Wartime?

When we talk about wartime, we are not talking about physical war, we are talking about spiritual war, because the Christian is involved in spiritual warfare. Hallelujah! You are involved in war, whether you like it or not. As a Christian, there is a spiritual battle that you are involved in as a believer in the Lord. The good news is: it is a war with a foregone conclusion. That is to say that you are already victorious. So please make a declaration that “I am victorious in my Lord Jesus Christ!” The ending of the war has already been declared and you are a victor, not a victim.

If we are victorious, why do we have to talk about spiritual warfare? We discuss this because:

i) The Word teaches it, and God wants us to know about it and ii) So that you and I can enforce the victory that we have in Christ Jesus, our Lord. The war is won, but you have to understand that you have an enemy and the enemy will try everything he can to derail the enjoyment of the spiritual victory that you and I have in Christ Jesus Our Lord.

Therefore, we must learn how to enforce our victory in Jesus Christ. The name of Jesus is above every other. The Bible says, “At the mention of His name, every knee should bow, of things in heaven and of things on the earth and of things underneath the earth. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” 

There are three important things that we need to know as Christians when we talk about wartime. The first thing we must know is our enemy. You must know what you are fighting. If we don’t know who or what you are fighting, you are likely not to enforce your victory. The second principle is our weapons. Know your weapons brethren! If you don’t know how to use the resources that God has given unto you, you’ll be walking as a Christian who is a victim, although you are a victor. Number three, know your strategy. How do you defeat the works of the devil? How do you go against him as the enemy? You must know the strategy you are using, and these are all in God’s Word in the Bible.

In 2nd Corinthians 10: verses 3-5,  The Bible says, “³ For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. ⁴ The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. ⁵ We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” This scripture alone informs us who our enemies are. In that particular scripture alone, it talks about speculations or imaginations of the mind, imaginations of evil against the Christian. It then addresses high things, or lofty things, that exalt themselves against the knowledge of Christ. It talks about disobedient thoughts and gives us some clue as to the three important enemies that we are dealing with.

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In Ephesians 6:12,  Bible says “Over there that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places.

So over here in this portion of scripture, the Lord has named some of these enemies for us. Number one, it says principalities or rulers, which means that they try to be principal in your life. They try to rule the life of the Christian. Anything child of God that tries to take first place in your life is an enemy to you.

Anything that tries to take first place outside of God, I should be very. Uh, let me be specific about that. Anything that trust will take first place in your life instead of God is an enemy to you. So if it is, uh, any other thing, whatever it is, you know, it could be, uh, even if you like, it could be some kind of a challenge that you are confronted with that wants to become the principal.

It’s like a principality, a ruler over your life and not Christ. That entity is an enemy. . Then the Bible also mentions powers, powers of darkness, powers. It means they’ve got some kind of a force, some kind of a power that they try to, uh, they try to enforce over the Christian, any kind of power, which is not of God that tries to push your will and, and tries to enforce itself on your life, it is not of Christ.

The spirit of the Lord doesn’t force anything on the. The spirit of God is a gentle spirit. Are you with me? And so God doesn’t force, you know, you, God is, he says, my spirit shall no longer strive with man. And so he does not strive with you. He does not force its will on you. He does. He doesn’t chale, he doesn’t sort of attack your will.

So any entity which is not of God, that triess to, uh, you know, force you into doing what it is that is not of God, that is a demonic. Then we also mentioned the rulers of the darkness of this world, rulers of the darkness. It means they operate through darkness. They, they operate through lack of revelation.

They operate through, uh, spiritual blindness. Anything that causes spiritual blindness in the life of the believer is not of God, and that is your enemy. And number seven, it says spiritual wickedness in high. That is they are wicked spirits and they are in high places. You want to move up in your life.

You want to move up in your education. You want to move up in your finances, you want to move up in your health. You want to move up in some aspect of your life, and there seems to be a force resisting your moving upwards. It’s called wickedness in high places. These are Satanic entities fighting the. Of the Christian, but thank God for Jesus.

Somebody say, thank God for Jesus. Thank God for Jesus. Thank God for Jesus. Thank God for Jesus. Oh, why do we say so? Because in the name of Jesus, every knee, whether high or low, you must bow. Are you with me? Because the name of Jesus is higher than every name. It’s a very powerful name, and you must know that you have Jesus on your side, or the Bible makes us to understand if God be for us, who can be against.

