You must begin by daily submitting to God and closing any open doors through unforgiveness or rebellion. When the enemy attacks, do not ignore the threat but confront him with the sword of the Spirit. Remember that you have the authority of Christ to tell the enemy to leave.
My name is David John Phillips. I have the honor of getting to be the pastor here at Real Church. There is nothing that I would rather be doing and I'm thankful that God asked me to play this role and thankful that you are a part of the Real Church family and I'm excited because the best is absolutely yet to come. Today, the title of the message is **spiritual warfare**. I don't want you to be unaware of the devil's schemes.
He is a liar. Jesus called him the father of lies. So the way that you deal with him is with the truth, with standing in the truth of God's word. In *2 Corinthians-2:11* it says, in order that Satan might not outwit us for we are not aware of his schemes. We don't wanna be unaware.
We want to be aware. See, the Bible says that he doesn't want us to walk in darkness. In Hebrew, the word for darkness is also the word for ignorance and there are many people who are willfully ignorant of the spiritual realm and just explain it away or just believe it's a metaphor doesn't really believe that demons and the devil exists and attacks and that's what the enemy wants for you. He wants you to be willfully ignorant. Today, I want to give you the keys to know what's going on and to know what to do when you're being attacked by the flaming arrows of the enemy.
Amen? Okay. So let's pray and get ourselves ready for this. Father God, I just thank you for who you are. I thank you that you love us.
Lord God, and I pray that everyone watching that the "eyes of their heart" are opened and enlightened to know the truth of what is really going on and that they're equipped to be able to stand against the schemes of the evil 1. And Father, I pray you open our hearts that it would be good ground so that when the seed of the word hits it, it produces fruit in their lives. Lord God, so change any rocky ground to good ground. I rebuke every distraction in the name of Jesus and every just as critical spirit. I rebuke that in the name of Jesus.
Everything that would try to fight the truth of God's word. Thank you Father for what you're gonna do. Amen and amen. Okay. So we're gonna get started and we're gonna go to Ephesians-6, and we're just gonna read through Ephesians-6:10-20.
I'll probably stop and talk quite a bit about it, but here we go. You ready? It says, Ephesians-6:10, finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full arm of God so that you can "take your stand" against the devil's schemes. See, we're not strong in our power, we're strong in His mighty power.
We're trusting in Christ but see what it says it says so you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. Imagine the devil is in his strategy closet and he is scheming against you. He is looking for an opportunity because he doesn't want you to walk out your purpose. He wants to find a time when you are unaware and He wants to attack to prevent you. He wants to steal, kill, and destroy what God wants to bless in your life.
So that's what's going on. It's real. Verse 12, it says, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood. You might think your struggle is against your spouse, against your wife, your husband, your kids. You might think your struggle is against your mother-in-law, or your father-in-law, your neighbor, or your neighbor's dog.
It's not. Your struggle is not against flesh and blood. The enemy may be using them and they're unaware or maybe they are, but no, your struggle is against what? It tells us next, but against rulers, against authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms. Notice the type of of words that it used to describe them.
It use uses words of authority. See there's a kingdom of darkness and a kingdom of light in the heavenly realms and they operate according to authority. There's more on that coming up. Alright. Where we at?
Verse 13, therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you may "stand your ground". It doesn't say if the day, it says when the day. You know when that day is? When the devil in scheming thinks that he sees an opportune moment in your life to attack. That's when the day of evil comes and when it comes, see my job as a pastor is to equip you so that you are equipped with his word to be able to stand and when is right to fight and when you've done all you know to do to stand.
And how do you stand? We'll talk about it. I would encourage you, if you wanna follow along with the notes, please you can pull up your phone and you can go to our website, click on live streams, a little hamburger at the top right, live streams and at there it says on there it says message notes. Click on those message notes or you can also find those in the description below. Okay?
So let's keep going. Verse 14, stand firm then stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith. Notice everything that he's saying right there, they're all defensive weapons. Why?
See the enemy, what is how is he fighting us? It says, this this take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil 1. See the enemy is fighting us with flaming arrows. It's it's almost like he's scared to come and stand straight in front of us. He's at a distance hitting us, and then he dodge and hit us again, whenever we're not expecting dodge.
