May 6, 2001

Spiritual Warfare

Last week we talked about the primary weapon that the enemy uses against us, the lie. That was the weapon that our spiritual enemy used against our first parents, he used it on your parents, and he's still using it on you. We talked about lies in our thought life. Not all our thoughts are our own thoughts, sometimes the enemy puts lying thoughts into our heads for us. Sometimes those lies are external, we hear them from somebody else. Sometimes they are internal, thoughts come into our head, and we aren't sure why we thought that, but we assume that's what we really do think, and we act on what we think we believe.

The enemy does this in such a way that we don't suspect that the thoughts he puts in our heads are from an outside source, we assume they're something we think of ourselves. If we were able to recognize those thoughts, those lies for what they really are, we wouldn't fall for them, but the enemy has had 6,000 years of practice, and he is pretty good at what he does.

We said that something very important happens when we believe a lie. When we believe a lie, then for us, it might as well be true. When we believe a lie, for us it is true, at least in how we behave, because we act in accordance with what we believe.

One of the most important verses we used last week was Ephesians 4:27- "neither give place to the devil." Giving place means to give the enemy a beach head, a landing zone, a place from which to establish an invasion of our lives. That is what we do when we sin and refuse to confess it, when we sin and carry it along with us, then we knock a big hole in our defenses and give the enemy a place to come in and drop off a team of infiltrators. If we persist in ignoring our sin, then the beach head turns into a spiritual strong hold, 2 Corinthians 10:4, and then the enemy has a base of operations from which he can trouble us on an ongoing basis.

Last week we went over what can happen when a believer comes under the influence of demonic powers. The phrase "demon possessed" is an English term for the Greek word "demonized." Unbelievers can be so completely controlled by demons that they become demon possessed. Christians can not. Christians have become the possession of Jesus Christ, we are bought with a price and sealed with the Holy Spirit, but that does not make us exempt from demonic influence. Christians can be afflicted, misled or influenced by demons as a result of their sin, or even by the sins of someone in authority over them, which we will see today. God does not want us to be afflicted by evil, God does not want us to come out second best in our encounters with the enemy, we need to know about the spiritual authority that God gives us to resist the enemy.

In Ephesians chapter 6, the same chapter where Paul tells us about putting on our armor for our spiritual warfare, he also tells us this: " fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." In a family where the father takes his responsibility before the Lord seriously, the children have a great advantage, and they also have a lot of spiritual protection. God gives the father in a family the responsibility to protect his wife and children from harmful spiritual influences and activity.

Last week we talked about Job, let's look at him again as a spiritual force over his family. If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, turn to Job 1:1 " There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.
Job 1:2 And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.
Job 1:3 His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.
Job 1:4 And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.
Job 1:5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, -or finished- that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually."
Isn't that wonderful? What a role model for all of us as parents, interceding for our children, even our grown children before the Lord, holding them up in sacrificial prayer. Parents, we need to be faithful to do that.

Verse 6: "Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
Job 1:7 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
Job 1:8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?"

God testified that Job was righteous, and that is the best testimony any man can have. Job was concerned with the spiritual welfare of his family. Was it a waste of time? Not at all. We know that Satan killed Job's children, but as Paul Harvey says, now for the rest of the story. Turn to the end of the book, Job 42, verse 10: "And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before." Skip to verse 13: "He had also seven sons and three daughters." If he ended up with twice as much as he had before, then we know that the sons and daughters that Satan killed had to have been saved, they had to have been believers. That's the only way Job could have had twice as much as he had before. Ten children in heaven, ten children on earth. In the greater scheme of things, he didn't lose a one. Job was very much involved in spiritual warfare over his family. Maybe it looked at first like he lost the battle, but God shows us that in the long run, he definitely won the war.

When the father lives a godly life and prays for his children, he has a great influence for good. But when the father practices sin in his life, he can also be a great influence for evil. Fathers and mothers, there is something we need to remember; any sin that we practice in moderation, the enemy will attempt to get our kids to practice to excess; think about it.

It would also be good to mention the protection and covering that a family has when they are involved in a local church, the protection that comes when believers in a local church pray for each other, and hold each other up before the Lord. There is no such thing in the Bible as "Lone Ranger" Christians, and Christians that get away from the local church put themselves at spiritual risk. Stop and think about it: what did Paul tell the churches to do about Christians that were practicing sin? Put them out of the church. Why? So that Satan could have free access to them. What does that tell you about the value of being in church fellowship? What does that tell you about what can happen to believers that are not in church fellowship? This is not a complicated concept...

Do you begin to see a principle here that God has an authority structure that protects His people? A principle of "covering over" with authority? Christ willingly submitted Himself to His Father, men are to willingly submit themselves to Christ, women are to willingly submit themselves to their husbands, children are to willingly submit themselves to their parents. Believers in a church willingly submit themselves to the elders of the church. There is a consistent pattern of this concept throughout scripture, and when this pattern is followed, it provides a spiritual covering and protection from God for those who place themselves under it.

Paul even refers to this in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 10, where he speaks of the women wearing a visible head covering, and he says it is because of the angels. Is Paul referring to the holy angels of God, and those women who were notably submissive were to receive extra protection? Or is he referring to the rebellious angels, and those women who were not submissive were at extra risk? I wish he had been a little more specific, but there is obviously some relationship between a willingly submissive spirit, the physical expression of having a submissive spirit, and somehow this affects a woman's relationship with the spiritual realm, probably for either better or worse. And it is also evident from scripture that those that will not submit to God's plan of authority and submission place themselves in jeopardy, be they men, women, or children.

Now I want to go in a little different direction: what if the parents of a child are living a life that is an abomination to God? What if the parents are involved with demons? What effect can that have on the children? Turn over to Exodus 20:4 "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;"

God repeats this warning in Exodus 34:7, Leviticus 26:39 and 40, Numbers 14:18, and Deuteronomy 5:9, so it must be pretty important. Why would God do this? This doesn't seem fair at all, and we know that God is fair and just, so what is the reason? The iniquity of the fathers. What was the iniquity of the fathers? It was bowing down before idols, and worshiping strange gods. Paul tells us Christians, in 1 Corinthians 10, that whatever is sacrificed to an idol is sacrificed to a demon, and that brings the idolator into fellowship with that demon. Demons and idols go together, and when you get involved with an idol, when you sacrifice to an idol, then you bring yourself into fellowship with the demon behind that idol. Whether you're saved or not. Because Paul was writing to Christians.

In the Old Testament, God promised blessing to those that would obey Him, and curses to those that worshiped idols. He also promised forgiveness and restoration to those that would confess the sins of their fathers, and their own sins, and turn to righteousness. The bottom line was, God took His blessings and curses seriously, and we should too.

Something that is easy for us in our sophisticated American culture to forget, is that we are not very much in tune with certain spiritual realities like the rest of the world is. Last week we said that there are different sorts of demons and demonic spirits, and some of them operate in the area of families. They are called ancestral spirits, demons that transfer from parent to child, or get handed down from generation to generation. Missionaries overseas that deal with tribal people see this sort of thing all the time, it is very common in certain areas, mothers passing down spiritual powers to their daughters, witch doctors passing down demonic powers to their sons.

Now: put that into the framework of those Israelites worshiping idols, bringing demons into their lives, and then having those demons transfer down from one generation to the next. Until such time as those people confessed and repented, they were demonized. Not only were they under the curse of God, for violating the Covenant of Sinai, breaking the Commandments of Moses with idolatry, the children were demonized just as their parents were. That's why God had to visit the iniquity of the fathers onto the children, the children were demonized and led away after idols just as their parents were, they became sinners just like their parents, committing the same sins, doing the same wickedness. The parents introduced demons into the family by worshiping idols, and then the children became demonized themselves, and would be prompted to go off on their own paths of sin, idolatry, wickedness, and immorality.

The point of all this is; what is the possibility that someone in here had a family member that was demonized because of sin, and that same demon is now hassling you? You are saved, sanctified, and loving the Lord, but that demon is still afflicting you in some area of your life, your victory is still hindered? And you are not sure why you keep having problems in that area?

And like we said last week, "the devil made me do it" might be true, but we are each still responsible for our own actions. We each still have a sin nature, a place where the enemy finds fertile ground to plant his ideas and schemes. And don't think he won't do it.

Let me talk about family curses for a minute. The Bible has some very interesting accounts of curses. Remember Jacob, worked for Laban 14 years to earn the hand of his daughter Rachel? And as they were heading back home, Rachel stole Laban's household idols, and Laban came after them. Jacob didn't know she had stolen them, and when Laban caught up with them, Jacob told Laban to search anywhere he wanted, and whoever had the idols, let them die. Jacob cursed his wife without knowing it. Anybody remember what ended up happening to Rachel? She died in childbirth.

In 1st Samuel 14, King Saul was attacking the Philistines, and ordered a curse on anyone that ate any food that day. His son Jonathan didn't know about the curse and ate some honeycomb, and what happened? Jonathan later died in battle.

The most remarkable incident is what happened with David after his adultery with Bathsheba, and his murder of Uriah. Let me read you the account of David confronting his sin: (2nd Samuel 12, verse 1.)
"And the LORD sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds:
But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter.
And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.
And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die: And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man."

David did not die, but four of his sons died; the baby conceived in adultery, Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah. You don't suppose that's just a coincidence do you, that his children died fourfold? I don't think so either. His fourfold curse came upon his own family.

The point of all this is that what the father or the mother does or says has a great effect on the spiritual health and well being of the family. If the parent is under some sort of spiritual bondage, then it would not be surprising to find the child having similar problems. I'm not saying that it is a done deal, I am saying that it would not be surprising.

Now let's bring this whole thing down to where we live. Maybe some of you here today are aware of some things in your family tree that you'd really rather forget. Maybe there are some skeletons in your family closet that are really not good. Did you have a parent that had a real problem in some area, and you do too? There was some area in their life that it seemed they never got the victory, and you struggle with that same thing? You know about it, you don't like it, and you're frustrated, because you just can't seem to get the victory?

