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(Admin Note: This article is long, but is being allowed to be posted in its' original format.
-Sojourner414)
Ephesians 6:10
The word "finally" can only mean that something must be done before you can "finally" proceed. What we are proceeding to do according to the instructions in Ephesians 6 is
Ephesians 6:11
So before we go reaching for armor and try taking stands, there is some training and preparation in order. If there were no need for training, there would be no need for the inclusion of the qualifier "finally", so therefore, the whole Book of Ephesians works together to prepare us to take up the Armor of God and take our stand against satan.
This isn't just casual assumption based on guesswork. I had more trouble with the devil and his harassment between 2004 and 2008 or 2009 than I care to remember. I tried all sorts of things, including quoting Scripture, expecting the demons to be impressed (that usually didn't work), declaring the battle won based on my assumptions of what Revelation 12 should mean (that failed utterly), anointing oil (might actually have helped a little, but I suspect God was feeling sorry for me by then) and begging every church I could think of (that got me nowhere, so I called churches in 5 states, which garnered me one sympathetic ear and a bottle of anointing oil at an affordable price). I tried Bob Larson ministries which garnered me a few phone calls with a rather odd amateur sort of Larson trainee who lived a couple of hours away and I never did meet in person. And I did a LOT of praying, learning a dependence on the Lord that only comes when you've tried everything and have no other choice. Some Day in Heaven, He and I will tell the whole story too...
So I did finally learn some things. I learned a lot about the devil and how he does and does not operate. I learned a bit about being careful to not attribute more direct action to the devil than is explainable any other way. Most of the problem with sins that are hard to shake have to do with damage already done to a person by something the devil did during our individual life, leaving us to firmly believe things that aren't true. And I learned the devil is not powerful, what he is is influential. So he can't make your car float in thin air, but he does tell lies that can seem true and he does come up with really bad ideas that sound good until you see where its all leading.
This is why the Word of God is so important. Talking too much about the Bible and trying to live strictly by the Bible sounds religious until you actually try it in practice. When you live by the Word, our Great Shepherd will lead us, through His Word, to a way of life that is victorious, healthy and life giving. So let us then proceed to examine why the whole Book of Ephesians tells what we need to do to win at Spiritual Warfare and why.
In his opening remarks as he wrote this important letter to the Church in Ephesus, Paul first establishes the nature of our relationship with the Lord. Paul speaks of the depth and richness of God's love for us, expressed through Jesus Christ. This is important, because it establishes what it means to Jesus Christ to be involved in our lives and our circumstances in spite of the fact that we have willfully sinned against Him. This was extremely important to me, because I was frankly amazed at how much trouble Jesus Christ was putting Himself through to fight for me. It had been very clear from early on that He was indeed fighting for me, and I was really awed by that. So Paul is careful to establish faith rooted in the fact that however small we might be in our own eyes, God values us deeply and takes us seriously.
Just in case that might go to our heads, though, Paul follows this magnificent encouragement with Chapter 2 which says things like:
Ephesians 2:1-3
Now that Paul has brought us down a notch or two, he goes on to establish the difference between religion, using the Jewish Old Testament law for his well understood example, and spirituality rooted in Jesus Christ, establishing His position on the struggle:
Ephesians 2:13-18
This important groundwork sets the stage for dependence on Christ alone as well as a confidence that it is really God we are going to be approaching here, not some powerless myth or something.
In the third section of his letter, Paul explains what this is all about. The fact that Jesus Christ was opening the gates of God's sheepfold to the Gentiles was a great offense to the religiously correct Jews. Paul, then, made it a point that being religiously correct was not going to be effective in reaching the truth about God:
Ephesians 3:4-6
That's really important, because when confronted with spiritual trouble, the first impulse is to get religious as possible. Another question would be to wonder why a clear victory can seem elusive at best and impossible at worst. Paul had undoubtedly had to ask these kind of questions in his career, and he shared the answers God gave him:
Ephesians 3:10-13
Paul knew all about how some folks lose heart and faith when things get really bad. Paul was an expert in hanging tight onto faith when things get really bad, so he knew exactly how to encourage the rest of us. He set a splendid example in this letter and other letters he wrote over the course of his ministry.
The next verses are of the sort that everyone loves to hear, how Jesus loves ME!!! But it is important to remember that Jesus loves everyone else He works in and through just as much... So to despise your brother or sister in Christ is to disagree with God Himself, in effect demanding of God "What were You THINKING when You saved THAT person"... In making that mistake, the Christian has just entered a state of foundational disagreement with God, a mistake that satan gets endless mileage out of pushing.
Ephesians 3:14-19
It seems clear enough that if we are to be filled to the measure with all the fullness of God, we must all be on the same side. An army at war with itself isn't going to be much good in defeating an outside enemy! I have found that it is possible to be victorious without the help of fellow believers, but it works better, and certainly faster when we enjoy the respect, encouragement, prayers and sound advice of our fellow Christians.
What is Spiritual Warfare, how does it work and why? The basic definition of Christian Spiritual Warfare is to take a stand against the devil and his schemes (Ephesians 6:11). The devil’s schemes are all based on some sort of deception that causes us to misunderstand God’s intent and therefore make His ministry ineffective in some way. This may mean messing up God’s plan for our own life or it may mean messing up God’s plan for the lives of people around us, either way, the devil is out to cause fear, doubt, instability and distrust. When the devil’s plans are working in his favor, people are found to be working against each other, against ourselves and ultimately against the Lord Himself ,who is a God of peace and stability. This, then is why how we act, what we do or don’t do matters so much. How we act and what we do springs from how we think, which is why satan attacks our thought life with negativity, lies and temptations (enticement). He accuses us against ourselves, against each other and against God, and believe me, he can be very persistent. Because satan is very persistent, and because as an outside observer, he is able to spot weaknesses in how we think that we ourselves are unaware of, his lies can and often do, come off as extremely credible, and very difficult to overcome as well. For this reason, it can and does take some deliberate effort to refuse to believe the lies. The key, then is found in believing Scripture as it is written.
One of the most important precepts of Scripture is forgiveness. Because forgiveness is so important to God, forgiveness is often the most difficult part of our walk with the Lord to master. I have no doubt that is a deliberate move on satan’s part, the one thing he works the hardest to destroy in our relationships, with first ourselves, second with our families and third with other people around us. It is very much in the devil’s best interest to destroy our faith in God as well, but I think one of the primary ways he gets at our faith is to mess with us directly and with how we all see and therefore treat each other.
Jesus Christ, working through the Holy Spirit combats these things through speaking the truth in love. It is not uncommon for us to have a hard time believing what the Lord says though, directly because His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways.
