The Invisible War - Session 4

On June 15th, our bible study listened to Chip Ingram again on the subject of "How to Prepare Yourself for Spiritual Battle."  During this session Chip discusses the "breastplate of righteousness" and shoding your feet with the "gospel of peace."

"Satan's attacks are not merely deception, but accusation of the believer." - Chip Ingram.  Keeping in mind that we have girded our loins with truth,  the breastplate of righteousness is key to guarding our heart.  That is the main purpose of a breastplate to protect the heart from the enemy.  If Satan can convince you that you are a bad person - that at the core "your heart" you don't matter because you are sinful and unworthy.  At that point he is winning the battle. 

This is where I struggle the most.  I do know that God's love does flow through me by the power of the Holy Spirit, but it sometimes stops short or never gets communicated at all.  Because I allow myself at times to believe the lie that I am not worthy.  The little bit of truth is we are not by ourselves, but the better truth is that we are worthy because of Jesus Christ and the cross.  We can't forget that, I can't forget that.  I John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteosness. (NIV)

Staying in the Word daily helps me to confess everyday and to guard my heart, so that I can share the gospel of peace with others. 

Four Applications for being prepared to share the "gospel of peace":

1. Know and understand the content of the gospel. 1 Corinthians 15:1-5, Ephesians 2:1-9
2. Know the basis for your eternal security and the assurance of your salvation. Romans 8:38-39, Ephesians 1:13-14
3. Faith is based on facts not feelings.
4. Sharing your faith is one of the most powerful faith-builders available. Often "the best defense is a good offense."

Here is the great news, God has given us protection from Satan and the power through the Holy Spirit to defend ourselves and start fighting.  Your struggles may be vastly different from mine, but hopefully by sharing mine we can all be encouraged that "God is good all the time" and "He is with us always".

The Invisible War - Session 3

Last week - Wednesday June 8th, we heard from Chip Ingram again regarding "Four Keys to Spiritual Victory"  Chip spent a little time setting up those keys to victory, then he spent the remainder of time talking about truth.  The "belt of truth" to be exact.

These talks are getting more intense and challanging as we continue to study God's word.  There were a couple of fill in the blanks that I found encouraging to keep in mind while we come to this realization that spiritual warfare is real and the first thing we need to do is put on the "belt of truth".  Here are those truths:

1. Satan was defeated at the Cross.
2. Sin's penalty was paid for all people for all time.
3. Sin's power was broken.
4. Believers are commanded to prepare and equip themselves in the strength of the Lord....

As I wrote above, Chip spent most of the time talking about Truth.  "Satan's first attack on mankind was deception which was followed by man's hiding, denial and blame shifting."  So the truth is the beginning of the spiritual battle.  Truth is the foundation.  You need a good foundation to stand on so that you can not fall back but stand your ground and move forward when it is time to attack.

What lie are you believing? What lie am I believing? What deception from satan has crept into our lives and caused us to slide a little farther from God and farther from the truth.  The truth is, if we have asked Jesus into our lives, we are saved by grace.  We are God's children. It is usually those lies that "you're not good enough" "you're can't please God" "nothing will happen if you do it just this once"....  that cause us to consider sinning.  All of these lies - Satan is constantly trying to convince us that we either can't choose good or it doesn't matter if we do.  But we still have the choice to sin or not.  We now have the power to battle those lies and that is the Truth which is found in his word.  So put on the belt of Truth to stand firm against Satan's lies.

I leave you with this verse:

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. - Psalm 139:23-24

Spiritual Warfare Week 2

The past two weeks, the North Coast Men's Bible Study has been doing a study on Spiritual Warfare. We are utilizing Chip Ingram's "The Invisible War" through booklet and DVD presentation.

I meant to post last week's first lesson, but life got in the way a little bit (luckily for me, Craig Thomson, co-author of this blog posted last week - thank you Craig). Is this evidence of spiritual warfare? Maybe. But after two lessons I really felt compelled to blog what 's being taught in our group. I'm hoping, by reflecting about our study, you might also be encouraged.

This week's lesson by Ingram is entitled "Who are we fighting?". According to Ingram, here are the 5 basic truths about spiritual warfare:

1. There is an invisible world that is just as real as the visible world.
2. We are involved in an invisible war, a cosmic conflict that has eternal implications.
3. Out foes is formidable and his goal is to destroy us and discredit the cause of Christ. - Ephesians 6:12
4. We must respect our foe, but not fear him-become acutely aware of his methods, but not pre-occupied by them. - Ephesians 6:11
5.  As believers in Christ, we do not fight for victory, we fight from victory. In Christ's power we are invisible.

I don't have time to hit every point that Chip made. It's powerful and intense. I will share with you this...
Chip says "Satan's names reveals his schemes".

Specifically:

• Satan as the Serpent- He deceives
• Satan as the Dragon - He draws fear
• Satan as the Angel of Light -He tempts
• Satan as the Father of Lies - At the center of all of it, is one big lie.

He makes the point that as powerful as Satan is, he is limited. for me this was a great realization. Satan can cause a great deal of confusion and fear. But he can never cause me to sin. my sin is my choice. It's sad to say that as I am writing this, at times I use Satan as an excuse to choose sin. But, again, Satan can never make us sin.

We choose that.

We must be ready. We have to be aware. We need to know that we don't have to sin, when Satan is tempting us. That realization, for me, was very encouraging. The 5th truth, that we do not fight for victory, but we fight from victory brings that point home. We are already victorious! We indeed, have that power from Christ.

I want to leave you with the four verses that Chip encouraged us to memorize:

• 1 John 4:4 "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."

Other verses:

• 1 John 5:4-5
• Revelation 12:11
• James 4:7

Know this, Satan is a defeated foe.