Finally by brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand

against the wiles of the devil.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,

against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,

against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand

in the evil day, and having done all, to stand

Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth,

having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

Above all taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to

quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the

Spirit which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer

and supplication for all the saints.

While Jesus was on this earth he exercised spiritual warfare every day.

Satan was constantly trying to hinder him and keep him from fulfilling his

ministry here on earth. And he has not changed. He wants to keep us

from doing the work of the ministry today as well. He will throw road

blocks in front of you constantly to keep you from doing what

God wants you to do. Whether it be physical or mental illness,

worry, lack of finances, people or whatever, he will try to stop you.

We need to be aware of him and his devices

II Corinthians 2:11

Lest Satan should take advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices

Satan’s primary weapon is deception. If he can get you to believe

what you see in front of you he has half the battle won.

He is a liar and the father of them.

John 8:44 He was a murderer from the beginning,

and does not stand in the truth, because there is not truth in him.

When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources,

for he is a liar and the father of it.

If we can learn to recognize Satan for what he is and how to detect him,

we have the battle half won! How do we do that? Learn the word of

God so that we will know that if it is contrary to the word of God, then it is a lie.

Romans 3:4

Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar.

So we know that the word of God it true no matter what the circumstances look like. If we can remember that then we will have the victory.

What is spiritual warfare? It is a battle that is fought in the spirit realm with spiritual weapons.

II Corinthians 10:3-5

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down arguments (imaginations) and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

The hardest thing to do I think is to realize or discover how we can control the natural realm in the spirit realm. But the two are tied together.

In the beginning God said "Let there be light! And it was so!" His words were spoken in the Spirit realm, because He is a spirit, but the results were in the flesh realm. He gave man dominion over the whole world. He gave Adam that right. Unfortunately, Adam gave it away! But when Jesus died and rose again, he got it back for us.

Matthew 28:18-19

All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth

Go, therefore and make disciples of all the nations

Mark 16: 17 And these signs shall follow those who believe. In my name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues, they will take up serpents and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them, they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.

So our job is to discover how this works and how to make it work for us. God’s word is full of instruction on spiritual warfare. It is the how to book of books. We just have to tap into it and learn what to do. When we do that, the other half of the battle will be won.

God has given us armor to wear. He has named each piece and we are going to go through and learn what each piece is called, what it’s purpose is and how it works. We will also learn what we are fighting against. The bible has great examples of Spiritual warfare. The most clear account is found in Daniel.

Daniel 10 the whole chapter is the account of the story. I am going to pick out some key verses to look at but I suggest you read the whole account

Verse 11 ( an angel has appeared to Daniel) O Daniel, man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak to you and stand upright for I have now been sent to you.

Verse 12 Do not fear, Daniel for from the first day that you set you heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard and I have come because of your words

Verse 13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days and behold Michael, on of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia.

Daniel had set himself to fast and pray about a matter and for twenty one days had heard nothing. We see here the reason is because the angel with the message had been delayed in high places by demons. It wasn’t until Michael came and helped him that he was able to get through with the answer.

The Spirit realm is the battle ground. We cannot see what goes on there with our natural eye. We need our Spiritual eyes open to realize that it is a war zone and we need to take authority over the principalities and powers that are at work there.

Looking at Ephesians 6 again we see in verse 12

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

The Spirit realm is a real place with real beings.

Their mission is to stop you or even destroy you if possible.

Our mission is to prevent them from doing either and helping others to do the same.

We are in a battle! But the good thing is..We Win! The Victory is ours and the battle is the Lords

I Corinthians 15:57

But thanks be to God who gives us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ

I John 5:4-5

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, Our Faith! Who is he who overcome the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

A famous quote I remember is this. "We have nothing to fear but fear itself!"

We do not need to fear the devil. He is a defeated foe. But we do need to know how to keep him defeated. We cannot allow fear to be part of our lives. If we fear, we will be defeated. We are overcomers by the word of God!

Romans 12:21

Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good!

II Timothy 1:7

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind.