Seven principles of spiritual warfare. I really believe that this world view
of warfare will help you to understand why there's evil, suffering, and really protect
you from blaming God. For a lot of people, what they do is they blame God for everything. Like
even today, I went to get a haircut and my barber was asking me a question, that his friend you know
had a very unfortunate thing that happened to the baby, and then you know they said, "Why would God
allow that?" And you know, because of that, people don't go to church, they don't trust in God.
And I think at the root of it lies a world view that people have adopted, that is not consistent
with what is happening in our world. Let me explain it. Theologian, and doctor and a Pastor
Greg Boyd, which I would highly recommend you to check out his book called God at War.
He says the following: "Most negative things that happen in this world are not for any particular
divine reason." A drunk driver kills a little girl not because God had a reason behind it,
but because this person exercised his free will. May have been motivated by demons,
he and his drunkenness takes an innocent life. Yet based on current theology, God gets to blame.
Satan is on God's leash and satan is under God's control, betray a subtle hint of believing that
the actions of the devil and demons are all meant for some divine purposes that are God
pre-ordained. There is two main world views and Greg Boyd explores that in his books and
in his teachings, which I would again, highly recommend you to check it out. So I'm gonna
borrow that vocabulary or that terminology from him. It's the world view of blueprint and warfare,
and I really believe this will help you. Some of you will need to send this video to some
of your friends who don't kind of, who constantly blame God for all the evil. This will help you to
understand the evil in the world, and also give you the proper tools to deal with the things in
this world. The blueprint worldview really says, that everything that is happening is a result of
divine decree. Sickness, death, tragedy, poverty are all part of God's blueprint. God is good but
He wills evil for some mysterious purpose, and we're simply passive spectators that offer prayers
of resignation, "If it's your will." That's the blueprint. A lot of people subscribe to that.
There's a warfare worldview, and this worldview says that we are in a cosmic conflict between
evil and good. Satan's will and God's will. God doesn't will evil, He is at war with evil. Evil
is the evidence of satan's activity rather than God's mysterious will. We are active participants
and we offer prayers of revolt, "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Now here
are a few things you need to keep in mind, in fact seven principles you need to keep in mind
to help kind of establish this. Number one. Life is a war, not vacation. 2 Timothy 2:3-4 it says:
So we are not right now on a disney vacation. We are like in the World War 2 Normandy beach.
And in the disney vacation, you would complain if something bad happened to you.
In World War Normandy beach, you would be grateful if anything good happened to you,
why? Because the mindset, the place that you are in determines your mood and so if you go
to World War 2 scene, with a disney mindset, you will be disappointed from the beginning.
And that's where we're at right now. We are at war between good and evil.
We are not on the vacation. The second truth of spiritual warfare is that the church is an army,
not an audience. When Jesus talked about this church in Matthew 16:18, He says:
I want you to notice, from the get-go Jesus is saying the church is built on the revelation,
on the confession that Jesus is the Messiah, and the church is at war. The church is an army. The
church is not a cruise ship, the church is not an audience. It's, it's not a babysitting club. It's
an army. So that means that you can't think about this world through the lens of a cruise ship. We
are a warship as a church and every Christian is a soldier. The third principle of spiritual
warfare is I mentioned, you are a soldier not a survivor. You are a victor. You are not a victim.
Ephesians 6:12, Paul tells Christians, "We don't wrestle against flesh and blood." Think about it,
the vocabulary. This is not a vacation. This is not laying on the beach. This is not a disney
walk in disney world, you know enjoying just the fun and games. Wrestling, flesh and blood. He
says we don't fight that. We're fighting something heavier, bigger. We are at war. You are a soldier.
You're not a slave, you're not a casualty, you are a soldier. If you refuse to be a soldier,
you will be a casualty of war. If you don't get freedom today,
you'll be a slave. You're either a slave of sin or you are a soldier of the Savior Jesus Christ.
That tells us my friend, that evil in this world is the casualty of war,
of what's happening in the spiritual world. The struggle that we see today, even nature.
The storms, the floodings, all of these things they're not God's perfect plan. It's part of a war
that's been unleashed on this world because men have given into sin and given the devil
a free reign. And this evil, it's not a force it's a personality that has a will
against the will of God. And God is at war against this evil and God has foot soldiers, you and I.
When somebody one time asked me, "Why doesn't God stop evil?" I ask him, "Why don't you stop evil?"
Jesus stopped the storm. Jesus stopped sicknesses. Jesus cast out demons. Jesus raised the dead.
Jesus fought poverty by multiplying bread, and you know what else? He said, "You will do
greater works." So the question today is not just with God, the question is that we are soldiers,
we have to push the gates of hell. We have to push hell out. We have to fight. Not just give in and
yield and flee the battle. The fourth principle of spiritual warfare is we don't fight for victory,
we fight from victory. During World War 2 there was this turning point in World War 2,
when the allied forces began to win their fight against the Axis powers and this was
called the D-Day. The invasion that caused the D-Day to be successful was code name Overlord.
