November 20, 2016
Read Ephesians 6:10-18.
Do you believe you are in a war? How would you know as according to Ephesians 6:12 the enemy is ‘….of the unseen world….’
Read and discuss the following….
As long as you don’t receive Christ or prioritize commending him to others, this idea of spiritual warfare will remain strange and irrelevant. Satan will leave you alone because you are doing what he wants you to do—staying separated from God and/or staying uninfluential with others. But if you receive Jesus and begin to show and share his love with others, you will begin to experience his opposition—and passages like these will become very important to you! Seen in this way, experiencing spiritual attack is a sign of spiritual health. Conversely, the absence of spiritual attack is not a spiritual compliment, but a danger signal! *
Which of the above applies to you?
What is the attitude a Christian should have regarding spiritual warfare according to Ephesians 6:10-18?
What are the words Paul uses to describe what we are to be what we are to do?
What do the following tell us?
How much do you know about your enemies, the devil and his evil spirits?
What do the following passages tell us? (compare different versions)
Are there any new things about Satan you learned?
Ephesians 6:11. “….stand firm against all strategies of the devil.”
What is the devil trying to do in our lives as Christians? What are his strategies? How does he work?
Discuss in your group and name as many as you can and then look at the following….
Discuss the following summary of the strategies that Satan follows
Satan does not carry on an open warfare. He does not meet the Christian soldier face to face. He advances covertly; makes his approaches in darkness; employs cunning rather than power, and seeks rather to delude and betray than to vanquish by mere force. Hence, the necessity of being constantly armed to meet him wherever the attack is made. A man who has to contend with a visible enemy, may feel safe if he only prepares to meet him in the open field. But far different is the case if the enemy is invisible; if he steals upon us slyly and stealthily; if he practices war only by ambushes and by surprises. Such is the foe that we have to contend with – and almost all the Christian struggle is a warfare against stratagems and wiles. Satan does not openly appear. He approaches us not in repulsive forms, but comes to recommend some plausible doctrine, to lay before us some temptation that shall not immediately repel us. He presents the world in an alluring aspect; invites us to pleasures that seem to be harmless, and leads us in indulgence until we have gone so far that we cannot retreat.
Do you relate and is this your experience?
What does Colossians 2:15 tells Jesus did on the cross?
What does Revelation 20:7-10 tell us will be the final destination of Satan?
Be encouraged by the following comment of the above passage….
Satan’s power is not eternal-he will meet his doom. He began his evil work at the beginning (Genesis 3;1-6) and continues it today, but he will be destroyed when he is thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulphur. The devil will be released from the bottomless pit (“his prison,” Revelation 20:7), but he will never be released from the fiery lake. He will never be a threat to anyone again. ***
In the meantime as we live here on the earth we have the Holy Spirit living within us to empower us to live in the victory Jesus won for us on the cross. See 1 John 4:4 (2 Corinthians 11:13-15), Colossians 2:14-15.
In three weeks we will have “Spiritual Warfare” Part Two (Sams Breakup) when we will look at how we apply …. ‘Put On’ as Paul says “…. Every piece of God’s armour so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm.” Ephesians 6:13.
*taken from http://www.xenos.org/teachings/?teaching=1366
** taken from http://www.crossroad.to/charts/sin&satan.html
*** taken from ‘Life Application Study Bible’