|
"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh, (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds), Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" 2 Cor. 10:3-5  If you are a member of The Lion and Lamb Ministry (LLM), and have been studying the Scriptures, and reading the articles here along with watching the videos, then you likely have a solid foundation in order to understand the biblical nature of spiritual warfare. Therefore, with this sound Biblical foundation in place, you can now build a sound knowledge base of spiritual warfare principles that are not diluted with erroneous and harmful teachings.
Always keep in mind, Satan puts out his own dis-information on how to conduct yourself in spiritual warfare against HIM! That’s right. Satan, and his realm, wants to be “fought” how he wants to be fought. This way he knows that you, as a member of the Body of Christ will lose these battles each and every time. The spiritual warfare teaching of direct confrontation with Satan is what I am speaking of.
Now, these teachings and tactics of direct confrontation have been around, really, only since the 1970’s. They constitute the new teachings on spiritual warfare, and, the doctrinal foundations they’re based on are Scriptures that have been taken WAY OUT of context. So, this ought to ring a doctrinal analysis bell to any serious Bible Student, and especially to members of LLM.
Due to their false concept of self-empowerment, these teachings advocating for direct confrontation with Satan, have spread. Children of God are taught that the Scripture tells us to directly confront Satan and his fellow fallen angels and demons. To the Corinthian-esq Child of God, this FEELS great. Since, instead of praying to our Heavenly Father to intercede for us with His all powerful strength and wisdom,, we can do it ourselves. Children of God are taught that they have the divine authority over Satan and demons. This false empowerment places the Child of God in charge over evil spirits to the extent that we directly control them ourselves, (hmm…sounds like something else). In doing so, we by-pass God and we rule over them ourselves. The only time God comes into play in these scenarios is when we use the name of Jesus to bombard the demons.
So what happens next is, that, in every matter of life that seems like a spiritual attack, there is presented an assumed call for us to directly confront the evil spirits. Instead of praying to our Heavenly Father we go after the evil spirits and directly confront them. We confront them over material and financial matters. We confront them over physical health matters. We confront them over relationship matters. We even confront them in geographic territories by waging territorial warfare. The list is endless of how we engage evil spirits directly. Some assemblies following this belief even encourage pre-emptive warfare. This is where Christians are to directly attack evil spirits before the spirits strike. This is Satanic dis-information.
However, what I want you all to notice is that this, false spiritual warfare teaching, preoccupies us with the Satanic realm. Instead of being preoccupied with Almighty God, the member of the Body of Christ’s Heavenly Father, we’re constantly looking at what the Satanic gang is up to. It even makes it hard to think of what our Heavenly Father is up to because this false teaching has us focusing on the evil spirits. Therefore, the time that could have been spent on the study of God’s Word, the Bible, and time spent in prayer, is given to “discerning” and directly attacking evil spirits.
The Holy Scriptures make it very clear that Almighty God wants us to be preoccupied with HIM! Preoccupation with evil spirits is not the calling of the Ambassador for Christ in the Ministry of Reconciliation, but “another” calling or religion that causes us to focus on a false empowerment over evil spirits.
The false teachings on spiritual warfare sound so empowering and enticing, but are they Scriptural? And, as we all know, the Bible can be used to back up nearly anything. All that’s needed is taking some scriptures way out of context and, presto, a new teaching, doctrine, or denomination.
LLMr’s be on alert! All members of the Body of Christ be on alert. These false spiritual warfare teachings, using scriptures out of context, can have disturbing consequences on your life and others, spiritually, socially, materially, and physically. These false spiritual warfare teachings are nothing less than the New Age Occult, self-empowerment teachings, infiltrating certain denominations and assemblies of Christendom.
