Spiritual Fruit equals Spiritual Warfare

Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might.  Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Eph 6:10-11

We talk about spiritual warfare and we know that our weapons are spiritual not physical because the fight is not with flesh and blood but against the kingdom of darkness. We need weapons of the Kingdom of Light to dispel and defeat darkness.

A friend confided that she was struggling with panic attacks because of a pending doctor's verdict for her dad because the situation looked bad. We were in church worshipping and after a few minutes I turned to her and said, "Your peace in this circumstance is more powerful then your fear.  In fact, your peace at this moment is your spiritual warfare."  I realised when I said it, that the enemy comes only to kill, steal and destroy. Her peace and joy was what was at stake in this trial.  It is powerful when, during trials, we can keep peace and joy at the forefront for the enemy has no hook with which to get us riled up, frustrated and fearful.

Do we think, in a trial, that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are having an emergency management conference in Heaven, brainstorming and declaring, "Oops this caught us off guard, what can we do here?"  What an absurd picture!  Yet our emotional reaction to trials shows that we really don't trust God has the answer and we frustrate ourselves trying to work it out.  Just think, when you maintain God's perfect peace during trials, you are really sending a message to the devil that you know God is Sovereign and you really trust He has it all in hand.

The fruit of the spirit is part of our spiritual warfare.  Love triumphs over hate.  Joy over mourning. Peace over anxiety and fear.  Patience over impatience. Kindness over meanness. Goodness over evil. Faith over doubt. Gentleness over violence. Self control over passions and emotions.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. If we live by the Spirit, let's also walk by the Spirit.  Gal 5:22-25

The thing is God always has a promise and provision for any trial.  If you are sick, Jesus wants to be your healer.  His promise is, "By His stripes you were healed"  (1Pet 2:24) and His provision is healing manifest in your body.  Maybe you don't know how you are going to pay a bill. His promise is that you will not lack (Matt 6:33-35) and He is the one who provides.

Let us give ourselves over to faith, not doubt and unbelief - faith in a faithful God who alone can split the Red Sea and keep the universe functioning.

Spiritual warfare

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Cor 10: 3-5

Divine power!  This really caught my attention as I was reading this scripture.  The weapons available to us are supernatural with inherent divine power.  I wondered about these weapons we have to demolish pretensions and arguments that seek to destroy our spiritual faith and walk. Arguments that stop our belief in the knowledge of God.  The bible tells us that those who know their God shall be strong and do exploits. Spiritual enemies like nothing more then to spread their lies and pretences for us to believe rather then what God has communicated to us in His Word. When we don't know who God is, we don't have faith in what He can do.  Whenever we don't see God as a loving, Almighty Creator of all, who dwells in the eternities and loves us, we have no confidence that He can and will deliver us. God is good. He desires good for His children. We just need to look at how Jesus died for us on the cross to see His love and desire for humankind,

So what are these divine, powerful weapons?  My thoughts went to Revelation 12:11.

"And they overcame him because of their testimony and the blood of Jesus and they loved not their lives unto death."

We are in a spiritual war for our souls and being in this spiritual war, we need spiritual weapons which God has given to us.  Our testimony - what God has done in our lives and how He has saved us is a powerful witness to those who are struggling with the same things that God so graciously freed us from - strongholds and bondages of being in a fallen world.  His Word has power to free us from these strongholds and bondages that grip our minds - lies we have believed about ourselves and God which are contrary to the Word.  Our testimony brings hope to others. I recalled the verse of scripture from Ps 149 4-6, 9

For the LORD takes pleasure in His people: He will beautify the meek with salvation

Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud on their beds.

Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two edged sword in their hands.....

To execute upon them the judgements written: this is the honour of all His saints.  Praise ye The Lord.

This reminds me of the scripture in Hebrews 4:12 that tells us that the Word of God is active and powerful, like a two edged sword.  The testimony that is most powerful is the Word of God that comes from our lips. Declaring God's word over our situations and loved ones will bring the divine power of the Word to actively change, reconcile, heal or bring repentance.  It defeats the enemy's plans to kill, steal and destroy.

Oh the blood, the powerful blood of the Lamb that washes us clean from our sins and begins to restore.  The blood is an effective, powerful, spiritual weapon against the enemy and accuser of our souls. The blood covers and protects. Death could not take the Israelites when they sprinkled the blood of the lamb on the lintels of their doors when waiting God's deliverance from Egypt.  The death angel had to pass over when he saw the blood and this was a type of what was to come.  Jesus bled His blood out, laying down His life for us and in doing so, gives eternal life to those who plead the blood.  The enemy has no weapon against the blood of the Lamb which has redeemed us. We have great worth having been purchased by the imperishable, incorruptible blood of Jesus Christ.

The final weapon, and loved not their lives to death, is also very powerful and can only be accomplished in our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit. When we are willing to lay down our lives for each other, living in love and desiring only the best for others, the enemy has lost his grip on us.  When we refuse to gossip, be envious or take offence and instead encourage, love and support others, how can he influence us in any way and will therefore remain a defeated foe.  Love is definitely a divine weapon.

Let us ask God for the boldness to love as Christ loved us and to be able to fearlessly proclaim Him who called us out of darkness and into the light and to give us revelation of His word and His wisdom for all situations we find ourselves facing.