Spiritual Warfare: Understanding What It Means by Rev. Christie Bature: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

1 Timothy 6:12 — Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

So what is the Bible saying? With one hand, engage the enemy. But with the other hand, hold on tight to eternal life. Because some of us when we start spiritual warfare, we throw away the eternal life because we enter some realms that God didn't send us.

When I say engrossed with the world, I'm not saying only blatant sin. Engrossed can be through bitterness. Bitterness will make some people too heavy to be caught up in the sky when the Lord comes. Greed. Addiction. Fear. Unforgiveness. Over-spirituality.

Things That Make You Lose Your Grip on Eternal Life

Bitterness. Many times, cancer, ulcers, liver problems, kidney problems are a product of unforgiveness. The unforgiveness is so deep it becomes toxins in your body. The person that did you something — they have gone. They have forgotten that they hurt you. And you are still sitting there with the thing, eating at you, beating you up. Why will you suffer twice? Now you have suffered the pain of what the person did to you, and now you are suffering the pain of memories that are eating you.

Greed. Greed is the worship of money. Go read it in Galatians 3 and Ephesians 5. When you are greedy, you can never engage spiritual warfare, because your attention is divided. In fact, not even divided — all your attention is on whatever you are pursuing.

Addiction. There is no way you can have addiction in your life and be engaged in spiritual warfare. Why? There is already a god enthroned, and it is not the God of heaven.

Fear. Every time God says you make a move, "Hey, what if I fail?" When are you going to ask the devil, "What if I win? What if I succeed?" God says to you, "Go speak to that person." "Hey, what if they reject me?" Carry the rejection, give it back, and walk to the next person. Procrastination is an expression of fear, most of the time.

Unforgiveness. The person that did you something, they have long gone, has forgotten, does not care. You are still sitting there with the thing. Don't allow unforgiveness to become a toxin.

Hypocrisy. Matthew 23:27-28 — Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you are like unto whitened sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

The man on the pulpit must be the man in the house. The most powerful preachers who have ever come — if their children sit in front of you and say, "I hate my dad. The man on the pulpit is not the man in the house" — that is hypocrisy.

King Saul: A Warning Against Jealousy

1 Samuel 18:6-12 — The women came out of all cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul. And the women answered one another and said, "Saul has slain his thousands and David his 10,000." And Saul was very angry and the saying displeased him. And Saul eyed David from that day forward. And it came to pass on the morrow that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul. And David played with his hand as at other times. And there was a javelin in Saul's hand. And Saul cast the javelin, for he said, "I will smite David even to the wall with it." And David avoided out of his presence twice. And Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with David and was departed from Saul.

What happened to Saul? Jealousy knocked him out of service. This is a man God made the first king of Israel. The Bible says he was taller than everybody in Israel, he was handsome, his father was rich. And he was the first king that God trusted to lead his people. But jealousy knocked him out of service — the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul.

If you are the team leader and your team does a fantastic job, who gets the glory? The team lead. Don't allow jealousy. It can cost you eternal life.

Martha: Preoccupied with Appearances

Luke 10:40-41 — Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him and said, "Lord, dost thou not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me." And Jesus answered and said unto her, "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things."

Martha was concerned about much serving — but this is not service out of love. This is service out of eye service. This is service for visibility. When you are troubled about many things, you can let go of your grip on eternal life because many things are pulling you in too many directions.

What Spiritual Warfare Actually Is

Spiritual warfare is learning the heart and the mind of God and growing towards the measure of the stature of Christ. It is not groaning in the spirit. To do proper spiritual warfare is to learn the heart and the mind of God and to grow towards the measure of the stature of Christ.

Satan's main aim? To stop us from relating with God. To stop us from having fellowship with God. Because when we have fellowship with God, we are changed. When we have fellowship with God, we become aware of our authority. Then we stand and we knock the devil's plans to the ground.

Ephesians 4:13 — Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Look at Saul's transition to Paul. Who was Saul? A man who knew the word of God, but he wasn't chasing after God. So he started fighting against God — going from place to place catching Christians and they were killing them. And then he transitioned to Paul, growing to establish churches and write most of the New Testament. Now see the effect of Paul's work today. He is still decimating the kingdom of darkness. Saul to Paul proved that spiritual warfare is learning the mind of God and striving to conform to the image of Christ.

The Elements of the Good Fight

Spiritual warfare is first of all a good fight. Before it is an ugly and bad fight against the enemy. What is the good fight? Striving to conform to the image of Christ. So establish the elements of the good fight first before you engage with the enemy.

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If you don't establish the elements of the good fight first, all that shouting you are doing — you are just spoiling your throat, stressing your vocal cords. The demons are just sitting down watching you. When you do that finish, they come after you. There's no power in it.

Paul said, "When your obedience is complete, then you can punish wickedness. You can punish unrighteousness after your obedience is complete." What are we obeying? The command to become like Jesus daily.

What are the elements of the good fight?

• Righteousness
• Peace
• Joy in the Holy Ghost

If righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost are not in place, engaging the enemy is suicidal. Satan will play with you like a football.

The whole armor of God will not sit well on an unrighteous son. The armor of God — the helmet of salvation, the belt of truth, the shield of faith, the sword of the spirit, the shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace — they will not sit well on an unrighteous son. You see why spiritual warfare is first of all conforming to the image of Christ. When you do that, you can now put on the armor of God effectively, and you become an incredible warrior.

Peace is not circumstances. Peace is a person. Who is he? Jesus. Isaiah 9 — His name shall be called wonderful, counselor, mighty God, and the prince of peace. Peace is a person. So if I have Jesus in me, I have peace.

Joy is a state of being. It's not dependent on events and circumstances. Joy is knowing in your knower — that he will cause all things to work together, all things — good, bad, ugly — for my good. So in the midst of this madness, I know the end product, as far as God is concerned, is good. So I'm going to stay calm and watch God do what he's going to do.

Real Spiritual Warfare Is Consistency

Spiritual warfare is consistency. Doggedly practicing spiritual disciplines daily, daily, daily. Routinely, unfailingly carrying your cross daily.

This helps in training your mind. It helps in training your thoughts to agree with the word of God. The entrance of the word is doing something even though you can't feel it. Staying with your daily discipline — praying, reading your Bible, meditating on the word, listening to messages, reading books that have to do with God, studying about God — they help you to train your mind and thoughts to agree with the word of God.

Psalm 63:1 — Oh God, thou art my God. Early will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth after thee. My flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.

David came daily before the Lord. If you have to wake up an hour earlier just to have time to be with God, wake up. If you have to get up and be with God early so that you would set that tone for the day — so that that day is beginning with you conforming to the image of the Son — do it.

Get involved with real spiritual warfare. Don't get so engrossed with the world that you lose hold of eternal life. If all of us get involved with real spiritual warfare, our atmospheres will change. Our environment will change. We will decimate the kingdom of darkness — without too much effort. Like Jesus, you will just say to the wind, "Hey, calm down." And it will bow.

Chase righteousness, peace, and joy. Your warfare will be powerful, but it will be effortless. Because the real warfare is first a good fight. The real warfare is consistency.