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Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Did you eat your wheaties this mornig?

Manna in the Morning



Ephesians 6:11-12, “Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the Devil. For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.”

In our daily lives, we often take the full responsibility of defeating the adversary and resisting his temptations. We need to be reminded we are only a minor part of the spiritual warfare, but we cannot fight the adversary in our own strength! This is not to say we do not need to be on the alert for every seemingly harmless thing that turn into major battles in our lives, but our warfare takes place in many arenas. First we have to be fully aware we do not fight against another person, the fight we face is not against a human enemy, we fight against Satan who may at times use individuals, but our fight is against the devil on a spiritual level. Next, we fight against a whole host of demons, dark angels, evil spirits and those who are expert in spiritual warfare, since they have been fighting for thousands of years. Third, we fight against all the unfair, deceitful, ugly, cheating tactics of the devil, the great adversary of God and Truth.

The warfare takes place in the heavenly places, where we cannot know, assist or affect the outcome of the battle. Daniel was told by Michael that he was delayed in answering Daniel’s prayer because he was in warfare with Satan himself. It continues in the minds and actions of rulers and authorities on this earth. There are those that are completely in the control of Satan because they have willingly sold their eternal lives to him for some earthly benefit. They will always be under his dominion and power, such as Mahmud Aminijad of Iran, who swears allegiance to a god not our Jehovah God Almighty.

We are part of the great army of God that can move mountains, cause God’s work to prosper, prevent Satan from harming those that love and serve our God. Our prayer life should be directed to thwarting Satan’s endeavors on this earth, not just on the wellbeing of those that are loved by us, but our prayer for our world, for God’s purpose to be fulfilled, and for souls to be saved from Satan’s grip are prayers that join the angels and spiritual warriors that ultimately will cast Satan into the lake of fire at God’s command. Our gracious Heavenly Father, give us a burden to enter into spiritual warfare on behalf of your Kingdom this day we pray in Jesus’ name.

4 comments:

Greg P. said...

Amen.

I pray that prayer right along with you Eddie. "For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them". Matt.18:20

Amanda said...

Don't you just wonder how God has been so patient as to put up with some of our prayers. We are so blind to the reality of the battle that we pray against the grenades and the bullets instead of against the one throwing them and shooting them!! Here we are asking and seeking the "hand" of God, when we should be asking and seeking the "face" of God and the "heart" of God. We are so busy seeking for ourselves in our prayers, and then we wonder why our world is falling apart and why the church seems so powerless in our culture. I repent of all my selfish praying in light of the "full armor" or God. I no longer want to put on parts and pieces of the armor and then question why I got my arm blown to bits??

Lord God, may I never again take lightly the great responsbility to go into battle with all of my armor, fully clothed with the helmet of salvation, assured of my place in Your Kingdom, Girded with the TRUTH OF YOUR WORD (not someone else's interpretation of it, but the actual WORD itself), my heart protected by the breastplate of righteousness, shielded against the schemes of satan by my shield of FAITH in MY GREAT GOD!!, and studied up and prepared to bring the gospel of peace to ALL MEN, wielding the great SWORD of your WORD against my enemy, full force against him...not just what he throws at us...but the real enemy of the Cross!!

Thanks for sharing this, Eddie. It hits right where my heart is and has been these past six-seven months!!

AnnaElizabeth said...

Yes, I am still alive, but i'm just drowning in homework. I'm just barely above the surface..

This is an excellent lesson Granddaddy. I often rely too much on myself and my own reason to deal with spiritual situations, when I need to rely on the Lord. But I know that we were made for war, to fight in God's army.

Rita Springer and Charlie Hall both sing a version of the song "Holy Visitation" that is awesome and talks about taking back the years that the enemy has stolen and how the Lord will come with a holy visitation and touch this generation. Both versions are amazing.

BethAnne said...

Our problem is that we forget who our adversary is.....we forget that we are at war......we forget that he attacks at our weakest point and where we have taken our armor off.......if we had better memories maybe we would be less likely to let our defenses down