“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 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, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people”
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.””
“ I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world”
Each time the bible has words like “Finally” at the beginning of a sentence, it means time to pause and think before proceeding any further. Here in Ephesians 6:10, the Lord says finally, or the first thing we need to do before engaging the enemy is to know where our strength will come from; its ONLY FROM THE LORD, we have to be strong “IN THE LORD” , Putting everything in the finished work on Calvary, not in any person or self, thing, money, name etc. Ephesian 6: 10-12, has laid down the position we MUST take to be EFFECTIVE in the battle field with our enemies. We cannot do otherwise else we run the risk of losing the war Jesus already won for us. Jesus fought with the devil and won the victory on the cross of Calvary. Jesus knows everything about the devil. In Matthew 4:1-11, the Devil tempted Jesus but Jesus defeated him. Through his death he destroyed the devil’s grip over us. Hebrew 2:14 “Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death”. Jesus became flesh and blood and died on the cross to break the power of the devil, he defeated satan. Also we see in 1 John 3:8 “ The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work”, the reason why Jesus came-to destroy the work of the devil. With all these examples of what Jesus is capable of doing, we see the reason why Ephesians 6:10 says “be strong in the Lord” He is the master planner, he is the mighty warrior, as stated in Exodus 15:3 “The LORD is a warrior, the LORD is His name.”
The next positioning is the full armor of God: take a look at the highlighted portions of Ephesians 6:10-18. This is what you should focus on when engaging with the enemy. These are not things you do during war but what you ought to have done before engaging your enemy. As a believer, we are at war every day and you will not wait for the enemy to strike before you stand your ground or go look for the belt of truth. We must be living this kind of life. The full armor of God must be properly placed with us at all times so when duty calls, you are ready. The enemy does not come and announce the time of his visitation, so we must be ready at all time. The bible calls him a thief John 10:10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." When a thief decides to visit you, he shows up by surprise, because he does not want to get caught. We must be ready with every aspect of the armor of God (We will discuss more about this on the prayer line tonight).
We must also position ourselves in the confidence we have in the victory declared by Christ Jesus on the cross of Calvary: Jesus already overcame. John 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Colossians 2:15 “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.” There in everything including the war with the enemies of our lives we have already overcome: Romans 8:37-39 "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Remind the devil and any one working for him that he was defeated, strip naked on the cross and that has not change and will never change: Colossian 2:15 “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” 2 Corinthians “But thanks be to God, who always leads us triumphantly as captives in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.
Today is the day of battle and we have our might man of war going ahead of us with a shout raising a war cry. He is down upon mount Zion-his church (us) to war against the enemy tonight: Isaiah 42:13 “The LORD will march out like a champion, like a warrior he will stir up his zeal; with a shout he will raise the battle cry and will triumph over his enemies.” Isaiah 31:4 “For this is what the LORD has said to me: "Like a lion roaring or a young lion over its prey--and though a band of shepherds is called out against it, it is not terrified by their shouting or subdued by their clamor--so the LORD of Hosts will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and its heights.
Pray for strength as you engaged the enemy. Pray that God will protect you from his arrows: 2 Thessalonians 3:3 "But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one."
Entry into his presence is permitted only by the blood of Jesus Christ is one major position in the time of war: Leviticus 17 11 “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.” Mathew 26:28 “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Hebrew 10:19 “ Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus”.
Another position we take in a spiritual war is knowing that this is not a war of words of the mouth. This is not a civilian affair. This is spiritual battle, the source of our weapon is God. Therefore, in the name of Jesus begin to pull down any weapon of the enemy, wickedness: failure, sickness, stubbornness in our children or adults, poverty, failure of breakthrough, near success syndrome, fear, etc: 2Corianthians 10:4 “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”
Being alert and sober is another way to position yourself for any spiritual war: The devil does not announce his coming. He is a thief and never will want you to paid attention by waiting for him. You need to have wisdom to know that he is always around waiting for the least opportunity. You must also be ready to strike him down with the hammer of your Godly weapons when he shows up at your door so he knows not to come back. You can only resist him with the word of God: 1 Peter 5: 8-9 "8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings."
We will stand on Exodus 15 to pray tonight against the devil, every one of them still existing in 2022 along with their altars must be thrown into the sea of 2022, they will not cross over with us into 2023: Exodus 15: 1-2 “1 Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord, and spoke, saying: “I will sing to the Lord, For He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea! 2 The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will exalt Him.”
In God’s presence we covered from the eyes of the enemy, be confident and call on the angel of the Lord go behind us as well as the pillar of cloud to shield us from the eyes of the Devil: Exodus 14: 9-10, 19-20: “9 So the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and overtook them camping by the sea beside Pi Hahiroth, before Baal Zephon. 10 And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. 19 And the Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them. 20 So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus it was a cloud and darkness to the one, and it gave light by night to the other, so that the one did not come near the other all that night.” James 4:7 "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
Pray for the defeat, shame and disgrace of every enemy of your lives, ministries, family and community, nation etc.: Deuteronomy 28:7 “ The LORD will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.”
Stand on this word of God and declare war over all principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places against your life, family, job, church, city: They must not prosper where you are: Ephesians 6:12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
You were appointed from birth, take your stand and uproot and tear down any planting that is not of the Lord in your life, family, church, nation etc. Jeremiah 1: 9-10 “Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and plant.
Call froth the fire of God upon anything, person, powers etc blocking your breakthrough in the name of Jesus: Jeremiah 23:29 “Is not My word like fire," declares the LORD, "and like a hammer that smashes a rock?"
Declare over your life as a servant of the Lord because God is going to confirm the words of your month, everything about you; the desert must be filled up, they shall be plenty in your barn, every aspect of your life or ministry that has been broken down must be rebuilt, anything stolen by the devil must be recovered in the name of Jesus Christ: Isaiah 44:26 “who confirms the message of His servant and fulfills the counsel of His messengers, who says of Jerusalem, 'She will be inhabited,' and of the cities of Judah, 'They will be rebuilt, and I will restore their ruins,”
Any aspect of your being or thing still lingering in the campus of the enemy must be recovered. Jesus came for a total rescue mission: Colossians 1:13-14 "For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."
Thank the Lord for keeping you through 2022 and now taking you into 2023 by his might right hand of power. Psalm 118:16 The strong right arm of the LORD is raised in triumph. The strong right arm of the LORD has done glorious things!