BWC UPPER ROOM PRAYER MINISTR SPIRITUAL WARFARE SERIES BECOMING GROUNDED PARTS 1 & 2

Transcription

1 BWC UPPER ROOM PRAYER MINISTR SPIRITUAL WARFARE SERIES BECOMING GROUNDED PARTS 1 & 2 To be effective in spiritual warfare, there must be a solid foundation of absolute trust and belief in God s ability AND willingness to give you the victory in the battle you are facing. Without being deeply grounded and rooted in these principles, you will be moved off your position. This teaching will show you how to stand against all odds and not be moved. ************************************************************************ BECOMING GROUNDED PART 1 INTRODUCTION Becoming grounded in God is essential to being victorious in every single battle you engage in for the Kingdom of God. Becoming grounded is the process to ensure that Satan, the enemy, cannot make you turn back and give up the battle. Becoming grounded will cause you to stand, and having done all to stand your ground without giving one inch back to the enemy.

2 THE CRITICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR SPIRITUAL WARFARE There are some critical requirements that need to be in place in your life before engaging the enemy in a battle. You must have a personal relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. You must be confident in God s motives towards you and your life (family, job, health, finances). You must know who you are in Christ Jesus. You must know your AUTHORITY. You must be fully persuaded that God is a good God and the devil is a bad devil. You must be born-again to engage the enemy. (Acts 19:13-16) You must know the Lord intimately or are in the pursuit of an intimate relationship with Him. (Colossians 3:3) You must be Baptized in the Holy Spirit to be led by Him. (Acts 1:9 & 19:2) You must believe that God s love for YOU is beyond reproach. It is without equal. (Romans 5:8 & 8:35-39) You must accept that His Word, the Bible, IS His will for your life and every word in the Bible shows His promises to you for GOOD and not EVIL. (James 1:17) You must know who you are in Christ Jesus. You must know your AUTHORITY. You must realize and accept the authority that Jesus Christ has given YOU as a believer to defeat ALL the power of the enemy. (Luke 9:1 & 10:19) You must EXPECT the enemy to back off when you exercise that authority. (Luke 8:30 & Acts 16:16-18) You must be fully persuaded that God has only benefits and good things stored up for you. You must be convinced that it is His will to give you the victory. (Luke 12:32 & Luke 11:13)

3 You must be willing to give the devil his due: HE IS THE AUTHOR OF EVIL AND BAD THINGS! (2 Cor. 2:11 & John 10:10) BUILDING STRONG FAITH One of the reasons that God allows Satan to operate is so that we can to build strong faith in Him. (John 16:33) Spiritual warfare builds faith because you are depending on God to give you victory. With each battle, your faith grows. It is a natural progression. (Jude 1:20-25) Faith must be exercised to grow. Just like muscles in your body must be exercised to maintain their strength. (2 Peter 1:5) The beauty of spiritual warfare is that once you have gone through the battle and come out stronger on the other side: it cannot be UNDONE. You will be stronger and you will go from strength to strength going forward. (Psalm 84:7) THE FAITH STAND Every battle requires a faith stand. Once you have made your stand, bound the enemy, drawn the bloodlines etc., there comes a time when you just stand your ground and refuse to be moved off your position. (Ephesians 6:13) The faith stand is the toughest part of any spiritual battle. It is tough because you don t see ANY progress at all in the situation. This is a critical juncture because it is so easy to turn back and give up. (James 1:3) The faith stand begins AFTER you have made your petitions, bound the enemy, gone to the Court of Heaven and applied the Blood and the Name of Jesus to everything. This is the point where you stand and declare God s Word over the situation, day after day in FAITH. Giving Him thanks and praise and worship for the victory in spite of not seeing any improvement.

