Audio and Written Versions: Spiritual Warfare Session 9

Biblical Spiritual Warfare Session 9

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Session 8

My name is Basie Martins. I trust that you are all well and I want to thank you again for listening to this series. For you who do not know, this series is about spiritual warfare. In the previous session, we discussed the elements and the foundation of real spiritual warfare. We determined that God did disarm the devil and his demons completely and that all of us are protected by an impenetrable hedge around us. Evil cannot even harm non-believers if they do not open doors for evil or give evil a foothold in their lives. The open doors and the footholds come when evil influences us and cause us to get involved in sin and doubt in the word and the will of God. God gave us the hedge and that solved a lot of problems for us in terms of direct physical attacks from evil powers. We, however, need to protect ourselves against the lies and the temptations of evil by taking unto us truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation and the word of God.

In this session, we will be discussing the same subject in more detail.

When it comes to spiritual warfare it is very important to check what is on your mind. What type of thoughts is constantly going through your mind? What are you thinking about every day or most of the time? What issues are you pondering upon? With what are you keeping yourself busy with? What “data” are you processing in your mind.

This is very important. We all have certain God-given abilities irrespective of who we are. One of the most important facts to remember is that all human beings were created into the image of God. That makes us different from all other living creatures. Because of that, we all have the ability to create wonderful things. That is a fact. Like the Creator of all things that exist, God Almighty, people do have the ability to create. People create new things all the time. It is all in us just waiting to come to life or to come into existence. That is what we are and that is what we do. Sometimes it takes an effort to create something, especially good things. People creating all those beautiful paintings or those beautiful sculptures dig deep into their resources of creativity to bring those pieces of art into existence.

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Just think of a writer writing a book. It takes time and it takes creative thinking to write a best seller. What is more enjoyable and more self‐sufficient than writing a good book that changes people’s lives?

Some things are easier to create but may involve more effort and more work from a lot of people to bring into existence. Engineers and building contractors building a new bridge or a skyscraper comes to mind. Even a concrete structure created by human beings can be a wonderful piece of art.

What does all this have to do with spiritual warfare? Everything! You see, like God, human beings create with their minds. Everything that we see around us started with a thought. Somebody thought of something and eventually, that thought brought that thing that he thought about into existence. A lot of things happen after the initial thought but the bottom line is, that thought eventually became a word and that word caused actions. These actions eventually caused the final product to exist. Actions bring reality, although it started with a mere thought.

These things are important because it determines not only our physical circumstances but also our spiritual circumstances. It lays out new journeys that we continuously embark upon. It determines our future. It determines who we will become one day. That is why we read in the book of Proverbs that man is what he thinks:

Proverbs 23:7

For as he (man) thinketh in his heart, so is he…

You become what you think! That can only imply that what we think does influence us tremendously. How does it influence us? It influences us because we can say what we think. This is a big and very important mystery about the ability of all mankind. Because we have been created into the image of God, we also have that same ability that God has. We can also speak! Like God, we can also speak things into existence!

Romans 4:17

…and calleth those things which be not as though they were

This is exactly how God created the universe; He just spoke everything into existence:

Genesis 1:3

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light

That is exactly how God created the whole universe. He created everything by speaking it into existence. In a way, we cannot create physical things with our words as God can but when it comes to spiritual matters we can.

Luke 17:6

And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you

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Matthew 21:21

Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.

It is important to understand that we must speak the word of God in faith. When we believe what we say, what we say will eventually come into existence. Unfortunately, this principle also applies to negative words of unbelief. If we believe negative things, we start saying or confessing those negative things and, eventually, those negative words will bring those negative things that we confess, into existence. If we believe what we think we speak those things into existence. This is how our fears become a reality in our lives.

Job 3:25

For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me

Many people do not understand this all-important truth. They just cannot get it that this whole business of speaking negative things is bad for us.

A friend of mine once had a dream of a white man giving him a coin made of gold. He put the coin in his mouth and swallowed it. This man wanted to swallow the coin but he was not sure if he should or wanted to do that. When he swallowed the coin it diverted from his throat to his chest. It slowly moved away from inside his throat to his chest and it was eventually right beneath his skin. His skin became very loose and thin and he could push and work the coin down to an area between his heart and his stomach. It was however just underneath his loose skin and he pulled it out and threw it away without even bleeding, so thin and dry his skin was.

