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Spiritual Warfare 201: How to Prepare Yourself for Spiritual Battle, Part 1

From the series The Invisible War

The Bible tells us we are in a cosmic conflict and Satan is doing everything he can to make you fail. Chip reveals how you can be victorious over the schemes of the Evil One by learning how to use the supernatural weapons God has provided to protect you and those you love. Find out how to fight back!

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Message Transcript

My father was in the South Pacific, Guam, Iwo Jima. He had a purple heart. And when I get to be around fellow Marines it is just exciting the camaraderie they have and the respect and the bond that they have. I once accidentally said my dad was a former Marine and a Marine came up to me and said, “There are no such things as former Marines.” And I have stand corrected.

But if you know anything about the South Pacific and World War II, and it will date some of you, but there was a treaty signed, the bomb was dropped, the war was completely over, but on multiple islands there was guerrilla warfare.

And then my father was fighting on those islands and part of the Japanese culture, especially at the time, was it was far better to die then to go back as a coward. And so, my dad talked about his role as a .50 caliber machine gunner and they wanted to clean up these islands. And here’s what you need to get. The war is over, treaty has been signed, but there’s still fighting.

Before the treaty is signed, bullets, mortars and young men die. The treaty is signed, the war is over. There’s guerrilla warfare. There are still bullets. There are still mortars firing and young men are still dying. The war is not in question, but that doesn’t mean the battle’s over. And what I want you to know is that is your position in Christ. The war is over.

Satan was defeated at the cross. Sin’s penalty was paid for all time. Sin’s power was broken. Yet Satan and his host of fallen angels engage in guerrilla warfare. Now notice the goal: to discourage, to deceive, to divide and destroy God’s people and God’s program.

And what you need to understand is that believers, we’re commanded to equip and prepare ourselves in the strength of the Lord and His mighty power so that we can stand firm against the enemy’s schemes and that in these battles, though the war’s not in question, we can repel his multi-faceted attacks and engage and defeat in these very specific battles.

Here’s what I want you to get: when you study Ephesians chapter 6, Paul is giving an example in his day because he lives in a world where there was Roman soldiers all over the place. There’s not some mechanical, I’m going to pray on the helmet, I’m going to pray on this, and I go through some rigamarole. He’s talking about how you actually live the life preparing for spiritual battle and he’s giving them a picture or a metaphor so it’s practical in their day.

The best insight I can give you before we jump in is this: when we look at each piece of the armor, just ask yourself: where does Satan attack so why this piece of armor? So by way of overview, if there’s a belt of truth, deception. If there’s a breastplate, it’s about the heart, condemnation. If it’s about stability, it’s doubts. What the enemy wants to do is he wants to deceive you. He wants you to live under condemnation and guilt and he wants to cast doubts about you, your worth, your relationship to Christ, doubts about God, doubts about God’s will. Does that make sense?

So, I kind of want you to get that overview. So listen in that way so you’re asking, “Lord, what are You saying to me? Where do I wrestle with these issues?” Rather than getting stuck in the grammar or the picture of a Roman soldier because I’m going to go through the grammar and we’re going to get a picture of the Roman soldier.

So, if you’re ready, notice this. The question is how it works and here’s the answer. First, we must become aware of the battle. Aware of the battle.

Second, we must learn to appropriate the ongoing protection for daily living. We have to ... how in the world do we put on this armor?

Third, we need to learn to engage the enemy with supernatural weapons that God has given us.

And then finally we’ll utilize God’s means of deliverance when spiritual attack occurs.

So, with that, how do you prepare yourself for satanic attack? The answer to that is Ephesians 6 verses 13 through 15. “Therefore, since you’re strong in the Lord and the strength of His might, since you are to put on the full armor of God, since you are to take your stand and having done everything to stand. Therefore, take up the full armor of God that you may be able to resist the devil in the evil day. And having done everything to stand firm, stand firm therefore.” Then notice the tense of these verbs. “Having girded your loins with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

And so, I would like you to just write the word H-A-L-T in your notes. It’s not in there. HALT. I think there’s four predictable times in every human being’s life when temptation will feel more powerful and if you’re not aware that this is when you’re vulnerable, you’ll give in.

The H stands for when you’re hungry. You know, when you’re hungry, you haven’t had something to eat and you’re vulnerable. Even when you’re hungry, do you notice your temper’s a little bit shorter?

The A is for when you’re angry. In fact, you might put a little star by this one. The Scripture says, “Be angry, but don’t sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger lest you give the devil a foothold or an opportunity.” There’s probably no more common way that we allow deception and condemnation and the enemy to get into our lives when we have unresolved anger.

