Spiritual Warfare 301: How to Do Battle with the Enemy and Win, Part 1

This was now many years ago, it was our first year in Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz is a place very New Age, a lot of demonic activity. It’s 2 AM in the morning. I don’t know whether I’m awake or I’m asleep. All I know is I can look over and see my wife in the bed and I know I can’t move any part of my body.

And I’m thinking, “I must have a rare disease because this is really, really weird because I can’t move my hands, I can’t move anything but I can move my eyes and I can see my wife.” And then I’m looking around the room as much as I can and a sense of evil, you know, the night is dark but if there’s a darkness that can come over the dark, it did. And then, it was like a five thousand pound came on my chest and started pushing down and pushing down and pushing down and I couldn’t get my breath and then it was like someone grabbed my windpipe and squeezing.

And I don’t know if you ever remember as a kid, when someone ... When you were at a pool and they were dunking you and they held you under and they held you under and you were sure, you can’t get your breath, you can’t get your breath. And that’s what it felt like and I literally remember in my mind, Help Jesus, help Jesus, help, help, help.

And I just thought, how can you drown or die in your bed and not be able to move your body? And then just at the last minute before I kind of passed out from not getting my breath, whooo, and then I sat up in bed and I was literally soaking wet. If you’ve ever seen my play basketball, I mean, when I play, I mean, I was drenched and the bed was drenched. And my wife was asleep over here.

And there was evil in the room like never. And the hairs on the back of my neck. And I’m wondering, “What is happening?” And I’m terrified.

What do you do when some very unusual things happen? First of all, you need to understand there are: Four facts you need to know, and this is the baseline.

Fact number one, God has objectively defeated Satan and his agenda. He has delivered us from sin’s penalty, power and ultimately, will deliver us from sin’s presence. In the interim, we’re involved in a guerrilla warfare with demonic forces. Fact number one.

Fact number two. As believers, we have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light with all the rights, privileges, and position of being a child of God and what that entails.

Fact number three, the spiritual battle that we fight involves our responsibility on our part to put on the spiritual protection God has provided for us.

We can, and we will, resist the enemy’s attempts to deceive, accuse, and cast out when we stand firm by number one, being honest with God, ourselves, and others as a prerequisite to spiritual battle. And we learned what? It’s the belt of truth.

Number two, responding to the truth that God shows us about His will for our lives or living righteously. The breastplate of righteousness. And number three, a clear understanding and a readily sharing of the gospel, the message of grace. Our feet shod with the gospel.

Now, get this, and please, fact number four is very important. The great majority of spiritual warfare never need go beyond the regular practice of living out your position in Christ by faith.

Our practice of Paul’s metaphor of the spiritual armor protects us from Satan’s ongoing attempts to break our fellowship with Jesus and as a result, greatly minimizes any impact by the enemy.

And now, however, there are times when we must move beyond standing firm and here’s the key word, engage the enemy in actual combat. There are times that are very predictable when it will go from: you have a great defense, you’re not being deceived, you’re walking with God and there are some times when frontal attack is likely to happen. Five examples.

Number one, when you’re taking significant steps of faith for spiritual growth.

Second, when we’re invading enemy territory.

The third time is when you’re exposing him for who he really is. We, as a staff, knew we were going to teach on this. We started a few weeks ago and we really upped our prayer and intercession knowing this is going to happen.

Fourth is when we repent or make a clean break with the world or a long-held sin pattern or unholy relationship.

And then finally, when God is preparing us individually or corporately for a great work for His glory. You read in Nehemiah and as Nehemiah begins to rebuild the wall and a revival is going to take place and Ezra is going to come in and God’s going to turn all of history around with this business guy. And you know, chapters 1, 2, and 3 are pretty exciting. But chapters 4, 5, and 6 are about opposition. And he gets general opposition and he gets personal opposition. And then there is an assassination on him.

Jesus is ready to launch His ministry, He’s ready to be the Savior of the world and begin His formal teaching ministry and what happens? He’s led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness and He’s tempted by the enemy, right?

