We are in a war

Two weekends ago I attended a conference about Spiritual warfare. It was a life changing event and has changed my way of thinking about the Christian life in so many ways.

The speaker was Chris Mueller from Faith Bible Church in California (you can download his sermons, he has preached through the whole book of Epesians), and we went through that awesome passage at the end of Ephesians, 6:10-20.

Here are some things I learnt and was reminded of throughout the weekend.

- As Christians we are to stay dependently strong to be able to stand firm. Eph 6:10

- We battle as a church, not as an individual

- Be strong, means to be dependant totally on God

- To win we need to know our enemy.

- We battle against an army of demons.

- We need to battle evil by remaining humble. This was the the most convicting one for me. These verses have been so helpful to me over the past two weeks.

James 4:6-10 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

1 Peter 5:6-9
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

- We need to be prepared by wearing the Armour GOD gives us, it's His Armour we are to put on.

- The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God refers to the bible verbally spoken to resist temptations. We need to attack temptations with the right verses. We need to know our weaknesses and be ready to fight using appropriate scripture.

- We need to lean on the word, learn the word, live the word and love the word.

- We need to be alert through prayer and purpose.

- We need to focus our prayer specifically on evangelism.

I guess the biggest thing I was reminded of was that we are in a WAR! Satan and his army are doing all they can to bring us down. We need to constantly be on guard, examining ourselves, our hearts, and devote ourselves fully to Him, and cover each other with prayer continually!