Christian Battle and Armor (Ephesians 6:10-18)
In today’s healing evangelism school, the title is “Christian Battle and Armor.” Being a Christian means you must know what it means to be a Christian.
Introduction
Jesus – Devil
Does Jesus Christ fight against the devil? Can God fight against the devil? Jesus Christ fought against the devil. When God came to the earth in the vulnerable form of a human being, He fought against the devil
That is why Christians fight against the devil. Jesus Christ fought against the devil, but Jesus Christ is no longer fighting but we’ re fighting for him meaning we fight on His behalf. This is a fight that has already been won, and you must know this well.
1)
If you don’t know this then your going to give this unnecessary danger to younger kids thinking that the devil is stronger than the gospel, then it’s impossible for the correct gospel to go in. You can think about the devil, but if you talk about the devil with fear, that’s not the gospel. Without a doubt, devil is definitely the target of our fighting, but this is a fight that Christ has already won, and we fight on His behalf.
2)
We fight on His behalf in the name of Jesus; nothing else works, so that’s why He gave us authority so we can win the fight in His name. You must know this well; it’s not that the devil does not exist; he exists even now, controlling unbelievers and deceiving believers. To not be deceived by the devil, you must have some standards so you’re not deceived, but unbelievers don’t have the standard to prevent them from being deceived. Therefore, we need to know the devil well, and we’ve been given the authority to win over him.
1.The enemy we fight
It is not a person, but if you don’t know this, you will fight with people. It’s evidence that you do not know this. If you know the enemy, then you fight the spiritual battle. This is the reason God told us to put on the full armor of God, and that’s the main passage we read today in Ephesians 6.
(1)The reason for us to put on the full armor of God (Eph 6:11-13)
Satan is our enemy whom we fight.
(2)Who is our enemy?
Jas 4:4
The target of our enemy is the world, and we are living in the world, and our fight is against the world; our lives themselves are in the world. We do not live in heaven, but we live on earth. It says here, “Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you enemies of God?” Therefore, if anyone befriends the world, they become enemies of God. You’ll go into the culture of the world and be complete enemies of God.
2 Corinthians 4:4-5
Then who is the one who holds onto this world? It is the devil, the god of the age. We live in this world, and the god of the world controls and moves the culture. So, this world is caught up in the culture of the devil, so if we try to get along with the world, we are enemies of God and friends with Satan.
John 16:11
The prince of the world, the devil.
Gal 5:17
It says to not follow the cravings of our flesh that oppose the spirit. In other words, following our sinful nature makes us enemies of God. Ephesians 2:2 tell us not to follow the desires of the flesh, because the cravings of our flesh opposes the spirit, in other words, the battle with the sinful nature is a battle of yourself, the greed of your sinful desires, whatever you think you want. Without knowing this, people are tempted this way but that person doesn’t know they are seized by the devil, the devil exist in the world but also in my own heart, and I live however I want to live. Trying to live and wanting to live according to my thoughts, I’m caught in the trap that Satan set long ago.
What happens if you fall into this trap? You’ll be seized by the devil. Even after receiving salvation you’re thoughts and heart are deceived by Satan and enslaved. “My things,” people continue going back to being self-centered. People are centered on their families. This should not be your center, and you shouldn’t continuously be focused on “my family, my kids, my grandkids, my mom and my dad,” because if those are your center, you will be ensnared and the spiritual state of your family line will not change that way; you will always be fighting, you’ll always assert yourself thinking you’re right, you think you’re the truth and that you’re God, that you’re the way, the truth, and the life, so you don’t look for the word of God, but you use your own thoughts. That’s the devil that you must fight against.