Isaiah 55:7-8
This is very important to pray about and understand, because as this precious Book of Ephesians unfolds, it will challenge the very ways we cope with the day-to-day challenges of life, which is the reason chapter 5 in particular is largely underestimated and dismissed…
To the best of my understanding, power is something God (rightly) reserves for Himself, and any authority we might have is tied directly to our place in His family. So when we call on the name of Jesus Christ, He answers precisely because we are His. For example, and this has happened to me many times and to my husband several times as well. We wake up in the middle of some weird bad dream and call on Jesus Christ, and the dream stops immediately, and doesn't come back. Only God has the power to stop the dream, but we have the authority to trust Him and have that trust affirmed. I think that's accurate, I hope it is. It took me a long time to even begin to understand what authority in Christ even might be. If anyone has a clearer answer, please post it! As to why the church is in so much trouble, we look for easy answers and clear victories. Sometimes what we get is anything but, and people tend to get desperate and try just about anything... Others give up entirely. The least common, yet most effective thing to do is read the Word and keep praying even if it takes years to get the issue straight. In our push-button world, though, many people won't wait for that... This is absolutely tragic, because in some cases that's exactly what we should be doing! Just because there is great power and profound answers in Jesus Christ doesn't mean the process is effortless and instant! A hard lesson, but a very important one...
As I entered the latter parts of Ephesians chapter 4, I got hung up on verses 11- 13:
These verses are extremely important, but I have never seen church leadership functioning properly, so I asked Mattfivefour for his advice. The following is quoted from his reply:
Ephesians 4:1-7
I am departing from this last point, or rather continuing to build on this, as it is so very important. I talked to Mattfivefour on the phone for a while, in order to be as certain as possible of what i am trying to communicate here, so let us depart from this point: Ephesians 4:1-7
Now to drop down to the next point Paul is working towards, we shall pick up at verses 12-13:
"To prepare" is expressed in the Greek word καταρτισμὸν (katartismon), which (special thanks to Mattfivefour) is, according to Vocabulary Of The Greek New Testament by GH Moulton and G Milligan,
to repair a thing for its full destination or use. Now this is so important, precisely because religion tells us that we have offended God, that He is very angry, and we had better toe the line OR ELSE!!! Which has the working effect of scaring many people into being too afraid of the Lord to really trust Him, and thus hiding our failures and imperfections from Him (as if that were possible), from each other (in most cases that's probably a good idea) and from ourselves. However in trying to bury these things, we actually are giving satan a place to hide in our hearts, our thoughts, our lives, and we weep in secret over agonies we know we cannot overcome, without daring trust that Jesus Christ cares more about healing whats wounded in us than He does about the sins we are committing because we are too weakened by our wounds to do any better. Before we proceed (or I get jumped here), there is a BIG DIFFERENCE between a wounded and faltering person who is seeking the Lord and an arrogant hard hearted person who is sinning deliberately indifferent to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Let those who have ears hear...
I am still very much praying over, studying and developing this discussion, again, it is so important. There is no point in worrying about what others are doing wrong if we have nothing correct to replace it.
If we don't like what we see other Christians doing, someone MUST offer them a more effective approach. Anything less is just noise!!!
Part 2
I have been putting a lot of thought and a lot of prayer into this study. Returning to this issue has brought back some memories that had begun -- at long last -- to fade...
My husband has said he has never heard anyone speak of the Lord and the sort of experiences I have had with Him quite the way I do... That, and an objective return to a series I wrote for another forum back in 2009 has brought back some memories from those days. I didn't set out to be particularly holy or anything; I just had a very serious need to know who God really is, how He thinks and why. When I first became a Christian, one thing I was completely clear on was that whoever or whatever I might have thought God really is was so badly mistaken that I would have to dump every preconception I had ever had about spirituality and start from scratch. So I did. I read my Bible with keen interest, frankly very surprised at what is actually says, particularly the New Testament. When I began learning to pray, I found myself asking the Lord all sorts of questions about how He was asking me to cope and how to actually do the things He was asking me to do which will soon be discussed as we enter chapter 5 of Ephesians... I was overwhelmed with afflictions from without and from within during those years, and more recently as well. Some days it was all I could do to face the fact that I had woken up to face yet another day... At one point I begged the Lord to just let me die, I was so miserable that I couldn't conceive hell to be any worse, so I told Jesus Christ He didn't owe me (He didn't and doesn't), and that He need not let me into His Heaven. His reply was a gentle but firm no...
In 2008 and 2009, two things became clear to me. First, the structure of local churches seemed institutional to me. Until I read the article Matt shared with me yesterday, I had thought that was just the way churches were supposed to be, and that the problem was my own perception, tainted by experiences of my rebellious youth. In fact, the typical American church is institutional, because one of the strongest reasons people go to church is to attempt to protect their kids and marriages from the poison of pop culture. I have never been able to bring myself to fault anyone for that... They do have a right to seek shelter in the Lord. The problem is they get so institutionally introverted that they shut out the unbelievers who make the outside world so threatening in the first place, thus defeating their own larger purpose...
The second thing I learned is that most Christians don't understand the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, don't think themselves or anyone else really has the Gifts, or much worse yet, do think they have the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and don't seem to understand what they are or why. Let me break that down a little. Around here, the outward expression of the Holy Spirit is largely smothered on purpose because it is just plain safer and saner if nobody tries to operate beyond the normal 5 senses. One or two churches tried to go into the higher functions of Christian Spirituality, and got into trouble. One of the pastors who got fooled by Toronto Vineyard type deceptions (they were claiming the "gold teeth blessing" among other things) is still leading a fairly large church, but more carefully and quietly. Most churches, though, just quietly operate, doing typical Baptist works of mundane service like providing school supplies and food for the poor and doing short term missions. Thus they perceive their gifting to be things like leadership, teaching and encouragement. They're not terribly mistaken either, I don't think. But there is more to the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, and I wonder if its possible for us to be more effective than we are. On no uncertain terms, there is a growing need these days as the majority of the people around us are falling fast into deeper and deeper evil as they hurl headlong towards Hell. This is serious, and for many, there are young family members in extreme danger of being caught in the dragnet...
I have thought long and deep about how I came into the experiences with Jesus Christ that I did. It wasn't exactly deliberate, but it wasn't accidental either. If you look at Ephesians chapter 5 and Colossians chapter 3, it becomes clear that the Biblical ideal is way out of step with the way just about everybody lives in the "real world". Right there is where the trouble starts, because many people decide right away that God's ways are not only impossible, but enough to put us at a severe disadvantage if we actually try to live that way. So most people don't try. What they don't understand is that when we do try, the Holy Spirit ignites into real power and starts backing us. I have lived this and I can and do testify it is true. There are a lot of former drug addicts and other people who were in deep sin when they came to repentance who are saying the same thing, and being conveniently ignored...