Now, number eight, uh, enemy that we mentioned is they are, these ones are not, you know, named in the scripture. Our support calls them, you know, adversaries, many adversaries. So we say they are the unnamed adversaries. Things that do not necessarily have a name, but they crip into the life of the Christian to destroy your faith.

They crip into the life of the Christian to destroy things in your life. These are unnamed adversaries. And last week, which is the Path four of the series, we looked at the ninth, which is, Satan, the name Sitan. Now we established that Satan is not everywhere. , God is everywhere. Satan is not God’s co equal.

And so let’s not give Satan too much attention. Are you with me? Let’s not make him look bigger than he’s, you know, Satan is not, you know, God’s co equal. There is a greater power in your life. Greta is he that is in you than he that is in the world. First joint of the four four. And so we ought not to be afraid of the enemy because Greta is he that is in.

Than he that is in the world. Now, last week we went into great detail to see the operations of Setan, and we did establish that he’s an accuser of the bread. And number two, he’s a hinderer. He hinders, he prevents you from moving forward. He, he prevents you from, from, from achieving what God has in store for you.

He prevents you from moving to where you have to be in life. He prevent, he’s that hier and Paul says, many of, he said, often, I have tried to come unto you, but I have been hindered. In second Alians chapter two and the best number 18. He was very specific. He said, Satan hindered us. First Alians. First.

Alians, chapter two, verse 18. He said, for we wanted to come to you. I Paul more than once, and yet Satan hindered us. He’s a hier. The enemy of your soul is a hinderer. He tries to hinder the. And we mentioned how that, you know, he, he’s particularly interested in those in the ministry. We went into a lot of detail last week, and again, let me encourage you to go into that, uh, you know, scripture and to be able to, and to go into that, uh, recording and to recap some of those teachings.

One of the important things which we talked about is the need for Irans and hairs to hold. Another, we looked at the story of Moses in the book of Exodus 17, how that when he lifted up his hands, the people of Israel were winning the battle against the Amalekites. But when he was tired in his hands, began to go down the battle, 10 against the Israelites and Iran stood on his, on his one side, and her stood on the other side, and they held the hands of Moses.

And when his hands were up, victory belonged to the Christian. Now I want to demonstrate something to you, brother of mine. Please come to me. Please come to me and, uh, I want you to gimme your hand. Now, watch very carefully what is he’s, he’s, let’s say he’s a hin. You’re not a hira. Yes. But as, as an example, please come as an example.

So you wanna push yourself, your hand push, you know you’re pushing towards me. Yes. You are trying to resist me as I try to push forward. You are trying to push, you know, the other way around. Now watch what the enemy does. As I’m trying to go forward. You can see there is a resistance. I am trying hard.

There is a resistance. There is a resistance. So Moses is trying to pray for Israelites and there is a resistance in the spirit. He’s getting tired. As he’s getting tired. As he’s getting tired. Guess what? He’s having the upper. That is how the enemy operates. But the Bible talks about Iran and her now, brother, can’t.

Please come to me now. You are in trouble, brother. , but can’t Please come to me now. Come to this side. Understand beside me. And use your hand to join with mine. Join forces with me. Yeah. Good. Now we are going to, you know, now we are together. He’s standing with me in prayer. He’s standing with me, you know, as a brother in the ministry.

He’s standing with me as a neighbor. He’s standing with me as a church member. He’s standing with me as a friend. He’s standing with me as I pray to try to go for it. And now we want to see whether the enemy can overcome me, you know? Let’s see how that goes. Now let’s go for. All of a sudden we can see as much as he’s trying, there is something more powerful because I’ve got somebody who is, who is helping me out.

I’ve got somebody who is strengthening me, and all of a sudden he’s no longer able to push me backwards. Are you with me? This is why we need to stand with each other in prayer. When we stand with one another in prayer as Christians, when we stand with each other in the Lord and begin to intercede for one another because one cannot go alone, the Bible says one shall chase a thousand, but two shall chase 10,000 please.

You see? Thank you. God bless you. Please call for them. Please call for them. God bless you. Are you with me? So the power of intercession allows us to be victorious in Christ. Amen. So we talked about Iran and Hu and what they did in the life of Moses and Israel benefited from them. Now today, let’s talk about enemy number 10 and number 11.

I will try and bring the two together today very briefly. Enemy number 10 and enemy number 11. So we’ve looked at nine so far and we said there are 11. Okay, so today I wanna talk about enemy number 10, which is the flesh. The flesh. If you’re writing, please write that down, the flesh, and of course, it’s associated worldliness.