“Ourthings, us, success,” that’s how you’re seized by the devil and you cannot escape, even after receiving salvation. No matter how hard you try, you’re always self-centered. Look at the scars of your past, they’re always centered on yourself and your things. The basis of being centered on yourself makes you scarred, so you have no choice but to be scarred, so then Satan has no choice but to seize you, and that’s Ephesians
James 4:7
Satan must be our enemy. We fight the world, we fight ourselves, and we fight the devil because the world is controlled by the devil. In the past, I used to be controlled by the devil, but there are some things that remain so even now I am controlled by the devil. You must know there’s things well and you have to escape from it and fight against them. You don’t know about this yourself, so you keep making enemies with others, “I never want to see my parents again,” because of your scars. In reality, you’re riddled with so much pride, so you have no choice but to be scarred but you don’t even know yourself. “I’ve become my friend’s enemy,” why? “Because they did something to me.” It’s only a scar because you move centered on yourself, making friends based on your own benefit because you have scars.
You must fight against yourself well. “That person cheated me!” Right, but who told you to be cheated? Over half of the world will cheat you, even salesmen would cheat and deceive you. to get what they want. “Who told you to get caught up by that?” It means you have some phases inside of you that have no choice but to be cheated. Let’s say you’re moving according to your benefit or gain, “I tried to work with this person, but I didn’t know they had these things inside of them,” but who told you to be ignorant? That’s not it, but it happened from the beginning. You keep holding hands with people like this because you think they will help you make money or success. You must fight against yourself because there’s this channel within yourself, and you must quickly escape from that.
You have no choice but to be caught in those channels as you’re focused on “me, my things, and success.” Do you have an enemy in the church? You must be enemies with Satan; that person is seized, so it doesn’t matter what you do as that person is seized, but you make a excuse for something else because you don’t know that the problem is with you, and this is how Satan completely holds onto the individuals and the families. Without knowing yourself, then you’ll make all these excuses like, “My life was ruined because I met this person.” You’re moving according to your benefit, so you have no choice but to meet those kind of people, if you didn’t have that why would you meet that person? It’s not as if you follow any boy or girl who walks past you, but you follow after someone who has something for you. You won’t follow any boy or girl who passes by and winks at you, but it was stupid for you to follow them, and yet you were the one who followed them but you blame them for ruining your life? It is not because of them, but your life was already ruined it’s because you had something inside you but had no choice but to follow someone who winks at me, “Maybe I can get something from following this person,” isn’t that right? If you have this standard, you must lie to yourself, and if you receive this kind of scar, you will relay this scar to your children. It’s very important. Then, how can we fight?
2.Our enemy knows us, so we much always arm ourselves before and during the battle.
Romans 12:2 says you must know God’s pleasing, perfect, and good will. He tells you to not follow the patterns of the world; why would you do that? You’ll be seized by the devil. “Are you telling me not to dress like the world, too?” When I was coming to church, my daughter proposed wearing a shirt that would show her bellybutton. It’s a crop-top, and I asked her, “Why did you buy that?” “This is the trend nowadays.” “When did I tell you to follow the trends? What did God tell you? To dress modestly.” I’m not speaking legalistically, saying it’s good or bad, but you dress like that because you lack something. It means that you don’t have a standard for yourself and you think you can make something of yourself if you follow the ways of the world. I said, “I will light those clothes on fire so dress properly.” I didn’t tell her that, but I said it in my heart, she doesn’t know anything.
She looks at it and she likes it, but I told her, “Don’t listen to that; listen to God and God’s word tells you to dress modestly. Why do you dress like that? Do you think that looks good? Then, what’s going to happen if it keeps getting shorter and shorter?” I’m not saying this is good or bad, but I’m saying you lack a standard between what is good or bad, and you’re only following because you don’t have any centensy . If you’re truly confident, you wouldn’t follow the world; if anything, you would lead the world. That’s what I’m saying.
The culture of the world creates masterpieces so it has no choice but to drag the eyes, hearts, and thoughts of the people of the world. You must know this, otherwise, if nobody teaches this to you, you’ll be empty-minded, following the ways of the world, thinking it’s cool, but your heart and mind are seized by the devil as Satan moves the world with the culture. Then, do you think the Word of God will go into you later on? Instead the church will look weird to you. If anything, this church seems like it’s full of low-class people.
We must know God’s good, perfect will. You must always seek after what pleases God, not what the world says it’s good. You need to chase after this. This is our method of fighting.
