PT-4 "The Battle: Against Demons" (Eph. 6:12)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/6/2019 9:20 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  PT-4 “The Battle: Against Demons”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 6:12

 

            Message of the verse:  “12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

 

            We have been talking about the respect that we are to have when it comes to Satan, and his demons, and by that I mean that we are to realize that they are very powerful.  I want to quote from the book of Acts to make a point about this:  “13 But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, "I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches." 14 Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said to them, "I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" 16 And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded” (Acts 19:13-16). 

 

            John MacArthur writes “A guard who sees the enemy approaching does not run out and start fighting.  He reposts the attack to his commanding officer, who then organizes the defense.  When Satan attacks, it is foolish to try to do battle with him alone.  Like the soldier on guard duty, we should simply report to the Commander and leave the defense in His hands.  As the Lord assured King Jehoshaphat as his army faced the greatly superior forces of Moab and Ammon, ‘Do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God’s (2 Chron. 10:15).

 

            My friend John Weldon, who has devoted many years of his life to the study of cults and false religions, warns believers: 

 

‘God did not make us in such a way that we can function either safely or effectively in a demon environment.  Even if it is neutral, which it clearly is not, who knows what demons can do in their own environment and what interrelationships exist or can be manufactured between their world and ours?  We were not made to fly around in astral realms.  Granted the existence of the demonic, one is playing in an astral pigpen filled with evil and hostility.  We were not made with the intellectual capacities to separate the good from the evil, the true from the false, in the occult realm.  For example, the prophet Daniel was a brilliant and godly young man however, even he had to be given additional wisdom from God in a special way to be able to have discernment in occult matters.  Thus involvement in such things will always produce faulty conclusions, because man as a fallen creature does not have the necessary equipment or ability to sort out demonic matters.’”

 

            We as believers who know the Bible can understand that Satan and his invisible demons are continually at work in the world and all around us.  However we don’t know how many demons there are and we do not have the wisdom to discern exactly when they are present, or what kind they are, as we have stated that there are different categories of demons, or different ranks.  God has given us the Spiritual Armor to be put on and we have mentioned that this is a once and for all thing we can do, but it is good to remind ourselves of the uses of each piece of the armor as we put it on in the morning.  Remember that all but the Word of God is to be used in defense and then the Sword of the Spirit is the offensive weapon that is what is used to attack in a similar way that our Lord used it in Matthew chapter four.  1 John 4:4 is another good verse to remember “Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world.”

 

            We have a number of verses to quote from “Love in Action” in today’s SD.

 

Jesus put forth His hand

and touched the leper saying,

“I will.  Be thou clean.”  And immediately

the leprosy was removed (Luke 5:13).  So He

touched her hand, and the fever left her.  And she

arose and served them (Matthew 8:15).  So Jesus had

compassion and touché their eyes.  And immediately their

eyes received sight, and they followed Him (Matthew 20:34).

He took him aside from the multitude, and put His

fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched

his tongue….Immediately his ears were

opened, and the impediment of his

tongue was loosed  Mark 7:33, 35).

And He touched his ear and

healed him (Luke 22:51).

 

10/6/2019 9:49 PM