“There is a kingdom. The king lives in a palace on a hill. He can only maintain or expand the boundaries of his kingdom if he has an army to fight on his behalf. In the kingdom there are a number of large military bases. They spend hours singing praises of their king. A large number of soldiers spend their time telling the children of the king’s exploits in the past. The senior officers bustle around looking extremely busy. Some even move from base to base encouraging the troops. The bases are well equipped with provisions and regular newsletters are published. People are regularly recruited, because the bases are exciting places to be, but no one actually goes out to fight.

The Soldiers are so busy on their bases that they do not realize that enemy armies are invading the kingdom. Occasionally, someone comes down off the watchtower and raises an alarm. The soldiers respond by getting busy in their training activities.

Sometimes a soldier fires a gun in the direction of one invading army, but because the shot is misdirected and fired in fear, it has no impact.

One day the army wakes up and finds that their camps are totally surrounded by enemy soldiers. The training camps have not been designed for defense, so they will have no alternative but to surrender.

Many will have expected the king to come out of his castle on the hill, and deliver the people from the enemy, with a new miraculous weapon. This is vain hope. The king remains in his palace where he belongs.

If the army is to retake the kingdom for the king, the soldiers will be forced out into the towns and the countryside to form guerrilla units. By forming small cohesive units that can exist under domination by the enemy army, they will eventually drive out the enemy armies and retake the kingdom.” (John & Paula Sandford – Elijah House)

Amos 6:1 says, “Woe to you who are at ease in Zion. Then in 6:3 he says, Woe to you who put far off the day of doom. I believe that God is speaking to us today. He is saying, Church, be on guard for I am coming soon and you must be ready. Are you ready?

We are not defending our Church. I feel the reason we are not defending God’s church is that we do not realize that we are being attacked. We are at ease and we are not good soldiers in God’s army. A soldier is always on alert, never sleeping when he is on watch. We in the church are asleep

The church is at ease and God is not happy with us being at ease. Our mission in this world is to spread the gospel. In order to spread the gospel we must battle with Satan. There is no choice in the matter. Satan does not want us to spread the gospel so he will fight us all the way.

Matthew 4:1-11 tells us about Jesus being tempted by Satan. This was the first act of the ministry of Jesus. He had to defeat Satan before He could start His ministry. He had to let Satan know who was in charge.

I have found in my teaching in community colleges and schools that if you are to teach you have to let your students know who is in control of the classroom. This is what Jesus was doing when He combated Satan. Jesus was saying, “Satan, you may tempt me, and you may tell me all of those lies, but I am in control. I will have the last word. I will be victorious and you cannot win.”

Today Satan is raging. He is fighting on every front. Radical Islam is unleashing its angry wrath against all who refuse to bow to Allah. In North Korea, a raging, demon possessed dictator is threatening the world, even as he unleashes cruel oppression and starvation on his own people. In Europe and the United States, the wrath of those who loathe and despise the name of Jesus is intensifying. Finally, there is the wrath of the ungodly who have given themselves over to sin. They rage in their effort to throw off God’s rule completely. Yes, Satan is raging, but we as disciples of Jesus will be victorious.

The problem is we don’t think Satan is real. If we do think he is real, we don’t see him as our enemy. If we don’t believe he is real, how can we fight something that is not real? If we believe that God is real and He is all powerful, we cannot reject the idea of Satan being real.

I have heard pastors say that we should not talk about Satan and what he does or how he works, because in talking about him we glorify him. I believe we need to know about Satan. We need to pray against Satan and we need to know how to fight and defeat him.

Do you believe that the army of the United States would go against an enemy and say that we should not talk about that enemy or know how he thinks and how he will react? Our army knows everything they can know about the enemy before they go to war. We should know everything we can about our enemy so that we can fight him and win.

David Wilkerson tells us, “No amount of compromise, love or tolerance will ever satisfy this demonic anger and fury. In fact, it’s only going to get worse, much worse. Right now, wrathful forces are gaining increased political power, running for offices worldwide and getting elected.

We are not to fret over battles that Satan seems to be winning. The battle we’re in is an eternal one. And the gates of hell will not prevail against Christ’s church. Our Father has declared it: Jesus already reigns as King!”

“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (Ephesians 6:11)

Satan will attack us when we are growing spiritually. If we are working on getting closer to God we can expect an attack from Satan. He wants us to be mediocrity and ineffective in our walk with Jesus. Satan wants us be a lukewarm Christian. Satan will always attack us when we are starting to read God’s Word everyday and have an alone time with God. Satan will always tell us that we are too busy to grow close to God.

Satan will attack us when we are invading His territory. When you are getting involved in evangelism or helping others grow in God, Satan will attack you. He will tell you that what you are doing is just not worth the effort. We need to remember that if we reach just one soul for Jesus it is worth it all.

Satan will attack you when you are exposing him for what he is. When I start writing about Satan and exposing how he attacks us, he will send his army to attack me every way he can. I knew when I started writing this blog on Spiritual Warfare that Satan would attack me. He may attack me, but I must be obedience to God. I know that God will protect me if I am doing His will.

Satan will attack you when you are breaking with the world. When you repent and start serving God. You will receive the full force of Satan’s attack. Satan does not give up his strongholds in our lives easily or lightly. When we repent and start to follow Jesus it does not mean that life will be a bed of roses. It means that the peace of God will be in our hearts and we will spend eternity with Him in heaven. We will still have trouble on earth, because this is not our home. Our home is in heaven.

Yes, Satan will attack us and try to win us back to him, but we need to do as Paul wrote in Ephesians, put on the whole armor of God. This is what God provided for us so that we can win the war that we are fighting.

There is a spiritual world that is more real than the physical world that we live in. So many times we try to fight our battles in the physical world when the victory can only come if we fight them in the spiritual ream. The war that we in America are fighting against the terrorist is a spiritual war and we will not ever win this war by fighting it in the physical.

Ephesians 6:10-18 give us some of our weapons that we use to fight Satan.

Prayer > God’s Word > Hope of Salvation > Faith > Peace > The Truth of the Gospel which is that Jesus is our Salvation and we have victory because of Him.

The first of these is prayer. Prayer is so important and can be used both on the offense and the defense. This is the weapon that we seem to use the least and we should use the most.

We don’t pray enough. We don’t get alone with God enough and be in His presence enough. We pray when we have trouble. This is not bad, we should ask God for help when we need Him, because He loves us and wants to help, but He wants our fellowship at other times also. Satan knows that prayer is important, so he will try in every way to keep us from praying. He knows that there is power in our prayers.

God’s word, the Bible, must not only be in our head, but it must be in our heart. Satan has head knowledge of the Word of God. He can quote scripture to you all day long, but he does not have it in his heart.

I was in line at the Post Office the other day and this lady in front of me had a plastic bag. In that bag was a Bible. This Bible looked pitiful, it was worn. This Bible had been used. This is what our Bibles need to look like. We need to have worn out Bibles that we have used and studied to get the Word in our hearts. Daily reading and meditation on God’s Word is more important for our health than food. It is important for all areas of our life.

When we have gotten this Word of God into our hearts, we can see the hope of our salvation. With the hope of salvation comes our faith and our peace. This is the peace that Paul talks about in Philippians, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

With this peace that God gives us we can comprehend what Jesus did for us on the cross.

Jesus gave us insight into how we are to fight this war. In Matthew chapter four we see Jesus in a battle with Satan. Jesus tells us that we do not live by bread alone, but by the Word of God, the Bible. Then He tells us that we need to fear, love and worship God and only God alone. He was fighting Satan with the greatest weapon that we have. He was fighting Satan showing that we are to pursuit God. Psalm 42:1 tells us, “As the deer pants for the water brook, so my soul thirst for God, for the living God.” If we are to have victory over Satan, we need to have a soul that is thirsting for God.

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Peter 5:7)

Satan is out to destroy each and ever Christian. As you get closer to God, Satan will use every weapon that he can to destroy you. One of the weapons that he uses is attacking your mind. He will impersonate our own thoughts. All of our self-thoughts are not demonic, but many of them do have their source in the demonic.

Extremely negative thoughts “I am a failure” – “I am ugly” – “I am worthless” – “I will never succeed” – “God doesn’t love me” – “no one cares about me.”

Prideful thoughts “I am better than others” – “I am smarter than he is” – “I am more spiritual than they are” – “I don’t need anyone else.”

Rebellious thoughts “I have the right to do what I want with my life” – “Nobody is going to tell me what to do.”

Hatred “I don’t like them because…” – “I will never forgive them…” – “I want them to suffer the way they made me suffer.”

Suicide “I am better off dead” – “Nobody cares if I die anyway” – “They’ll be sorry when I die” – “Why not drive my car head on into incoming traffic.”

Romans 12:3 tells us to think soberly. This means that we have a realistic self evaluation of our live and our thoughts. Pray and ask God’s help in clearing our minds of these thoughts that come from Satan.

“He who destroys has come before your face. Man the fort! Watch the road! Strengthen your flanks! Fortify your power mightily.” (Nahum 2:1)

Satan is out to destroy us. He wants to make us fail or to feel that we are a failure. The closer you get to God the harder the battle becomes. We are in a war and this war is the war for our souls and where we will spend eternity. C.S. Lewis said, “There is no neutral ground in the universe; every square inch, every split second is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan.”

Scott Peak wrote a book on the evil in the world. The title of the book is “The people of the Lie.” He started the book to proof that there was no Satan but that people were just evil. He changed his mind and came to realize that Satan is real.

He writes, “The spirit I witnessed at each exorcism was clearly, utterly and totally dedicated to opposing human life and growth. It told both patients to kill themselves. When asked in one exorcism why it was the antichrist, it answered, because Christ taught people to love each other. When further questioned as to why human love was so distasteful, it replied I want people to work in business so that there will be war. I want to kill you. There was absolutely nothing creative or constructive about it; it was purely destructive.”

Satan’s threats are always empty. They are always lies. The only power that Satan has is if humans believe his lies.

To defeat Satan our only power is in the Holy Spirit. It is in the Word of God and prayer. Satan does not want us to read and study God’s Word. He will lie to you and tell you that you don’t have time to pray and study. Don’t believe His lies.

God wants to stretch us. He wants us to have challenges. He wants us to do something that we cannot do without Him. He wants us to depend on Him.