My message today is Part One in a new series. I am calling this series:
I am not sure how long the series will go... however long the Holy Spirit leads through the Word of God. So let's go, okay?
"Finally, my brothers and sisters, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:10-12)
As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, when we seek to live out the blessings that have been sent down to us from heaven, we find out very quickly that there is a host of evil powers clawing and jabbing and grasping at us... to keep us far away from the experience of the joys and contentments of God.
Lesson 1 | You are living every moment of your life in the atmosphere of an invisible and fierce SPIRITUAL WARFARE.
There is an unceasing war between God and the devil, heaven and hell, angels and demons, truth and lies.
God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life... even as the devil hates you and has a diabolical plan for your life.
The devil's plan does not confine itself to religion. He is not fighting you on the religious plane only. He is attacking, tooth and nail, in your emotional health too. And in your love life and in your sense of confidence. He pummels your identity, ambushes your relationships, assaults your friendships, and tears into your morality. He fights your fulfillment, aggresses your gratitude, and harpoons your happiness... If he can, he'll poison your personality, sabotage your sexuality, and contaminate your money. You are in a war, and your enemy considers ever aspect of life the battlefield, so you'd better do the same.
Satan spews his acid onto absolutely everything you touch, and he doesn't play fair.
So you need to be a Christian in complete armor, and this is what we will be working out from Scripture over the coming weeks and months.
And I will just give you a heads up that the devil will do anything he can to keep you from all of these particular messages, so I lovingly say, please wake up and ask God to give you strength.
Like I said, this is part one in the series. My title for the today is:
I took this title from Ephesians 6:11, the words highlighted on the screen in today's verse.
To set up this series, I want to mash up today's Scripture with two more places in the Bible. In this one, God is speaking to Joshua, the successor to Moses.
"Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan River, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them—the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses.... Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them." (Joshua 1:2,3,6)
The land is the land of Canaan, and of all people, the Jews have the most ancient claim. Five hundred years before Joshua came to its border—the Jordan River—Abraham already possessed this land. God gave it to them.
"Every place the soil of your foot will tread upon I have given you."
It is "the land which [God] swore to their fathers to give them."