I have this much to say, its all I know. From the beginning of my Christian walk, I made it an important part of my life to read my Bible daily. I read every single Book at one time or another, although some Books I read over and over, (most the NT, Isaiah and Jeremiah, least some of the minor prophets), others rarely. And I spend time in quiet prayer daily, just in case the Lord wants me to do something for Him, and to pray over my own life and for people I know. Because I am ready at all times, sometimes the Lord does want me to do something for Him, and I am able to serve Him in some way. When I am serving Him, and also when I have turned to Him for answers only He can give, I have directly experienced several of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as the Lord chooses to employ them. Sometimes its there, but, other times these gifts are clearly not there. That’s OK, when it does happen, I am keenly reminded that Jesus Christ is real, is alive, and, most importantly, He has His own thoughts, His own needs, His own agenda. I find that very reassuring. I need my God to be a living Individual, not something I made up on a creative afternoon...
I went through some terrible times with trying to fit into church and not succeeding. I dealt with those emotions through candid prayer and careful guarding of my heart. The question that saved my sanity was could their sins be somehow worse than my own? I was making mistakes of my own, different mistakes to be sure, but still...
Ephesians 4:11-13 discusses the ways the Lord uses His people to get things done His way:
This really matters, because of what Paul says next:
Note that Paul isn't warning against demons here, he's warning against the way people twist things! What Paul is warning against is worldliness, or in more recognizable terms, what we would call "popular culture"...
Ephesians 4:21-24
We have two dynamics working together in Ephesians chapter 4; first, Paul states as strongly as it is possible to state something that we must depart from the futility of the sinful mindset. In other words, the way in which sin has warped our whole approach to living with ourselves and each other, that we need an absolute departure from a sinful context of thought and life and we must reconsider everything in the Holy Light of God's thinking. If we don't, we are going to keep getting into trouble. A very good working definition of futility is trying the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. If memory serves, that is also used as a definition of insanity, but honestly, I think futility is a better term here. The problem is that groups of people depend too much on "little lies", deceptions and attempts to control one another, because people tend to not trust one another's motives in most group settings. People get more motivated by their own perceived hope for a reward than they do for the greater good. In the case of Christianity, the only real winner has got to be Jesus Christ, He alone has GOT to be the one we work to see win, because ONLY JESUS CHRIST CAN BE TRUSTED WITH THE VICTORY!!!
I repeat:
Only Jesus Christ can be trusted with the victory.
If anyone or anything less is given the power, the authority, the right to rule, we are all in BIG trouble, because ONLY Jesus Christ's motives are pure.
Every time a sinner repents, Jesus Christ wins a victory. Every time His values are expressed in the way we live, we advance the Lord's agenda. If we have the guts to live the Scriptures we quote, people notice. They may repent, they may not, but one thing they do is notice. When Christians live out the Word in our actions as well as our words, we prove in practice the rightness of God's ways. To me, that is a victory for the Lord. Every time we deny satan, the flesh, whatever, we are advancing Christ's Kingdom agenda. I have great reason to believe those small victories count. These small victories back Jesus in His commands, proving that what He said to do is right to do. When we fight for that, He fights for us. I have lived this in practice, and I am very sure its right.
It is when people come to depend more on worldly thinking than they do on Scripture, that they open themselves to deception. 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 explains the dangerous problem.
There are 2 interlocking points here that cannot be emphasized enough; first, there is the fact that those who are perishing lack a desire to receive a love of truth. This is because they take pleasure in wickedness. Wickedness is an enticing deception that takes many forms. The pleasures of wickedness are tied to the lusts of the flesh, and the whole poisonous process is largely underestimated by the church at large. Warnings exist for a reason, and this is one of the most serious warnings of all: Matthew 7:13-23
Its not safe to assume that these verses only apply to false teachers, not when verse 19 says EVERY TREE. Particularly when we are so clearly in the times prophesied that there will be: Matthew 24:24
Therefore, it is a dangerous game to cling to falsehoods of any kind, or to neglect the Word in favor of anything that seems to "work better". Ephesians 4:17-18
Which leads us, then, to the foundation of our goal: Ephesians 4:22-24
True righteousness and holiness... I do believe that is where the trouble starts. There is a nearly bottomless well of opinions about what "true" means when it comes to righteousness and holiness... We do have a finite set of instructions in the Bible concerning righteousness and holiness, the trouble starts when everybody has their palpable little portion of what they think is enough for them, and its the combinations of little bits of Scripture different people put together to satisfy their opinions of what "good enough" so often lead to all the divisions in the Body Of Christ. Judges 21:25
This next portion of the precious Book of Ephesians is so important, yet so difficult, I got stuck. It is one thing to speak of these things, quite another to do it, let alone teach how and why without sounding something like "this is only impossible, so just do it!"... I have been praying ever since Oct 22, when I wrote the last installment, and faced the following verses! This is a living, real-time example of what it means in practice to wait on the Lord. I have tried to start the next part of this discussion at least 3 times; these words started to come together this morning in my morning prayers. But, first, the verses I am working from: Ephesians 4:17-27
Ephesians 4:30-32
The lessons in Ephesians chapters 4 and 5 are very difficult to express, exactly because they are very difficult to do. Most of us don't get seriously angry over little things, it is serious offenses that make these things seem impossible. For many, it is too much to even try; the pain, offense and bitterness are provoked by someone. In many cases, the provocation is very real, very serious. To even try to forgive, to let go, to somehow release the pain is beyond comprehension, because there is no way to pretend it didn't matter. Often there is no way to make it right. This problem severely complicates when the perpetrator of the harm is a family member or spouse. Yet we are strongly commanded to let it all go!! How do we do that? I remember a time when darkness was my only truth, when bitterness was my cup. My guts were full of razors in those days… I have seen this in others as well, even Christians…
Letting go of bitterness in prayer and a very deep search for the meaning of the truth expressed in Scripture was a discussion with God Himself. I didn’t do it for the people who had hurt me, I didn’t do it for myself, I did it for Jesus Christ. By removing the focus from myself and from the people who had hurt me, and by confessing that they were blind and perishing as I was without the Holy Spirit to Light my own way, I was able to do it at all. This would have been the season when I learned to shift the blame to satan, thus removing the self-interest factor… Letting go of anger and bitterness was a search for Spiritual maturity in Christ, done correctly according to Scripture.