The L is for lonely. Maybe you’re traveling on a business trip. Maybe you miss kids. Maybe you find yourself surrounded by people, but you feel lonely. When you’re lonely Satan will come up and provide some opportunity for some companionship. It might be on a screen. It might be a person. It might be an activity. But he’ll provide something that says: I can solve that loneliness problem. And it might even be a good thing, but it might be a good thing in a bad way or a bad time.

So, when you’re hungry, when you’re angry, when you’re lonely or when you’re tired you’re vulnerable. You will do things, say things, watch things and give into temptations. And what he’s just warning us is: look, you have this equipment, I want you to pick it up. I want you to get ready, but I want you to know because there are different windows of times in different days – and are you ready? In different seasons of your life.

Notice verse 14, after picking up our armor in preparation, we’re commanded to consciously and vigorously make a decisive act to stand our ground firmly and fearlessly against the enemy’s assaults as he seeks to deceive, accuse, and discourage us. So, I’m going to take up the whole armor of God. And that’s what He wants us to hold on to.

And so, now using the metaphor of this Roman soldier, He’s going to give us three pieces of armor that are a prerequisite for standing firm. There’s one verb and there’s actually four participles, but we’ll cover three of them. The verb is and the command is: stand firm. And then the participles are something, the picture is you’ve already done this and you need to actively do it. “Stand firm, having,” and I love this phrase, “girded your loins with truth.” Anybody been girding your loins lately? I remember, and I actually am using this translation on purpose.

See, the attack is deception. He wants you to believe a lie about God or yourself and so the very first deception you remember with Eve. And it’s interesting, he mixes truth with lies. In fact, the enemy, he knows the Bible way better than you do. And so, “Eve, surely you won’t die.” That’s a flat out lie. “No, this is going to make you wise,” that was the truth. It sure did. And so, he’s going to come with a mixture of truth and a mixture of lies and the goal is to deceive you. And he’s the master of shortcuts. He’s the master of making shortcuts look good. He’s the master of getting you to believe that no one will ever find out or that there’s nothing really wrong with this.

I read again a little word from Dallas Willard because I think sometimes when we talk about this, part of our minds can go to: I want to keep the lights on and there’s these powers. And that’s true, but I think we so miss the way about ninety percent of all the enemies work. And this one little paragraph I think Dallas says it. He says, “God always looks at the heart for two reasons. First, our heart is the source of our actions and life.” Remember Proverbs 4:23, “Watch over your heart with all diligence.” Why? “For from it flow the issues of life.”

But more important here, “Second, our thoughts are where Satan implies his trade. He governs through images, through ideas, through feelings and fears. From this complex arena of our minds and our hearts comes most of our actions. So, this is the arena where Satan focuses his tasks.” It’s all so very, very subtle. It’s not like weird things.

He says, “Again I remind you, human beings cannot be forced to do evil nor can they be forced to do good. They must choose to do evil or good. Well, how do they choose?” Listen carefully. “By being persuaded that one course of action is better than the other. So, Satan works upon the heart through the mind as he did with Eve and as he still does today.

See, we tend to think that God always looks at our history and I think God looks at the intent of our heart. We mess up and when we’re humble and genuine and vulnerable and ask for forgiveness, He is a God who loves. We don’t have to twist His arm for Him to be merciful. He longs to not give you what you deserve. He longs to give you grace. He longs to do what is ever necessary to forgive and to restore and to pull His children back close to Him.

But the prerequisite is that we’re honest. See, the spiritual armor, as un-fancy as this sounds, the spiritual armor – you know what the belt of truth is? Being honest with God and honest with yourself and honest with others. It’s nothing more. It’s nothing less. And so, it’s knowing ... here’s the thing. It’s so funny when we talk about being deceived. Here’s – when you’re deceived, guess who doesn’t know it.

We kind of forget that. I mean, when you’re deceived it’s not like, Oh wow, I got to really work on this deception stuff. This deception is really messing with my life. When you’re deceived, you don’t have a clue. And so, he prays, “Search me oh God,” and listen to his words, “and know my heart. Test me and see if there be any anxious, any division or any wicked way in me. And then lead me in the everlasting way.”

That’s the very end of Psalm 139 where he says he knows God has intricately made him. He knows God is before him and behind him. He knows God is aware of all things. There’s no playing games with God.

