7 Basic Steps to Win in Spiritual Warfare

The biggest misconception concerning spiritual warfare for the believer is that we far too often focus on demons, spirits and the world along with all of it's enticements. However, spiritual warfare is more about the individuals position in Christ and the amount of surrender in a believers life.

Yes, freedom comes from Christ spiritually speaking. But after our salvation, our personal amount of surrender, which includes the most simplistic daily disciplines which when practiced, become automatic in a believers life.

Ephesians 4:1- I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.

There must be a goal for every believer to live the life and be the best Christian imaginable. We must strive on a daily basis to live lives that would cause us to be recognized as the type of Christian that God desires to sees.

#1 Live a surrendered life.

Living a life of complete surrender is a choice. Your not always going to feel like reading and meditating upon Gods Word, but you have to be filled with His Word if you want to live a successful Christ Honoring, Spirit filled life.

We were never commanded to carry a question mark, but rather a cross. A cross is an instrument of death and torture. We are to die to ourselves. We are to die to the peer pressure around us. We are to die to what everybody else may say regardless of the cost. The reason we do so is not to gain entrance into Heaven, but rather because we are Gods children and it is the right thing to do.

Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto god, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable and perfect will of God.

I can spend hours with you right now sharing tales of Christians who had a form of godliness but lacked the internalizing of it. Why do we know so many people like that? Because the only way to develop a Godly mind is to know the mind of God. The only way to know the mind of God is to read the only book that came from Him.

All warfare begins as a battle within your mind. Your emotions, will, and desires will cause you to leave the things of God unless you protect your mind with the sacredness of scripture. Your attitude will ultimately depend on how much of the worlds philosophy you feed yourself.

The basic disciplines of prayer, bible reading, witnessing, and fasting will keep you rooted in a a strong spiritual walk with God. Discipline equals freedom. If your disciplined with your money, you'll experience financial freedom. If your disciplined in your eating habits, you'll live a longer healthier life. The same goes spiritually speaking.

The books you read, the movies you watch, the music you listen to, and those you fellowship with and associate with, are all a major influence on your spiritual mindset. In fact they are a good measurement of where your going to be in your walk with god within the next five years.

#2 Are you emulating a life worthy of Christ's death?

We as believers have forgotten that it is the thing that which you chase after is what you are going to get. Philippians 3:13-16...Brethren I count not myself to have apprehended : but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if anything, ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.

Can you be willing and humble enough to let God lead you? If you say yes, can you be willing to let the past stay in the past where it belongs today? Your not who you were back then so quit carrying the baggage of your past with you. You'll never be able to be all that God wants you to be until you realize that going forward is the only option on the table.

What you used to be will sneak up on you sooner or late. as a child of God you must realize that you are in Christ. You are clothed with His righteousness. Just because you have a sinful past that has remained hidden doesn't matter. If you have forsaken it and repented of it, then remind the enemy and yourself that it is all under the blood.

Even when Satan uses others to discourage you and to keep you from going forward, you have to remind yourself that it is God who is leading you and has called you into His service and made you a part of His family. Even when you have caused the damage of the moment, you must remember that Gods calling , though it may come with certain restrictions, does not come with repentance. He will use a willing vessel that is willing to be made willing and useable.

#3 Build a firm Foundation

Joshua 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

The Bible is our sourcebook for living. Yet it doesn't do any good to read but not heed. James 1:22-24 But be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your ownselves. For if any be a hearer and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

The Bible isn't some magic book that will change you. It is up to you to internalize the word of God and act upon it. If you don't like the reflection in the mirror, you don't go break the mirror....you fix the person behind the reflection that you see. Part of the Christian life is simple maturation.

Maturity as a believer doesn't necessarily come with age, but it does come with obedience. If you study the attack in the garden of Eden, the First thing Satan said was "Hath God said?" Every attack of his is rooted someway or another in the questioning of scripture.

#4 Never give up

1 Corinthians 15:58-Therefore my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, un-moveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

The highways and hedges that we are to walk down being a witness are littered with Christians who were once sitting in the pew your sitting in. Countless millions have gone to their grave after succumbing to attack of the enemy. They didn't lose their salvation, but they did lose the opportunity of being faithful.

Life is full of choices. In the end it's completely up to you if your going to quit and have a rope for a backbone or if your going to tough it out.

We must remember that theologically speaking, God is a sovereign thrice holy God. Nothing passes His throne without Him knowing it, and that includes the attack of the enemy on the life of the believer. God knows what your going through.

God isn't going to give you what you can handle, because that makes a self sufficient Christian. He gives you what you cant handle so you run to Him for all your needs according to His riches in glory.

One of the most dangerous places for you to dwell in is on the border of where Satan wants you, which is usually your own personal promised land, and where God wants you. It's not about where we want to be, but where God is leading us.

#5 Be Zealous

Psalm 16:8-I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right, I shall not be moved.

The main way to be zealous is to develop a whatever it takes attitude. If you want to live the abundant, spirit filled, Christian life...you will find a way to do it. If not, then you'll find an excuse.

The devil didn't make you do anything in the past...nor will he in the future.. He may have been an influencer, but what he does outside of severe demonization is normally behind the scenes. He will bring people into your life. He will bring opportunity into your life. Yet it is up to us to discern whether or not it is of God.

There isn't an excuse for the child of God to be overcome by the things of this world. 1 John 4:4- Ye are of God little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. Yet we do end up giving up ground to the enemy when we put our armour down and let our guard down as well.

1 Peter 5:8-9 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour : whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

One part of being a zealous Christian is realizing that Satan is on the prowl watching and awaiting for His opportunity to attack you. But we must come to the realization as well that if others have gone on before us and were successful in defeating the enemy....so can we be.

#6 Be Consistent

Proverbs 24:16- For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall find mischief.

Its not what you do every once in a while that creates the life you live, but what you do on an a consistent basis that will manifest itself into the Christian life you earned...not the one you think you deserve.

There are really only two choices that the fallen Christian has...stay down or get back up. Again, it's all about making a personal decision that we would rather stand with God while the world watches in dismay, or stand with the world and forsake the things of God.

Don't ever make the mistake of making greatness your goal. Be faithful. Be disciplined. Be available. And most importantly, be willing to be consistently getting back up regardless of what the world thinks and says. If you want God as well as man to take you seriously you MUST be consistent in your walk.

#7 Be fruitful

The one goal of Satan is to remove all glory for God. Yet we as believers can launch an attack on Him, while God gets glorified. John 15:8- Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples.

The fruit of a Christian is another Christian. If we make our focus reaching the lost and discipeling them, then whatever ailments and attacks we may experience wont be as important to us as being a yielded vessel for the masters use.

If satan can keep a person from getting saved, he has accomplished a great goal of his in keeping that person as his child. As a believer, we are given the great commission and we have the Acts 1:8 vision for all the world as well. Not all of us are called to be preachers, but we are all called to be witnesses of the gospel message.

Being fruitful as a Christian is as natural as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. What isn't natural is hiding the gospel and refusing to be a lighthouse in our families and community.

The Christian life isn't a hard life to live. It starts on the day of salvation and ends when we pass over into glory. It's a life of obedience that only draws us closer to God. The world and all of it's flash and glitter will fade away. Only that which we do for the Lord will have an eternal significance.

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