I asked this man whether somebody talked to him about the power of the spoken word especially concerning the children of God possessing power in their tongues. I did this because a coin in dreams and visions symbolizes the spoken word of God and the color gold symbolizes faith. This means that this man needed to accept the fact that the word of God, spoken in faith, is a reality and it needs to be believed as such symbolized by him “eating” or accepting that truth. I explained to him that when we speak the word of God in faith we have the power to call things into existence. I also explained to him that we cannot say whatever we want to because life or death is in the tongue.

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Apart from God, Christians are the only living beings that can do that. We were made according to the image of God and we are God’s children and that is why we possess this power. He told me that he has heard that explanation many times before and that he never believed it to be true. It is still hard for him to believe that it is true. I told him that the reason why he had the dream is God showing him that he just does not want to believe this truth and that is why he could not get it swallowed and into his stomach which is his spirit.

They hear people preaching these truths but they just do not get it. They really do not believe this! That is why even Christians are continuing the bad habit of just recklessly thinking of what they want and recklessly saying what they want. We expose ourselves to toxic thoughts that result in us speaking toxic words that bring toxic things into existence in our lives.

Because of this recklessness and this ignorance, undisciplined people pay dearly. There is just not the necessary caution, about thinking and speaking, that people should have. They think recklessly and they gossip and they say things recklessly just as they want to. People speak their minds without realizing the consequences. Unfortunately, all these negative words always have its effects in and on our lives. It creates a negative future. It brings a whole lot of trouble our way. Why, because we always believe what we say. The fact that we have said something is proof that we believe it. Nobody just says something unless they believe it. This principle applies to everybody, believers and unbelievers.

Thoughts are always initiated by someone. Thoughts come into existence by evil spirits, by other people, by ourselves and by God. We as human beings have the ability, however, to reject all those thoughts. We do not have to accept any thought unless we want to ponder on certain specific thoughts. We get to choose! It is our God-given ability. This is a very important principle in the kingdom of God. 

2 Corinthians 10:5

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ

There it is, we have control over our thoughts. We can “bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ”. This tells us that we really should control our thoughts. We should replace negative thoughts with the word of God. We should be disciplined when it comes to this aspect of our faith walk with Christ. This changes everything!

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The other day I received a message from one of my friends. This brother loves Christ and he loves all peoples and all nations. He was called as a missionary to preach the gospel of Christ all over Africa.

The text message I received from this guy, however, was very negative. He felt very negative towards his people, the Afrikaner nation. In this message, he was complaining about all sorts of things about the Afrikaner nation. He compared the Afrikaner nation to the nations where he ministered and he had all sorts of bad things to say about our nation.

I could not understand why this was such an issue to him. To be honest, I do not even think about these things and to me, there is nothing to be complaining about. In fact, I do not complain about anything about any nation that walks this earth. I am a Christian. I belong to Christ. Although I am part of the Afrikaner nation I am first and foremost from the family of God. I am not from this world. I treat and judge all nations the same. That includes my nation.

Is the Afrikaner nation bad in comparison to other nations? No, not at all. When I compare the white Afrikaner nation with other nations I am very proud of this little nation.

To me, this nation is not doing bad when it comes to the way we live. We are a Christian nation and we have some good people in this nation. Although we are not perfect we keep high moral standards and we treat other people very well. We do love other nations. The level of racism within the white Afrikaner nation is probably lower than most nations right across the world today. I think we came a long way since 1994. Is there anything to complain about in our nation? Probably but we are no worse than other nations. I think we are doing very well as a nation.

My question about this aspect is, why is my brother in Christ wasting his time harboring all these negative thoughts about this? What purpose does this have? Is there any good in this?

Sometimes I see and hear people talk about and complaining about the state of economic affairs in the country. They talk about the high cost of living and they talk about all the difficulties putting food on the table, maintaining a roof over their heads and facing all the financial challenges that they have to face every day. I also hear people complaining about the challenges of getting their children through school and college. They are constantly talking and they are constantly thinking about the challenges of life, making a living and raising their children.

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Many people have many sleepless nights pondering about these things

What are all this complaining and all this thinking do for us? Why are we harboring all these negative thoughts? Let’s face it, these thoughts are all negative thoughts that influence us negatively daily. It causes fear, it causes doubt and it causes unbelief. It causes us to believe certain things and it causes us to say certain things. These are the very thoughts that we should bring under captivity to the obedience of Christ.

