How to Fight with Spiritual Power
2 Corinthians 10:3-4
When Satan and his troops interfere with God’s work here on earth, it is time for God’s people to take action. Satan’s forces are doing whatever they can to keep us from reaching the lost with the good news of Jesus Christ. That’s why we, as God’s people, need to take the offensive. God has given us the power over the forces of darkness. We need to learn what it means to cautiously step out against the demonic realm as informed and prepared warriors.
We need to lift ourselves out of a self-centered spirituality; a mentality that says we are victims rather than warriors.
1Our small steps of faith and obedience always contribute to a bigger victory than our own.
The Real Battle Is Spiritual
The real battle for effectively winning the lost to Jesus Christ is a spiritual battle.
The typical American church is not experiencing much evangelistic growth.
Reaching the lost will work best when accompanied by serious prayer.
Jesus Engaged The Enemy In The Highest Level Power Encounter (Matt. 4)
Jesus took the initiative and engaged in some crucial strategic-level warfare.
Jesus moved in on the devil’s turf without hesitation and without fear.
He openly challenged Satan on his territory.
Satan’s plan of attack is always at the point of obedience to God.
God wants us to attack the places where the devil and his forces are entrenched.
The Great Commission is our order to tear down the enemies strongholds and make every nation a disciple of Christ.
"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:19-20).
It appears from the Great Commission, that Jesus desires every nation to be a Christian nation filled with Christian disciples.
In order for this to become reality, Christians must tear down Satan’s strongholds and establish worship of the one true God.
Our Weapons of Warfare
Our weapons are SPIRITUAL.
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For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)PRAYER is the central functional activity for solving problems and doing spiritual warfare (v. 18).
FAITH and OBEDIENCE are the central attitude for those who seek to do battle in prayer.
Faith cannot be understood apart from obedience:
"3We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him." (1 John 2:3-4).
Holiness means being so full of God that there is no room for anything else.
THE NAME OF JESUS
God gave Jesus the name which is above every name:
"9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:9-11).
THE BLOOD OF JESUS
"They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death" (Revelation 12:11).
When we share the story of Jesus with the unsaved, we attach Satan’s strongholds.
THE POWER OF AGREEMENT
Matthew 18:18-20:
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"I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."I Corinthians 1:10:
"I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought."
THE POWER OF FASTING: Some forms of spiritual warfare require fasting as a prerequisite for victory.
Paul said, "...for Christ’s sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:10).
Fasting draws us closer to God and makes us more sensitive to hearing from Him.
THE POWER OF PRAISE
"Every day I will praise you and extol your name forever and ever" (Psalm 145:2).
"About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them" (Acts 16:25).
THE POWER OF THE WORD OF GOD (v. 17).