The Way Church Podcast

00:00:00
Ephesians 6, 10, 13. A final word. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on all of God's armor so that you are be will be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil. Verse 12 says, for we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

00:00:45
Verse 13. Therefore put on every piece of God's armor so that you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will be standing firm. Romans, chapter number eight, verse 31 familiar portion of Scripture. What shall we say about these things?

00:01:15
If God is for us, who can be against us? If God is for us, who can be against us? Family, very quickly as you take your seats, tell the person next to you, heaven's got my back. Heaven's got my back.

00:01:52
There is an ancient saying that still holds weight in every form of battle, whether it is physical or emotional or spiritual. It comes from a Chinese military general named sun Tzu lived 2500 years ago. He wrote a famous book called the Art of War, a guide that is so powerful that even the US military still studies it to today. In that book, Sun Tzu teaches that if you want to win a war, you have to do three things. Number one, you have to understand your enemy, you have to.

00:02:47
Number two, understand yourself. And then thirdly, you have to understand the battlefield you're fighting on. Now, while Sun Tzu was talking about military warfare, those same principles apply to spiritual warfare. Because the truth is, family, we are all in a war, not necessarily one of bullets and bombs, but of spirits and strategies. Every believer is born again into a battlefield.

00:03:25
Although you didn't sign up for this war, that it doesn't change the reality that you're in one life. As beautiful as it is, it's a battleground. And I'm not just talking about bills and bad bosses and broken relationships. I'm talking about spiritual warfare. Somebody say spiritual warfare?

00:03:51
Family, let me start off by saying something that may disrupt your comfort, but it will will deepen your spiritual discernment. Spiritual warfare is not optional. It's inevitable. Whether you acknowledge it or not, you are in a war zone. But here, here is the good news.

00:04:11
You're not in it by yourself. And if you're going to fight a battle that you did not choose, you need to know that you have been chosen by a God who never loses. Romans chapter number eight and 31 says, what shall we say to these things, if God is for us, who can be against us? Verse 32 follows and says, he did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

00:04:52
Paul is not raising a question of curiosity. Paul is making a declaration of confidence. This is not wishful thinking. This is a warfare strategy. Spiritual warfare is not a side gig for the believer.

00:05:13
It is the backdrop of the believer's life. And let's be honest, in this sanctified church this morning, some of you have been feeling the heat, but you can't always explain the source. It's not just stress, and it's not just opposition, and it's not just life. It's war. The enemy is hoping that we stay aware and unarmed and unfocused so that he can keep getting the advantage over us.

00:05:44
What do you mean, Pastor? Because many people are focused, frustrated because they are fighting people instead of fighting principalities. And other people are fearful because they forgot who's backing them. But God sent me this morning with this word from Romans 8 and 31 to remind us of God's position for us and Ephesians 6 and 12 to remind us the enemy's position against us. Yes, spiritual warfare is real, but so is the God who wins every single battle.

00:06:22
And God told me when I was praying that too many Christians are showing up to spiritual battles with natural weapons. You're praying, but you still frustrated. You're worshiping, but you're still weary. And that's because you're struggling. Strategy is not matching the struggle that you're going through.

00:06:45
The battles that you're facing are not just emotional and relational, but they are spiritual in nature. And if you're going to win in this life, you have to settle the fact in your mind and in your mind, your heart. The fact that you have to understand that you are in a real war with a real enemy, but you also have some real authority, and that the devil doesn't have the advantage over you, that you have the greater one living on the inside of you. And greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world.

00:07:34
So today we're pulling back the curtain, taking a deeper look into the nature of this war and the authority that we have been given to win it. Spiritual warfare starts with identity and knowing who. Who's in your corner. Point number one, you gotta know who's backing you. You gotta know who's backing you.

00:08:05
If God is for us, who can be against us? Paul asks a question, but the Greek grammar of this question does not imply uncertainty, but it assumes certainty. In other words, in modern language it's more like, since God is for us, who can be against us? It's not a question, but it's a declaration. Since God is for me, who's going to be against me?

00:08:39
In other words, this isn't a maybe, it's a mindset. You're not standing by yourself, but you are surrounded by divine support. In context. Romans, chapter number eight. Paul has has been laying out all of the spiritual blessings that belong to those that are a part of Christ's kingdom.

00:08:59
And he begins to lay them out. In verse one, he says there is no condemnation for those that are in Christ. In verse 14 he says, we're not led after the flesh, but we're led after the spirit. And verse 28 he says all these things are going to work together for our good. And then he says, nothing can separate us from the love of God.

