James

Old Testament Examples of SPIRITUAL WARFARE: PART 5a – Conduct in the Campaign & Implementing the Victory of Christ in our Lives –

Thursday, June 23, 2022 James

This is the essence of spiritual warfare, and it’s not a quick-fix solution! This is a long term enterprise that requires patience, diligence, and sensitivity to the Spirit of God, as well as a compassionate heart that yearns for the lost, the empowerment of the saints and to see God glorified above all.

We need to pray for our pastors and church leadership, for our brothers and sisters, for those who herald the gospel and God’s Word – that they may do so without compromise, without adding to or taking away from the message that God would give them through the Holy Scriptures, to deliver to the people (JER 26:2); for the lost souls that have believed any of the myriad falsehoods paraded by the enemy, that God would open their eyes and turn them from darkness to His Light (ACTS 26:18).

Old Testament Examples of SPIRITUAL WARFARE: Conduct in the Campaign & Implementing the Victory of Christ in our Lives – Part 4

Thursday, June 9, 2022 James

We worship God in Spirit and in truth and thus, rightly relate to the LORD Jesus Christ and in so doing, be of a willing heart and disposition to believe Him for all things, and be obedient to Him in all things – again, assuring our spiritual victory in this warfare we are presently engaged in. It’s appropriate to mention that in scripture to believe by faith is akin to obedience; that is to say that true faith will yield the fruit of true obedience (See JOHN 15)

O.T. Examples of SPIRITUAL WARFARE: Conduct in the Campaign & Implementing the Victory of Christ in our Lives – Part 3

Monday, May 30, 2022 James

There are many ‘Achans’ today who are taking of the accursed thing and stealing from the wealth of vain philosophies and deceits that is the Emergent Church, Word-Faith Movement, New Apostolic Reformation Movement and who are delving into the treasure troves of humanistic, progressive ideologies which promote Socialism, as well as mystical, occult beliefs and practices that have saturated not just our society at large, but our government, our schools, our courts, our businesses and yes, even our churches!

Old Testament Examples of SPIRITUAL WARFARE: Conduct in the Campaign & Implementing the Victory of Christ in our Lives – Part 2

Friday, May 13, 2022 James

In our lives, there are many means we encounter at the hand of our enemy that would keep us from God’s will; many ‘walls’ and influences that seek to corrupt us and prevent the LORD from working in us that which He purposes.

In such manner, Joshua admonished the people of Israel . . .

JOSHUA 6:17-18
And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.

The Armor of God, Conduct in the Campaign & Implementing the Victory of Christ in our Lives: OT Examples of SPIRITUAL WARFARE: PART 1 of 5

Tuesday, April 5, 2022 James

We can derive from Old Testament passages the truth of God’s faithfulness, even when Israel herself proved faithless; God would not deny His Word, particularly where the Abrahamic and Davidic Covenants were concerned.
So likewise we as Christians have every reason for the hope granted to us by a faithful and Almighty God!

We as the church can look back in hindsight and learn from their examples, both in the positive and negative sense.
Old Testament examples of warfare were primarily physical in nature with sword and shield (i.e. historical wars conducted by the armies of Israel), whereas the church is admonished to fight their campaigns with spiritual, rather than with carnal (physical) weapons (2 COR 10:3-5; EPH 6:10-18).

SPIRITUAL WARFARE: The Armor of God: ALL PRAYER and SUPPLICATION: Part – 8 of 15

Monday, March 21, 2022 James

Faith is not something we dredge up and psych ourselves up to believe enough to be heard of God; faith is a gift from God (EPH 2:8; ROM 12:3; ROM 10:7). Faith is granted by God and is the vehicle by which the believer responds to the Word of God, as demonstrated everywhere in the Bible, Old Testament and New alike.
Faith exercised will grow and become stronger (just as muscles will in our bodies). If we lack any degree of faith, know it only takes a mustard seed-size of faith to move mountains, for even a tiny faith like this, in an awesome and Almighty God as we serve can accomplish such a thing! If we have unbelief in the midst of our faith, confess this to the LORD and He will deal with it (HEB 11:6; MATT 17:20; MARK 9:24)! Note that the prayer life may be hindered by unforgiveness for others.
Righteousness is another condition for successful prayer

The ARMOR and IT’S ACCOMPANYING PARTS: Part 7 – Section 4: The Helmet of Salvation:

Monday, February 28, 2022 James

The Spirit of God represents a kind of spiritual software and an anti-virus ‘program’. I looked up the term ‘anti-virus’ and found this interesting definition:

“A software program written so that on execution (this is usually automatic on boot up) it scans the hard drive and related processors to identify, isolate, and eradicate the virus.”