Galatians 5:16
It tells us to live by the Spirit. Do not gratify the desires of your flesh, but live by the spirit. Do not go in the way you desire, but go in the way God desires. How do you know what God desires? That’s how God gives you His Word, so you must be able to decide everything through God’s word. I’m not saying if you wear a crop-top or a low-cut shirt, you’re the devil. When you go swimming, you’ll wear bikinis. I’m saying there is a time to wear certain clothes; when you exercise, you wear exercise clothes. A weirdo wears high heels and a dress to go exercise. And army men need to wear a uniform, and if you’re a doctor, you need to wear your white coat, but if you say I don’t wanna wear it that’s weird ? You must know this as something basic.
I told her to join the military because she has nothing to learn here. I tell her I’ll sign her up for boot camp, “If you can’t listen to my words, I’m going to send you to the army training, then you will have no choice but to listen.” Another remnant from another church went into the army for 6 years, and he said he couldn’t handle it there, so he wanted to run away, so he purposely failed his test to escape from the army. His mom was really worried, “You just have to leave him alone, then he will get well accordingly.” Because his contract is for 6 years, as long as he cannot escape, he just has to do whatever they say. There are some good aspects to the military, so I told my daughter, “I’ll sign you up for the army,” and later on, she’ll realize it takes more than that.
How do we fight? Live following the ways of the Spirit, and do not follow the sinful nature of your flesh, and resist the devil. How can you discover the will of God? You must discover God’s will in everything. If you face a problem find God’s word, if something good happens find God’s will. If something good happens, it might be good but find God’s word in the good things as well. If you have a disease, then that disease is just a disease, but you must find God’s will within it, but because you cannot discover God’s will, when something bad happens, you fall into the bad things, but something good happens your bouncing around so that is why even when good things happen, you are being deceived by the devil because the devil works with good things too, like success. If you have found success, it’s not the end, but you must find God’s will within that.
Therefore, always ask, “What is God’s will?” that’s the prayer that God desires, not according to your desires, but according to what God desires. “Why did God raise me up in this church?” You say you don’t know what to do? How do you run your business in the world? You just have to find God’s will. How will you do that? “God, why did you raise me as a church officer in this church?” if you don’t know that as a church officer, you’ll just be empty-minded. “God, why did you allow me to do this?” You must ask Him. “God, why did you allow me to hear such words?” You have to ask Him. Even if you haven’t done anything wrong you have to ask for God’s will within it, and if that doesn’t take place, you’ll fight with people; otherwise, you’ll live however you want. Especially, Koreans have to listen to and remember this well. We have spiritual problem of liking to play, we have a spiritual problem where we want to play more than we want to work, and the older we get, the more we go into this direction that makes us collapse. We have to find God’s will. “God, why did you allow me to live in this religion and go to this church at my age?” You must ask him, “I didn’t receive any answers, but you have to ask him until you do receive answers. So, you worry for years and years on end, but you don’t ask this question so ask until you receive a certain answer. If you don’t know your mission, ask . Stop doing other things, but just ask God, “What is my mission?” Ask until you receive that answer, and keep asking until you receive it. Why do you say you don’t know? It’s because you don’t want to ask. Because even if you ask, He’s not going to answer. You don’t want to actually give your entire life for the mission if He does answer; you keep lying to yourself, but just ask. If you keep asking, then God will give you an answer. Why is this problem still not finished within my family? Keep asking, then God’s will and plan will be revealed. Even if you face a difficult problem, we must go into it, knowing what happens if you’re suffering without knowing? That’s not God’s will; but you have to realize why God allowed this to happen. Why is this mental problem attacking my family? You shouldn’t keep being so proud. More powerful you act, the more you will be seized by the devil. Ask God’s will until you know, you have to know that in order for it to be a blessing to you; problems become lessings and it’s possible to become your mission. It’s very important then. Have you received the Word for the week. When? Even after resurrection when everyone ran away. We don’t even want to listen to the Word of God in our hearts. We act like we have faith but wherever we face a problem in the world you fall into it, keep asking him, then you’ll know how the word is the answer to your life, but you don’t ask ;you just listen and then it ends. Then you come and listen again to the next Sunday, and that’s not bad; as you continue this, you will be blessed, but if you cannot save people that way, you have to keep asking God. Within everything that happened this week, ask God, “Why did You give me this word?” And the word that seems so broad will become narrower and deeper. No reason to live such a complicated walk of faith, and there’s really nothing complicated about it. All you do is ask God, its’ so simple because you’re a saved child of God, until you know.