Imagine those, you know, medieval war movies where they'd light the end of the arrow or pirate movies, they light the end of the arrow and it's coming at you. He's dodging again and thump. And so what are we supposed to do? We're supposed to defend them. We're not supposed to be unaware but aware of when those arrows are coming at us.
And what are we supposed to do? Let's keep reading. Oh, by the way it says, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows. Not some. All.
If we're aware and we understand how to defend, then we can extinguish every attack of the enemy against us. Watch this. Verse verse 17, take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. So there's your offensive weapon, the sword of the Spirit. It's the Word.
Come on somebody. Now it almost seems unfair. The enemy is at a distance and he's shooting arrows at us because he he doesn't want to stand against us and a lot of people see a sword you can't attack from a distance. With a sword you have to confront the enemy. See a lot of Christians they don't win in the spiritual.
They don't win spiritual warfare because they're too busy trying to shy away from the issue and ignore it instead of confronting it with the Word of God, with the sword of the spirit. It's time to take up the sword and confront the enemy. Stand in your defensive and then confront and I'll show you how to do that. I'm excited about it. Verse 18 it says, and pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
Did you know that praying in the spirit doesn't just mean praying in tongues? Oh, that's part of it but it says pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. So prayer is not just a bunch of requests that you you ask God for a bunch of stuff. That's part of it too. It is communion with God but there are many kinds of prayers.
Your favorite type of prayer that you love and you connect with God, that's awesome and I bet it's really effective but guess what? You can grow in your understanding of the other kinds of prayers so that you can be effective. So when it says pray in the spirit on all occasions with many kinds of prayers, what it's talking about is following the lead of the spirit in relationship because he knows the exact kind of prayer you need for the situation you're in, but also for the situation maybe your family's in or your neighbors are in, your neighborhood, your church, or your nation, the world. And the Holy Spirit wants to lead you so that you can be effective on how to pray. Man, some of the kinds of prayers, there's prayers of thanksgiving, prayers of praise, but there's also intercessory prayer, warfare prayer.
There's all kinds of prayers that we need to be comfortable in following His lead in to pray. And then I can't leave this out. It says verse 19, pray also for me, please. I need your prayer. Pray for me that whenever I speak words may be given me so that I will "fearlessly make known" the mystery of the gospel.
Amen. For which I am an ambassador in chains. Then this is Paul writing, he's in chains. He's in prison at the time. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should.
So please do that for me as well as your pastor but also for our speaking team, all of our leaders at the church so that we can be effective at moving forward. Now in talking about this, all this realness of spiritual warfare and stuff, maybe it's freaking some of you out, maybe some of you are a little scared and what's going on? I wanna give you a testimony and a word for that. You know, maybe maybe you you knew this or not, maybe maybe you believe this, maybe you don't, but 1 of my purposes as a leader, 1 of my purposes, 1 of the giftings that God has given me is to teach and to preach the good news of the gospel and through teaching and preaching to equip saints to be able to do ministry. That's 1 of the giftings of mine.
Now, with that being said, when I finally submitted to God's call on my life and I surrendered to that, I started working at a church called the Journey Church in Northeast Florida. And about a year and a half of being there and being faithful, they asked me for the first time to preach and I was excited because I knew that that was 1 of the purposes God had put on my life and I was getting the opportunity to begin to walk out my purpose and I was gonna be preaching at this giveaway where they were giving away thousands and thousands of dollars of Christmas gifts to people who are less fortunate in the area. So they asked me to preach the gospel. Now, 2 to 3 days before that Saturday morning when I was supposed to preach, I got fever and it wasn't like Saturday night fever. I got I wasn't a cowbell, you know what I'm saying?
No, I got real fever. It was a 103 high fever for me. I'm laying down on the couch feel terrible and Thursday comes around, still have fever. Friday comes around, I still have fever. And I remember knowing that this was a "flaming dart" of the enemy trying to prevent me from walking, from stepping into the purpose that God had for my life.
I knew it. Friday night, I'm laying on the couch and I have this 103 something fever, but I know that I'm preaching the gospel the next day. Guess what happened? Friday night goes, I go to sleep. I wake up the next morning, fever's gone.
I'm healed. I stand up. I preach the gospel to all of those people and 40 families gave their lives. 40 families gave their lives to Jesus. You know what?
The enemy tried to do the same thing. 2 weeks later, the church asked me to preach for the first time on a Sunday morning. Guess what happened? 2 days before I got fever again. He thought he was gonna wear me out, but I already knew I could stand and I stood.
And then on Saturday when I was supposed to preach, I had enough energy to preach to the pastor, and then he let me preach that Sunday morning. I preached and the altar was filled. Why? Because by faith, I was moving forward, standing against the enemy and stepping into my purpose. And the enemy wanted to steal, kill, and destroy my purpose purpose and not let me begin to walk in what he called me to walk in.
Watch this. In *1 Corinthians-15:58*, it says, stand firm. Let nothing move you. No thing. Let nothing move you.
Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Amen. Come on somebody. Okay. So I want to go through, I'm gonna try to go through this quickly.
I wanna go through 3 threes. I'm gonna give you 3 realities. I'm gonna give you 3 weapons, and I'm gonna give you 3 things to do every single day. Okay. You guys ready?
Here we go. 3 realities. Number 1, the devil is real. 50% of Christians believe that he's just a metaphor, that he's not a real thing. And even more than that, don't believe that the attacks in their life are from the enemy.
So they try to explain it away with science which is good at diagnosing the symptoms but not diagnosing what caused it. The devil is real and he wants to use whatever he can to steal, kill, and destroy from your life. Number 2. So number 1, the devil is real. Number 2, second reality.
You need to know that the devil wants to destroy you. He's the destroyer. So he's gonna lie to you to try to destroy you. Jesus calls him a thief. He steals, kills, and destroys.
*1 Peter-5:8* through 9 says this, be self controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil prowls around like a "roaring lion" looking for someone to devour. He's scheming waiting for an opportune moment for somebody that's unaware or is will willfully walking in darkness saying, that's not real. Number 3. So the the first reality, the devil is real.
Second, the, he wants to destroy you. The devil wants to destroy you. The third 1 is the devil responds to higher authority. Oh, he does. And watch this.
*1 John-4:4*, the 1 who is in you is greater than the 1 who is in the world because the devil's in authority, he understands authority and he also has to respond to higher authority and the higher authority when you gave your life to Jesus entered into your life and so now when you live by that authority, you have that authority over the devil who is of lower authority. Those are the 3 realities. Remember, the devil is real, the devil wants to destroy you, and the devil responds to higher authority. Now let's go through the 3 weapons. You guys ready?
Here we go. First weapon, the name of Jesus. Let's go to Luke-10:17-19. *Luke-10* it says verse 17. It says, then the 72 returned with joy.
These are the 72 disciples that Jesus had sent out. It wasn't just the 12. There was more than that. And said, Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name. Man, they were excited because demons submitted to them because of the name of Jesus.
Let me tell you, it's kinda like you're driving on the interstate, you're driving on a highway and you get pulled over by a state trooper and he comes up and he's got the badge that has the state of Florida on it. You see the lights, you see the official vehicle, you see the official uniform and the badge. When he comes up, you're kinda shaking a little bit. Oh, what did I do wrong? Did I was I did I not put my blinker on?
Is everything good? Why? Because there's *authority* with that name, the state of Florida that's on his badge. You feel it. But when you see him around and he's not in his uniform and you don't know him and he doesn't have his badge on, he's not in his cop car or anything like that, you don't think anything of it.
You know why? Because he's living from himself and not from the authority that he's under at that time. Well in the same way, if you are submitted to Jesus Christ, well then you you are living with that badge with the name of Jesus. See, the name living according to the name means that you are under his authority as a son but you're also living according to his will. Period.
That's in the name of Jesus. Now when you do that you're carrying that badge and the devil or his demons are quaking because you are carrying a higher authority. But when you don't believe that, when you believe a lie that you're not, well then the devil has authority because you're living from yourself instead of living from Jesus. So we want to live from His name. Philippians-2:10 says, at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven on earth and under earth.
You ever wonder why it says should? You know why? Because in Revelation I mean in Romans-14:11 it says that every knee shall bow. Man, in this time you have an opportunity out of love to submit and to bow your knee to Jesus Christ. But 1 day every knee shall bow and if we didn't submit out of love to Him knowing that He loves us, He'll make us submit in the future.
And we don't wanna be a part of that because if He doesn't, if it's not out of love, if it's forced, you you have to spend eternity separated from Him with those that spend eternity separated from Him. Those that tried to steal, kill, and destroy from you, the devil and his demons. Not good. Amen? So we want to submit now.