So those are times when we can expect. The question is once you’re wearing your spiritual armor yet find yourself bombarded by spiritual opposition, how do you engage the enemy and win the battle? Well, we know that our battle’s not against flesh and blood but it’s against the rulers, the powers, the world forces, the spiritual darkness, right? Therefore, stand firm in the Lord. Right?

Put on the full armor of God. And having what? Girded your loins with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having had your feet shod with the gospel. In addition, verse 16, “To all, taking up the shield of faith, which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.”

So how you engage that as I would like to talk about, these three armor pieces that we have that will teach us how to engage in spiritual battle and win.

Taking up the shield of faith. Paul gives us this metaphor. And the faith here is the absolute confidence in God, His promises, His power, and His program for our lives. Although rooted in the objective reality of the gospel and our new standing with God, justification, in other words, saving faith, this faith refers to our present faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for victory over sin and a host of demonic activity. That’s a quote from Kenneth Wuest.

Its purpose is to quench the fiery missiles of the evil one. Which kind of raises the question, what exactly is a fiery missile or a dart?
Let me suggest, it’s the schemes, the temptations, the lies, the deceptions and the attacks, aimed at us, God’s people, get this down, to get us to shift our trust to something or someone other than God. The goal, just the goal is don’t trust God.

It’s impossible to please Him apart from faith. The number one agenda of God in your life is this, will you trust me? Will you believe in ... When Jesus was asked, what is the work of God?

John chapter 6 he said, “This is the work of God that you believe on Him whom He has sent.” There is only time the disciples were ever reproved by Jesus that we have in the New Testament. Oh, you of little…[faith].

He wants us to believe. He’s demonstrated His power, He’s given us His promises. In fact, here is a question that in any situation, okay? Jot this down, it’s not in your notes, maybe it’s a challenge in your marriage, maybe it’s a challenge in your business, a challenge of one of your grown kids. Maybe it’s a physical situation. Ask this question. What does it look like to trust God in this situation? Lord, I don’t know what to do. What does it look like to trust you? That changes the equation because here is what I know is God’s will. No matter what I’m going through, an all-knowing, all-powerful, good, and sovereign God wants me to trust Him.

I may have a role in it, I may not. But we tend to jump to: how do I fix this or how do I take control of it? Or, how do I manage it? Some examples of fiery darts are blasphemous thoughts.

Other things that can happen. Hateful thoughts, doubts, a burning desire to sin. Questioning other’s motives, unexplained waves of discouragement or depression, often rooted in either questioning God’s identity or your new identity.

I shared, this would happen to me every Saturday afternoon for months and months and months until I recognized what was happening. The classic example and let me encourage you in this whole area of spiritual warfare, study Genesis chapter 3 and study Matthew chapter 4.

The game plan hasn’t changed. Did God really say? There was always a doubt in His Word. Notice, he doesn’t come as Satan, he comes disguised. So, he comes disguised, almost always, offering you a good thing to solve a problem in your life. But he’s offering a shortcut or it’s a good thing in a bad way or at a bad time or in a way that God has said, “This is not the way to do it.”

And then after that, if you take a piece of the fruit, whatever the fruit happens to be that he’s shown you and you know it’s wrong, then he will blow over you with the condemnation for what you’ve done and then convince you that you’re unworthy of any of God’s mercy and any of God’s grace and it’s a downwards spiral.

As you would study Matthew chapter 4, you’ll find that Jesus is tempted in three specific areas and if you study Genesis carefully, you’ll find that they’re tempted in three specific areas and those three areas are found in 1 John. I want you all to open your Bibles to 1 John, all the way at the end, 1 John chapter 2.

And in 1 John chapter 2, he will identify the three areas of temptation that faced our first parents, the three areas of temptation that Jesus faced and the three areas of temptation that you and I will always face.

These are like three verses that would be of great profit to memorize. Verse 15 of 1 John chapter 2, “Do not love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” Okay, well, what’s the world? Is this the physical world? No.