If anyone would hope to genuinely win at spiritual warfare, this is an extremely important step. The devil gains a foothold that divides the Church and hinders faith through bitterness. The victory can be won, but only through great difficulty, as when we master the more manageable steps, because satan makes uglier bets against us and the going can and does get rough indeed. This is part of it, Paul went through it, as have a very long list of dedicated servants of the Lord ever since. However, it is exactly through these impossibly difficult times, when we get pushed so hard that we do make terrible mistakes in the heat of a moment, only to realize how badly we have sinned when we are able to cool off, that we return to the Throne Of Grace to confess and discover what “Peace that passes all understanding” can really mean. It is in rejecting sin that all this comes together. Rejecting sin doesn’t mean that we never sin, never make a mistake. Rejecting sin means that we catch ourselves, and discover what is wrong with the sin and why. When we do sin, we sin not just against God, but against each other. This is why loving one another is so important. What good does it do if we have the legalistically perfect walk in our own perception, only to pierce people around us with bitterness? When one Christian pierces another, we are still giving the devil a foothold in SOMEONE ELSE!!! This is one reason so many people raised in church are now atheists.
Did God really say... (Genesis 3:1)
What if He did. How does that impact the world around us?
How does that impact our walk with Him, our service to Him...
How does the perception that God meant what He said change things?
Ephesians 4:17-18 outlines in just a few words the source of every problem, every grief suffered on Earth due to the harmfulness of sin:
"Futility of thinking, darkened in understanding, separated from the life of God, hardening of hearts"; the whole problem of sin in a nutshell. Then the Words of hope, real, tangible hope, in reach, available to all:
Ephesians 4:22-24
So Holiness isn't a style of music. Holiness isn't a posture we adopt by positioning our bodies. Holiness isn't the correct combination of decorating our churches or our homes. Holiness isn't just the right fabric in our garments.
Holiness is an attitude of our minds, our thinking, our actions. Holiness is a search for the mind of God, not in theory, but in practice. Holiness is a search for deception in the way we think and act.
Ephesians 4:25-32
Speak truthfully. We depend on God to tell us the truth, so how much more must God depend on us to do the same! How can we claim to represent the God of all truth if we are not willing to be honest with others regardless of how we think the truth may make us appear to others!
"In your anger do not sin..." A cautionary warning. The devil instigates others, especially unbelievers and even more especially compromised Christians to provoke us to anger in an effort to compromise God's people to sin, thereby undermining the credibility of God's Church. So anything that provokes our temper should be a warning to be careful of where our thought process is headed when we are irritated or enraged, and to be very careful how we respond.
"He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands"
Some of the most arrogant people I have ever encountered are people who delegate almost all the work to be done at a job to others while they themselves sit proudly on their laurels congratulating themselves on their power. So those who have risen to high places in their personal endeavors and have it in their power to delegate tasks to others should be especially watchful of the temptations they are afflicted with... Authority is a stewardship, not an entitlement.
"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths"
This is one of the most overlooked commands in Scripture! James gave such a strong warning:
James 3:5
The things we are heard saying and not heard saying have a huge impact on the world around us! There are so many ways we can either heal or harm by the things we say! Gossip, for example, can be so exciting! This is a huge warning, because satan loves to provoke our emotions, and that evil provocation can and does feel extremely good! Beware the tingling enticement of such sin!! Many, many people fall for that, then are left to delve even deeper into sin in an effort to cover their guilt when the damage shows in shattered lives!!
Swearing often seems necessary to communicate strong feelings. This is especially tricky, especially because the need to communicate the seriousness of the issue is very real. On the other hand, one thing I have noticed over and over is that when I have been in situations where either there is no obvious opportunity to witness for Christ, or when I have been witnessing for Christ and unbelievers are deciding for themselves if my faith is credible, if I can refrain from swearing at all, they really notice that. This surprised me at first, but the fact that people do notice has happened often enough now, that I take it very seriously. A little thing like choice of language can strongly bolster our testimony to a watching world...
Ephesians 5:1-2
It seems to me that being imitators of God and living a life of love in an unlovely and unloving world is a very real sacrifice to the Lord. The impact love makes will surely last longer than just about anything else we could possibly do, since it is through love, honesty and kindness we witness to the lost...
Then there is the opposite of love...
Ephesians 5:3-7
It has always interested me that Paul grouped greed in with sexual immorality and course joking. It is also hard not to notice that a Church which takes such a strong stance against abortion also takes such a weak stance against sex out of wedlock and adultery... Less than 50 years ago, should a Pastor get a divorce, his career in the church environment was over. Now divorces among pastors are a common feature of the church scene... In fact, among certain types immoral women, interfering with someone else's marriage is an accepted means of finding a "good" or "better" husband! And among high school college age youth, sex is considered a rite of passage of some sort... "Did God really say..." Well, yes, in fact He did.
"Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them."
Does this mean that if someone has already made the mistakes there is no hope? Of course not, but it is also very true that because things have already gotten so far out of hand, God's wrath is indeed coming down on this world with terrifying speed! Someone I love calls this "Snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory"... Indeed, this is exactly what has happened as sin has wormed its ugly deceptive way into the church at large.
I once heard a man speaking on a Focus On The Family program (sorry, I don't remember his name, I heard this show several years ago), about working hard to reconcile differences in his marriage related to handling money. He spoke of his doubts in this way: "Could the God of all perfection have made one little mistake in choosing my wife for me?" That dear man asked himself that question over and over, but deep down he knew that even if God could make a mistake, that wouldn't be it. So the certainty that he had married his wife in the center of God's will became the foundation of his decision to keep trying to break through to a place of respect and understanding that kept him in his marriage until he and his wife understood each other and reconciled their differences.
So being sure enough that God really DID say, that God really DID MEAN what He said is the critical foundation to all victory in Spiritual warfare, and by extension, the only means to unite with Jesus Christ in genuine and absolute victory in all things. It matters that much. Therefore, if we are to hope to put on the armor of God and use the Sword Of The Spirit which is the Word Of God, (Ephesians 6:17), we must insist that His Word is true no matter what else seems real.
Ephesians 6:16-18
Lord Jesus, I thank You for the privilege of writing this series. I thank You for all You have taught me and for all You have given me. I thank You for your inestimably precious Holy Spirit which has so consistently backed You in all You said and all You do. I pray for this series and especially for Your Holy Word, to reach the hearts of many and to spark a deep and widespread revival in and beyond Your Church as we anticipate the stunning miracle of Your Triumphant Return.
On this Christmas Eve, I pray for Peace on Earth and goodwill towards all men, in You, through You and To You alone Jesus Christ. Amen and Amen
Link to Sojourner414's article on the Armor of God:
christiancommunityforum.com
-Sojourner414)
Ephesians 6:10
The word "finally" can only mean that something must be done before you can "finally" proceed. What we are proceeding to do according to the instructions in Ephesians 6 is
Ephesians 6:11
So before we go reaching for armor and try taking stands, there is some training and preparation in order. If there were no need for training, there would be no need for the inclusion of the qualifier "finally", so therefore, the whole Book of Ephesians works together to prepare us to take up the Armor of God and take our stand against satan.
