We are working through a Spiritual Warfare class.

The helmet of Salvation is protection for the head, for the mind. This battle we wage is in the mind. Keeping our minds protected is of great importance.

1 Thessalonians 5:9 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for the helmet, the hope of salvation.

HOPE is the key element. Hope is a quiet, steady expectation of good based on the promises of God’s word. Many lose hope and live in this loud and very bumpy world expecting crap to come at them from every corner of the earth. That isn’t reality! That is a negative mindset. Believing that God is coming at every moment with something good, for our good, because He is good is biblical. The war we battle is believing and accepting that.

The Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God.

Hebrews 4:12  For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

One of the best ways to learn how to wield this sword is the study how Jesus did. Jesus faced the devil using only the Word of God, not opinion, He directly quoted scripture. Scripture in our mouth and quoting it directly is how it becomes a sword.

Jesus gave us a picture of the church

Matthew 16:18  And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

It is a picture of two primary activities: Building and Battling

And Satan and his councils will not prevail against it.

But we have to stay on the offensive, taking ground, advancing the gospel.

A song of joy

A bit on the power of prayer in the book of Acts:

A little refresh in the room:

I bought that little table at an estate sale for 15 bucks!! It’s all hard wood pine with a little shelf inside. I grabbed a few items from around the house – the plant, a candle, the picture I received from a dear friend Kathy, and one of my Poppy’s creations. I love this little space.

The Spiritual Warfare Finish:

We have 4 weapons!

• Prayer
• Praise
• Preaching
• Testimony

Like I mentioned before, in the Acts link – Prayer is a weapon that enforced the promises of God’s word. The promises are to provoke us to pray. Praise is a weapon that is related to God’s awesomeness and fearfulness. Praise is our great source of strength for God inhabits our praises. Out of the mouth comes praise which counter the weapon of Satan which is accusation. We must learn to use our mouths but not just with anything. We must use the Word of God as the bases of our praise. Next is preaching, there is tremendous power in the preached word of God. God promises that His word will not return empty. He will not confirm human theories or philosophy, but He will confirm His WORD! And finally, the weapon of testimony, while preaching the word presents the truths of God’s word directly, testimony is speaking from personal experience related to the Word of God and the truth of His word. He didn’t say that we would witness but rather this:

 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Acts 1:8

We shall BE witnesses. Not one who does a thing but one who becomes a thing. Our stories of how God saved us are powerful and this we share to those who encounter on the way of what we are doing. This weapon is powerful! For we overcome Satan when we testify personally to what the word of God says that the blood of Jesus does for us. It is the blood of Jesus that sets us free.

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

Revelations 12:11

So it is the word of our testimony and by the blood of the lamb that we overcome. We have to then be familiar with what the word of God actually tells us about the blood.

• Ephesians 1:7 We have redemption and forgiveness
• 1 John 1:7 We are cleansed
• Romans 5:9 We are justified, made righteous as in “Just-as-if-I’d” never sinned
• Hebrews 13:12 We are sanctified, made holy, and set apart to God

Speak this out loud: Through the blood of Jesus, I am redeemed out of the hand of Satan. Through the blood of Jesus, all my sins are forgiven. The blood of Jesus cleanses me from all sin. Through the blood of Jesus, I am justified, made righteous, “just-as-if-I’d” never sinned. And through the blood of Jesus, I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God. I am no longer in Satan’s territory.

Thanks for Listening,

Starla