4 THE FAITH STAND EYES ON JESUS Faith looks to Jesus Who is the Author and the Finisher of our faith. (Hebrews 12:2) Keep your eyes on Jesus and you can walk all the way across the sea with Him. (Matthew 14:22-33) When the waves are a hundred feet tall its hard to keep focus, but still we must. Peter could have walked all the way if he would have kept his eyes on Jesus. SEEING THE DESIRED END RESULT God always looks at the desired end result. Everything He does, He does with that in mind. He looks with the eyes of faith. (Isaiah 46:10) What is the desired end result of your battle? Your financial breakthrough, healing, deliverance, salvation of loved ones? THINK ABOUT IT FOR A FEW MINUTES The desired end result is your vision for victory. You are chasing the vision that God has placed in your heart. (Jeremiah 29:11 & Habakkuk 2:2)

5 Having a vision in your heart will keep you focused. The vision makes it difficult to let go. It s in your heart your spirit. It was placed there by God. Faith and spiritual warfare go hand in hand, you can t do one without the other. Remember: Faith is the currency of heaven. THE IMMOVEABLE POSITION: FULLY PERSUADED What is the immovable position? The immovable position is a new micki-ism that I have come up with. It means that you get to a place in God where it doesn t matter what it looks like or how impossible it seems you refuse to stop believing. You refuse to quit. You refuse to let go of His promise. The immovable position is when your faith is rooted so deep that nothing can sway or change your mind about it except God. A person who gets into the immovable position is a real pain in the neck to Satan. It s like he is fighting one of those blow up punching bags that keeps bouncing back for more. A person in the immovable position is convinced they have the victory. They are convinced and fully persuaded the battle is won in their favor and Satan has to flee. A LOOK AT THE APOSTLE PAUL The Apostle Paul stayed in the immovable position. What makes a person able to get to this place and then STAY in this place? Paul KNEW God He had a personal, intimate relationship with Him! Because of the deep intimate relationship, Paul became fully persuaded that God not only

6 COULD do anything, but that He actually WANTED to help Him! (II Timothy 1:12) Paul kept his eyes on the prize. Jesus Christ is the prize. He is the Pearl of great price. (Philippians 3:14) Paul was prepared to go all the way for God. He was determined to complete his race. To lay his crowns at the feet of Jesus on that day. (II Timothy 4:7) Paul was in the immovable position and there wasn t anything Satan could do. He tried to kill him time and time again. He only could when Paul s race was over. A LOOK AT JOB Job is another man who loved God and pursued Him with everything he had. As a result, God blessed him in every way. He had lots of children He was the wealthiest man in the entire East He had lots of servants He was healthy and strong But Job had one weakness: his children were undisciplined and wild as young adults. They loved to party. Job knew their rebellious ways would eventually offend the Lord, so every time they had a wild party, he would offer sacrifices for them. He should have taken them to task over it, but for some reason he did not. His constant sacrifices was an indication of fear for his kids.

7 Enter Satan, who was watching all this with great interest. He had been looking for a way through the hedge surrounding Job and this was it. Fear is the opposite of faith. Fear empowers Satan and ties God s hands. Satan had legal ground against Job. He went to the Court of Heaven and made a charge and won permission to attack him. But God set parameters. Satan then goes out and destroys all of Job s wealth and kills all his children in one day. Job kept getting bad news all day long. Yet he kept his immovable position. He refused to blame God. Satan goes back to the Court of Heaven and demands permission to attack Job s physical body. He gets that permission. He puts loathsome sores all over Job s body even on the soles of his feet. Job is now one of the most miserable human beings that has ever lived. He has lost everything dear to him except his wife. Now he is covered with these horrible, painful sores. He looks like he s dying. Satan used his wife against him, when she said curse God and die. Whose words are those? Still in all that, Job refused to blame God. He said though He slay me, yet will I praise Him. (Job 13:15) Finally, here comes Job s friends who think they know God. They proceed to tell him things about God, they knew nothing of, which angered God. God was not angry with Job. God had no intention of doing anything to hurt Job. God accepted Job s sacrifices and prayers for his children. God knew Job s love for Him.