If you have watched the LLM Series “Roman Catholicism Unveiled”, “The LORD Jesus Christ and the Kabalistic Pharisees”, or “The Last Days”, you would know that all occult teachings in both white witchcraft and black witchcraft are centered around the self-empowerment of man. They promise people power over “the” spirits, both good and bad spirits. Through learning and then the application of the exact Satanic methods, occult teachings promise self-empowerment that enables an individual to use the “spirits” (Demons) in his/her personal advancement in career, marriage, material gain, and so on. The “spirits” (Demons), are claimed to become submissive to one’s requests as a person gains occult knowledge and applies the exact Satanic methods of certain occult rituals.
For example, just look at the degrees or hierarchical levels of Freemasonry and you will see how the occult is centered on self-empowerment. Here are a few of the self-empowering, self-glorifying titles: Master Mason, Excellent Master, Secret Master, Perfect Master, Master Elect of Nine (ninth degree), Grand Master Architect, Prince of Jerusalem, Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler, (oh, that was from the Raccoon Lodge on The Honeymooners, but you get the idea). These are just some of the first 16 Masonic degrees (out of 33). Can you see how they entitle a person to be a master or lord over his/her own life as he/she graduates in the Freemasonry occult disciplines?
These false teachings on spiritual warfare border on making evil spirits to become submissive to one’s requests. It may sound innocent for any unsuspecting Child of God not schooled in these affairs, but if you connect the dots you’ll see that it has occult relations. Now, this is not to say fellow Christians caught up in the new teachings on spiritual warfare are in the occult. It’s just to say that these false teachings have occult relations on self-empowerment, giving a person power over the spirits. In Christendom select scriptures get taken way out of context and the false self-empowerment doctrine gets “Christianized”. These false spiritual warfare teachings say that direct confrontation against Satan and his fellow demons empowers us to counter their schemes.
The main Biblical basis being used for direct confrontation spiritual warfare is that Christ gave the Apostles authority over unclean spirits (demons and fallen angels), "And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease" Matthew 10:1 . Also the Holy Spirit through James tells us, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" James 4:7 . However, authority must be exercised within the contextual limits that it was granted. All given authority, whether earthly or spiritual, is limited. The only being with unlimited authority is the member of the Body of Christ’s Heavenly Father, Almighty God. His authority is not granted and cannot be sanctioned by anyone. He’s Sovereign. Therefore, God’s angels have limited authority, demons (fallen angels), including Satan, have limited authority. So, isn’t it ridiculous to believe that our given spiritual authority is unlimited? Exercising our given spiritual authority beyond its given limits is mere presumption and venturing into unauthorized territory. Once you enter into an unauthorized territory you’re at the mercy of its residents. Satan and his fellow fallen angels, and demons, have no mercy over believers entering unauthorized spiritual zones. It’ll be free lunch for them, unless God in his Sovereignty, and as a result of His Love for His own, stops them. Our given authority over evil spirits does not mean we have carte blanche to go after evil spirits wherever we wish to confront them: in people, in thin air, in geographical territories, in water, in the spirit world, or wherever.
This makes understanding the boundaries of our given authority a very important matter. Otherwise we may risk going outside of those boundaries and face regretful counter-attacks that could have been avoided. As the Holy Spirit tells us through Jude, "Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee." Jude 1:8-10 It may be difficult to understand that the scripture above also refers to sincere believers because the people mentioned are “dreamers” who pollute their own bodies (with sin) and reject authority (including in the heavenly realm). But those who “speak evil of dignities” end up falling in the same category because they “speak evil of the things that they understand not”
This sin brings destruction into the life of the Child of God because we operate outside the will of God by trying to confront these spiritual dignities ourselves. Almighty God, alone, is the one to deal directly with the spiritual forces while we, members of the Body of Christ, mind our business here on earth, living the life of an Ambassador for Christ.
Yes they are fallen angels and demons, yet we are not, in this life, entitled to rule over them in their various ranks. Even the archangel Michael, in disputing with Satan about the body of Moses, had to follow the protocols that God has set up. And we being “a little lower than the angels,” ( Hebrews 2:7 ) deceive ourselves when we assume we can do otherwise, winding up with serious consequences. The Holy Spirit through the Apostle Peter tells us, "But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption" 2 Peter 2:10-12 Satan’s territory is therefore outside our given realm of authority. Anything done outside our given realm of authority is, as the book of Jude says, considered rejection of authority. It is rejection of God’s authority on the limited spheres of influence he gave us.