Paul so many times tells us in the Scriptures not to worry about these things. The Bible so many times tells us not to fear. It tells us not to regard all these negative things. We do not have to ponder on these things at all. We need to spend our time meditating on the word of God and to seek God’s face in prayer.

Matthew 6:25-34

25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

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This Scripture is as clear as daylight about the ways of God when it comes to these things. It says over and over, “take no thought” for or about these things. Why should we not think about these things? Because when we think about these things we open doors of doubt and unbelief in our lives. We start to doubt and we start to fear. In the process, we are opening ourselves up to temptations. We are tempted to do something about these things. We make our own plans. We do things built upon unbelief and fear. We are tempted to say things that are contrary to the word of God. We say negative things and these negative things bring negative situations into existence. Exactly what we have feared came over us. We became what we feared. We became what we thought.

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he”

For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me”

I think we all understand that thinking about all sorts of negative things is not good for us. What are we supposed to do then? It is all about focus. Lana Vawser answers this question so beautifully:

A THRONE ROOM ENCOUNTER WHERE JESUS GIVES PURITY A GIFT

Last year I had an open vision in my quiet time where I was taken to heaven and shown a mansion that was being prepared for a saint – a leader that was walking in Purity. A prophetic picture of what He was doing in the body of Christ.

I have had another encounter with the Lord recently where I saw a little girl before the throne of God.

She was dressed in a beautiful white party dress and she stood before His throne with such love, adoration, and worship of Him. She stood wide-eyed in awe of His beauty.

Her name is Purity!

I then see Jesus walk to her and He is holding a HUGE BUNCH of balloons in His hand. All the colors of the rainbow. He is smiling from ear to ear. Such deep affection and delight in who she is! His face is glowing and His eyes filled with tears at His love and delight for her.

He bends down and hands her this huge bunch of balloons but I then notice on the bottom of these balloon strings was a HUGE GOLD KEY!!! All of these balloons were tied onto this huge key.

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I see Purity standing there before the throne holding this key and there was a RAIN of His Glory falling like gold dust all over her as she held this big bunch of balloons. She was filled with such joy and she started to dance and twirl.

Then Jesus speaks to her:

I love you! I am so proud of you! I delight in you! My affection and love for you are higher than the heavens and deeper than the seas. I am CELEBRATING YOU! I am UNLOCKING a CELEBRATION over your life. To SEE how I celebrate you for who you are. I am UNLOCKING a greater season of CELEBRATION over you. A celebration of My promises being made manifest, joy and freedom like you have never known and breakthroughs beyond your wildest dreams. Heaviness and struggles you have been facing are melting away in this place as you are moving into greater ease and grace in the flow of My Spirit! Celebration and joy all around!”

His gaze intensifies as He looks at Purity with the fiery flame of His love burning in His eyes for her and He grabs her hand and says..

And it’s all going to flow and overflow from this deeper place of CHILDLIKE INTIMACY. It is all going to flow and overflow from this deeper place of the CHILDLIKE FAITH.”

Throne room encounters are before you in this season that will restore any areas where our intimacy has been lost. I will awaken you with My song over you to your identity and My love! I am celebrating you! My Glory is raining down on you! It is from THIS PLACE that you will change the world with Me.”

The KEY is THIS PLACE of CHILDLIKE INTIMACY!!!”

In this encounter, I heard the Lord speaking of the impartation contained in this word for deeper encounters of childlike intimacy with Him and LIVING FROM THAT PLACE and a season shift into greater CELEBRATION!!!

He celebrates you!!!! He is performing a great unlocking in your life of greater breakthroughs in His promises and increasing joy.. But the invitation in this encounter is to receive the greatest treasure of all…

HIM!!!

As we walk in purity of heart before the Lord, may we see God. (Matthew 5:8)

Lana Vawser

We need Christ! We need an intimate relationship with Him! We need to seek His face! We need to live in His presence! We need a childlike-intimacy with Him! We need to spend time in the secret chambers of God! We need to enter into His rest! From this place of childlike-intimacy, childlike-faith and childlike-rest we reign over all circumstances in our lives!

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It is in this place of child-like intimacy and child-like faith that our weapons of warfare are the strongest and the most effective: Truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation and the word of God just cannot be stronger when we spend time with Christ in the secret place.

This brings me to the topic that I really want to discuss in this session

How to deal with thoughts about spiritual warfare?

This is what the Bible says about how we should spend our time:

Philippians 4:4-8

4 Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.

5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

These Scriptures say it so beautifully. We should be busy with God and His word.

We should not be busy with evil spirits and demonic activities. We should not be busy pondering on water spirits and curses. We should not be busy meditating on doctrines of devils. We should not be pondering on forefathers and the sins of forefathers. We should not be busy with all sorts of strategies facing evil and evil spirits in our lives. We should not be busy pondering on the sins and the negativity of people and even of ourselves. We should not be pondering on any kind of evil or any kind of bad thing.

We should meditate on the word of God. We should ponder on the goodness of God. We should think of all the good things God did for us. We should remember all the miracles that God performed in our lives. We should pray to God and we should listen to God. We should be praising and worshiping God whenever we get the chance to do so. We should read books about God and we should listen to beautiful songs about God and about what He did for us.

We should not waste one minute harboring bad or negative thoughts of any kind and any nature. We should not expose our spirits to these toxic influences.

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When we spend our time pondering on evil spirits and evil strategies, we will become what we are thinking about. What we fear will come over us. Evil spirits will gain control over our minds and our bodies. We will open doors of unbelief. We will suffer and we will pay dearly for these mistakes.

These truths make it very clear on the way we need to go about our faith walk with Christ. Today, protect yourself against evil by taking control of your thoughts, your words, and your actions! Remember, it all starts with a mere little thought, but look at what it causes in our lives! The little thought becomes a word, and then the word becomes an action, and then the actions make the thought a reality.

It should have been stopped even before it became a thought. Because once the thought is conceived and believed, it becomes very difficult to control the tongue. The word that we speak is a natural result of the thought. It is very difficult not to say what we think:

James 3:1-18

1 My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.

2 For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.

3 Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.

4 Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whither soever the governor listeth.

5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!

6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:

8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.

10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.

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11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?

12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.

13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.

14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.

15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

This is what this session is all about right here in verse 6, “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell”

This is why our thoughts and our words change our lives. It has power in them similar to the creative power in the mouth of God. The only difference is that our power lies in our own circumstances and our own lives. We can change and we can create all sorts of things in our own circumstances and our own lives.

Our ultimate goal and our priority should always be to control our thoughts. This is where the battle is won. This is where the victory is secured. Not in all sorts of rituals and all sorts of man-made strategies about spiritual warfare. True spiritual warfare is not about evil and evil spirits. It is all about preventing evil from taking over our minds. From behind the hedge, they shoot all sorts of fiery darts at us. Those fiery darts are the lies and the temptations. We have the truth, the righteousness, the gospel of peace, the faith, the salvation and the word of God to protect us against these attacks. Those toxic words want you to sin and it wants you the doubt the word and the will of God. WE have the faith, It is all about not allowing toxic thoughts from germinating in our minds. This is where the battle is won and there is no better place to guarantee victory than in the presence of God.

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The ultimate goal in this regard is not to sin and not to believe the lies of the devil. We stay faithful and we keep pursuing holiness. We do not start to fear or to doubt the fact that in Christ we always have victory and dominion in all areas of life. Nothing can hurt us and nothing can kill us or harm us in any way. I will not fear anything at all:

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

2 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

3 Surely he shall deliver me from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

4 He shall cover me with his feathers, and under his wings shalt I trust: his truth shall be my shield and buckler.

5 I shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;

6 Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

7 A thousand shall fall at my side, and ten thousand at my right hand; but it shall not come nigh me.

8 Only with mine eyes shalt I behold and see the reward of the wicked.

9 Because I hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, my habitation;

10 There shall no evil befall me, neither shall any plague come nigh my dwelling.

11 For he shall give his angels charge over me, to keep me in all my ways.

12 They shall bear me up in their hands, lest I dash my foot against a stone.

13 I shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt I trample under feet.

This is what the Lord said about me:

14 Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.

15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.

16 With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

This is all for today. In the next session, which is the last session in this series, we are discussing a few general myths and a few wonderful truths about spiritual warfare.

Thanks for listening. See you next time.

Session 10

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