8 Satan is the one who accused Job before God. Satan is the one who saw the legal ground of fear in Job s life. Satan made a demand on eternal law and God granted it. God s mercy and grace were towards Job through all this. Finally, after all the talk of his friends, Job began to curse himself and wish himself dead. God then began to talk to him and straightened him out. In the end, Job s relationship with God was closer than ever. God restored his wealth and his health and his marriage. God gave him ten more children to replace the lost ones. God not only restored his wealth, but He actually doubled it! God then added many, many more years to Job s life and he saw several generations of his children. He died full of days. The immovable position pays off. THE FIERY FURNACE ATTITUDE There were three guys who were companions of Daniel the prophet. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Their Hebrew names were Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. (Daniel 1:6) These young men were of the nobility of Israel. Well-bred men of royal lineage. Well-educated and intelligent. (Daniel 1:3-4) These young men served the Lord. They worshipped Jehovah God Almighty and they were GROUNDED in Him. From the very beginning of their captivity in Babylon, Daniel, Shadrach, Mesach and Abnego determined in their hearts to not part-take of the king s idolatrous foods. (Daniel 1:8-15)

9 Their minds were set to obey God at all costs. At the very outset, they stood against what the Babylonians represented. They knew the Word of God very well and they knew what it meant to eat at the king s table They made a deal with the chief steward of the young men. They asked him to give them just vegetables and water for ten days. The chief steward was afraid that they would be looking starved and he would be executed, so Daniel made this deal with him. He agreed. (Daniel 1:11-14) At the end of the ten days they looked better and healthier than all the rest of the men eating at the king s table! (Daniel 1:15) The king wanted all these young men to help him communicate with the Israelite captives. That is why he chose the noble youths of the nation because they were natural leaders. So the king began the interview process with these young men. After he had talked with Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abnego, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters who were in his realm! (Daniel 1:18-20) Life was pretty good for these guys, even if they were in captivity. How many of us know, that a period of blessings is seasonal? Trouble will inevitably come around. The king got the bright idea to make this huge golden image on the plain of Dura. It was ninety feet tall and nine feet wide. He called in all the people in authority in his kingdom and told them the new law was to bow down to this image whenever the trumpet blew. Everyone, everywhere was to do this. (Daniel 3:1-7)

10 The law was in effect. To disobey this new law meant certain death. It was way more than civil disobedience to refuse this law. It was a violation of God s Law Thou shalt not have any other gods before Me nor bow down to them. All this time these guys had supernatural favor with the king. They were his golden boys. His bright stars. How quickly things can turn. They did not bow down and they were accused before the king. Their accusers pointed out the law to the king. He had to kill them. (Daniel 3:8-12) The king was not hesitant at all, in fact, he was enraged that they refused his command! He did give them another chance though. (Daniel 3:14-15) But the young men told him not to bother that they had determined in their hearts not to bow down. Do what you have to do King. (Daniel 3:16-18) The king gets even more enraged and tells his men to heat the furnace seven times hotter than normal! (Daniel 3:19) So the young men were bound and thrown into the burning fiery furnace. The furnace was so hot, the heat killed the king s men who threw the guys in! (Daniel 3:20-22) What happened? Jesus came into the middle of the fire with them! The king was astounded when he saw a fourth man in the furnace. (Daniel 3:24-27) What was the result of the fiery furnace attitude these guys had? God was GLORIFIED in the midst of the heathen. And they got promoted yet again. (Daniel 3:28-29)

11 SPIRIT LED THE POWER & PURPOSE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Godhead or the Trinity as is commonly known. The Holy Spirit is very, very precious to God the Son and God the Father. In fact, all manner of blasphemy can be forgiven EXCEPT blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 12:31-33) Throughout the history of mankind, the Godhead has been individually involved. God the Father formed mankind from the dust of the earth and breathed life into him. (Genesis 2:7) God the Son, came to the earth as a man, lived as a man and died as a man. He arose from the dead forever tied to man in an immortal body. The Holy Spirit came after the Son ascended to the Father and sat at His right hand on the throne. Now is the age of the power of the Holy Spirit. He was sent to guide us into all the Truth of God! (Acts 2:1-5) A few things to know about the Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit is the POWER of God. (Romans 8:11) The Holy Spirit can be grieved. (Ephesians 4:30) The Holy Spirit is a He not an It (John 14:16) The Holy Spirit speaks to people. (Acts 8:29) The Holy Spirit wants fellowship with us. (2 Corinthians 13:14) The Holy Spirit is everywhere He is Omnipresent. (Psalm 139:7-10) The Holy Spirit is all-knowing He is Omniscient. (I Corinthians 2:10-11)