The flesh. The flesh. Please go with me to Galatians chapter five and the best number 17, the book of Galatians, chapter five, and the verse number 17. What does the Bible say over there? It says, for the flesh sets its desire against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. Lemme read that first line again.

The flesh sets its desire against the spirit. Against that is in opposition. Yes, in in opposition to the spirit. So the flesh says, is desire against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And the Bible says continuous and says, for these are in opposition one to another, so that you may not do the things you please so that you may not do the things you please.

So are you wanting to achieve something in life? There is a flesh that is there seeking to oppose you so that you may not do the things you. Are you wanting to go higher in your life? There is a flesh wanting to oppose you so that you may not achieve that which you seek to achieve. Are you wanting to go higher in something?

Are you wanting to progress in your education, in your health, in your family, in, in your job, and so on and so forth. There is an enemy that is trying to oppose so that you may not do the things that you please, and that is called the flesh. The. You know, sometimes we give the devil too much credit. Uh, someone said very humorously that one day they saw the devil under a juniper tree and he was crying and they said, devil, why are you crying?

What is wrong with you? And he said, is it not these Christians? Is it not these Christians? Oh, what about the Christians? Or they are always blaming me for everything and this is not me. So sometimes we give the devil too much credit for things that we cost our. And we put it on the devil. And there is something J the Bible cause the flesh, which sets itself against the Spirit.

So your flesh is an equal enemy to your spirit as much as the devil is an enemy to you. Let me repeat that statement. Your flesh is an equal enemy to your spirit as much as the devil is an enemy to you. And the Bible says, it says its desire against the. Do you want to be a prayerful Christian? There is a flesh that will try to deny you of becoming a prayerful believer.

Do you want to be a Christian who studies God’s word? There is a flesh that will prevent you from going into the word of God. Do you want to be attentive to his word? There is a flesh that will prevent you from doing what it is that you want to. In Christ. In fact, let’s bring it to the natural. Do you want to save money?

There is a flesh that will desire the good things in life and prevent you from saving money. There is something called the flesh. It has got desires. It has got desires. The flesh has desires. You want to get up and exercise. The flight says, oh, take a little sleep, relax a little bit, and you close your eyes.

By the time you open your eyes this Christmas day, the days have. And the, and the nights have passed. It is called the Flesh. It wants you to be in a state of comfort. It wants you to be a, in a place called Abel Maah. You know, Elijah met somebody by the name Elijah, the prophet who took over from Elijah.

Elijah was in a place called Abel Maah in the Hebrew. That’s what means a middle of dancing. It is a place of comfort. It is a place where you relax. It’s a place of greener pasture. And Elijah was in that place plowing with 12 Oxon, and Elijah came and hit him with his mantle and he followed. After the prophet, he left his place of comfort.

No wonder he became the prophet who took the double portion of the anointing of Elijah. When you leave your place of comfort, when you leave the flesh behind, you can achieve great things and. Are you with me? So the flesh, there is a flesh that has desires. It wants to prevent you from achieving good things for Christ.

It wants to place you in the same position. It doesn’t want you to move forward. It is called the flesh. Now, in Galatians of the five, the Bible talks about the works of the flesh. There are several of them. If I have to dwell on that alone, this series will become longer than I I imagine. But I would encourage the chapter five as 19, you know, and then keep going down and you, you get to see the we of the flesh, you know, things like pride, things like, you know, selfishness, things like, you know, anger, you know, all of these last, all of they are all part of the flesh.

Are you with me? So let’s not, uh, uh, go into the wood. Think about those ones in specifics later. But, uh, let’s just generalize then say the flesh. The flesh now. So how do we overcome the. How do we overcome the flesh? Paul gave a very important answer to that in First Corinthians chapter nine and the verse number 27.

He says, I disciplined my body. That is I disciplined the flesh. The King James version says, I put my body under subjection. That is, I place it under subjection. I arrest it, I arrest it, I take hold of it, I arrest it. He says, I discipline my body and I make it my. So that after I have preached unto others, I myself will not be a castaway in the King James other, use the word dis, will not be disqualified.

I myself will not be disqualified. There are many Christians who disqualified themselves, not because of the devil, but because of their own lack of discipline of the. There are many Christians who disqualified themselves from the great things that God has in store for them. They disqualified themselves from the great progress that God has in store for them, not because the devil is after them.

It is because of lack of discipline of the flesh. And so you and I ought to learn how to put this body of ours under subjection, under subjection is the Coca-Cola is bad for you. They. Because it has got a lot of sugar in it, so it’s not good for you. It can, it, you know, too much sugar can lead to diabetes and so on, isn’t it?