Therefore, what members of the Body of Christ need to do is NEVER entertain these false spiritual warfare teachings that have their roots in the occult, and focus on the True, God-centered, Scriptural, Spiritual Warfare Tactics by studying the scriptures, praying, and allowing the Holy Spirit to educate, and train us in our role as INDIRECT warriors in God’s army. Now, pay attention, we do NOT fight evil spirits DIRECTLY but fight them INDIRECTLY by focusing on Yâ-hwéh Yâhuwshúa`, The LORD Jesus Christ, who has the power to directly confront them. God, through his angels has the power to directly confront evil spirits in all their set-up places: occult world, spirit world, strong holds, and territories.
Thus victory comes by fulfilling our expected indirect responsibilities, and not by our direct confrontation with evil spirits. Indirect confrontation is our responsibility. Direct confrontation is God’s. Our role, as members of the Body of Christ, Ambassadors for Christ, is indirect in nature. It is prayer to God seeking for his intervention, submission to God, walking in love, forgiveness, charity, etc. It is challenging enough fulfilling our clearly spelled out indirect roles. We have NO business to go after vague and unseen spirits! This is Yâ-hwéh Yâhuwshúa`, The LORD Jesus Christ's business, the Lord of hosts, clearly sees and has power over them.
This special role comprises of fulfilling our expected part in our walk with Christ. The combination of our walk with God and committing life's battles into his hands constitutes our indirect role. The LORD Jesus Christ becomes our Defender and acts on our behalf in dealing with matters confronting us and the people we commit to Him.
True Biblical Spiritual Warfare tactics is living a life of obedience, and fellowship with God in that we enable God to effectively deal with the evil working against us and against other people. It overcomes Satan’s legal and illegal grounds against us and others. This is seen in the outline of our spiritual armor given in Ephesians 6:11-18 . True Biblical Spiritual Warfare Tactics are therefore indirect confrontations against Satan. We only approach God to intervene for us against Satan on matters in our lives and the lives of others.
It’s true that Satan and his crew of fallen angels and demons are the primary enemies we wrestle against. It’s also true that Almighty God has given us, members of the Body of Christ, in the Bible, clear instructions on how to confronting these evil beings whose full time ministry is scheming to ruin our lives. Working outside these Biblical instructions only increases the satanic effect in our lives.
Nowhere in the scripture do we see the LORD Jesus or the Apostles bombarding demons in thin air and calling it spiritual warfare prayers, or deliverance prayers. When Satan sought to sift the Apostle Peter and finish him off, the LORD Jesus Christ prayed to God. Christ prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail and when he’d turned back from the attack he’d strengthen his fellow disciples.
“And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” Luke 22:31-32 . Yâ-hwéh Yâhuwshúa`, The LORD Jesus Christ, God made flesh, prayed to God, the Father, for the Apostle Peter’s deliverance. His spiritual warfare prayer or deliverance prayer was addressed TO God not AT Satan. How much more should we follow this example of indirect confrontation.
The events that followed showed the results of Christ’s prayer of “deliverance” addressed TO God, and not AT Satan. The Apostle Peter’s faith in his LORD and master, Jesus Christ, was preserved. God did his spiritual warfare part in fulfilling Jesus’ deliverance prayer by directly confronting Satan in the spirit realm.