So let's keep going. Number 1, there's authority in his name. Number 2, the blood of Jesus is a weapon. Revelation-12:11. You know what it says?
It says, they overcame him, that's the believers, overcame the enemy by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. They did not even love their life unto death. You know why the blood so important? Because the blood forgives sin and when in the beginning when mankind obeyed sin they gave the devil authority in their life. They were submitted to sin and not submitted to God.
But see when we remind the enemy of the cross, when we are reminded that His blood has forgiven us, well now we're back in relationship instead of believing a lie. See whenever you're living in sin, you are allowing the enemy to "cut you up" in that area of your life. But when we realize that we have been forgiven and we could submit again to the authority of the Lord, that prevents the enemy from cutting you up in that area of your life. And when the enemy will try to lie to you and attack you anyway, no, you go back and you remind him of the cross which is proof that he has been defeated. Number 3, third weapon, the Word of God.
See Jesus gives us an example of that. Jesus in Matthew-4 is duking it out with the devil. It's really not a fight. The devil is trying to attack him and tempt him and and hit him when he's weak because he's hungry. He's been fasting for 40 days.
What does Jesus do? He fights him with the Word. All he does is he quotes and stands on the *Word of God* and the enemy has to flee. The devil tried to attack him 3 different times. He might try again because he doesn't believe that you're actually gonna stand on the Word.
He doesn't believe you're gonna actually see it through, but when you do, when you do stand on the Word, he has to go. Jesus is the perfect example of that. What that means is guys, you gotta know this. You can't just lean on me knowing it for you. You gotta know it yourself.
The more you know it, the longer and bigger that sword is so that you can attack and tell the enemy to flee. So what happens when he attacks? You have to know like Romans-8 says that we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. But then he starts to whisper, oh yeah, but look at your money. It's it's all messed up.
You're you're you're you're nothing but this. No, you have to know that Philippians-4:19 says, my God shall supply all my needs according to his riches and glories. Well, then he begins to attack your health. You gotta know, no. Psalms says, I'm a bless the Lord.
Oh my soul because he has healed all my diseases. Well then he starts reminding you of your sin. Uh-uh. No. I know I'm a bless the Lord.
My soul because in that same verse it says, he has forgiven all of my sin and taken away all my iniquities. Knowing and standing in his word moment by moment. It's so vital. We use it in real time. So we talked about 3 realities.
We talked about 3 weapons, the name of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, and the word of God. And we're gonna close with talking about 3 daily dues. 3 things that you need to do daily. Number 1, you need to daily submit yourself to God. I need to submit every area of my life to God.
In James-4:7 to and 8 it says, Submit yourself to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Your authority over the devil is only as strong as your willingness to submit to God. Let that hit. Did you hear that? I said your authority over the devil in any area of your life is only as strong as your willingness to submit to God.
There's a lot of people that are being attacked by the enemy and have wounds and different things in different areas, but it's an area where they're not willing, they're living in rebellion, they're not willing to submit to God and they are giving the devil the right to cut you up. But, and so they're trying to fight the devil, trying to cast them out and all this kind of stuff, but they're not submitted to God. But when you submit to God first, then resist the devil and he has to flee from you. So your freedom is directly related to your relationship. When I understand who God is and His authority and I submit to that authority in relationship that and I know that the devil has to flee because he's fleeing God's authority that you're under, which means it's over your life and the smaller authority the enemy has to go.
So that works in every area whether that's unforgiveness. Oh, let's go that. Number 2, I'm getting ahead of myself. Number 1, daily submit yourself to God. Number 2, close any open door that the enemy has access to.
*2 Corinthians-2:10-11* says this, anyone you forgive it's making an example of forgiveness. Anyone you forgive, I also forgive, and what I have forgiven, I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake. That's Paul talking. He says, in order that Satan might not outwit us for we are not unaware of his schemes. See, unforgiveness is an area where the enemy wants to shoot.
It's a crack in your armor where the area wants to shoot a flaming dart and if he does he's outwitting you. So if you are walking in unforgiveness or bitterness that is a command that God has given you to forgive. You don't have a choice but when you rebel in that area you're allowing an open door for the enemy to attack and create all kind of wounds and hurt and to prevent you from walking in your purpose in that area of your life. But it's not just unforgiveness and anger. *Ephesians-4:26* through 27 says, in your anger don't sin.
