possible construction on the motives and the conduct of others. It is not about evil thoughts or temptations to sin in the mind. It is about our attitude toward other people. If we are under the influence of charity we will "think no evil." Love will be our first reaction and we will not think evil until it is impossible not to. The devil has a great advant...

The first goal of the devil is to try to take away our hope. You will hear his voice in your mind very often, telling you there is no hope and the future is nothing but dark and dreary. The Christians hope is in eternity, not in anything or anyone on this earth or in this life. It seems that only hope most people have is for what God will do for them here and now in this life. When circumstances a...

There is spirit and there is flesh. One of the main themes of the teachings of Jesus was to point out to man this fact. The flesh profiteth NOTHING, it is the Spirit that gives life. Only when a person is born of the Spirit of God are their eyes opened and they begin to see that life is about more than what they can perceive with their physical senses. God is a Spirit and we must worship Him in Sp...

The devil does not have an advantage over us unless we give it to him. The Scripture is clear that we are more than conquerors through him that loved us; greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world; that if we resist the devil he will flee, etc. There are many ways we can give him an advantage over us. By putting our confidence in man instead of God is probably the most common way. If...

It is spirits of devils that try to influence our thinking to lead us away from God and righteousness. It is the Spirit of God that influences our thinking to lead us in the paths of righteousness and a closer walk with God. To try the spirits is simply to look closely at the direction your thoughts are being led. Are the thoughts being presented to your mind tending to soften or remove the enmity...

God himself put enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the Serpent. God's children and the devil's children will never get along. One of the main strategies of Satan is to break down that enmity by softening our attitude and thoughts toward wickedness. It is the devil's work because he never tries to soften the attitude of the wicked toward the righteous. However, he is very successf...

"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God:" How do we know we are not under the influence of a spirit other than the Spirit of God? The Bible gives us the clear answer right here. Failing to heed this warning has been the major failing of the past few generations. It has allowed the churches to be filled with Satan's influence. He is an expert counterfeiter an...