And so Coca, they say it’s bad for you. If a Coca-Cola person is listening to this message, you know, forgive me, you know, it is, it is said all over there on the internet. Forgive me. And I’m also a health professional by the way, and so I understand, you know, some of these things. So it is bad for you, okay?

But the flesh, you see, sweet tank, the flesh is coca on the shelf and can’t resist it. It’s like there is something itching, it can’t resist it. So it goes and grasses the flesh. But if I decide to put discipline into this body and to say to this body, I will not let this thing give me diabetes. I will put my body on the subjection.

I see it and I tend the other way. Ah. Paul says, that is how I put my body under subjection so that I myself will not become a castaway. The flesh. The flesh, you know, in the life of Job. Job said, I have made a covenant with my eyes that I will not look upon the maid. So he’s covenant with his eye that he will not 

see 

a woman twice.

He’ll focus on his family. He’s governmented with his eyes, the flesh, the. The flesh equally, we can also covenant. We have a flesh to, to, to, to decide that we will not be engaged in certain things that will destroy what it is that God has in stuff for us. Sometimes it may be that you must covenant with your body to overcome sleep so that you can rise Z and read the Bible so that you can rise up and read the word so you can rise up and come to church.

It is the flesh. How many of you that on a Sunday you feel like, oh, I’m too tired. I can’t come. How many of you, I feel that sometimes. How many of you feel that, you know, Sunday you want, you want to come here? Oh, I’m too tired today. Why can’t I, let’s make it next week. Let’s make it next week, and then next week becomes the flowing week, and it becomes the flowing week.

How many of you feel that? I feel that it happens to be, it is called a flesh. It is called a flesh. Are you with me? So what do we do? We, we rise up and say, no, I will not let this flesh hold me down from fellowship with the. I am rising up and I’m going to the house of God. Yes, it is what Paul says. I put my body under subjection because he recognizes that the body, the flesh, is an enemy.

Oh, the Bible says second cor, second Timothy, chapter two and verse number four, when Paul said Timothy, his son, he said, no man got worried and angulate himself with the effects of this life that he may please him who enlisted him as a good. What does that mean Other person say, no one who is engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life.

It means that affairs of this life can entangle you. The affairs of this life can be an enemy to the Christians progress. The affairs of this life can be an entanglement in your life. The first of this life can entangle you so that you are no longer able to read your Bible. The first of this life can entangle you so that you’re no longer able to pray.

The first of this life can entangle you so that you’re not able to do the things that God has called you to do. The first of this life can entangle you so much so that you are not able to go to where God has some stuff for you. It is called the affairs of this life. The Bible says the entangle, the ent.

The entangle. Now, you know, how many of you, uh, normally in the MET season of spiders? Yes, I think what month does it know? What is it in the spring? Is this spring when spider webs are all over the place? Is this spring? In the spring? Okay. I think so. So you notice that when you are walking or you are leaving your house or something, or your gate or whatever it is, and a spider where you know comes on you, you, there is an immediate action.

You stop and you try to remove. It isn’t, you feel uncomfortable, you want to quickly clear it from your head or from your eyes or something so that you can move on. Now, why is that? Why don’t you let the spider web continue on you and then you just go to where you’re going to? Why do you, instantly there’s, it’s almost intuitive.

You quickly want to remove it, isn’t it? It’s, it’s very, you want, you want to disentangle yourself from the spider web that has come upon you, isn’t it? Okay. Now guess what? When you left the house, you were not planning to be removing spider. You had a particular focus, you had a vision in mind, you had a particular destination in mind, a place that you wanted to go to.

All of a sudden something came and took your energy. Something came and took your time, something came and you are trying to disentangle yourself from ducting. That is what entanglement. The affairs of this life. When they come around, they dis they, they entangle the Christian that where the Christian is going, he or she forgets that I’ve got somewhere bigger to go to.

I’ve got somewhere greater to achieve. I’ve got something bigger to do in the Lord. And they begin to waste their energy trying to, you know, you know, remove the entanglements. It, it is taking away their time. It is taking away their energy. It is taking away their resources. It’s taking away all. That they could achieve in Christ process.

Timothy, no one that is involved in battle entangles himself with the face of this life. Can I challenge somebody today to rise up in strength, in the power of the Lord to dissent, to shape yourself from all kinds of chains and to declare to yourself, I am moving forward no matter. Nothing will stop me from going down under.