There’s no positioning. There’s no bargaining. And he just comes really humbly and says, “I just want to be real. I just want to be honest. If there’s anything that I don’t see ... in fact, in another Psalm, David, it’s interesting, he says, “Forgive me for these things,” and then he says, “And forgive me for any presumptuous sin.” In other words, “I’m sure I’ve messed up other places that I don’t even know about. Could you forgive me for them as well?”

And you might jot down Psalm 34 verse 17 and it goes on to verse 18. But this has been such a comfort to me. “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and He saves those that are crushed in spirit.” Psalm 145:18 says, “The Lord is near to those who call on Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.”

For years and years, I felt somehow like when I really did something wrong and I thought wrong and I had lust over here and I did this here and I lied about that, and you know, as a good Christian, of course. Okay, now I’ve got to feel really bad for a while and I won’t read my Bible for a couple days and God’s going, Chip, you think any of that surprised Me? Just come the millisecond that you get real. The millisecond that you say, Oh God, I don’t want to be like that. And here’s the deal. You own it. You know what the word confession means? It means to acknowledge.

But what happens it’s so painful to see, our temptation is to push it down, push it down, push it down. And like a thin little layer followed by another thin little layer followed by another thin little layer, and then instead of being an authentic, genuine follower you start faking it.

And if you’ve been around the game for a while, you know a few verses. Throw out a, “Praise the Lord” here, read the Bible now and then. You’ve got five or six verses that can keep you going. And you can kind of, right? All the while, while your soul is shrinking. And the enemy, you’re neutralized. You’re neutralized and that was the goal. And then you don’t feel worthy of praying, right? Then you don’t feel worth of being used. Then you don’t feel worthy.

So, here’s the thing, the enemy is so shrewd. He gets you deceived and then we mess up and then he condemns you for messing up. But he’s the one who tempted you to do the very thing that’s wrong. You know, this is ... he’s got a real business going on and it’s been very, very effective.

So, the first step is to be honest. I think this is the most challenging because it’s often painful and it leads to brokenness, but brokenness is where we meet God. It’s where you experience His compassion. By the way, when the Spirit or sometimes, obviously, he uses people, this is a little thing I put a little asterisk for me is if I’m deceived, it would be nice if we had like a little light on the dashboard that when you were being deceived it would go beep, beep, beep. Or like when the cars back up? You know, I like these cars now because I get carried away, I’m thinking about something, put it in re- ... beep, beep, beep. Oh, I’m glad I didn’t hit them.

Here’s a little beeper for me. Just write the word defensiveness. When someone says something to you, when you’re praying and you feel sort of a little barrier come up, when you’re defensive, when you have to explain your behavior, when, “Oh that’s not really true.”

The moment I’m defensive it tells me, You know what Chip? There’s probably a little something to this that you need to take a look at. It doesn’t mean it’s all true, but the moment you find yourself defensive. That’s not a…

You know the position God is looking for? He’s looking for a man or a woman who, remember when Samuel was a little boy and he went to the prophet and he didn’t know what was going on and the prophet said, “I’ll tell you what, Samuel. Here’s what you do. The next time you hear that, you just go back in there and say, ‘Speak Lord, your servant is listening.’”

And God may speak to you through someone you don’t like. God may speak through a boss that really is unfair. God may speak through circumstances. But when you start to feel that, I think that’s the response. Lord, speak to me. I want to be open.

And then the devil uses a second strategy. You’ve put on the belt of truth. Second, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness. This was made of bronze. If you were a more affluent officer, it was a chainmail.

If you’ve seen one of the gladiator movies, you know the shield, the round shield that they have? That’s not the shield. This is a shield that went from the neck down to the knees and it had a hook on both sides. This was the most formidable fighting machine on the face of the earth.

And so, what they would do is they would be in long, long rows and they would put the shield here and they had a helmet on and they would hook up together and they would just march en mass. And we’ll learn about the shield. It was interesting, the shield was actually made in such a way that when an arrow came in they left a gap so a fiery arrow could come in and there would be a gap of air so it would extinguish.

And so, what he’s saying is this breastplate of righteousness that would be in front of them and then the shield would be the faith that we’ll talk about a little bit later. But this breastplate that’s underneath all of that, it’s the upright living. It’s the integrity in one’s lifestyle and character. It’s conforming our will to God’s will.

And again, we already are righteous positionally, chapters 1, 2, and 3 of Ephesians. But this is talking about practical righteousness. The application of truth to our lives. And so, the darts are going to come in and we’re going to learn about the shield of faith, but he’s saying you have to protect your heart. This is the breastplate. This is what went over your heart.