12 The Holy Spirit is all-powerful Omnipotent. (Psalm 104:30) The Holy Spirit s purposes on earth are: To instruct us and teach us. To reveal truth (revelation knowledge) to us as HE WILLS. (Luke 12:12; John 14:27; 15:26; 16:13, 14; Acts 13:2; 1 Corinthians 2: 10, 13; Ephesians 1:16, 17; 3:5; 2 Peter 1:21; 1 John 2:20, 27) To counsel and guide us. (John 14:26; 16:13; Acts 11:12; 16:6, 7; 20:22, 23; Romans 8:14; Galatians 5:18) To intercede for us and help us to pray effectively. (Romans 8:26, 27; Ephesians 2: 18; Jude 20) To comfort us (John 14:16) To anoint for ministry (Act 31:2, 20:28) To convict believers and unbelievers of sin (John 16:8-11) To give power and boldness to believers (Ephesians 3:16) To testify that we are the children of God (Romans 8:16) TO NAME A FEW

13 THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the impartation of the POWER of God into the life of a believer. This power gives us boldness and confidence to do what the Holy Spirit tells us to do to advance the kingdom and engage in spiritual warfare. IT IS ALL ABOUT ADVANCING THE KINGDOM! IT IS NOT ABOUT US! LISTEN & OBEY THE HOLY SPIRIT Before you do anything regarding any kind of spiritual warfare, ALWAYS check with the Holy Spirit! (Romans 8:14) People will go in where angels fear to tread sometimes! I know because I have! It s not pretty! Jesus did ONLY what the Holy Spirit told Him to do. He did not heal everyone. He healed those the Holy Spirit brought to Him. CONCLUSION OF PART 1 TO BE FIRMLY GROUNDED IN GOD IS AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT IN SUCCESSFULLY ADVANCING THE KINGDOM THROUGH SPIRITUAL WARFARE. JESUS LOVES US SO MUCH, HE WANTS US TO BE WISE AND FULLY EQUIPPED TO FULFILL ALL THE PLANS HE HAS FOR US. THOSE PLANS INCLUDE SPIRITUAL WARFARE SOMETIMES IN OUR CHRISTIAN WALK.

14 BECOMING GROUNDED PART 2 INTRODUCTION As we saw last week, we must have a solid foundation and an intimate relationship with the Most-High God in order to wage spiritual war--effectively. What happens if I m just getting started in this thing? GET SOME HELP! Tonight we are going to gain some insight into the strategies and motivations of our enemy. We talked about some of Satan s strategies last week, so tonight we are going to learn about him a little more, so that we will be fully informed of where we stand and where he stands. More important than anything about Satan, is the Great Purchase for YOU and ME that God made before time began. We are going to look into the depths of God s love for you and me.

15 WHO IS THE ENEMY? Who is the enemy we are fighting? In order to be successful in any battle, you have to know and understand your enemy. Know their attitude towards you, understand their weaknesses and their limitations. There is the enemy of our souls: Satan. It is his goal to destroy us beyond repair if at all possible and drag us into Hell. He comes to steal and to kill and to destroy. He hates mankind so much he can t see straight. Sometimes we are our own worst enemies. OUR FLESH Our flesh is naturally rebellious against the things of God. Have you ever noticed that you can do a worldly activity all day long and still be pumped, but can t take 2 hours in church without having to take a 2 hour nap? Sometimes we get in trouble because of our own bad decisions and we can t honestly blame Satan for it. So many times we are so easily tempted because we are drawn away because of our own lusts. (James 1:14) The flesh is going to want to sleep instead of getting up at the 4th prayer watch like the Lord asked us to. The flesh is going to want to watch that romantic comedy because the story is so good. The flesh is ok with the cussing and the sex scenes. The flesh hates fasting. The flesh screams when it has to bow to the will of our spirit-man following God s instructions. THE HISTORY OF LUCIFER Satan s current name means the adversary. We all know this to be true! His original God-given name was Lucifer. He was called Lucifer, son of the morning, the day star, the covering cherub. Lucifer was created as an Archangel on the same level

