Strategies for Spiritual Warfare

Monday, July 19th, 2010

Today's Passage: Ephesians 6: 10-18
Memory Verses: Eph. 6: 12

Okay -- we've spent quite a bit of time discussing being joined together, having the same mind, and loving one another as the body of Christ.  This week, we're going to begin talking about why God really wants us to have this attitude towards one another.  So here it is: the primary reason God desires us to walk in unity with each other is so that we can EFFECTIVELY pray for one another.  Unity opens the ears of God towards us as well as binds the enemy's hands from stopping our petitions from reaching the throneroom.  But effective spiritual warfare is what tears down his strongholds and destroys his walls of defense that stand to prevent us from really seeing changes around us when we pray.

Everything we've said so far about the body has been to cause all members to remember that they are important.  If this is true, then what a mighty army is about to be raised up to defeat the enemy!  First, every one of us needs to know that we are all strong soldiers in this army.  Today's passage says we can be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.  When the strength of one of us begins to fail, we have one another to remind that one of Whose he or she is, and Who has already won the battle.  In the middle of a war, we have no time to form opinions about one another.  We are all on the same side.  There is no "us" against "them".  There's only us ALL against the enemy.

Which brings me to the next thing we cannot afford to forget in engaging in effective spiritual warfare.  We are not fighting human beings, to put it quite plainly.  Our enemy has already been defeated in the final war, but his strategy is to get us to lose the little battles along the way by focusing on one another's shortcomings and judging each other, rather than lifting one another up in prayer.  We are dealing with very crafty demonic forces that have been around since the fall of their lord, satan.  They, too, are aware of generational as well as regional curses.  Why?  They were the ones used by the devil to inflict these upon our ancestors long ago.  Without spiritual warfare, all they have to do is sit around and watch these same curses play out from one generation to another. 

Our challenge today is to begin putting together what we're learning about how important each joint within the body is and start using that knowledge to fight for one another.  No matter where you are in your faith journey, know that God is making His strength available for you even now.  Stand firm in your place where God has assigned you to fight, and do not be deceived any longer about who your REAL enemy is.  You and I are now in the position of spiritual warfare.

Prayer:  Father, You're so awesome.  You've been preparing us all this time to teach us how to love one another so we can fight for each other like never before.  We repent of every time we've let the enemy win, standing by while he defeated one of us.  We are ready to start again through Your Spirit.  In Jesus' Name, Amen.