Sub: The Nature of Spiritual Warfare

Hi John:

Tonight the Lord wants me to share with you the nature of spiritual warfare. What is the nature of spiritual warfare? The same as physical warfare? The Book of Joshua brings this out graphically. The nature of physical warfare is holding onto and protecting the land that we hold. That is supposed to be the purpose of our military, to protect our borders from invasion and the taking over of foreign powers. This is the nature of spiritual warfare: hanging onto the territory God has given us to hold onto.  In the context of this Evangelism Training Program this would be holding onto and being faithful to the time commitments You have made to see the training program through to completion.

Everything Satan does is for the purpose of stealing and taking away territories we own. Jesus said "The thief came only to steal, and kill, and destroy." He does this in whatever way he can. He comes to steal our innocence, to steal our obedience to God. Obedience to God is a territory that Satan seeks to take away from us by getting us to disobey. Satan seeks to take away our virginity by getting us to go outside the boundaries God has set for us sexually:  marriage, by getting us to give into our lustful desires. Territory that we own is our spirit, our soul and our body. Satan seeks to take away our control of our spirit, soul and body through possession. Satan seeks to take away our soul’s by putting fear into our hearts that if we allow Jesus the freedom to do the spiritual work in our lives now he wants to do (Evangelism Training Program, education, development of abilities and gifts) before pursuing our desires that God will never satisfy and fulfill these desires. These are all lies of course. God is the creator of them all and has created them for our enjoyment, of course in His time.

How does God train us to do spiritual warfare so we will succeed in what He really has for us? Through obeying today what he has commanded us to do at present. The writer of the Book of Hebrews wrote,

"Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience."

God said about the Israelites who came out of Egypt who refused to obey Him,

"They shall not enter My rest. . . and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience."  (Hebrews 4:5-6)

They failed to enter because of unbelief which was manifested through disobedience. Faith and obedience are synonymous, they are one and the same.

John, what God has for us is not gained through pursuing what we want. What God has for us (ministry, vocation, wife, husband) comes to us through obedience to what he is currently telling us to do, not through anything else. I have shared with you many times about my past to allow you to see God’s faithfulness and goodness in my life when I refused to give up territory, in many of those cases moral territory. I refused to give up moral territory to complete my education, so the Lord told me because I was faithful to Him, He would assure my completing my education.  He did this by providing me a way to do it in one-fourth the time it would have taken me had I not obeyed.

Again, though, we ask the question, how does God teach us to have victory in spiritual warfare? By obeying what He is currently telling us to do. What are current territories God has give you to do and keep? First, your daily Quiet Time with Him in prayer and in reading the Bible. This is the first and most important territory in your life you need to establish, keep and guard from the enemy. Why? Because without Jesus you won’t know the territory he has for you and without Jesus even if He gave it to you, you wouldn’t be able to keep it. Jesus said "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).  Proverbs 3:6 states "In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."  So the first territory in our lives we need to keep and guard is our daily commitment of time to spend with Jesus in prayer and in His word.

The second current and new territory He has given you to keep and guard is the commitment of times during the week to work on the Basic Textbook of Evangelism material, the class time, the prayer meeting during the week and the time of Evangelism on the field on Saturdays.  These are the territories right now the Lord has given you. When you finish this Evangelism Training Program then the Lord will give you your next assignment to keep and guard. However, He can’t show you the next step until you keep and fulfill the land He wants you to keep and guard now.

"Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. Remember therefore what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent." (Rev 3:2-3)

Why? Because you are not strong enough for what is next yet. However, keeping and guarding what he has presently given you to do will strengthen and prepare you for the next assignment He has for you.  The Bible teaches "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much." (Luke 16:10)

"If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace, how will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?" (Jeremiah 12:5)

So, do you want to please Jesus and defeat the enemy in your life at present? If yes, then the only way you can do this is by currently guarding and protecting the territories Jesus has presently given you to keep: Your quite time and your weekly commitments in doing and completing the Evangelism Training Program. Jesus said in Luke 16:12 "And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?" If you are not faithful and obedient to God in doing and completing this Evangelism Training Program, Jesus is saying in this passage that He won’t be able to trust you with what He really has for you because you will not be able to handle it or be faithful to it either.  Faithfully sticking to your time commitments and completing this Evangelism Training Program is what will prepare you to handle what Jesus has for you next.  This is because this training program gives you the foundation you will need to succeed in what He has for you.

John, the only way we gain what God has for us is through obeying Him, there is no other way. As we obey Him, His promise is that He will reveal more to us and give us more of His power, more of His Holy Spirit.

"He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him." (John 14:21)

"And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him."  (Acts 5:32)

As You obey Him, He will give you more of His Holy Spirit and then you will be able to handle more and be victorious over more. That is what the books of the Old Testament are all about, how when God’s servants obeyed Him what He was able to accomplish through them like in the cases of Moses, Joshua and David. Through Moses’ obedience to God, God was able to bring the Israelites out of bondage to Egypt. through Joshua’s obedience to God, the Lord was able to bring the Israelites into the promised land. Through David’s obedience to God, the Lord was able to rid Israel of all her surrounding enemies and establish strongly the kingdom of Israel in the promised land. So, if you want what God has for you and to succeed in it, you are not going to get these things by focusing on and pursing them; the only way you are going to gain them is by focusing on what He is currently telling you to do with your life, through obeying the light he has currently given you. What is he currently telling you to guard and be faithful to?

1. Your daily Quiet time with Jesus in His Word

2. And your weekly time commitments to Complete this Evangelism Training Program

Focus on these things and in God’s time he will bring to you the others. Note: He will bring them to you!

"They quickly forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel, But craved intensely in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. So He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their souls." (Psalm 106:13-15)

"But seek-continually first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you." (Matt 6:33)

"For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. But My righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul, has no pleasure in Him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul." (Hebrews 10:36-39)

"Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience." (Hebrews 4:11)

Looking forward to seeing you at the Evangelism Training Class this week, prepared!!! :o)

Sincerely in Jesus,

Dale P. Kruse
Pastor Evangelist

Next:  The Nature of the Flesh