LESSON FIVE – SPIRITUAL WARFARE

                Being a child of God is not without enemies.  In fact, when one becomes a believer in Christ, he becomes the target of the darts  of the wicked.  But because we have God on our side, we are  secured of victory as long as we do and follow His will in our lives. 

                One important truth that we can  claim with great confidence is the verse in I John 4:4 - “...greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world…”    Only a true believer in Christ can stand on this promise.  The presence of the Holy Spirit secured our victory.  (I Corinthians- 3:16)  That means,  whatever difficulty or temptation  we find ourselves into, we are able to overcome. The Bible identifies that we have basically four enemies or adversaries:

1.                Satan – our “adversary, the devil.” (I Peter 5: 8,9)

2.                Principalities and Powers – the demons and the rulers of darkness.  (Ephesians 6:11,12)

3.                The World – the wordly system.  (I John 2:15-17)

4.                Self – our own selves.  (I Peter 2:11,12  & Romans 6)

                Our greatest enemy is from within us – the self.  It pops its ugly head through the “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” (I John 2:16).  Apostle Paul, the greatest missionary of all time was not exempted from the attack of his own flesh.  He recalls in Romans 7:15-20 about his struggles with himself that is all too familiar to us.  Paul says that in order to have victory over the flesh, we need to “reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive unto God.” (Romans 6:11) and not “allow ourselves as instruments of unrighteousness“.  (Romans 6:13).  The ever presence of the Holy Spirit has also given us the power to say no to sin.  With His grace, we do have a choice to either obey God or obey the dictates of the flesh.  (Romans 6:14).

                Our enemies cannot have any control over us unless we give them the control.  They are here with only one purpose – to mess up the plan of God in our lives.  The Devil, the World, and the Principalities & Powers are here to discourage and demoralize the children of God.  They will never change.  They are designed to do the dirty work to defeat the purpose of God in our lives.  We believers can change through the power of Christ.  We can decide to quit following the flesh and the world and focus more on the Savior.

                When a Christian sins and suffers the consequence of that sin, he has nobody to blame but himself.  It is the desire of the Devil to be blamed.  Every time we give him credit over our faults and failures, he is happy, and he feels victorious. We can only see his defeat when we confess, be sorry for our sins and surrender our all to the Savior.  Yes, we have several enemies but we do not have to be defeated.  We have all the weapons available for us to use to defeat our enemies.  Read Ephesians 6:10-20 and identify the 7 armors that we Christians have.  Begin to wear these armors and “fight the fight of faith.”