From that point on the World War 2 was already winning. It already it was won on D-Day, but the
war didn't end until the V-Day. The victory day. It happened a year later. Two thousand years ago
was the D-Day. It was the day where Jesus defeated the forces of darkness. Their power was broken,
but the war still continues because now we don't fight for victory, Jesus has done that.
We fight from victory. There will be a day this war will stop and Jesus will put under subjection
all the forces of darkness. And they will be locked in prison of hell and they will no longer
be causing this chaos. But today we are on the side of winning. Hebrews 2:8 it says, "'You have
put all things in subjection under his feet.' For in that He put all in subjection under him,
He left nothing that is not put under him." And we're like, "Amen, that's what happened on the
cross." But then it doesn't finish there. It says, "But now we do not yet see all things put under
him." So it's that already and not yet, conflict that is happening. Jesus has won the victory.
The D-Day has happened. But now we're marching toward the V-Day, where Jesus will finally remove
every evil from this world. But we can walk under the power of the Holy Spirit,
love our neighbor, help the poor, heal the sick. We can also cast out demons. We can also
speak to the mountain. Yes that power is given to Christians, we can do that. And thus subduing and
minimizing the effect of that evil, restraining that evil in our day and age. Preaching the
Gospel, seeing people come to Christ, weakening the power of principalities over our regions
and our territories. The fifth principle of spiritual warfare is we have to pray prayers
of revolt, not prayers of resignation. Every Christian prays, but a lot of us pray prayers of
doubt. We're not sure if God wants to heal, God wants to deliver. We talk to God when we're
faced with a demon, when we actually have to be speaking to the demon and commanding the demon.
We're talking to God, when we actually have to be rebuking the devil. We're given authority.
Not to complain to God on how big the problem is but to speak to the problem on how big our
God is. That is a different type of prayer. It's a prayer of boldness. It's a prayer of revolt.
It's a prayer of fighting instead of a prayer of resignation, I'm not sure, prayer of victim,
prayer of a slave, prayer of a survivor. Jesus says to pray like this in Matthew 6:10,
"Your kingdom come. You will be done on earth as it is in heaven." So that carries an assumption,
the kingdom has not come yet. God's will is not being done yet. So church, Christians,
it's time to rise up. Take the battle to the battlefield and win battles for Jesus. The sixth
principle of spiritual warfare. Don't get angry at God when something bad happens, attack the enemy.
You will either get bitter at God or you will battle the enemy. You will either take revenge
against the enemy or you will develop resentment against God. You know when bad things happen
to Samson, you know Samson is not my favorite character in the Bible. He's actually my favorite
bad example in the Bible. But when Samson had bad things happen to him, it's interesting that Samson
would take revenge on the Philistines. He wouldn't take revenge on his wife, his best friend who
married his wife, or his father-in-law who gave his wife to his best friend. He took revenge on
the Philistines and then you know, when they took his eyes out and they shaved him bald, he again
prayed to get revenge on the Philistines. So he always had this thing, a battle with the enemy.
It's like this. If you're in the battlefield and your comrade, your friend gets shot, you
don't take revenge on your commander. You don't go and shoot your commander and you spill your anger
against him. No, you take revenge on your enemy. You realize the enemy has done it, your commander
is not responsible. I'm not in any ways to say that we have to go heal the sick, cast out demons
because we're vengeful and we're angry against the devil. That's not the fruit of the Spirit but what
I'm saying is that if you're going to get angry, get angry at the devil. If you're going to get
bitter, get bitter at the devil. Don't get bitter at God, get bitterr at evil. Get angry with evil.
Everybody should be angry at evil. When you see how the babies are being killed in the womb,
like that should make you angry. Anger is a good thing, if it's against a wrong thing
and if it's channeled properly. God, He gets angry but God doesn't commit sin and the Bible says,
"Be angry but don't commit sin." So if you're going to get angry at something, get angry at evil
and put your work. Meaning go and fight that evil by being good, loving people, healing the sick,
casting out devils, preaching the Gospel and doing good to those that are poor. The seventh
and final principle of spiritual warfare is most of your battles will not be fought in life
but they will be fought in your mind. Most of your battle will be with strongholds in your own mind,
not with demonic spirits in someone else's life. The moment somebody gets excited about spiritual
warfare they typically go on this goose chase, they go on this demon hunt. That's it. Let me,
let me see a demon, where's the demon, where's the demon. I want to deal with the demon. Relax. A lot
of times the biggest battles are not going to be with demons in somebody else's life, it's going to
be with strongholds in your own life. In fact when Paul talks about spiritual warfare to Christians,
he talks about in 2 Corinthians 10:4. He says, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal,
but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds." And then he actually talks about those strongholds
are not somewhere there, they're right here. And so that's going to be your warfare too.
We all are engaged in warfare, thankfully we are on the winning side. We are soldiers of war. We
are not casualties of this war. Through Jesus we're no longer slaves of sin, we are soldiers
of our Savior. Hallelujah. Let me know in the comment if you are a soldier, if you are a demon
slayer. Amen, amen, amen. If you enjoyed this video let me know that in the comments below.
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