Elements City Church
We need to have a biblical understanding of spiritual warfare, the reality of it, and the strength we have in Jesus to battle and stand firm in our faith. We want to navigate our challenges in life better, living from our position of victory, to better experience and express all we’ve been given in Christ. We want to recognize, resist and respond to the schemes of our Enemy.
As we dive into a series on spiritual warfare - understanding the battles we face - we invite you to pray and ask the Lord to move in your heart. To help you recognize the lies and tactics of the Enemy to detour you away from God's best in your life. To give you open eyes and an open heart to learn how to resist and stand strong in faith. Use Ephesians 6:10-19 as a great section of Scripture to pray through while we engage in this series. We invite you to memorize verse 10: "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power." Lean in with us these 3 weeks...and stand strong in God's power.
Here's some books that are good for understanding our spiritual battles:
-Victory in Spiritual Warfare, by Tony Evans
-The Strategy of Satan, by Warren Wiersbe
-Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis
-The Believers Guide to Spiritual Warfare, by Tom White
-The Invisible War, by Chip Ingram
Some Scriptures Around Evil/Spiritual Warfare:
*General about evil and Satan:
Revelations 12 / Isaiah 14:12-15 / Daniel 10 / Job 1 / Ezekiel 28:11-19 / Psalm 10 / Rev. 2 & 3
*For our living:
James 1:12-18 & 4:6-10 / Jn 17:15-19 / Ephesians 4:17-27 & Eph. 6:10-18 / 1 Peter 5:8-9 / Hebrews 2:14 / 1 John 2:1 & 3:8 & 5:19 / 1 Cor. 10:13 /
2 Cor. 4:4 & 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 / Luke 10:1-20 / Genesis 3 / 2 Thess. 1:5-10 / Acts 26:15-18 / Micah 7:7-9
Quote:
"There is no neutral ground in the universe. "Every square inch, every split second is claimed by God, and counterclaimed by Satan.” -C.S. Lewis
Ephesians 6:10-12 NIV
review:
-Recognize the battles going on
-Recognize the lies of the enemy…replace with God’s Truth
-Recognize your weaknesses, that’s where the Devil likes to strike most. Truth: We will struggle to overcome our temptations or defeat the demons that we continually FLIRT with. Accountability is a necessity for everyone. Healthy and holy boundaries are good for us as we pursue God's best.
-Recognize the power we have in and through Jesus to stand firm in faith!
We’re told biblically: we need to be ALERT & AWARE, but we never need to be afraid…
1 John 4:4 – “greater is He who is in you, than he who is in the world.”
Proverbs 15:3 NLT
Though we’re in a battle – God is not unaware, inactive or aloof.
God’s very AWARE & ACTIVE. Our Enemy will do all he can to distract and detour us away from Jesus and interrupt our relationship with Jesus. We are to RESIST HIM…
James 4:7 NLT
Resist the ‘drift’. ...nothing stays neutral; we will either walk toward God purposefully or we will drift from him unintentionally. The enemy will try to get you sideways in your followership of Jesus.
=Jesus said “follow me” – that takes intentionality and devotion. The current of culture and the conduct of the enemy will never try to deepen our connection with Christ, it will attempt to get us to drift from him.
Resist the 'labeler mindset':
Often we can buy the lie from our enemy of using this labeler on people around us. We get sucked in by shame, hurt, embarrassment, anger, pride to begin to label other people as our ‘enemy’. (see Ephesians 6:12)
=We have 1 Enemy – and it’s NOT other people!
*RESIST the urge to make others the ‘enemy’ in your life. Replace the conversations you’re winning in your mind, with prayer for God to move and bless you’re #FakeEnemy in life. Why? Because Jesus said 'pray for your enemy' (Matthew 5:44) Live a life of love to everyone, always!
Resist the extremes
...swinging to one side or another: of self-reliance and/or self-condemnation. Satan will push and pull for us to embrace one of these extremes. He will bring accusation against you to try & pull you into self-condemnation or he’ll try to push you sideways by puffing up your pride and your self-reliance.
Quote:
“Quit listening to the loudest voices and start listening to the truest voice.”
-Bob Goff
Resist the accusations from you accuser, because your Advocate (Jesus) - stands WITH you and He is FOR you. The devil knows your name, but calls you by your sin. God knows your sin, but calls you by your name.
Zechariah 3:1-9 NIV
Our enemy is our biggest accuser;
but our Savior is our Greatest Advocate.
Romans 8:34-39 NLT
NEED PRAYER? ....we've got some of our prayer team and pastors available following service to pray with you. Or you can text the word "prayer" to our phone number: #520-300-9001 to submit your prayer request or submit one via our app. We look forward to partnering with you in prayer.
Make sure to check out our app for YouVersion Bible reading plans for this summer, upcoming events info, worship playlists and more... have a blessed week friends!