Nothing will stop me from, from, from moving to where God has in store for me. Nothing will stop me from achieving the great things that God has for me. Can somebody make that pledge today? Please declare after me. In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I declare, declare every challenge.

Challenge that is holding my life, that is holding my, it is breaking off now. In the name of Jesus, I declare I am moving forward. I am moving forward. I am moving forward. I am moving forward. I ams ahead in the name of Jesus. I am achieving great things for God. Nothing shall hold me back. Nothing shall hold me.

No sickness. No sickness, no disease. No, no infinity shall hold me back, shall I? Declare I am moving forward. In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus. Oh, you are moving forward. Child of God, you are moving forward. Nothing will hold your education backwards. Nothing will hold your health backwards.

Nothing will hold your job backwards. Nothing will hold your family backwards. You are moving forward. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, that is the spirit of the warrior. Wartime believers are those who move forward despite the spiderwebs. They move forward despite the affairs of this life, they overcome the flesh.

They disentangle themselves from the affairs of this life. They don’t let the flesh hold them down because the flesh is an enemy and they move forward. Important enemy when it comes to the flesh is money. To the extent that Jesus said in Matthew 1624 that no one can serve two masters. Either you’ll hit one and love the other.

Or you’ll be loyal to one and Des despite the other, he says, you cannot serve God and money. That scripture made me think twice you. Jesus says this, the Lord, he said, you cannot serve God and money. I was thinking that he would say, you cannot serve God and sit down. You know, if you want to put, I was thinking he would say, you cannot serve God and sit down, but he raised money to the level of being able to take you away from God.

You cannot save God and money. Other versions use the word . You cannot save God and. Oh, I love Twin Paul says in Festival six and the verse number 10, he says, for the love of money is the roots of all evil. So the love of money can become so strong that it can become an enemy in your life and derail the faith of the Christian.

Okay, amen. 11, very quickly, I’ve got two minutes close, and I mean, on by 11 is death. Death, death. That’s the last enemy. I mean, on 11 is. So please write that down. Let’s look at it in First Corinthians of the 15 and the verse number 26. The Bible says the last enemy that will be abolished is death. So the last enemy that will be abolished is death in first Corinthians of the 15 and the best number 52 to the best, number 55.

The Bible says in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye are the last trumpets for the trumpet will sound who? Somebody declare after me the trumpet shall sound, Trump will be shall sound. The trumpet will sound, Paul says, and the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised. I perishable and we will be changed.

For this perishable must put on imperishable and this mortal must put on immortality, but when the perishable will have put on in the Im perish. And this mortar will have put on immortality. He says, Dan will come about a saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory or death. Where is your victory?

Yes. Or death? Where is your staying? Oh child. But there is hope for you and for me. There is hope death, the last enemy will be captured one day. Then there will be no longer sorrow. There will be no more pain because the Lord Jesus Christ is coming again. Christ is coming again. Somebody declare coming in faith.

Jesus is coming again. Jesus, he’s coming again. And the Bible of the last enemy that shall be destroyed his death, which means no matter the problems we are going through today in this life, there is a time coming for the Christian. That is a time when death will salute up. In victory. In victory, and you and I will walk boldly in glory having put on the imperishable body, having put on the glorious body, have goofing with the Lord and with its angels.

We always sing above, praising the name of the Lord of our God and singing marata or because of our Lord that is raining forever and ever, and you and I will reign with him even forever. That hope. That hope the Christian is the only one that can say, I’ve got that hope. Yes ma’am. The Christian is the only one among all the religions in the world.

The Christian is the only one that can, despite the shame of the present and look towards the future, look towards the future, hope that God has stolen for us. The Christian is the only one. The Bible that Jesus wasn’t the cross. He despised the. And he’s now sat down at the right hand of the father. He was looking beyond the natural.

He was looking beyond. . And so when you see grief, when you see pain around, when you see suffering around, remember, remember, remember there is a day coming where you and Ash shall be called up yonder. There is a day coming when the Trump shall sound. No matter the circumstances you are going through today, there is a day coming.

There is a day coming. And the trumpet shall sound, and you and I shall be called up into glory, and the Lord shall set you. The Lord shall be with us, and we shall have our time with Him. Together with Him, we shall enjoy Him in glory. We shall sing hallelujah with the angels. That day is coming and the last enemy shall be destroyed.

That is death. Please rise up on your feet and let’s close. Oh, father, with thank you, father with thank you. We bless you3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.