This is the world as in the culture, the society, and the values. And who’s the prince and the power and the governor of this world? Satan. And so, he creates culture and society and norms and values to seduce.

Here’s his goal. He’s a seducer. He wants to seduce you from your love of Jesus and get to love you. Yourself. And he tells you the way that you can have all that you want. Remember what Eve…? “This will make you like God.”

And we don’t want to admit this but when we want to control our world and our outcomes, we want to be little gods. And so, notice what he says, well, what is the world? “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father but is from the world.” And then the next verse is like perspective.

“And the world is passing away and also its lust but the one who does the will of God abides forever. And by the way here, this word for lust, lust of the eyes, it’s not necessarily a negative word. Literally, it’s the word desire. In this passage and others, there is a little prefix they put to it. It means an intensified desire.

And so, three things. Jesus comes and the enemy says, first questioning His identity, “If you are the Son of God,” well, he knew who He was. But it’s: prove it. Prove it. Turn these stones into bread. Use Your supernatural power rather than trust in God, you take control and it’s been forty days and the text says He’s hungry. He has a legitimate need for food. And the enemy says, “Well, then turn the stones and prove something and You can meet Your legitimate physical need of the flesh now. My way and my time.”

And what did Jesus say? “It is written man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that precedes out of the mouth of God.” The test, lust of the flesh. Then he took Him up to the top of the temple and he says, “Throw yourself off.” And then, are you ready? He quotes Scripture. He quotes the Psalms and says, “The angels will catch you.” Here is the temptation. The lust of the eyes. “You want to look good in front of people. People will know you’re the Messiah. You’ll be hot stuff.” And then third, “Look at all these kingdoms. You can have power, You can have fame, You can have glory and guess what, there’s no cross involved. All You have to do is bow down and worship me.”

“Be gone, Satan.” And each time: it is written, it is written, it is written. Sometimes, words like lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life, they sound a bit biblical because they are. Can I give it to you in our nomenclature? Lust of the flesh: sex. Lust of the eyes: status. Greed. Possessions. Is it wrong to have appetite for food, a desire for sex, a desire for significance, a desire for security? Absolutely not. It’s how you go about getting it and believing that that will satisfy you.

God says, “Sex inside marriage is one of the most precious gifts.” Food, we all need food. But there is one thing to love food, it’s another thing to live to eat. And so he says to us that these desires for the flesh, “I want to provide for you. These are legitimate needs. But let Me provide for you in My way and in My time and in the right way.”

And so, the application here when darts of doubt and deception must be immediately met with the shield of faith, your active, present application of truth to your personal situation, as soon as you recognize the dart. And now, I hope you’re thinking, “Okay, what’s that look like?” I mean, practically, how does this actually work? Let me give you three examples.

First, it’s trusting in God’s character. On a card I have written: the goodness of God, Psalm 84:11. ‘The Lord God, Lord Adonai, Yahweh, is a sun and a shield.’” Unlimited source, unlimited protection. “The Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord gives grace and glory. No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

And I’ve memorized that card and then I have the definition on the back of the card of the goodness of God is that which aspect of my heavenly Father that longs and finds great happiness in His people and He wants to give me the very best. When God revealed Himself to Moses, Moses said, “Show me your glory.” Do you remember what he said? “I’ll let all my goodness pass before you.”

The Hebrew word for goodness there, the root of it is generosity. The most generous, lavish, caring, loving, compassionate person in the whole universe is God. He’s got your back and He’s for you. But the moment that thought comes, Oh, He’s not good. If I stay sexually pure, I’ll never get married. God’s not good. If I give my all and surrender to Him, He’ll send me to some foreign country where there is snakes and I hate snakes.

All those are rooted in a lie. And the moment your mind starts that way you stop and you out loud say, “The Lord God is a sun and a shield. He has unlimited source of ability and abundance. He can protect me from anything. He gives grace.” What’s grace? That’s getting what you don’t deserve. He gives glory. He wants to exalt, He wants to lift you up. He wants to help you. As you walk with Him by faith, no good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly.