The Invisible War - Session 7

Prayer.  It is our "Secret Weapon" to help us in this invisible battle.  Chip tells a story about a missionary doing work in a little village.  The missionary would sleep in the woods out side the village every night and then travel to the village and work in the village helping them and preaching the good news.  One day on his way to the village he sees a man hurt and bleeding.  He helps the man, tends to his wounds and makes sure he brings him to safety.  The man follows the missionary into the woods and sees where he is staying.  He gathers a group of men and is planning to rob and kill him at night.  But as the missionary was sleeping, the men approached and saw 21 guards around him, they were scared and they ran off.  The next morning the man approached the missionary and told him what he saw, but the missionary laughed and said I assure I was alone last night.  Not sure what this all meant, the missionary returns to his home church.  And tells of this story and explains that the man trying to rob him must have been mistaken.  But before he can finish the story, a man raising his hand stood up and said no that was us - we were praying for you at that exact moment.  He asks the church if every man who prayed would stand up and quickly 21 men were standing.  Back home one of the men got a strong feeling that he needed to pray for his friend the missionary.  So he called others and got 21 men to pray corporately.  There prayers were the difference.

"The means by which believers are to withstand and overcome the attacks of the Enemy in spiritual warfare is by consistent, intense, strategic prayer for one another in conjunction with the personal application of the armor of God" -Chip Ingram

Listed below are his book notes:

1. Intercessory prayer is our most powerful and strategic corporate weapon in spiritual warfare.

• Prayer has a direct impact on spiritual warfare. Mark 9:29
• Prayer provides/assists in the deliverance of others who are undergoing spiritual attack. Luke 22:31-32
• Power falls where prayer prevails. Acts Chapter 1 - 10.

2. What kind of prayer brings God's deliverance and power in the midst of spiritual attack?

• Consistent Prayer
• Intense Prayer
• Strategic Prayer

I leave you with this quote by S.D. Gordon.

"The great people of the earth today are the people who pray. I do not mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean those people who take time and pray. They have not time.  It must be taken from something else. This something else is important. Very important, and pressing, but still less important and less pressing than prayer."

The Invisible War - Session 6

July 6 2011, Chip Ingram talked about "How to do Battle with the Enemy and Win"  He uses the same verses that we have been looking at the past two weeks.  Ephesians 6:16-17, but we already discussed taking up the "shield of faith".  This session was about the "helmet of salvation" and the "sword of the spirit."

Both of these are offensive weapons or armor.  The "helmet of salvation" is talking about the present deliverance from sin, not just the security we have in Christ of our lives being saved.  Chip goes onto to say that it is important to think of the helmet and what it is protecting.  We want to renew our minds in the Word.  Romans 12:2 talks about God's renewing of the believer's mind.  2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us that the battle is for the mind.

How true this is.  I feel sometimes that the battle is already lost, just because of my mind set and the fact that I am buying into the lies or the thoughts that I am not worthy.  On the flip side, sometimes the battle is already won when I renew my mind with God's word and I am confident in His salvation and promises.

This concept flows nicely into the "sword of the spirit" which is the word of God.  This Word is your life.  Pslam 119:105 - God's word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. The sword is both a defensive and an offensive weapon.  And Chip tells us how to engage the enemy:

1. Maintain a healthy spiritual life
2. Understand your posistion in Christ
3. Discern when demonic influence may be the cause
4. Claim God's promises out loud.
5. Take our authority and position in Christ to command demonic forces to cease their activity and depart.

Chip tells us a story about a night scene in Santa Cruz, CA.  It was late and two men started to get in a fight, they were both drunk and creating quite a disturbance.  The men were big men and looked very powerful.  Soon a police officer comes to the scene.  But the police officer was much smaller then expected and was also a woman.  It did not seem that this officer was going to be able to control the situation, but with a loud voice and a hand on her gun she was able to direct the men to her vehicle and take control of the situation.  Her badge, her position in the law was stronger and more powerful then the two men.  Our position in Christ is the same when we come in contact with the enemy.

The Invisible War - Session 5 (part 2)

June 29th, we listened to Chip Ingram again.  We did not move on to the next lesson or session, we just took more notes and listened to every word again to make sure we could understand and grasp all that he was telling us again in this session.

My last post I left you with a question.  For those of you who have not read my last post yet, here is the Question again: Once you're wearing your spiritual armor and yet find yourself bombarded by spiritual opposition, How Do You Engage and Win the Battles? - Chip Ingram

Answer: Ephesians 6:16-17
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all th flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (NIV)

The shield of faith - faith in this context is our absolute confidence in God... (Ingram).  We use this shield to quench all the fiery darts that Satan or his demons shoot at us.  The fiery darts/missiles are the schemes, temptattions, lies, deceptions, and attacks aimed at God's people to get us to "shift our focus" to something or someone other than God. (Ingram).  The goal of Satan is to "shift our focus." 

The fiery darts may take on many different forms, but listed below are some of the ways they show up:
1. Blasphemous thoughts
2. Hateful thoughts
3. Doubts - Doubts in Christianity
4. Burning desire to sin
5. Overpowering times of depression - unexplained.

I remembering hearing his explainations of each fiery dart mentioned above and realizing how real this warfare is in my life.  For my own understanding, I have to go back to what he said in the beginning of these lessons.  Satan can not cause us to sin - we do that.  But sometimes he is tempting us or putting thoughts into our heads and we don't even realize it.  Satan starts with disguise, lies and doubt.  He will tempt us in 3 basic ways - Lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.  Read Gen. 3 and Matthew 4, to see how Satan tempeted Adam and Eve and won in the garden and how he tempted Jesus and lost.  Both times he used the same steps.

So how do we survive?
1. Trusting in God's Character
2. Trusting in God's Promises and Word
3. Trusting in God's Program and Timing

As I am writing this I realize there is still so much more I want to express or tell you, but I don't want this post to be too long.  So I want to express some of my reactions.  After hearing this talk, the past two weeks have exposed some of Satan's fiery darts in my own life.  For me personally I tend to believe or doubt or trust in the lust of the eyes.  I realized my thoughts of how to satisfy my own sexual desires were not rooted in the word.  I had ideas that were not Christ centered or based on God's word.  I had strong burning desires to sin, and part of me would have rationalized those desires.  I know that giving in would have been my choice and I would be sinning, but those thoughts were stronger than they should have been.  Some of those thoughts were Satan's fiery darts.

Then my wife as we were driving to a restaurant for a date night, had many thoughts of depression, anger, and a desire to hurt me and herself.  It didn't seem normal so I started saying we need to pray, which only made my wife more angry and malicious.  So I just started praying, using verses that came to mind.  Saying similar phrases that Chip had used and I prayed for God's love to be present in my life and our night.  I can't remember everthing I prayed, I just remember the moment and how God was in that moment.  Once I finished praying, my wife immediately felt a peace about her and her thoughts of anger and depression were gone.  I cannot physically explain it, but God was working and I thank God that our bible study was studying this subject.

Chip said something I want to leave with you.  He gave one definition of love that he had learned and I had to write it down.  "Love is not a feeling. It is giving a person what they need the most when they least deserve it."

The Invisible War - Session 5 (part 1)

Last week's teachings was intense and filled with information.  There were so many good principles and applications, that we are going to split the session into two different posts.  For the first time in the past 4 weeks, we have now started talking about the offensive parts of the "Armor of God"

Chip starts this session with telling an amazing story of the enemy (Satan or demonic forces) attacking him in a very physical way.  He goes on to say that this may not happen for everybody, but it does happen, so what do we do in light of this.  That is what sessions 5 is all about.

Session 5 is titled "Engaging the Enemy".  Here are "Four Facts You Need to Know"

• Fact #1 God has objectively defeated Satan and his agenda. He has delivered us from sin's penalty and power and ultimately will deliver us from sin's very presence. In the interim, we are involved in guerrilla warfare with demonic forces.
• Fact #2 As believers, we have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of light with all the rights, privileges, and position that being a child of God entails.
• Fact #3 The spiritual battle we fight involves a responsibility on our part to "put on" the spiritual protection that God has provede for us.
• Fact #4 The great majority of spiritual warfare need never go beyond the regular practice of living out our position in Christ by faith.  Our practice of Paul's metaphor of the spritiual armor protects us from Satan's ongoing attempts to break our fellowship with Jesus and, as a result, greatly minimizes any impact by the Enemy. (Chip Ingram)

For this post, I just want to give you as much information about the enemy attacking and what that looks like (keeping in mind it will look differently for each person) and ask a key Question.  In part 2 we will answer that question and others as well as a reflection on what I have learned from this past session.

When will we face Satan's Attacks:

1. Taking spiritual steps in faith for spiritual growth.
2. Evangelizing - Invading the Enemy Territory
3. Exposing him (Satan) for who he really is.
4. Repenting and making a clean break from the world or a sin pattern.
5. God is preparing us for His glory.

I know this is a lot of information so I leave you with this question from Chip.  Once you're wearing your spiritual armor and yet find yourself bombarded by spiritual opposition, How do you engage and win the battles?