Our enemy knows us so that is why we must always arm ourselves. A soldier going out into the battle will fight with enemies that are against them, so we must arm ourselves to protect ourselves. If you don’t know that you have a enemy you wouldn’t arm yourself, you say peace peace and you wouldn’t arm yourself, that person has no peace, ever, because there is an enemy we fight. You can only have peace when you win. Peace doesn’t come because you will it to come, but there’s an enemy destroying peace. So, there are five pieces of defense.
What kind of armor is required?
(1)Five pieces of defense (v.14-17)
A helmet for the head, a breastplate for the heart, a belt for the waist, shoes for the feet, and a shield. You must have assurance of your salvation; you do not just receive salvation, but you are a child of God meaning God is taking complete control and responsibility over you, He has finished all problems. If our problems are finished, why are you telling me to put on the helmet of salvation? So that you can be assured of the fact that our problems are finished.
1. Helmet of salvation-knowing the assurance, conviction, and value of salvation
2. Breastplate of righteousness- realizing Christ’s love and power
3. The belt of truth- the promises of truth for the saints, which is the Word
4. The shoes of the gospel- spreading the love of Christ. Shoes help you move, this is missions and evangelism. Why would we move? It is my personal gospel, but I’m spreading that gospel to others by putting on the shoes of the gospel.
5. The shield of faith- the means to block every attack. If you don’t have faith, you’ll be attacked by everything. We defend ourselves with these five things, and we also have weapons with which we can attack, and that is the Sword of the Spirit
(2)Two pieces for offense
The sword of God’s word- you must always possess the sword to overcome Satan and the world, it is the Word of God inspired by the Spirit of God. The only weapon to break down the darkness is the word of God, and the more vague the Word of God is to you, the more you will lose the battle. The Word of God must be very sharp. If you say, “..it might be true and it might not be” then you will lose to the devil. You must be sharp with the Word that God gives you to run throughout the week. “It might be true or might not be, It means he’s taken in.
Prayer- you must pray unceasingly in the spirit as a guard or watchman
Prayer means you receive the support of the Throne of Heaven, meaning you communicate with the headquarters. You can’t do this on your own, but heavenly armies of angels are moved from the Throne of heaven so you attack with the Word of God and prayer.
Therefore, if you do not have the word of God and prayer, if you do not hold onto the word and prayer, even if the devil is already defeated you cannot overcome. He deceives believers as well. However, Satan completely controls unbelievers.
In verse 12 it says those who have authority and control the rulers of the world, the powers of the dark and the spiritual forces of evil. The rulers, the people with authority like political leaders and presidents, and those with authority. The devil works using these people. Because if Satan completely controls the political leaders, then they make the law. If you make the law, you can’t change it. That is how Satan is moving the world holding onto few heads that control everything.
I Acts 13, the Apostle Paul goes to the island of Patmos, and there was a demon possessed sources who was controlling the proconsul and the proconsul was controlling the hole island, there’s no reason for Satan to control people in the island of Patmos because if he controls the proconsul who controls everything on the island then Satan can control the whole island. You must know this to fight.; you have to know that this is how the world moves. What happens if the remnants go up into that position without knowing this? That’s how you become a slave to Egypt. And the best thing you can do is when the devil is controlling all the rulers and authority and the powers of the world. But you don’t know this. Even if you have received salvation, you don’t know the world, you don’t know the fact that what you’re doing is helping the devil.
The powers of this dark world are those who are like gangsters, and Satan controls those people as well, and they do terrible things like murder because they’re seized by the devil. So, Satan controls the few leaders at the top of every organization, and those who are below have no choice but to follow. If you look at some of these very gangsters some of them have more power then the government leaders in Latin American countries. The law has completely collapsed today, so the laws of the world are important too, because if the laws of the world are destroyed, it’s complete chaos.
The spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms, these are the spiritual leaders serving the evil spirits, and as they pray, they are mobilizing these evil spirits. Fortune tellers commune with evil spirits. This is our battle, then what must we fight against? Against the ruler, the authorities, the powers of the dark world, and evil spirits. This is what we fight against; it is not a fight against flesh and blood, against people. It doesn’t matter how smart somebody is, if that person is fighting against another human, it means that the person is not smart, they may think that they are smart but in reality they are seized by the devil. The one who is wise is the one who doesn’t fight. Because you have to fight really against the devil, if a church exist but they don’t have a prayer that fight against the evil spirits of the world then that’s not a prayer that’s not really a church if a church only prays about, “Give me my blessing and my desire. “ Then that’s how Satan completely enters and completely seizes the churches, and everyone is living their life all controlled by Satan, and they’re so worried about my position and my success you have to completely overcome that with the authority of hChrist. You’re a child of God, and God is completely taking responsibility over here. The Triune God is with you, so what do you need to fight for? For us, it’s world evangelism That’s how the church must change to have power of God, otherwise, you’re churchgoers who are completely enslaved by Satan and the world, and you relay this directly to your children, so any family who doesn’t properly know your gospel, your family line will continue to flow that way; it’s completely a religious life.
If you look at Ephesians 6:12-13, “Therefore, put on the full armor of God, you need to be able to stand your ground, and after everything, to stand.” That means that if you’re not able to put on the full armor of God, you must brace yourself for being attacked by Satan and falling. As soon as you say, “Okay, now my life is a little stable and secure,” that’s when the devil comes in. “Now that I’ve succeeded a little and life should be good,” that’s when Satan comes in and attacks. Therefore, you’re able to stand your ground after having done everything.
And in verse 16, “Take up your shield of faith to extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one,” which means he is shooting fire arrows at you. What happens when that flaming arrow penetrates you? It’s suffering, isn’t it? What happens if you keep getting hit by that? You keep falling over, it’s going to hurt. The worries and concerns and anxieties are all painful, you must block them with the shield of faith.
That is why you set your time for scheduled prayer; there is no other method: set your time. When you say 24 hours, that’s not your time schedule yet, but only a person who has had scheduled prayer can do 24 hours. If you keep trying to follow that, you’ll rip your legs apart. It hasn’t been very long since we’ve talked about 24 hour prayer, but before that point, Rev. Ryu was always talking about scheduled and continuous prayer, so now that that’s taking place, he says he doesn’t he doesn’t do continuous prayer, but he does 24 hour prayer.
When you do scheduled prayer, you pray for the filling of the holy spirit. Because the Holy Spirit is within you, you must pray for Him to fill you completely, so that’s why you set a time to concentrate. If you have this time, then without a doubt, you will come to life, and it is the words of Christ, you concentrate on this. You don’t concentrate at all, so just concentrate a little bit and you fight the spiritual battle.
After that, we talk about continuous prayer, whatever you think about. Because all your thoughts come from the root of your greed or sinful nature, so you into prayer. Everything you see, you turn into prayer as the things you see enter into your brain.
Revelation 8:3-5
All our prayers receive answers because the angels of the Lord take all of our prayers up to God. If God gives us the answer, then it comes down to us. What happens when you can’t pray? If you can’t pray, then all your thoughts, feelings, and emotions of Genesis 3 will come into you and determine your spiritual state. So, pray continuously over whatever you think or see, turn it into prayer.
Today’s message is entitled, “the Christian Battle and Armor,” but it’s not a battle against people in your church or people in your family, you’re not fighting against the powerful people in the world.
Don’t do such tacky things like protesting and picketing, you cannot win that kind of battle; it is a spiritual battle against the ruler and the authorities, it is a spiritual battle, so that when our future generations go into these positions, they will not be enslaved.
Prayer
Father God, we thank You. Thank You for giving us Your Word so we may fight the battle and arm ourselves. Allow us to enjoy the Word, prayer, and the power of Christ that allows us to overcome the battle against ourselves, the world, and with Satan. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray, amen.