16 as Michael and Gabriel, maybe even a notch above them. The book of Ezekiel has a great description of the fall of Lucifer from heaven. Turn to Ezekiel 28: Lucifer was created by God. Lucifer was created perfectly. Ezekiel 28:12 You are the full measure and pattern of exactness [giving the finishing touch to all that constitutes completeness.] Lucifer was in Eden, the garden of God. Lucifer had every precious stone in his being at the time he was created. Carnelian, Topaz, Jasper, Chysolite, Beryl, Onyx, Sapphire, Carbuncle, and Emerald. Lucifer was wrought intricately in gold (verse 13). On the very day he was created, God prepared all of it. Lucifer was created some time in eternity past because Ezekiel 28:13 says that he was in Eden, the garden of God. He had an exalted position in God s kingdom. He was the anointed cherub that covers with overshadowing wings, and I set you so. He was trusted by God. Verse 14 says You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until iniquity and guilt were found in you. He was in an intimate relationship with God. You walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Lucifer was in charge of something having to do with commerce and got corrupted in doing it.

17 Through the abundance of your commerce you were filled with lawlessness and violence, and you sinned, therefore I cast you out as a profane thing from the mountain of God and the guardian cherub drove you out from the midst of the stones of fire. (Ezekiel 28:17) The root cause of Lucifer s downfall was PRIDE. Verse 18 says Your heart was proud and lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I lay you before kings, that they might gaze at you. Lucifer s judgment from God is pretty bad. Look at this: You have profaned your sanctuary by the multitude of your iniquities and the enormity of your guilt, by the unrighteousness of your trade. Therefore I have brought forth a fire from your midst; it has consumed you and I have reduced you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who looked at you. All who know you among the people are astonished and appalled at you; you have come to a horrible end and shall never return to being. (Ezekiel 28:18-19) It is a mystery that will only be seen when we get to heaven where all things are made known. How and why Lucifer fell is not as important as what he is doing today and how we can overcome all his evil schemes against us. WHY SATAN HATES MANKIND Satan is the mortal enemy of mankind. He has been ever since he was aware of our existence. Why does he hate us so? There are a few reasons: We are created in the image of God when he looks at us, he sees God s imprint on us and it infuriates him.

18 We are so loved by God that He actually paid the price for our sins Himself! Satan hates it Our position in the kingdom of God is over him. We have the authority in Jesus Christ! SATAN S OBJECTIVES AGAINST MANKING Satan s objectives are simple: To undermine our faith in God through lies and deception. To convince us that God is the author of everything good or bad. To entrap us in sin and bondage to sin if possible to block the light of Jesus from reaching us. His ultimate goal is to cause every last human being to go to hell for all eternity. Eternal separation from God..like he will be. MISERY LOVES COMPANY! SATAN S KINGDOM STRUCTURE Satan has a kingdom if you will. You could call it an organization. He is a rebel. When he fell from heaven he convinced one third of the Host of Heaven angels to follow him to perdition. He s basically a con artist. Imagine, one third of the entire angelic population in heaven rebelled with him! Every one of these angels daily saw the face of God and they STILL rebelled! No wonder He has such patience with us! Like any kingdom there is a hierarchy of authority. Since Satan doesn t know any other way he imitates everything God does. He just twists and perverts it. Remember this: he is NOT created in the image of God. He does not have God s DNA in him. The structure of Satan s kingdom is found in Ephesians 6:12. Let s look at this.