00:09:25
And this verse that we read today comes on the tail end of all of these spiritual blessings. And then he pivots. And when he pivots, he says, with all of backing you up, what in the world can stand in your way? You missed it. With all of that, God has blessed you with what is going to stand in your way.

00:09:51
In other words, now that you know what you have have, act like you're who you're with. Yeah, I know I'm gonna have to work today. Look at somebody and tell them, when heaven has your back, hell can't hold you down. Yeah, I know it looks like the devil has the advantage. I know it look like the people that you have to deal with has got the advantage.

00:10:16
But I came to let you know this morning when heaven has got your back, there is no devil in hell that can hold you down.

00:10:30
Watch it. Paul is not giving a motivational quote here. He's making a divine declaration. And what he is trying to get us to see is that God is not just present in your battle, but he is positioning your you to win the battle. God being for you means that all of his resources, all of his power, all of his wisdom, all of his favor are at work for your good.

00:11:00
Now tell me how you going to lose with all the power that God has?

00:11:07
If he gave His Son, would He not give you the strength to fight every battle that you have to fight? He didn't just spare Jesus. And if he didn't spare the best gift that he has, what makes you think that he's not going to give you the grace to get through the battles that you have to face.

00:11:32
What this means to us is that when heaven is backing you, it makes hell's threats irrelevant in your life. The problem is too many of us don't realize that heaven has our back. Testify to somebody and say, heaven's got my back. Yeah, this is not the absence of opposition. This is not the absence of trouble, but this is the irrelevance of opposition.

00:12:01
When you know God is on your side, make sure you picking up what I'm putting down. This doesn't mean you won't face trouble. It just means that trouble won't have the final say. Yeah, we gonna go through some stuff, but trouble is not gonna have the final say. Sickness not gonna have the final say.

00:12:25
Poverty's not gonna have the final say. Depression is not gonna have the final say. Who has the final say? Jehovah has the final say.

00:12:39
God being for you means he's advocating and supporting and fighting on your behalf. I love the way Psalm 27:1 says, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?

00:13:01
You may be outnumbered, but you'll never be out backed. God will always have the majority. Power and authority and wisdom and favor.

00:13:15
What some of us have to learn to do, Hear me. What some of us have to learn to do is stop rehearsing what's against you and start remembering who's with you. We become professionals and telling what's going wrong. But we become forgetful because the enemy likes to afflict us with spiritual amnesia where we don't remember what God has done in our lives. But if you can ever remember what God had done for you, when you make a list of what God has already brought you through and use that as evidence, you'll be looking back and saying, if he brought me through that, and brought me through that and brought me through that, I know he getting ready to bring me through this right here.

00:14:08
Nudge your neighbor and say, I remember. I remember. I remember. I remember what he did. I remember how he healed me.

00:14:17
I remember how he saved me. I remember. I remember how he brought me out. I remember how he made a way when there was no way. I remember when all hell came against me.

00:14:27
I remember. Somebody shout, I remember.

00:14:42
Stop fighting for your favor and start fighting from a position of favor because the favor is already yours. If Jesus did not spare his own son, he is going to give us all things. If God didn't hold back his best, if he gave Jesus, why would he withhold anything else from you? You don't have to beg for provision. He gave you his son.

00:15:15
Everything else is included. Whenever doubt starts to rise in your life, in the situations, all you have to remember is the cross was the proof that everything belongs to me. When I see Jesus on the cross, the cross was the proof. Everything else is just the promise. It's the promises that he made to me when Jesus hung, bled, died, rose up on the third day.

00:15:45
All of the promises are mine.

00:15:51
And some of us, some of us need to go back to our prayer closet and begin asking boldly, in your prayer closet based on the generosity that's already been shown on the cross of Jesus. God said, some of us aren't praying bold enough. We're praying scared prayers because we forgot who's backing us.
00:16:25
Somebody got to pray some bold prayers. Think about what will change in your prayers when you start realizing you're not begging for God to back you up, that you already have God backing you up.

00:16:41
Number two, not only do we have to know who's backing us, but then we have to know the identity of the enemy. Somebody say it out loud. Real enemy, wrong target.

00:17:00
Most of us lose battles because we're using the wrong in the wrong weapons on the wrong targets.

00:17:12
He said, we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Paul's letting the church in Ephesus know the real enemy isn't visible. It's spiritual. Here's the context. They were surrounded by Roman power structure, pagan influences, demonic practices in the temple of Aramaic, Archemus.

00:17:38
So Paul refrains the conflict that they're going through. And he tells them, listen, you're not fighting people.