But then it says, don't let the sun go down while you're still angry so that you don't get the devil a foothold or an opportunity. See, he wants you to sleep on it. Why? Because it's a crack in your armor so he can hit you with another flaming dart and if he hits you with that dart he's gonna rip your life to shreds, steal, kill, and destroy from you until that wound is healed. In that area you're giving him the right to cut you up.
What other areas? Any area of your life where you are willfully rebelling against God, you're not submitting to what you know God is asking you to do, you that is an area where you're allowing the devil to cut you up and prevent you from walking in your purpose. In that area you submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee. How do you know?
We don't go on a search. No. You ask the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, is there any area of my life that I need to deal with? Is there any area of my heart, of my life, of my actions, of my thoughts that I need to present to you?
The Holy Spirit will put his finger on it. Oh, you'll feel it. You'll know. So what do you do then? You repent.
*Repent*. You turn, you change your mindset and submit that area by not just your words but also your actions in that area of your life. You submit it to Him. But then you don't just stop there. You confront the enemy with the sword.
You you realize that you are forgiven and then because you're forgiven you're free and you tell the enemy to go in the name of Jesus and he has to go. Which brings me to number 3. Number 1, of your daily dues, daily submit yourself to God. Number 2, close any open door that the enemy has access through. And number 3, confront your enemy every day.
Now make no mistake, I'm not magnifying the devil with this. I'm just making you aware. 90% of my prayer time, I'm magnifying God. I do not want to magnify the devil but I also don't want to minimize him either. I'm magnifying God and I'm not ignoring the devil.
So I magnify God in every area of my life. I submit every area of my life. I'm thanking him and I'm praising him, but when I see a flaming arrow coming, or when I see an attack of the enemy, or when I see the Holy Spirit shows a place that's been wounded, that's been attacked that I hadn't been submitted to, or I will let get into my guard, guess what I do? I confront the devil. I submit that area of my life to God, and then I confront the devil with the truth of His word and tell him to get out.
When I see the enemy attacking my friends, my family, my house, my neighbors, my church, when I see the enemy attacking the nation or the world, you know what I do? I confront the enemy. I don't spend all day there, but no, I stand in the Word of God and I confront the enemy with his word. I tell him to go in the name of Jesus. You know why?
Because I have authority as a son of God because I'm submitted to the higher authority who is Jesus Christ. I'm submitted to his Lordship and I have the authority to tell the enemy to leave. That's called spiritual warfare prayer. Now, I'm gonna encourage you if you're at home, think about this. Think about what is God speaking to you through the message.
If you're in a house of prayer, I encourage you to discuss what did God challenge you with? What did he show you? And if there's an area of your life that comes to the surface, you know what? Submit it to God. But if you have trouble with it, if you've been having trouble for a long time, Bible says, confess your faults 1 to another and pray for each other so that you may be healed.
God wants to heal the wound that that flame and arrow started so that you can walk forward in healing and he wants to get rid of the enemy right now, today. Let me pray for you and then you guys will do that and you guys will pray and it'll be awesome. Pray as the Holy Spirit leads on whatever kind of prayers He leads you in. Father, I thank you for those watching, bless them. Lord God, I pray they understand they're standing with you, that they're not walking in fear because of this, but this equips them because you haven't given them the "spirit of fear", but of love, of power, and a sound mind.
And I rebuke spirit of confusion in Jesus name. I rebuke distraction and every ounce of *rebellion* that would would try to not submit in any area of their life. I also rebuke a critical spirit in the name of Jesus. Anything that would try to explain away things so that they don't walk around freedom and walk out freedom in Jesus name. Thank you, Father, for what you're gonna do.
Thank you for what you're doing in our church. And Father God, I thank you for what you're doing in Oak Grove Middle School. Lord, what you're gonna do, the doors that are already open in there. Lord, I thank you how you're gonna use our church to impact this community. Father God, that we're not gonna stand down, but we're gonna stand up, and we're gonna stand and fight because the gates of hell shall not prevail.
The gates of hell cannot hold back what God wants to do in this community, and we're gonna attack with the Word of God. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. God bless you, and thank you for tuning in. Don't forget to tell your friends if this encouraged you, and also you're invited to serve on our dream team. You're invited to be a part and help us as we move forward into this next season.
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