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“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:57 NKJV)
Some believers today are experiencing failure, frustration, defeat, and death in spiritual warfare despite their prolonged fasting and violent prayers simply because they are ignorant of fundamental truths about spiritual warfare.
In the first part of this piece, we began to examine some fundamental truths about spiritual warfare that every believer must know, believe, and apply to appropriate, enforce, enjoy, manifest, or demonstrate the absolute victory Christ has already won for them over all the powers of evil.
Let us recap the truths we have considered so far.
First, the Believers are not fighting Physical Warfare.
You are not engaged in a physical battle with your enemies but a spiritual battle. Satan will always seek to deceive or lure you into picking up or taking on a physical fight, thus breaking your focus or concentration in spiritual warfare.
Paul clearly states, “For, though we are still living in the world, it is no worldly warfare that we are waging.” (2 Cor. 10:3 WNT).
Second, the Believers’ Weapons of our Warfare are not Physical or Carnal.
You don’t need any physical, fleshly, earthly, or worldly armor or weapons of warfare to appropriate, enforce, experience, or demonstrate the absolute victory you already have in and through Christ.
Paul testifies, “The weapons for our warfare are not earthly, but, under God, are powerful enough to pull down strongholds.” (2 Cor. 10:4 TCNT).
Third, the Believers are not in Warfare against their Fellow Human Beings:
The believers are not fighting, wrestling, or contending against flesh and blood (humans) but Satan and his demons.
Paul writes, “For ours is no struggle against enemies of flesh and blood, but against all the various Powers of Evil that hold sway in the Darkness around us, against the Spirits of Wickedness on high.” (Ephesians. 6:12 TCNT).
Fourth, the Battleground is the Believer’s Mind.
When you allow Satan to gain a foothold in your mind, he will eventually build strongholds, imaginations, or arguments contrary to the truths of God’s Word, thereby making your experience in spiritual warfare a failure, frustration, defeat, or death.
Paul warns, “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” (Rom. 8:6 NKJV).
Let us now consider more basic truths vital for appropriating, enforcing, manifesting, or demonstrating the victory you already have in and through Christ Jesus.
Fifth, Spiritual Warfare is primarily a War of Words.
Spiritual warfare is essentially a war of words! Death and life are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs. 18:21). Therefore, how you use your tongue determines your experience in spiritual warfare.
When you rightly and constantly use your tongue to affirm, confess, declare, or proclaim your victory in Christ, you will always see, experience, and enjoy victory in spiritual warfare (Mark 11:23).
Satan will always seek to manipulate you or the people around you to use their tongues to speak forth and release defeat, failure, poverty, sickness, or death into your life, family, finances, career, or business.
When you keep your mouth shut when Satan, through his agents using false dreams, visions, or prophecies, is speaking or pouring death into your life, you have already conceded defeat in spiritual warfare (Isa. 14:12-17, Psa. 2:1-7).
The Scripture admonishes you to judge, condemn, or confute every evil tongue that rises against you in judgment.
Isaiah 54:17 – NKJV
17 No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their righteousness is from Me,” Says the LORD.
That is the only way the enemy’s weapons against you will not prosper!
The armies of Israel led by Saul cringed before Goliath for forty days and nights because they shut their mouths when Goliath defied them with his words (1 Sam. 17:8-10). When David came on the stage and boldly replied to Goliath, the situation changed, condemning his tongue.
Goliath told David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!” (1 Sam. 17:44 NKJV).
David promptly condemned Goliath’s tongue, saying, “This day, the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.” (1 Sam. 17:46 NKJV).
That is how to resist or confront your enemy and thus enforce and demonstrate your victory in Christ! Your mouth is crucial in appropriating, experiencing, or demonstrating your victory in spiritual warfare.
When the enemy is speaking death into your life, if you don’t resist, confute, or condemn his tongue, you will come under the negative influence of the evil words the enemy has spoken (Rev. 16-13-14).
Your mouth is the launching pad for all the weapons of warfare the Lord Jesus Christ has given you to appropriate, enforce, demonstrate, or defend the victory He has already won and delivered to you (Luke 21:15).
The Scripture says of Jesus in the book of Revelation, “Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that He should strike the nations with it. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” (Rev. 19:15 NKJV).
The same is true of you!
When you speak God’s Word in faith, you wield or release the Sword of the Spirit against your enemy (Ephesians. 6:17)! You are not using any of your spiritual weapons of warfare effectively until you learn to open your mouth promptly to reject and condemn every evil tongue and word against you.
Sixth, the Believers already have victory in and through Christ Jesus:
The believers are not in spiritual warfare to fight, wrestle, or contend against Satan for victory. Sadly, some believers today who claim to be fighting in spiritual warfare strive to gain or obtain victory over Satan and his cohorts through their efforts. That mindset is the primary cause of their constant fear and defeat in spiritual battles.
The believers are not called and equipped by God to fight in spiritual warfare to victory over Satan and his cohorts and works. This is a pivotal truth! The Scripture teaches that the believers have already won and gained a complete victory over Satan and his demons through the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross.
1 Corinthians 15:57 – NKJV
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
This victory is not a partial, incomplete, gradual, or ongoing victory but an absolute, final, complete, perfect, and permanent victory (Heb. 2:14-15, Col. 2:15).
The devil will always seek to trick, confuse, or deceive you into seeking to fight to have or gain victory, thereby robbing you of the victory you already have in and through Jesus Christ. But you must always stand firm in the victory and fight in the victory that Jesus Christ has won for you (Gal. 5:1).
If it is true that Christ, through His death on the cross, has defeated and destroyed Satan and all his works once and for all, why then do believers still need to contend or wrestle with Satan in spiritual warfare?
To appropriate, enjoy, enforce, manifest, or demonstrate the victory that Christ has won for them over Satan and all his cohorts and works!
To demonstrate the preeminence of Christ over all things!
Seventh, there is no Truce or Respite in Spiritual Warfare.
Satan is an unrepentant or sworn enemy of God and His children. He will never stop seeking to control, exploit, deceive, or manipulate you and steal the blessings you already have in Christ.
Therefore, don’t seek to negotiate with, appease, or pacify Satan. Satan vehemently hates you and will never change his mind or disposition towards you (Rev. 12:12, 17, John 10:10).
Beloved, there is no truce, respite, or ceasefire in spiritual warfare. Therefore, you must always be watchful and prayerful, putting on the whole armor of God so that you may be able to resist Satan and stand against all his wiles.
Don’t take off your armor of warfare or lay down your spiritual weapons until the end, when you receive your crown of righteousness as an overcomer (2 Tim. 4:7-8, Rev. 21:7).
Heed Peter’s warning.
1 Peter 5:8-9 – NKJV
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.
Prayer:
I refuse to fight in spiritual warfare for victory but in victory to appropriate, enforce, enjoy, and demonstrate to the world the victory that my Lord Jesus Christ has already won for me through His death and resurrection, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Our mandate is to Preserving the faith of the Apostolic Generation.
Eniyekpemi Fidelis Oyinpreyebi.
AWH, Blogs.
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