00:17:50
Your beef is not with the person.

00:17:55
You're fighting with the spirit that's influencing the person. I hope y'all get this this morning.

00:18:05
So the argument with your spouse, the drama on your job, the opposition in your purpose, that petty co worker is not the enemy. The family conflict is not the fight because it's not about the flesh. It's about the forces behind the flesh. And too many believers are exhausted from fighting people. And the devil doesn't need to destroy you.

00:18:39
He just needs to distract you. What am I trying to say? When you misidentify the enemy, it will cause you to mistake, fire your weapons. So you start shooting at the person while the enemy is having a fun over in the corner because you don't realize it's the enemy that's behind what's going on. The enemy is not your co worker, it's not your cousin, it's not the comment section, but it is what is going on behind the curtain, the kingdom of darkness.

00:19:19
When we mislabel the enemy, we mismanage the battles. And we wonder, why are we not. Why are we not getting through in our prayers? Why are we not being able to see the promises that God has promised us? The enemy is not people.

00:19:38
But the sad reality is most of us are using emotional energy, fighting the wrong thing.

00:19:48
Second Corinthians, chapter number 10, verse 3, and through 5 said, Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. The war is not in the flesh. Listen to me. Discernment is your first line of defense. You cannot defeat what you keep misidentifying.

00:20:15
You keep mislabeling the enemy and misidentifying the enemy. You will misapply your energy. And where you should have energy to destroy the devil to make him under your feet, you won't have that energy because you are fighting a natural weapon with natural weapons in a spiritual battle. Is this making sense?

00:20:41
Paul says, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities. This is not a metaphor. This is the enemy's mission, that you're not just having a bad week, you're being actively opposed by the devil.

00:20:57
Bishop used to say it years ago, the devil don't like me. And guess what? The feeling is mutual. I don't like the devil either. That word wrestle.

00:21:06
Listen to this. That word wrestle implies close, intense, ongoing conflict. Anybody ever dealt with some ongoing conflict? You can't understand why you keep ending up in the same situation with the same people and the same situations coming up over and over again. It's because the enemy's goal is to use deceit, deception, and distraction, and he wants to destroy you.

00:21:35
And that's why first Peter 5 and 8 tells us to be alert and sober, because your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion. The devil is looking to disturb you. He's looking to distract you. He's looking to agitate and frustrate you.

00:21:58
Please don't miss what's being said here. You are being targeted because you are valuable.

00:22:09
And that's why spiritual warfare requires spiritual awareness.

00:22:17
You got to be aware if you go back and take inventory of. Of the areas in your life that you've been having problems. I guarantee you probably, that you've been treating spiritual warfare like emotional instability, like it's just something that just happens. It's just a bad day, and you've ignored that. It was spiritual warfare that was coming against you.

00:22:42
But what you got to do is stop watching problems and start watching patterns.

00:22:52
What are the patterns that keep coming up? Because the enemy isn't chaotic. He's strategic. Ephesians 6 and 12 tells us, he says, against principalities, against powers, against rulers of darkness, spiritual wickedness in high places. Notice the order and the structure that Paul uses.

00:23:13
This is not chaos. It's a kingdom. A kingdom of darkness. These are organized forces working overtime to disrupt your destiny and disrupt your clarity and disrupt your obedience to God. The devil doesn't mind you being saved.

00:23:35
He just doesn't want you to be strategic. He doesn't want you to be on target with what God has for you. And that's why we must recognize God said, tell them. Spiritual warfare is not weird. It's real.

00:23:52
It's not just something that happens in prayer meetings and happens in revivals. But this happens every single day of your life in your mind. It happens in your DMs, it happens in your daily deception. Listen to me. The enemy isn't always loud.

00:24:11
Sometimes he whispers with precision because he's trying to get you off track. Some people have experienced warfare. When you came in this building, the enemy start whispering in your mind. He's always fighting against rulers, authorities, powers, spiritual forces of evil. That is not disorder.

00:24:35
That is structure. It's not confusion.

00:24:42
This is a kingdom of darkness with a rank and with a file. In other words, the enemy has intel on your insecurities. The enemy is invested in your inconsistencies. And the enemy doesn't fight fair. You think your random, your attacks are random, but they're not random.

00:25:10
The enemy is targeting you. Paul says it's ranked and it's resource to dismantle your peace and your purpose and distort your identity. The enemy. Can I. Can I pop somebody's bubble in here today?
00:25:27
The enemy does not show up with horns and a pitchfork, but he shows up in systems and cycles and strongholds. You keep going through the same cycles and the same systems and the same stronghold because he does not need to destroy you all at once. All he needs to do is distract you long enough to get you off course.