This isn't just casual assumption based on guesswork. I had more trouble with the devil and his harassment between 2004 and 2008 or 2009 than I care to remember. I tried all sorts of things, including quoting Scripture, expecting the demons to be impressed (that usually didn't work), declaring the battle won based on my assumptions of what Revelation 12 should mean (that failed utterly), anointing oil (might actually have helped a little, but I suspect God was feeling sorry for me by then) and begging every church I could think of (that got me nowhere, so I called churches in 5 states, which garnered me one sympathetic ear and a bottle of anointing oil at an affordable price). I tried Bob Larson ministries which garnered me a few phone calls with a rather odd amateur sort of Larson trainee who lived a couple of hours away and I never did meet in person. And I did a LOT of praying, learning a dependence on the Lord that only comes when you've tried everything and have no other choice. Some Day in Heaven, He and I will tell the whole story too...
So I did finally learn some things. I learned a lot about the devil and how he does and does not operate. I learned a bit about being careful to not attribute more direct action to the devil than is explainable any other way. Most of the problem with sins that are hard to shake have to do with damage already done to a person by something the devil did during our individual life, leaving us to firmly believe things that aren't true. And I learned the devil is not powerful, what he is is influential. So he can't make your car float in thin air, but he does tell lies that can seem true and he does come up with really bad ideas that sound good until you see where its all leading.
This is why the Word of God is so important. Talking too much about the Bible and trying to live strictly by the Bible sounds religious until you actually try it in practice. When you live by the Word, our Great Shepherd will lead us, through His Word, to a way of life that is victorious, healthy and life giving. So let us then proceed to examine why the whole Book of Ephesians tells what we need to do to win at Spiritual Warfare and why.
In his opening remarks as he wrote this important letter to the Church in Ephesus, Paul first establishes the nature of our relationship with the Lord. Paul speaks of the depth and richness of God's love for us, expressed through Jesus Christ. This is important, because it establishes what it means to Jesus Christ to be involved in our lives and our circumstances in spite of the fact that we have willfully sinned against Him. This was extremely important to me, because I was frankly amazed at how much trouble Jesus Christ was putting Himself through to fight for me. It had been very clear from early on that He was indeed fighting for me, and I was really awed by that. So Paul is careful to establish faith rooted in the fact that however small we might be in our own eyes, God values us deeply and takes us seriously.
Just in case that might go to our heads, though, Paul follows this magnificent encouragement with Chapter 2 which says things like:
Ephesians 2:1-3
Now that Paul has brought us down a notch or two, he goes on to establish the difference between religion, using the Jewish Old Testament law for his well understood example, and spirituality rooted in Jesus Christ, establishing His position on the struggle:
Ephesians 2:13-18
This important groundwork sets the stage for dependence on Christ alone as well as a confidence that it is really God we are going to be approaching here, not some powerless myth or something.
In the third section of his letter, Paul explains what this is all about. The fact that Jesus Christ was opening the gates of God's sheepfold to the Gentiles was a great offense to the religiously correct Jews. Paul, then, made it a point that being religiously correct was not going to be effective in reaching the truth about God:
Ephesians 3:4-6
That's really important, because when confronted with spiritual trouble, the first impulse is to get religious as possible. Another question would be to wonder why a clear victory can seem elusive at best and impossible at worst. Paul had undoubtedly had to ask these kind of questions in his career, and he shared the answers God gave him:
Ephesians 3:10-13
Paul knew all about how some folks lose heart and faith when things get really bad. Paul was an expert in hanging tight onto faith when things get really bad, so he knew exactly how to encourage the rest of us. He set a splendid example in this letter and other letters he wrote over the course of his ministry.
The next verses are of the sort that everyone loves to hear, how Jesus loves ME!!! But it is important to remember that Jesus loves everyone else He works in and through just as much... So to despise your brother or sister in Christ is to disagree with God Himself, in effect demanding of God "What were You THINKING when You saved THAT person"... In making that mistake, the Christian has just entered a state of foundational disagreement with God, a mistake that satan gets endless mileage out of pushing.
Ephesians 3:14-19
It seems clear enough that if we are to be filled to the measure with all the fullness of God, we must all be on the same side. An army at war with itself isn't going to be much good in defeating an outside enemy! I have found that it is possible to be victorious without the help of fellow believers, but it works better, and certainly faster when we enjoy the respect, encouragement, prayers and sound advice of our fellow Christians.
What is Spiritual Warfare, how does it work and why? The basic definition of Christian Spiritual Warfare is to take a stand against the devil and his schemes (Ephesians 6:11). The devil’s schemes are all based on some sort of deception that causes us to misunderstand God’s intent and therefore make His ministry ineffective in some way. This may mean messing up God’s plan for our own life or it may mean messing up God’s plan for the lives of people around us, either way, the devil is out to cause fear, doubt, instability and distrust. When the devil’s plans are working in his favor, people are found to be working against each other, against ourselves and ultimately against the Lord Himself ,who is a God of peace and stability. This, then is why how we act, what we do or don’t do matters so much. How we act and what we do springs from how we think, which is why satan attacks our thought life with negativity, lies and temptations (enticement). He accuses us against ourselves, against each other and against God, and believe me, he can be very persistent. Because satan is very persistent, and because as an outside observer, he is able to spot weaknesses in how we think that we ourselves are unaware of, his lies can and often do, come off as extremely credible, and very difficult to overcome as well. For this reason, it can and does take some deliberate effort to refuse to believe the lies. The key, then is found in believing Scripture as it is written.
One of the most important precepts of Scripture is forgiveness. Because forgiveness is so important to God, forgiveness is often the most difficult part of our walk with the Lord to master. I have no doubt that is a deliberate move on satan’s part, the one thing he works the hardest to destroy in our relationships, with first ourselves, second with our families and third with other people around us. It is very much in the devil’s best interest to destroy our faith in God as well, but I think one of the primary ways he gets at our faith is to mess with us directly and with how we all see and therefore treat each other.
Jesus Christ, working through the Holy Spirit combats these things through speaking the truth in love. It is not uncommon for us to have a hard time believing what the Lord says though, directly because His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways.