Interesting words: identify, isolate and eradicate! They are fraught with all sorts of spiritual meaning and ramifications.
Scripture and conviction by the Holy Spirit in identifying the virus known as sin in our lives as believers is necessary before any sanctification can take place. Isolation of sin, by means of “being separate” from such in our hearts, that is a repudiation of sinful thoughts and tendencies is what’s required once such viral contaminates are identified. Eradication is only possible by reckoning (accounting it to be truly so) ourselves to be “dead to sin” and looking to the Cross for its availing power and letting ourselves die to sin and its preceding temptations.

The ARMOR and Its ACCOMPANYING PARTS: PART 6 – Section 3: The Sword of the Spirit:

Monday, February 21, 2022 James

ISAIAH 40:8
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

We know by matter of course that when we look out the window every morning, the sky and earth will be there to greet us; it’s been that way all of our lives. None of us have spent a sleepless night filled with anxiety that they might be gone the following day.

Yet the LORD Jesus has stated that as dependable as these are, one day, they will vanish away, but not so His words! It endures to all generations, its established in the eternal halls of heaven, and will stand forever, no matter how severely the truth may come under enemy fire (or even supposedly ‘friendly fire’?).

In our engagement against the enemy, we will be challenged to disbelieve God’s Word for he will certainly attempt to inflict doubt and a decided lack of confidence in the Word of the LORD. Yet our God is a ROCK – unchanging, unalterable, unassailable, unmoving! He is sovereign and supreme, and the authority of His Word is so paramount that God even exalts it about His Own Most Holy Name (PSALM 138:2)! In days such as these we live in now, filled with uncertainties, fears, unknowns and unanticipated perils, it’s a temptation to succumb to these pressures as we view the storms all about us, yet we always have a choice: we either believe those things within the sphere of our viewing, or believe what God has told us.

SPIRITUAL WARFARE: The Armor of God, Conduct in the Campaign & Implementing the Victory of Christ in our Lives – PART 5

Friday, February 11, 2022 James

FEET SHOD with the PREPARATION of the GOSPEL of PEACE –
EPHESIANS 6:15
And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

Whether one discusses the Gospel of the Kingdom to Israel or the Gospel of salvation to the Church, or the Gospel of GOD to those saints who will come out of great tribulation, it’s ultimately the same Gospel (to different entities) with the same central figure: our LORD Jesus Christ (also known as Y’shua ha Meschiach Nagid) and His supreme, sinless, sanctified sacrifice for the souls He created and will redeem – as many as receive Him (JOHN 1:12-13).

Here this Gospel is associated with Peace, and as Jesus Christ is our Peace, indeed, the veritable PRINCE of PEACE (ISAIAH 9:6) , we are to don these shoes prepared with the Gospel of peace, for whoever is born of God ought to walk even as He walked (1 JOHN 2:6).

EPHESIANS 2:14
For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

SPIRITUAL WARFARE: PART 4 of 15 – The Armor of God, Conduct in the Campaign & Implementing the Victory of Christ in our Lives

Saturday, January 22, 2022 James

MALACHI 2:4-7
And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts. My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.
For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.

It is worthy to note that in the above passage, the degeneration of the spiritual condition of Israel as recorded in this 2nd chapter. This is the unavoidable consequence of the abandonment of truth spiritually, intellectually, morally and actually.
See the following article by Dr. Chuck Missler: Our Quest for Truth
So we see that for the Christian warrior, complete conformity to the Truth both in word and in deed, is a conformity to the living embodiment of Truth, the LORD Jesus Christ, and to assure spiritual victory, this conformation must be realized in the life of every one seeking to engage in a successful campaign of warfare against the enemy.

ROMANS 8:29
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

ROMANS 12:2
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

SPIRITUAL WARFARE: Part 3 of 15 – The Armor of God, Conduct in the Campaign & Implementing the Victory of Christ in our Lives

Saturday, January 15, 2022 James

So we see that we have an invisible enemy, highly organized and dominating every area of this world, with abilities that go well beyond the physical dimensions we reside in, and have the intent of our total spiritual ruin or at the least, our spiritual nullification. By their sheer numbers they can incorporate a nearly flawless imitation of omniscience (all knowing) and omnipresence (all present; acting in concert with one another) and have such power and ability that would render any sinner entirely helpless and unable to resist.