00:26:00
And watch it. He uses confusion to create conflict.

00:26:09
Yeah, that's a good place to clap. That's a good place to clap.

00:26:14
The enemy studies patterns. He studies triggers. He studies tendencies.

00:26:23
Satan is not omnipresent, but he's organized.

00:26:31
But somebody shout, heaven's got my back. No, you didn't shout it. Shout it again. Heaven's got my back.

00:26:40
If you think about the conflict spirit working behind the situation.

00:27:00
Am I upset with a person? But I really should be upset with the enemy that's behind the scenes, that's trying to cause chaos and havoc in my life.

00:27:13
You have to shift your strategy from emotional reaction to a spiritual response.

00:27:24
Identify where have I been focusing on people instead of focusing on the principality that I should be warring against. Forgive the person and fight the forces behind the situation. Can I go a little bit deeper? Number three, this battle requires the right weapons.

00:27:54
Many of us feel like we're losing because we've been trying to fight a spiritual warfare with emotional weapons. Hear me, hear me. You cannot cry your way out of every fight.

00:28:13
You can't clap back your way to peace.

00:28:17
You will not be able to cancel the devil. You have to confront the devil.

00:28:26
We got Holy Ghost filled people that are running from the devil. Instead of confronting, oh, I'm not going to do this because I don't want the devil to mess with me. I don't want the devil to come. No, the devil is a liar. Paul tells Ephesians, the Ephesian church in Ephesians 6.

00:28:42
He says, Put on the whole armor of God because you cannot bring casual energy to a combat zone.

00:28:58
And too many Christians are at the playground instead of being on the battlefield. In other words, victory is not emotional, it's strategic. I know how to win the battle because I know how to put on the whole armor of God. You've got armor and access and authority. You are not just back, you are battle ready.

00:29:25
Jesus said to us, he has given us the power over all the power of the enemy. Here's the truth. You are not losing because you're weaponless. You're losing because you're underutilizing the weapons that you do have.

00:29:45
God doesn't enroll us in a battle without issuing us the right equipment. He says, I'm issuing you. Watch this. He says, I'm gonna give you the belt of truth which is going to ground your identity, the whole armor of God. He says, I'm gonna give you the breastplate of righteousness which is going to protect your heart.

00:30:04
He says, I'm gonna give you the shoes of peace, which is going to give you traction under pressure. He says, I'm gonna give you the shield of faith, which is the fiery dark extinguisher which extinguishes the fires of fear and blocks the attacks of the enemy. He says, I'm gonna give you the helmet of, of salvation which is going to renew your mind and give you mental rest for your soul. He said, I'm going to give you the sword of the spirit which is the word of God, which is going to give you offensive capabilities and not just defensive. I'm going to be on the offense because I know what God promised me and I'm going after everything that he gave me.

00:30:52
What he's teaching the church and teaching us is that God didn't leave you naked, he left you armored. And I dare you to begin every single day of your life praying your armor on you, asking God, which weapon am I neglecting to put on every single day and how is it affecting my fight? You start practicing, putting on the whole armor of God, welding the Word as your sword, using scriptures in your prayer and in your conversation, and you'll see the difference your day will make when you start using what God gave you. Say this spiritual warfare isn't one with emotion. It's one with the right equipment.

00:31:50
It's run with the right equipment. Authority means I access the equipment with permission and with power. I don't have to ask for permission to be victorious. You've already been granted the authority.

00:32:12
Colossians 2 and 15 tells us that Jesus already disarmed the enemy. Therefore you're just enforcing the win. Jesus already defeated you enemy, and I'm just enforcing the win. I'm standing on what Jesus already did.

00:32:32
Number four, and I'm done. You have to fight from victory, not for victory. There is a unique kind of confidence that comes when you know who's with you. If you remember going back years ago when you was in school and there were some people that were messing with you when you was by yourself, you were wondering, could I help people that are messing with me? But there's a different kind of stride that you have when you bring backup with you.

00:33:13
And the same people that was talking junk before, they stopped talking, because now you got backup. When you have the confidence of understanding who's with you, it changes how you stand in the face of the devil. It changes how you speak and how you fight. You stop living like you are victim, and you start moving like you already won. You start moving like you already healed.

00:33:43
You start moving like you already blessed. You start moving like you already delivered. I'm looking for some people that know that they've already won the battle, even if they don't see the manifestation yet. I'm gonna move like I know I won because I know who's with me.

