Spiritual Warfare Pt. 2: How to Overcome
We are up against 2 MAJOR OBSTACLES in
this WAR:
1. The enemy of this world and his attacks which I talked about in the last post, Pt. 1 "Tactics of the Enemy". (If you haven't read it I suggest you go back and read it as it's really important to read this as a complete 5 part series.)
AND
2. Our own human nature that is innately negative and sinful, A.K.A. the FLESH.
In this post I'm going to focus on battling the flesh and our sinful human nature and how to OVERCOME.
Every negative emotion that we feel since the fall of man is natural, not healthy, but natural. This
includes negative thoughts and emotions of every kind, including
those directed at God, those directed at self and those directed at others. This includes anger, bitterness, hatred, un-forgiveness, depression, anxiety, fear, worry, dread, paranoia, panic, greed, selfishness, meanness, spitefulness, lack of compassion, pride, envy and many more. An
easy way to know what's negative, and NOT of God is: pay attention to how it makes you feel. If it makes you
feel BAD, it's not of God. If it makes you feel bad it's part of our inherently evil nature that brings about the pain and suffering we go through in this world. This entire world is living under the curse of sin, including nature. That's why there are natural disasters and all kinds of naturally occurring evil in the world, such as animal predators. Animals are under the curse also. It's why they get diseases and die like we do. The curse of sin is why humans have diseases and sickness of all kinds. It's why some day every single one of us will die. Yet our souls will live on. Where our soul ends up for all of eternity greatly rests on what we do in this life. It's because we're living under the curse of sin, since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. All of our pain and suffering has not been caused by God, it's been caused by man. We can't blame God. It was man's choice to eat the forbidden fruit. God had to give man the freedom to choose, because otherwise it would be going against His own nature (of pure agape love). His love allows man free will and the freedom to choose things for ourselves. We can't blame God, we can only thank God because He gave us a way to be saved from the law of sin and death. He gave up His precious Son for us, to save us from the curse of eternal separation from God. He didn't have to do this, but because of His great love and mercy He did anyway.
There is only ONE thing of God that makes us feel bad, and it's conviction by the Holy Spirit, which leads us to repentance and reconciliation with God, which is a GOOD thing. Conviction is a feeling of inner regret for a sinful action or attitude we have had. It's a good thing because it leads us to changing for the better, and it leads to eternal LIFE. Things from God lead to TRUTH and LIFE. Things that lead to sickness and death do NOT come from God.
Our natural negativity results in sickness of every kind, including: physical sickness, mental sickness, emotional sickness, and spiritual sickness. These ULTIMATELY lead to DEATH. We cannot change ourselves and our natural negative nature. We NEED God. We may stay in therapy for years, employ every type of psychotherapy, and take every psychotropic drug known to man, but these cannot change our natural negative nature. Only God can change us, and heal us of our fallen human condition.
It's the fallen condition we're in after that fateful day in the Garden of Eden when man ate the forbidden fruit, which was the knowledge of good and evil. The knowledge of good and evil is not just knowing the difference between good and evil, it's the freedom to determine and choose for ourselves what's good and what's evil. We not only have a natural tendency towards evil, we actually are innately evil and we're born that way. Evil means sinful. We may not think we're evil, but in the eyes of God we are evil because we are sinful. We have to remember to look at ourselves through the eyes of God and not of the flesh. In the eyes of God we are evil, because He looks at us from a position of perfection and holiness. We are all sinful, every single person.
People naturally do not acknowledge their need for God. God knows this. He had to come up with a plan to save us and redeem us. We need a Savior, and there was only ONE WAY. He sent His Son Jesus to be our redeemer and Savior.
Only a perfect sacrifice would do, and none more precious than the Son of God Himself, Jesus Christ.
There was no more precious or priceless sacrifice that ever could have been. Jesus was the Lamb of God, offered as a perfect sacrifice. In the Old Testament, the Hebrews had to offer sacrifices to God to atone for their sins, and one of the sacrifices was a first born male lamb without spot or blemish. In other words, it had to be perfect, with no imperfections. Jesus was the Lamb of God because he was the first born (and only) son of God, and He was perfect. He was perfect because He never sinned and was born of a virgin. He was born of the Holy Spirit in a virgin's womb, bypassing normal conception that is under the curse of sin. Jesus' cousin John the Baptist proclaimed He was the Lamb of God when he first laid eyes on Him. He knew who He was. Jesus was and is the long-awaited Messiah.
How does this apply to us today? This definitely applies to us because we can now apply the Blood of Jesus and overcome this world. We overcome this world because Jesus overcame this world, and His Spirit lives in us. Once we are born again, we receive the Holy Spirit who lives in us. We overcome this world which includes: our own sinful nature and our enemy satan, the ruler of this world. Satan is the enemy of our souls. He's very real and hell-bent on our destruction. There's no doubt about it. Don't let the devil win! When you engage in sin it's like giving up and saying, "okay satan, you win." DON'T let the devil win! Every time you engage in sin it's a small victory for the enemy. When you do sin, repent right away. Let as little time as possible pass between the time you sin and the time you fall on your knees, repent and get right with God. Be honest with God, and ask Him to help you do better. Don't allow the devil any time to gain any ground in your life. Do your best to avoid sinning, but realistically we are all going to sin at some point, so do your best to keep sin to a bare minimum. Ask God to help you not to sin and He will show you how. There's only one thing you can do when you mess up to make it better, and that is QUICKLY go to the throne of grace and ask God to forgive you. And MEAN IT. Ask God to help you do better, and MEAN IT. Repentance must be with a SINCERE heart. God knows what's in your heart, so there's no chance of fooling Him.
We defeat the enemy in 2 WAYS:
1. By the BLOOD OF THE LAMB
AND
2. By the word of our TESTIMONY.
Our testimony means sharing our faith and testifying of what God has done in our lives, and not denying Jesus as our Savior, even to the death. We must be willing to die for Jesus. If someone sticks a gun to our head and asks us to deny our faith, we have to be willing to die before we deny Jesus, our Savior.
If we're willing to die for Jesus then we should most certainly be willing to live for Him. This means dying to yourself, which means giving up our selfish plans and vain ambitions. This means being consecrated to God "wholly set apart" for His service. It means living as a servant of the Most High God, only wanting to serve Him and live for His purpose alone. This means giving up sin as much as possible, and asking for divine assistance to help us live a holy life. More than anything we must be willing to give up anything and everything for our Savior who already died for us. How can we give Jesus anything less than our entire lives when He already gave His life for us?
Jesus came to this earth in order to triumph over death. And He did! He completed His mission perfectly. He won, so that means we win also. He endured the most intense suffering any man will ever know, saving humanity once and for all. There will never be a bigger triumph than the cross. The cross is our freedom. The cross represents our eternal joy, freedom, glory, hope and peace. The cross is indeed our symbol of the blessed grace of God.
Jesus receives highest honors, above all others. Jesus is the triumphant, victorious hero of all heroes! Highest praises to our Savior, blessed redeemer! Blessed be the name of Jesus, name above all names!
It gets even better. Because of him we are not only redeemed, but can now be called CHILDREN of GOD, adopted into God's ROYAL family! This is the opportunity of a lifetime!
That means He's greater than any King that's ever been in the history of the world, and He is the Lord over all the earth. Because of Jesus, countless multitudes will now receive the priceless gift of ETERNAL LIFE spent with God. We must be saved to receive eternal life, and there's no other way than through Jesus Christ. We must be saved by faith in Jesus, and proclaim with our mouths that He alone is Lord of all.
There is only ONE thing of God that makes us feel bad, and it's conviction by the Holy Spirit, which leads us to repentance and reconciliation with God, which is a GOOD thing. Conviction is a feeling of inner regret for a sinful action or attitude we have had. It's a good thing because it leads us to changing for the better, and it leads to eternal LIFE. Things from God lead to TRUTH and LIFE. Things that lead to sickness and death do NOT come from God.
Our natural negativity results in sickness of every kind, including: physical sickness, mental sickness, emotional sickness, and spiritual sickness. These ULTIMATELY lead to DEATH. We cannot change ourselves and our natural negative nature. We NEED God. We may stay in therapy for years, employ every type of psychotherapy, and take every psychotropic drug known to man, but these cannot change our natural negative nature. Only God can change us, and heal us of our fallen human condition.
It's the fallen condition we're in after that fateful day in the Garden of Eden when man ate the forbidden fruit, which was the knowledge of good and evil. The knowledge of good and evil is not just knowing the difference between good and evil, it's the freedom to determine and choose for ourselves what's good and what's evil. We not only have a natural tendency towards evil, we actually are innately evil and we're born that way. Evil means sinful. We may not think we're evil, but in the eyes of God we are evil because we are sinful. We have to remember to look at ourselves through the eyes of God and not of the flesh. In the eyes of God we are evil, because He looks at us from a position of perfection and holiness. We are all sinful, every single person.
Romans 3:23
"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"
People naturally do not acknowledge their need for God. God knows this. He had to come up with a plan to save us and redeem us. We need a Savior, and there was only ONE WAY. He sent His Son Jesus to be our redeemer and Savior.
John 14:6
"Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
Only a perfect sacrifice would do, and none more precious than the Son of God Himself, Jesus Christ.
