Intro to Spiritual Warfare
We're so glad that our IGNITE services have started up once again for this new season. Along with a new series on Spiritual Warfare, HOME is excited to share about a new way to get involved with the verse of the week (a.k.a. VOW)! Each week, the IGNITE speaker will choose a verse to focus on for the week. Throughout the week, we invite you to join with us praying through that verse. Check out our website for the schedule of VOW groups meeting throughout the week!
At this week's IGNITE, Lyle Schut introduced our new series on spiritual warfare, highlighting our VOW, 2 Corinthians 10:5,
"We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."
Four things to remember as we begin this series:
1) When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, receiving the Holy Spirit, we are put in a battle. (Ephesians 6:12)
2) We are on the winning team. Jesus has already defeated the enemy. The Holy Spirit in us is far greater than any power in the world. (1 John 4:4)
3) We have been given authority by Jesus Christ. (Matthew 28, James 4:7)
4) We have weapons. We fight from victory. (Ephesians 6)
Lyle shared an example of the battle of the mind with personal experiences with fear and anxiety, triggered by lies from the enemy.
2 Corinthians 10:4-6 (ESV):
"For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete."
The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. The enemy creates strongholds with lies, and those lies gains power when we agree with them. The mind set on flesh is death.
These lies might be thoughts of fear, depression, anxiety, etc. But those are not the nature of the Father. When we read the gospels, we see the nature of the Father through Jesus.
In the gospel of Mark, we read how the disciples doubted and had fear for their provisions, just after Jesus had fed thousands from a few loaves of bread and a couple fish. Why did the disciples go into "freak-out mode" so easily? Why did their thoughts start with lack? And not with abundance? How do we change our thoughts from lack to abundance?
Lyle talked about the first step being repentance. We must change the way we think by replacing the lie with Truth.
The miracles we've witnessed in scripture and in our lives today reveal God's nature. Knowing the Father's heart and His nature destroys the lies.
Let our prayer be to know the Lord's heart and to know His nature!
In the weeks to come, we will be talking more about the Name of Jesus, the Blood of Jesus, the Word, and Praise as ways to fight.
0 comments:
Post a Comment