Isaiah 55:7-8
This is very important to pray about and understand, because as this precious Book of Ephesians unfolds, it will challenge the very ways we cope with the day-to-day challenges of life, which is the reason chapter 5 in particular is largely underestimated and dismissed…
To the best of my understanding, power is something God (rightly) reserves for Himself, and any authority we might have is tied directly to our place in His family. So when we call on the name of Jesus Christ, He answers precisely because we are His. For example, and this has happened to me many times and to my husband several times as well. We wake up in the middle of some weird bad dream and call on Jesus Christ, and the dream stops immediately, and doesn't come back. Only God has the power to stop the dream, but we have the authority to trust Him and have that trust affirmed. I think that's accurate, I hope it is. It took me a long time to even begin to understand what authority in Christ even might be. If anyone has a clearer answer, please post it! As to why the church is in so much trouble, we look for easy answers and clear victories. Sometimes what we get is anything but, and people tend to get desperate and try just about anything... Others give up entirely. The least common, yet most effective thing to do is read the Word and keep praying even if it takes years to get the issue straight. In our push-button world, though, many people won't wait for that... This is absolutely tragic, because in some cases that's exactly what we should be doing! Just because there is great power and profound answers in Jesus Christ doesn't mean the process is effortless and instant! A hard lesson, but a very important one...
As I entered the latter parts of Ephesians chapter 4, I got hung up on verses 11- 13:
These verses are extremely important, but I have never seen church leadership functioning properly, so I asked Mattfivefour for his advice. The following is quoted from his reply:
Ephesians 4:1-7
I am departing from this last point, or rather continuing to build on this, as it is so very important. I talked to Mattfivefour on the phone for a while, in order to be as certain as possible of what i am trying to communicate here, so let us depart from this point: Ephesians 4:1-7
Now to drop down to the next point Paul is working towards, we shall pick up at verses 12-13:
"To prepare" is expressed in the Greek word καταρτισμὸν (katartismon), which (special thanks to Mattfivefour) is, according to Vocabulary Of The Greek New Testament by GH Moulton and G Milligan,
to repair a thing for its full destination or use. Now this is so important, precisely because religion tells us that we have offended God, that He is very angry, and we had better toe the line OR ELSE!!! Which has the working effect of scaring many people into being too afraid of the Lord to really trust Him, and thus hiding our failures and imperfections from Him (as if that were possible), from each other (in most cases that's probably a good idea) and from ourselves. However in trying to bury these things, we actually are giving satan a place to hide in our hearts, our thoughts, our lives, and we weep in secret over agonies we know we cannot overcome, without daring trust that Jesus Christ cares more about healing whats wounded in us than He does about the sins we are committing because we are too weakened by our wounds to do any better. Before we proceed (or I get jumped here), there is a BIG DIFFERENCE between a wounded and faltering person who is seeking the Lord and an arrogant hard hearted person who is sinning deliberately indifferent to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Let those who have ears hear...
I am still very much praying over, studying and developing this discussion, again, it is so important. There is no point in worrying about what others are doing wrong if we have nothing correct to replace it.
If we don't like what we see other Christians doing, someone MUST offer them a more effective approach. Anything less is just noise!!!
Part 2
I have been putting a lot of thought and a lot of prayer into this study. Returning to this issue has brought back some memories that had begun -- at long last -- to fade...
My husband has said he has never heard anyone speak of the Lord and the sort of experiences I have had with Him quite the way I do... That, and an objective return to a series I wrote for another forum back in 2009 has brought back some memories from those days. I didn't set out to be particularly holy or anything; I just had a very serious need to know who God really is, how He thinks and why. When I first became a Christian, one thing I was completely clear on was that whoever or whatever I might have thought God really is was so badly mistaken that I would have to dump every preconception I had ever had about spirituality and start from scratch. So I did. I read my Bible with keen interest, frankly very surprised at what is actually says, particularly the New Testament. When I began learning to pray, I found myself asking the Lord all sorts of questions about how He was asking me to cope and how to actually do the things He was asking me to do which will soon be discussed as we enter chapter 5 of Ephesians... I was overwhelmed with afflictions from without and from within during those years, and more recently as well. Some days it was all I could do to face the fact that I had woken up to face yet another day... At one point I begged the Lord to just let me die, I was so miserable that I couldn't conceive hell to be any worse, so I told Jesus Christ He didn't owe me (He didn't and doesn't), and that He need not let me into His Heaven. His reply was a gentle but firm no...
In 2008 and 2009, two things became clear to me. First, the structure of local churches seemed institutional to me. Until I read the article Matt shared with me yesterday, I had thought that was just the way churches were supposed to be, and that the problem was my own perception, tainted by experiences of my rebellious youth. In fact, the typical American church is institutional, because one of the strongest reasons people go to church is to attempt to protect their kids and marriages from the poison of pop culture. I have never been able to bring myself to fault anyone for that... They do have a right to seek shelter in the Lord. The problem is they get so institutionally introverted that they shut out the unbelievers who make the outside world so threatening in the first place, thus defeating their own larger purpose...
The second thing I learned is that most Christians don't understand the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, don't think themselves or anyone else really has the Gifts, or much worse yet, do think they have the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and don't seem to understand what they are or why. Let me break that down a little. Around here, the outward expression of the Holy Spirit is largely smothered on purpose because it is just plain safer and saner if nobody tries to operate beyond the normal 5 senses. One or two churches tried to go into the higher functions of Christian Spirituality, and got into trouble. One of the pastors who got fooled by Toronto Vineyard type deceptions (they were claiming the "gold teeth blessing" among other things) is still leading a fairly large church, but more carefully and quietly. Most churches, though, just quietly operate, doing typical Baptist works of mundane service like providing school supplies and food for the poor and doing short term missions. Thus they perceive their gifting to be things like leadership, teaching and encouragement. They're not terribly mistaken either, I don't think. But there is more to the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, and I wonder if its possible for us to be more effective than we are. On no uncertain terms, there is a growing need these days as the majority of the people around us are falling fast into deeper and deeper evil as they hurl headlong towards Hell. This is serious, and for many, there are young family members in extreme danger of being caught in the dragnet...
I have thought long and deep about how I came into the experiences with Jesus Christ that I did. It wasn't exactly deliberate, but it wasn't accidental either. If you look at Ephesians chapter 5 and Colossians chapter 3, it becomes clear that the Biblical ideal is way out of step with the way just about everybody lives in the "real world". Right there is where the trouble starts, because many people decide right away that God's ways are not only impossible, but enough to put us at a severe disadvantage if we actually try to live that way. So most people don't try. What they don't understand is that when we do try, the Holy Spirit ignites into real power and starts backing us. I have lived this and I can and do testify it is true. There are a lot of former drug addicts and other people who were in deep sin when they came to repentance who are saying the same thing, and being conveniently ignored...
I have this much to say, its all I know. From the beginning of my Christian walk, I made it an important part of my life to read my Bible daily. I read every single Book at one time or another, although some Books I read over and over, (most the NT, Isaiah and Jeremiah, least some of the minor prophets), others rarely. And I spend time in quiet prayer daily, just in case the Lord wants me to do something for Him, and to pray over my own life and for people I know. Because I am ready at all times, sometimes the Lord does want me to do something for Him, and I am able to serve Him in some way. When I am serving Him, and also when I have turned to Him for answers only He can give, I have directly experienced several of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as the Lord chooses to employ them. Sometimes its there, but, other times these gifts are clearly not there. That’s OK, when it does happen, I am keenly reminded that Jesus Christ is real, is alive, and, most importantly, He has His own thoughts, His own needs, His own agenda. I find that very reassuring. I need my God to be a living Individual, not something I made up on a creative afternoon...
I went through some terrible times with trying to fit into church and not succeeding. I dealt with those emotions through candid prayer and careful guarding of my heart. The question that saved my sanity was could their sins be somehow worse than my own? I was making mistakes of my own, different mistakes to be sure, but still...
Ephesians 4:11-13 discusses the ways the Lord uses His people to get things done His way:
This really matters, because of what Paul says next:
Note that Paul isn't warning against demons here, he's warning against the way people twist things! What Paul is warning against is worldliness, or in more recognizable terms, what we would call "popular culture"...
Ephesians 4:21-24
We have two dynamics working together in Ephesians chapter 4; first, Paul states as strongly as it is possible to state something that we must depart from the futility of the sinful mindset. In other words, the way in which sin has warped our whole approach to living with ourselves and each other, that we need an absolute departure from a sinful context of thought and life and we must reconsider everything in the Holy Light of God's thinking. If we don't, we are going to keep getting into trouble. A very good working definition of futility is trying the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. If memory serves, that is also used as a definition of insanity, but honestly, I think futility is a better term here. The problem is that groups of people depend too much on "little lies", deceptions and attempts to control one another, because people tend to not trust one another's motives in most group settings. People get more motivated by their own perceived hope for a reward than they do for the greater good. In the case of Christianity, the only real winner has got to be Jesus Christ, He alone has GOT to be the one we work to see win, because ONLY JESUS CHRIST CAN BE TRUSTED WITH THE VICTORY!!!
I repeat:
Only Jesus Christ can be trusted with the victory.
If anyone or anything less is given the power, the authority, the right to rule, we are all in BIG trouble, because ONLY Jesus Christ's motives are pure.
Every time a sinner repents, Jesus Christ wins a victory. Every time His values are expressed in the way we live, we advance the Lord's agenda. If we have the guts to live the Scriptures we quote, people notice. They may repent, they may not, but one thing they do is notice. When Christians live out the Word in our actions as well as our words, we prove in practice the rightness of God's ways. To me, that is a victory for the Lord. Every time we deny satan, the flesh, whatever, we are advancing Christ's Kingdom agenda. I have great reason to believe those small victories count. These small victories back Jesus in His commands, proving that what He said to do is right to do. When we fight for that, He fights for us. I have lived this in practice, and I am very sure its right.
It is when people come to depend more on worldly thinking than they do on Scripture, that they open themselves to deception. 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 explains the dangerous problem.
There are 2 interlocking points here that cannot be emphasized enough; first, there is the fact that those who are perishing lack a desire to receive a love of truth. This is because they take pleasure in wickedness. Wickedness is an enticing deception that takes many forms. The pleasures of wickedness are tied to the lusts of the flesh, and the whole poisonous process is largely underestimated by the church at large. Warnings exist for a reason, and this is one of the most serious warnings of all: Matthew 7:13-23
Its not safe to assume that these verses only apply to false teachers, not when verse 19 says EVERY TREE. Particularly when we are so clearly in the times prophesied that there will be: Matthew 24:24
Therefore, it is a dangerous game to cling to falsehoods of any kind, or to neglect the Word in favor of anything that seems to "work better". Ephesians 4:17-18
Which leads us, then, to the foundation of our goal: Ephesians 4:22-24
True righteousness and holiness... I do believe that is where the trouble starts. There is a nearly bottomless well of opinions about what "true" means when it comes to righteousness and holiness... We do have a finite set of instructions in the Bible concerning righteousness and holiness, the trouble starts when everybody has their palpable little portion of what they think is enough for them, and its the combinations of little bits of Scripture different people put together to satisfy their opinions of what "good enough" so often lead to all the divisions in the Body Of Christ. Judges 21:25
This next portion of the precious Book of Ephesians is so important, yet so difficult, I got stuck. It is one thing to speak of these things, quite another to do it, let alone teach how and why without sounding something like "this is only impossible, so just do it!"... I have been praying ever since Oct 22, when I wrote the last installment, and faced the following verses! This is a living, real-time example of what it means in practice to wait on the Lord. I have tried to start the next part of this discussion at least 3 times; these words started to come together this morning in my morning prayers. But, first, the verses I am working from: Ephesians 4:17-27
Ephesians 4:30-32
The lessons in Ephesians chapters 4 and 5 are very difficult to express, exactly because they are very difficult to do. Most of us don't get seriously angry over little things, it is serious offenses that make these things seem impossible. For many, it is too much to even try; the pain, offense and bitterness are provoked by someone. In many cases, the provocation is very real, very serious. To even try to forgive, to let go, to somehow release the pain is beyond comprehension, because there is no way to pretend it didn't matter. Often there is no way to make it right. This problem severely complicates when the perpetrator of the harm is a family member or spouse. Yet we are strongly commanded to let it all go!! How do we do that? I remember a time when darkness was my only truth, when bitterness was my cup. My guts were full of razors in those days… I have seen this in others as well, even Christians…
Letting go of bitterness in prayer and a very deep search for the meaning of the truth expressed in Scripture was a discussion with God Himself. I didn’t do it for the people who had hurt me, I didn’t do it for myself, I did it for Jesus Christ. By removing the focus from myself and from the people who had hurt me, and by confessing that they were blind and perishing as I was without the Holy Spirit to Light my own way, I was able to do it at all. This would have been the season when I learned to shift the blame to satan, thus removing the self-interest factor… Letting go of anger and bitterness was a search for Spiritual maturity in Christ, done correctly according to Scripture.
