August 5, 2007

A Cosmic Conflict

v10 - be strong in the Lord - rely on the Lord for your strength; lean on Him

-to be strong in the Lord - continual intimacy

***this is continual and all the time

***be continually filled with the Holy Spirit

-why should we be strong in the Lord?

***we have an enemy we are fighting - the devil and his demon forces

***it is an invisible world

v11 -what can we do?

Put on the whole armor of God

          -we have to do it ourselves

          -keep it on

          -put it all on

stand against - means to hold your ground and advance ( this is continual)

REMEMBER:  do not go looking for the enemy.  He will find you...

wiles - means strategies;methods;tactics;schemes; tricks

devil - means slanderer - saying false things about people to ruin their reputation

v12 - our fight is not against people

wrestle or struggle - means intense hand to hand combat until one person can hold the other person down

2 STATEMENTS:

*************Never make a spiritual battle personal

************Not everything occurs because of demonic schemes, but everything can be exploited by demonic forces

The enemy is organized:

Satan is the leader.......

principalities - oppressing and possessing spirits

powers - located in the lower atmosphere of earth

rulers of darkness - infiltrated the political structures in society

spiritual wickedness - they control nations

v13 - Paul repeats himself again.  Shows importance

***How to defeat the enemy - RESIST...means to oppose; fight

to conquer the world - faith

to conquer sexual sin and lust - flee

to defeat the enemy - fight

evil day - the day the enemy roars in against us

***we never know when this day will occur

***when it arrives, RESIST -

resist - is the same word as used in James 4:7 and 1 Peter 5:8-9

*we get the English word antihistemean from the Greek word here

*resist continually,  resist every time and resist with authority

*from the word power in v10, we get the English word dynamite.....................