John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
There was no more precious or priceless sacrifice that ever could have been. Jesus was the Lamb of God, offered as a perfect sacrifice. In the Old Testament, the Hebrews had to offer sacrifices to God to atone for their sins, and one of the sacrifices was a first born male lamb without spot or blemish. In other words, it had to be perfect, with no imperfections. Jesus was the Lamb of God because he was the first born (and only) son of God, and He was perfect. He was perfect because He never sinned and was born of a virgin. He was born of the Holy Spirit in a virgin's womb, bypassing normal conception that is under the curse of sin. Jesus' cousin John the Baptist proclaimed He was the Lamb of God when he first laid eyes on Him. He knew who He was. Jesus was and is the long-awaited Messiah.
John 1:29
The Lamb of God
"The next day John (the Baptist) saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"How does this apply to us today? This definitely applies to us because we can now apply the Blood of Jesus and overcome this world. We overcome this world because Jesus overcame this world, and His Spirit lives in us. Once we are born again, we receive the Holy Spirit who lives in us. We overcome this world which includes: our own sinful nature and our enemy satan, the ruler of this world. Satan is the enemy of our souls. He's very real and hell-bent on our destruction. There's no doubt about it. Don't let the devil win! When you engage in sin it's like giving up and saying, "okay satan, you win." DON'T let the devil win! Every time you engage in sin it's a small victory for the enemy. When you do sin, repent right away. Let as little time as possible pass between the time you sin and the time you fall on your knees, repent and get right with God. Be honest with God, and ask Him to help you do better. Don't allow the devil any time to gain any ground in your life. Do your best to avoid sinning, but realistically we are all going to sin at some point, so do your best to keep sin to a bare minimum. Ask God to help you not to sin and He will show you how. There's only one thing you can do when you mess up to make it better, and that is QUICKLY go to the throne of grace and ask God to forgive you. And MEAN IT. Ask God to help you do better, and MEAN IT. Repentance must be with a SINCERE heart. God knows what's in your heart, so there's no chance of fooling Him.
We defeat the enemy in 2 WAYS:
1. By the BLOOD OF THE LAMB
AND
2. By the word of our TESTIMONY.
Revelation 12:11
"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."
Our testimony means sharing our faith and testifying of what God has done in our lives, and not denying Jesus as our Savior, even to the death. We must be willing to die for Jesus. If someone sticks a gun to our head and asks us to deny our faith, we have to be willing to die before we deny Jesus, our Savior.
Jesus said:
Matthew 10:33
"But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven."
If we're willing to die for Jesus then we should most certainly be willing to live for Him. This means dying to yourself, which means giving up our selfish plans and vain ambitions. This means being consecrated to God "wholly set apart" for His service. It means living as a servant of the Most High God, only wanting to serve Him and live for His purpose alone. This means giving up sin as much as possible, and asking for divine assistance to help us live a holy life. More than anything we must be willing to give up anything and everything for our Savior who already died for us. How can we give Jesus anything less than our entire lives when He already gave His life for us?
Romans 5:8
"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
It gets even better. Because of him we are not only redeemed, but can now be called CHILDREN of GOD, adopted into God's ROYAL family! This is the opportunity of a lifetime!
Romans 8:15
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
Highest praises to Jesus who will reign in the coming kingdom of God as King of all Kings and Lord of all Lords. One day every knee will bow before Him and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.Philippians 2:9-11
"Therefore God also has highly exalted Him (Jesus) and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
That means He's greater than any King that's ever been in the history of the world, and He is the Lord over all the earth. Because of Jesus, countless multitudes will now receive the priceless gift of ETERNAL LIFE spent with God. We must be saved to receive eternal life, and there's no other way than through Jesus Christ. We must be saved by faith in Jesus, and proclaim with our mouths that He alone is Lord of all.
Romans 10:9
"that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
We must FIGHT our natural negativity using the POWER of the BLOOD of JESUS and His Holy name. This is the same RESURRECTION POWER that DEFEATED DEATH, ROSE from the GRAVE, and now LIVES. We must live the RESURRECTION LIFE, or else
live the defeated life. The victory is there for us if we look for it and pray for it. Jesus is more than willing to help us every second of every day. He is always with us and all we have to do is ask.
If you don't know what to say just say a simple prayer like "Jesus, help me." He will answer any and every prayer. He is always ready and willing to help you. All you have to do is ask. That's what He's there for. He will never leave us or forsake us!
Pt. 3 "Deliverance:", continued in the next post. Please read the whole 5 Part Spiritual Warfare Series for maximum effectiveness. Thanks, and God bless!
If you don't know what to say just say a simple prayer like "Jesus, help me." He will answer any and every prayer. He is always ready and willing to help you. All you have to do is ask. That's what He's there for. He will never leave us or forsake us!
Hebrews 13:5
For He Himself (God) has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Pt. 3 "Deliverance:", continued in the next post. Please read the whole 5 Part Spiritual Warfare Series for maximum effectiveness. Thanks, and God bless!
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