Today, there are those that assume earth shaking breakthroughs will come after binding and loosing demonic spirits, familiar spirits, generational spirits, Jezebel spirits, territorial spirits, spirits of division, spirits of unforgiveness, and so on. Once again. This false belief only ends up taking the Child of God outside of the Body of Christ’s Biblical limits. It also ends up summoning demons to interfere with our lives because we confront them in THEIR spiritual territory where only Almighty God and His hosts have access to. We have direct access to Almighty God when confronted with evil. Just follow the Biblical instructions
The Apostle Paul received a thorn in the flesh from Satan that brought much pain and discomfort in his life, "And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure" 2 Cor. 12:7 In dealing with the demonic thorn in the flesh the Apostle Paul turned to The LORD Jesus Christ instead of confronting Satan and the ranks of principalities he identifies in Ephesians. He turned to God, not once but, three times, "For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 2 Cor. 12:8-9 If direct confrontation was Scriptural we would have seen at least one direct encounter between the Apostle Paul and demonic spirits. But he kept turning to Yâ-hwéh Yâhuwshúa`, The LORD Jesus Christ, his only source of salvation, who had the authority to directly confront these evil beings in the spirit realm. There are those who say, we have the authority to directly confront evil spirits by casting them out of people. This is true and this is one exceptional area that scripture allows us to directly confront evil spirits. However, even in this, this distinction between demon possession and demonic influence must be determined, or we will cause way more harm than good. We will tackle this in the part 3 of this series of articles.
True Biblical Spiritual Warfare Tactics…Here They Are…
The spiritual amour in the Ephesians passage is composed of Truth, Righteousness, Gospel of Peace, Faith, Salvation, and the Word of God. All these are aspects of obedience to and fellowship with God.
The Lord uses our yieldedness, and obedience to Him to overturn Satan’s legal hold over matters in our lives and the lives of those we’ve been assigned to minister to, whether spiritually, socially, materially, and physically.
The term spiritual warfare itself is not in the Bible. It’s relevance is in that it distinguishes between spiritual and physical warfare. Unfortunately Satan has used the term to deceive us that we have the right to directly fight his set-up in the heavenly realms. The lie is not new since Satan has throughout history used scripture to justify ungodly acts such as gender abuses, slavery, colonialism, persecution, and so on.
The Holy Spirit, through the Apostle Paul, in the letter to the Ephesians tells us, "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints" Ephesians 6:11-18 Notice that the entire Armor of God is a call to put on Yâ-hwéh Yâhuwshúa`, The LORD Jesus Christ! Truth, Righteousness, Peace, The Faith, Salvation, and The Word of God, and then to PRAY!
It is not meant for us to go out and start bombarding the spiritual forces of evil in the spiritual or heavenly realms. The Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul uses the metaphor of an armed Roman soldier, in showing how we can be prepared for spiritual warfare. In Paul’s day, a well-armed soldier wore a belt, breastplate, shoes, shield, helmet and carried a sword.
Satan is the god of this world. Satan is in control. Hence, as members of the Body of Christ we are foreigners here, Ambassadors for Christ, and our citizenship is in Heaven. HOWEVER, Almighty God has placed limits on Satan’s authority. If God had NOT placed limits on Satan we’d all be cooked by now. Satan would have quickly worked on his schemes to destroy God’s creation. Yâ-hwéh Yâhuwshúa`, The LORD Jesus Christ, our God is sovereign and reigns supreme, and has his final say over matters throughout all creation.
Now, pay attention, this same Almighty God has placed spiritual weapons in our spiritual hands that He says are mightier than human weapons, and mightier than Satanic warfare. We have access to spiritual buttons that can devastate the devil’s work.
Their indirect nature may look simple but as we apply them they set the stage for our mighty God to directly overcome Satan’s work against us and against all humanity.
In Part 3 of this series on True Biblical Spiritual Warfare Tactics we will concentrate on the description, explanation, and instructions, in utilizing the Spiritual Armor that we have been given
So There You Have It! For now…
Always keep in mind, Satan puts out his own dis-information on how to conduct yourself in supernatural combat against HIM! That’s right. Satan, and his realm, wants to be “fought” how he wants to be fought. This way he knows that you, as a member of the Body of Christ will lose these battles each and every time. The supernatural combat teaching of direct confrontation with Satan is the dis-information I am speaking of.
|
Thank you so much for your comment, Pastor Dav...
Have a beautiful day in our LORD! 
, 21:58 - 
, 15:44 - 
, 12:28 -