00:34:04
Many of us are praying like we're trying to convince God to be with us. But the revelation is this. You don't have to beg God to back what he's already built he's already built in that once you become part of Christ's kingdom, now, you get everything that I have access to because Christ is all coming to me.

00:34:33
If he called you to the battle, he's going to equip you in the battle. If he let the problem happen on your job, guess what? He's going to help you get through the problem.

00:34:47
That means you start praying like you know who you are. You start walking like you know who's with you. Stand like you know already what's been won on your behalf. You do not need, hear me, to feel victorious, to walk in victory. You walk in victory because he said, I'm already victorious.

00:35:16
Whether I feel it or not, I'm victorious.

00:35:21
Watch it. Romans 8 closes, closes with this promise. He says, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. This is not hype that Paul is giving. This is a holy promise.

00:35:40
He. You are more than a conqueror. In other words, Isaiah confirms it. In Isaiah 54 and 17, he says, no weapon that formed against you will be able to prosper. The weapon may form, but it will not win.

00:35:56
God's not saying that the enemy won't try it, but the enemy will not succeed. I don't care what you're going through. I just want you to know that the only thing you have to remember is the victory is already secured on your behalf.

00:36:18
He says. He says that you are more than a conqueror. Somebody say, I'm more than a conqueror. Say it again. Say, I'm more than a conqueror.

00:36:34
Look at somebody and tell them you're more than a conqueror. What that means is that the outcome is already decided. Now I only need the people that's going through some things that need some. Some situations straightened out in your life. I just.

00:36:49
I just need you to stand up and declare it. I'm more than a conqueror. Yeah, I'm more than a conqueror. Yeah, I'm more than a conqueror. Which means the outcome is already decided.

00:37:04
You may be seated. You may be seated.

00:37:08
So watch it. Our role. Our role is to stay dressed and stay discerning while we're waiting for the manifestation to come. Stay dressed, stay discerning, and stay dependent on God. Because I can't fight this battle by myself.

00:37:32
I don't know about some of these other people, but I need God every single day of my life. I need him not only when I come to church, but I need him to get through my week. I need him to handle my business. I need him to handle my finances. I'm dependent On God.

00:37:53
When you stay dressed and stay discerning and dependent, you understand that though the battle may be fought in real time, the victory was decided in eternity. Jesus paid for the victory that we will walk in. From the moment we said yes to him, the battle has already been decided. He says, if God is for us, who can be against us? You have the assurance that you're not in this war by yourself.

00:38:35
The same God that delivered Israel from Egypt is going to deliver you. The same God that shut the lion's mouth for Daniel is going to deliver. The same God that raised Jesus from the grave is going to deliver you.

00:38:57
The same God is fighting with you and for you and through you.

00:39:07
So when the war gets weary, remember who's backing you. This is not just encouragement, this is alignment for your everyday life. Paul says, check your roster. Heaven is backing you up.

00:39:30
Operation Victory is in full motion. You don't need to fear the fight. You have already been formed in Victory. But it's time to fight differently. Look at the person next to you and say, it's time to fight differently.

00:39:55
Yeah, it's time for you to fight differently. Stop reacting like you are a victim. When you have been equipped as a victor. You have been misdirected for far too long. God says, I'm putting you in this battle and you already set up to win.

00:40:17
So today, family, it's time for us to engage in Operation Victory.
00:40:29
Stop fighting the wrong battles. Stop getting in arguments with people you're not fighting against people. Start using the right weapons in your battles and stand like someone who knows how the story ends. I told you last week, when you know how the story ends, you don't get out of character. You don't get all nervous and upset.

00:40:57
You already know how the story is going to end.

00:41:04
God is for us. Who can be against us? This is not just a comforting statement. This is a battle cry.

00:41:17
You're backed by a sovereign king. You've been covered by the blood of Jesus, filled with the spirit of God.

00:41:30
And I'm equipped with the full armor of God. Stand with me everywhere.

00:41:39
Stop bringing casual energy to a combat zone.

00:41:53
You don't have to shrink.

00:41:57
You've been strengthened to win. Lift your hands all over this place. I pray over you now.

00:42:06
I pray that God would give you spiritual discernment to clearly see what's really attacking you and to be fully reminded of who's truly backing you. Lord, don't let us waste our fight in the wrong battles. But God, open our spiritual eyes so that we see the real enemy and use wisdom with the right weapons so that we may declare we have been backed by by heaven and we are called to win. Father, we thank you for it. In Jesus name, Amen.