If anyone would hope to genuinely win at spiritual warfare, this is an extremely important step. The devil gains a foothold that divides the Church and hinders faith through bitterness. The victory can be won, but only through great difficulty, as when we master the more manageable steps, because satan makes uglier bets against us and the going can and does get rough indeed. This is part of it, Paul went through it, as have a very long list of dedicated servants of the Lord ever since. However, it is exactly through these impossibly difficult times, when we get pushed so hard that we do make terrible mistakes in the heat of a moment, only to realize how badly we have sinned when we are able to cool off, that we return to the Throne Of Grace to confess and discover what “Peace that passes all understanding” can really mean. It is in rejecting sin that all this comes together. Rejecting sin doesn’t mean that we never sin, never make a mistake. Rejecting sin means that we catch ourselves, and discover what is wrong with the sin and why. When we do sin, we sin not just against God, but against each other. This is why loving one another is so important. What good does it do if we have the legalistically perfect walk in our own perception, only to pierce people around us with bitterness? When one Christian pierces another, we are still giving the devil a foothold in SOMEONE ELSE!!! This is one reason so many people raised in church are now atheists.
Did God really say... (Genesis 3:1)
What if He did. How does that impact the world around us?
How does that impact our walk with Him, our service to Him...
How does the perception that God meant what He said change things?
Ephesians 4:17-18 outlines in just a few words the source of every problem, every grief suffered on Earth due to the harmfulness of sin:
"Futility of thinking, darkened in understanding, separated from the life of God, hardening of hearts"; the whole problem of sin in a nutshell. Then the Words of hope, real, tangible hope, in reach, available to all:
Ephesians 4:22-24
So Holiness isn't a style of music. Holiness isn't a posture we adopt by positioning our bodies. Holiness isn't the correct combination of decorating our churches or our homes. Holiness isn't just the right fabric in our garments.
Holiness is an attitude of our minds, our thinking, our actions. Holiness is a search for the mind of God, not in theory, but in practice. Holiness is a search for deception in the way we think and act.
Ephesians 4:25-32
Speak truthfully. We depend on God to tell us the truth, so how much more must God depend on us to do the same! How can we claim to represent the God of all truth if we are not willing to be honest with others regardless of how we think the truth may make us appear to others!
"In your anger do not sin..." A cautionary warning. The devil instigates others, especially unbelievers and even more especially compromised Christians to provoke us to anger in an effort to compromise God's people to sin, thereby undermining the credibility of God's Church. So anything that provokes our temper should be a warning to be careful of where our thought process is headed when we are irritated or enraged, and to be very careful how we respond.
"He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands"
Some of the most arrogant people I have ever encountered are people who delegate almost all the work to be done at a job to others while they themselves sit proudly on their laurels congratulating themselves on their power. So those who have risen to high places in their personal endeavors and have it in their power to delegate tasks to others should be especially watchful of the temptations they are afflicted with... Authority is a stewardship, not an entitlement.
"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths"
This is one of the most overlooked commands in Scripture! James gave such a strong warning:
James 3:5
The things we are heard saying and not heard saying have a huge impact on the world around us! There are so many ways we can either heal or harm by the things we say! Gossip, for example, can be so exciting! This is a huge warning, because satan loves to provoke our emotions, and that evil provocation can and does feel extremely good! Beware the tingling enticement of such sin!! Many, many people fall for that, then are left to delve even deeper into sin in an effort to cover their guilt when the damage shows in shattered lives!!
Swearing often seems necessary to communicate strong feelings. This is especially tricky, especially because the need to communicate the seriousness of the issue is very real. On the other hand, one thing I have noticed over and over is that when I have been in situations where either there is no obvious opportunity to witness for Christ, or when I have been witnessing for Christ and unbelievers are deciding for themselves if my faith is credible, if I can refrain from swearing at all, they really notice that. This surprised me at first, but the fact that people do notice has happened often enough now, that I take it very seriously. A little thing like choice of language can strongly bolster our testimony to a watching world...
Ephesians 5:1-2
It seems to me that being imitators of God and living a life of love in an unlovely and unloving world is a very real sacrifice to the Lord. The impact love makes will surely last longer than just about anything else we could possibly do, since it is through love, honesty and kindness we witness to the lost...
Then there is the opposite of love...
Ephesians 5:3-7
It has always interested me that Paul grouped greed in with sexual immorality and course joking. It is also hard not to notice that a Church which takes such a strong stance against abortion also takes such a weak stance against sex out of wedlock and adultery... Less than 50 years ago, should a Pastor get a divorce, his career in the church environment was over. Now divorces among pastors are a common feature of the church scene... In fact, among certain types immoral women, interfering with someone else's marriage is an accepted means of finding a "good" or "better" husband! And among high school college age youth, sex is considered a rite of passage of some sort... "Did God really say..." Well, yes, in fact He did.
"Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them."
Does this mean that if someone has already made the mistakes there is no hope? Of course not, but it is also very true that because things have already gotten so far out of hand, God's wrath is indeed coming down on this world with terrifying speed! Someone I love calls this "Snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory"... Indeed, this is exactly what has happened as sin has wormed its ugly deceptive way into the church at large.
I once heard a man speaking on a Focus On The Family program (sorry, I don't remember his name, I heard this show several years ago), about working hard to reconcile differences in his marriage related to handling money. He spoke of his doubts in this way: "Could the God of all perfection have made one little mistake in choosing my wife for me?" That dear man asked himself that question over and over, but deep down he knew that even if God could make a mistake, that wouldn't be it. So the certainty that he had married his wife in the center of God's will became the foundation of his decision to keep trying to break through to a place of respect and understanding that kept him in his marriage until he and his wife understood each other and reconciled their differences.
So being sure enough that God really DID say, that God really DID MEAN what He said is the critical foundation to all victory in Spiritual warfare, and by extension, the only means to unite with Jesus Christ in genuine and absolute victory in all things. It matters that much. Therefore, if we are to hope to put on the armor of God and use the Sword Of The Spirit which is the Word Of God, (Ephesians 6:17), we must insist that His Word is true no matter what else seems real.
Ephesians 6:16-18
Lord Jesus, I thank You for the privilege of writing this series. I thank You for all You have taught me and for all You have given me. I thank You for your inestimably precious Holy Spirit which has so consistently backed You in all You said and all You do. I pray for this series and especially for Your Holy Word, to reach the hearts of many and to spark a deep and widespread revival in and beyond Your Church as we anticipate the stunning miracle of Your Triumphant Return.
On this Christmas Eve, I pray for Peace on Earth and goodwill towards all men, in You, through You and To You alone Jesus Christ. Amen and Amen
Link to Sojourner414's article on the Armor of God:
Guide to the Armor of the Believer (The Armor of God)
Guide to the Armor of the Believer By David Jeremiah In spiritual warfare, the battlefield lies in the human heart and mind. We struggle to distinguish Satan’s lies from the truth revealed in and through Jesus Christ (John 8:44; 14:6). Scripture says we overcome in that struggle—we defeat...
christiancommunityforum.com
Much of what you wrote mirrors my own experiences, and it's good to know that others have gone through what I have in some measure. Some very good advice here!
