Friday – February 5, 2016
Let each of us determine in our own heart, our thinking, our will, (emotion plays no role here) that we will take the Word of God today and make it a part of our thoughts, speech, and ways destroying the thoughts of the enemy which are contrary and perverted. This is Spiritual Warfare. As we prepare to dive back into our study be reminded to pray for the Church of Jesus Christ. The building pictured is the First Presbyterian Church of Bismarck, North Dakota. This Church was first formed in June 1873. (The picture is from their website)
Colossians 2:1 (TLB)
1 I wish you could know how much I have struggled in prayer for you and for the church at Laodicea, and for my many other friends who have never known me personally.
I will now return to our secondary text concerning this very important study of Spiritual Warfare. Since we began our study of Spiritual Warfare I hope you have noticed that it is about destroying the perverted ideas of Satan and presenting the superior ideas of our God which will obliterate the darkness. It is not about yelling at the sky or attacking evil entities (spirits) independent of the evil ideas. We do not do Spiritual Warfare by getting in a tranquil room with soft or loud Christian music. We do Spiritual Warfare by casting down the ideas of Satan in our minds, in our speech, in our actions, in our Church and finally in society (world) at large.
1 Peter 5:5-10 (KJV)
5 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
Let’s go ahead and pick up with verse eight today. Remember that eight is the Biblical number of new beginnings. As we submit to the Elders (spiritual and natural), defer one to another, practice humility (clothed), chose to be led of the Spirit of God, and cast our cares (distracting thoughts) onto Him allowing Him to take care of our lives (spirit, soul, and body) we are in a brand new place in Him. We were being devoured by the devil, perhaps only half way down his throat, but now we are delivered from him. We are to be watchful for the devices of the enemy and not allow ourselves to drift into a sleep in our thinking. We can have a tendency to become lazy and in that process be with people we should not be with, thinking on things we should give no place to, and even repeating things that are rebellion against God, our Father, our Redeemer. In that place we become dinner so to speak for the devil. The door is open and the devil is not bashful, he will come in immediately and he will as they say try to go from the backseat to the driver’s seat. We cannot allow even the smallest discrepancy in the Word of God, in our thinking. Remember what Jesus said about the mustard seed?
Matthew 13:31-32 (KJV)
31 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:
32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.
This Truth is not just applicable to the Word of God but to the perverted words of the enemy. When you take that thought which is at very little variance with the Truth and you sow it in your field, mind (thinking), it will grow, that is what seeds do and it will become a predominating thought but it is not the Truth. In the end it will ensnare many because others will use that thinking (the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof).
I for one choose not to be devoured so I choose to be sober and vigilant even at the cost of being labeled as a nitpicker.
By Pastor David R. Wood
