Grace for Your Day May 3

In the last 50 years or so, a lot has been written on the subject of spiritual warfare. Due to the rise of the charismatic movement, Christian booksellers have sought to publish as much as possible on that topic. Just to mention one book that is out there, in 1996, Richard Ing wrote one that was called Spiritual Warfare and the back cover says:  "[This book] discusses the rulers and hierarchies of the demonic kingdom. For instance, Jezebel and Ahab spirits are the plague of today’s church, destroying even the most effective ministries through controlling women and passive men. [Within these pages] discover how to overcome Satan’s insidious tactics by learning about: The proper use of binding and loosing, the anatomy of a deliverance, Satan’s legal rights, spiritual war games, and winning spiritual strategies."

The idea behind the book is that we are under attack by certain spirits. We are being pursued by certain demons and, in order to defeat them, we have to understand some very intricate things such as their names and their hierarchy. We need to understand some mysterious things such as Satan’s legal rights which sounds very interesting but it raises the question: What does the Bible say about spiritual warfare? What does it teach us on this subject? Ephesians 6:10-13 sheds some light on this when it says:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness . . . Therefore, take up the full armor of God . . .

The Bible says that you win the battle with the devil by being strong in the Lord. You do it by taking up the full armor of God. You do not need to understand some very intricate things in order to be successful in spiritual warfare. You do not need to know some mysterious things such as Satan’s legal rights or the names of the demons. You just need to take up the weapons that God has already provided for you and the first one is the belt of truth.

The first weapon that God has given you in Ephesians 6 is the one that holds all of the other ones together and that is the belt of truth because a Christian cannot fight the devil without it. You cannot resist him if you do not surround yourself with the Word of God. It needs to cover every part of you. It needs to wrap itself around you from one end to the other which is what we are going to talk about this week at Grace Fellowship Church.

This week, we are going to study the belt of truth. We are going to study the first of seven pieces of armor in this passage so that we can grow in our faith. We are going to study it so we can grow in the area of spiritual warfare.

The sermon will be preached at our 9:15 and 11:00 services on Sunday and it will also be available on our You Tube Channel for those who cannot make it out in person. I am praying that the Lord will use it to show us that we do not need to know some intricate thing in order to defeat our enemy. We do not have to understand some mysterious thing. All we need to know is the truth. May the Lord give us grace to remember this important lesson. – Jeremy Cagle