For us who are the saints, should we rely upon our own understanding and senses, we would quickly and easily become despondent if we were ever exposed to the full brunt of Satan’s power utilizing all of his angelic agencies. However in the face of such adversarial opponents, we can remain steadfast in both courage and bravery, knowing that this battle is not ours, but rather, as David said to Goliath the Philistine:

1 SAMUEL 17:47
And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’S, and he will give you into our hands.

SPIRITUAL WARFARE: The Armor of God, Conduct in the Campaign & Implementing the Victory of Christ in our Lives- Part 2 of 15

Friday, January 7, 2022 James

ISAIAH 40:31
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

In the Hebrew, to “wait” in this sense comes from the word, qavah: “to bind together, (twisting, collect) to expect, wait, look, wait for, look for, gathered. The word stresses the straining of the mind in a certain direction with an expectant attitude, a forward looking with assurance.”

The picture that comes to mind for me is a child with a baseball, tossing it up in the air. He looks upward with expectation, assured that (as its done thousands of times before) the ball will come back down so he can catch it, toss it up, and catch it again. His eyes and attention are focused in a certain (upward) direction.

Likewise in our hour of need, we must wait in this manner for the LORD Who Himself shall renew our strength. Often we grow weary in prayer or in trials, and we must look to the LORD, and wait upon Him to renew our strength that we might persevere in prayer and endure the fiery trial.
Just as the child throws up that baseball, we send up our prayer for renewed strength; likewise just as that ball comes back down, we must rest assured and expectantly confident that the LORD will send down His Spirit and power, delivering to us that renewing of vigor, strength, perseverance and determination, borne not of ourselves, but of the Holy Spirit Himself!

SPIRITUAL WARFARE series: Part 1 of 15 – The Armor of God, Conduct in the Campaign & Implementing the Victory of Christ in our Lives!

Thursday, December 30, 2021 James

In today’s world, churches in error seem to be polarizing, to a large degree, between these two groups of fellowships: the one group hardly recognizes, or not at all, the existence of Satan, the kingdom of darkness, spiritual warfare and are involved in this world merely as social agencies, self-help institutions, and a platform from which to address entirely earthly, non-spiritual, political and social issues. Rick Warren is a prime example of this.

The other group seems fixated on nothing but spiritual warfare, the kingdom of darkness, and Satan; their battle strategies and objectives seem centered around “reclaiming this world/nation/city for God” which is something the LORD Jesus Christ never did, nor did any of His apostles.
The church received no such command to “reclaim” (A review of JOHN 17 where the LORD Jesus Christ prays to the Father is most revealing in this regard). They get into unbiblical practises which in themselves can lead a Christian astray from the Truth just as effectively as the Emerging Church Movement and its proponents (like Rick Warren as mentioned above); included among these would be such teachers as C. Peter Wagner and the late Derek Prince (strangely enough Wagner has been a spiritual mentor of R. Warren’s for a long time).

Those are the extreme positions (of course not all churches can be accounted for in these two groups), and as usual the Truth resides somewhere in-between; precisely that is, in an accurate appraisal of the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures.
An exhaustive treatment of this subject would be worthy of an entire book (and there are some, though not many that have been already published which prove useful; I have a list of such books at the end of this article)!

A TTUF Report: STRATEGIES as Outlined in WAR of the AGES by Dr. Gregory Reid – Part Five – from Chapter 9 to 24

Wednesday, December 1, 2021 James

It’s my express hope that by now, you the reader are captivated enough by these gems of wisdom as provided in the prior TTUF articles that document and elaborate on the strategies and battle tactics found in Dr. Greg Reid’s book WAR of the AGES; captivated enough that you want to get a copy of this book yourself because from here on out, I will only provide a brief outline of what this book contains.
This is not theoretical, but reality. The entirety of this book is presented for three reasons:

1) To give you a scriptural foundation for your education on spiritual warfare.
2) For your personal deliverance.
3) To give you practical applications and tools for effective warfare.

James

A TTUF Report: STRATEGIES as Outlined in WAR of the AGES by Dr. Gregory Reid – Part Four

Tuesday, November 30, 2021 James

A reading of Revelation combined with Daniel and Zechariah will grant a broad, encompassing understanding of the last days and certainly elements of spiritual warfare. The Dragon – drakon “a fabulous kind of serpent, fascinator”.
As early as the garden of Eden we see the serpent as a fascinator, a mesmerizer, a deceiver that deceives the whole world. At one point (if not already) he will lose access to the heaven and be cast into the Earth and have great wrath because he knows that his time is short!
Knowing his inevitable defeat, Satan will seek to ruin the Earth and its population (the idea being, if he can’t have it, NO ONE will!) – ‘a scorched Earth policy’ just as with Hitler’s defeat and his wanton destruction of his homeland.