Angels, Satan, and Demons - Week 1

​This last Wednesday we talked about the reality of Angels, Satan, and Demons. We talked about where they came from and talked about some of the false beliefs about them.  In this post I want to talk about how we are involved in Spiritual Warfare.  We talked about briefly how Angels and Demons fight but we did not go into much detail or our part in the battle.  We said that we are fighting a REAL war against a REAL enemy, for a REAL King who has ALREADY WON the Battle! So how do we fight? Let’s talk about it!
 
A couple weeks ago a man named Mark Bearden (Mrs. Sarah Baines Dad!) came and preached about prayer.  In one of his sermons Mark talked about Matthew 26:48-54.  In this passage we see Jesus betrayed by Judas and arrested by the high priest’s guards.  During the arrest of Jesus, Peter draws a sword and cuts off the ear of one of the high priest’s guards.  Jesus picks up the ear and puts it back on the guard’s head and then tells Peter to put the sword away.   Earlier Jesus told the Disciples to go and prayer and they ended up just falling asleep.  Peter failed to fight the actual battle.  He went to the sword, instead of to God in prayer.  Jesus then tells Peter “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matt 26:53 ESV) Jesus doesn’t need us to fight a physical battle for He commands all the Angels in heaven! Our battle against the enemy starts with prayer!  We pray that God would keep us from temptation. We pray that God’s will would be done.  We pray that God would be glorified.  We pray that His Gospel would be proclaimed! This is how we fight!
 
The other side of this is for us to look at Ephesians 6:10-20.  Here Paul urges us to put on the Whole Armor of God.  Paul tells us that if we put on the Armor of God we will be able to stand against the schemes of the Devil.  Every piece of the Armor of God represents different aspects of Christ’s character and work.  I want to point out that there is only one weapon in the armor of God, every other piece is for defense.  In verse 17 Paul tells us to take up the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Scripture is our weapon against Satan.  Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44) and the Bible is Absolute Truth.  Look at Matthew 4:1-11 as Jesus was tempted by Satan.  Jesus uses Scripture every time Satan tried to tempt Him.  Satan’s goal is to replace the Truth with a Lie so to resist him is to stand upon the truth of God’s Word (Romans 1:25, James 4:7). 
 
There are two things we need to do to fight in Spiritual Warfare.  Pray and Study the Bible!  If you don’t know how to pray without your mind wondering, try using the Holy Hour method (Click HERE FOR LINK). The Holy Hour is designed to help us stay focused and reminds us what we need to pray for. There are twelve different sections and all you have to do is set your phone’s timer to go off every five minutes and after all twelve you will have spent an hour praying.  If you don’t have an hour cut it in half.  The idea is not just to pray for a certain amount of time, the idea is that you actually PRAY!
 
If you don’t know where or what to read in the Bible, start at the beginning and go to the end. Also, every week on the back of your Wednesday fill-out sheet is a list of Chapters of the Bible to read that go along with what we are studying on Wednesday nights.  But don’t just read…STUDY the Bible!
 
Love you guys!
Trevor