19 SATAN S CURRENT STANDING & POWER LEVEL After the fall of Adam in the Garden, Satan had Adam s God-given dominion of the Earth and the Second Heavens. He was the legal ruler. He conned Adam and Eve just like he conned the angels that rebelled with him. He had a much easier time in attacking godly men and omen as we saw with Job last week. And ungodly people were sitting ducks. We can see the level of his authority over the earth when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness. Read Matthew 4:1-11 in your Bible. As you can see from the Word, Satan seemed to have it all. The world was literally his oyster. But his pride completely overlooked the eternal plan that would shortly take it all away for all eternity. Jesus spent a large portion of His earthly ministry casting out devils. Why is that? Any ideas? Write your idea of why people in Jesus day were so easily overrun by Satan. Fast-forward just 3 ½ years later and this same Jesus was hanging crucified on a Roman cross. The most cruel and brutal way to kill a man. Between the wilderness and the Cross Jesus healed a lot of people and He cast a lot of demons out of people. He had made a lot of enemies, not the least of which is Satan. He thought he had Jesus all sown up. He didn t realize the blood flowing from the Cross was divine and sinless not

20 subject to death the wages of sin. Three days later, to his horror Jesus rises from the grave taking His divine Blood and all the Old Testament saints with Him to heaven where He poured the Precious Blood on the altar for the sins of all mankind. It is finished! The souls of men are redeemed from damnation! The dominion of man is restored! The veil is rent between God and man! The lifeline of salvation is extended if man chooses to take it. During this time, in the spirit-realm Jesus made a complete fool of Satan in front of the entire three worlds heaven, earth, underworld. God disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it the Cross. (Colossians 2:15) Satan was stripped of his rule over the earth and his tyranny over mankind legally ended. Enter the con-artist again. HOW SATAN OPERATES TODAY Today it is all about legalities. That is all that Satan has left after Jesus destroyed his kingdom. He no longer has authority over the earth. He no longer has dominion over mankind the way he used to. However, the key word is LEGALITIES. There are three things that Satan can use to legally attack us and God will allow him to do it. The three things he can use against us are: Our words if our words are negative, he can legally use them if he wants to. For example, I m a Christian and I say I ll probably get that cold that s going around or I just can t lose this weight because I m 57 years old and it s just stuck there.

21 What is the result? Satan can legally make a case to put that cold on me or keep me fat! Because that is my confession! Our sins uh oh the S word! Yes, he can legally use our sins against us. What are our sins? Faithlessness, gossip, unforgiveness, bitterness, pride, prayerlessness, lust, greed, lying and the list goes on. Yes Christians do this too All these sins are legal avenues for Satan to make a charge against you in the Court of Heaven. The Bible says he is up there day and night accusing us! That is what he does. Our Unbelief and/or Fear did you know that the first two sets of people cast into hell are the FEARFUL and the UNBELIEVING? But as for the cowards and the ignoble and the contemptible and the cravenly lacking in courage and the cowardly submissive, and as for the unbelieving and faithless.[all of these shall have] their part in the lake that blazes with fire and brimstone. This is the second death. (Revelation 21:8) How does Satan know we don t believe? By our inaction and faithlessness and by the words of our mouth. How does Satan take these legalities and use them against us? He makes a case against us and takes it to the Court of Heaven and charges us against God s Word. He knows that God is bound by His Word and Satan knows the Word of God very well. Satan presents his arguments to the Court of Heaven and if there is no repentance of sin from us, then legally Satan can attack us. However, God does set parameters on what he can do to us. God s mercy endures forever. Jesus is our Advocate with the Father, so

22 He is praying for us remember what He told Peter in Luke 22:31. He said that Satan demanded to sift him but Jesus prayed that his fail wouldn t fail. God set the parameters right then. WHO IS NOT THE ENEMY People are not the enemy they are pawns and tools of Satan against you Looking through the eyes of AGAPE love Becoming like Jesus loving people into the kingdom