Turn to Daniel chapter 9 and verse 5. Daniel is confessing his sin, the sin of his nation, and the sins of their fathers. That's interesting, because the Bible does not record that Daniel committed any sins. Daniel has a clean record, there are no black marks recorded in scripture against him at all. But look how he prays here: "We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:
Dan 9:6 Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers," -notice that -"and to all the people of the land." Verse 8:
" O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee."
Dan 9:9 To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;
Dan 9:10 Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
Dan 9:11 Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him."

If you are saved, sanctified, and serving the Lord, but there is still some besetting sin in your life, and it was in your mama or daddy's life, or you have reason to think maybe it was also in the life of their parents; you might just be carrying some spiritual baggage with you that it's time to get rid of. Was there a time in your life when some relative called down a curse on you? Do you remember some unhappy time when you were cursed by a family member? Did you have a parent that told you that you were worthless, useless, stupid, unworthy, whatever? Have you been trying to live your life with the burden of having a parent tell you that you were a loser? Did you want a blessing from your parents, and all you got was a curse, being told that you were just a burden?

Or is there something else in your life that you feel is holding you back from a closer walk with God, but you just can't seem to get rid of it, and you aren't sure why? Let me tell you a personal story. For several years I had had something in my life that was not a sin, but sometimes it seemed to take on a lot more importance than it needed to. At times it seemed to take up way too much of my thought life. I prayed about it, and the Lord never convicted me of anything, but something still wasn't right. It finally got to the point that when I woke up in the morning, it was the first thing to pop into my mind, and I started getting suspicious. Something was bogus. I began to suspect enemy action. I treated it as enemy action, asked God to deliver me of it, and those thoughts have been gone for weeks now. We have a Savior that delivers from all the power of the enemy.

This is a good place to bring up an important spiritual principle. If there is some sin in your life and God convicts you of it, then you need to confess it, repent of it, knock it off, and expect God to deliver you. That is normal Christian conviction from the Holy Spirit, and confession and repentance will bring deliverance from guilt, and from guilt feelings.

There is also the possibility that the enemy will bring lies into your mind. False feelings of guilt, failure, inadequacy, or sin, being unwanted, being stupid, being a loser. Things that the Holy Spirit would never convict you about. In that case, confession and repentance will not do anything at all.

That is enemy action, a totally different problem that requires a totally different solution. Think about it: if God convicts you of something, and you confess it, repent, and trust Christ for victory, you will be set free. And have a clean conscience. But if it is not from God, you can confess and repent all you want, the accuser will still accuse you of whatever it is, he is beating you up with a lie, and you will not get any deliverance at all.

Bear in mind, I am speaking to born again, blood bought believers here. If you have never trusted Christ for salvation, that is your first priority. If you have never trusted Christ for salvation, you need to ask God to show you your sin, and your need for a Savior. Jesus Christ has paid your debt for sin, but you need to receive Him as Savior, and have His shed blood put to your account. If you have never received Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are like a person who starves to death with a check for a million dollars in their pocket, because they never took the trouble to cash it. Don't do that. God doesn't want you to die in your sins and be separated from Him. He gave His Son for you, don't miss out on your salvation.

If you don't know Jesus Christ as Savior, you come talk to me later, and get it sorted out. For the rest of us, those of us that have already trusted Jesus for salvation, wouldn't it be great to get rid of all the junk in your life and have a closer relationship to God, and less interference from the enemy? Today is a great day to make a fresh start. I am going to ask the Holy Spirit to lead us in a time of searching us out, and revealing to us anything that we might need to confess and renounce. And even if, perhaps, you might think that certain aspects of this situation don't apply to you, you never know, you might be surprised.
One things for sure: by the time we get done, we ought to at least be in the right condition to partake of the Lord's Supper. Would you stand with me, and bow your heads?

Lord God Almighty, El Shaddai, Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts, we ask you to deliver your people from all sin and enemy action today. Would you please send your Holy Spirit to speak to us and reveal to us today those things which you would have us to know? Please show us any sin in our lives, and give us a zeal to confess it, repent of it, and be done with it. Would you please protect us and deliver us from all the lies and deceptions of the enemy, and show us your truth instead? Would you please give us a new vision of your holiness, and increase our desire for the things that are important to you, instead of the things of this world? Would you please give us a greater love for your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ? Thank you Father, in Jesus name, amen.

And now I address all demons who may be present, or who may come, you will not interfere or disrupt, or deceive in any way. I bind you in the name of the true Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, Son of Jehovah God. In His name I bind you and send you to where the true Jesus Christ tells you to go. If you disobey, you do not disobey me, you disobey the true Jesus.

Beloved, lets do business with God. And as we do, let me suggest to you that although God knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts, it would also be good for the enemy to hear you renounce and reject him, and hear you take back any territory in you that he has been claiming for himself. You don't need to be loud, but it wouldn't hurt for the enemy to hear you. If you are shy about the person next to you hearing you, this is a big sanctuary, go find you a separate place to stand, because we're here today to do business with God.

Now: if you suspect that maybe you have a spiritual problem in some area, but you aren't sure, ask the Holy Spirit, in your own words, to show you if there is something in your life or in your family history that needs to be confessed and renounced. Let's do that now.

Ask God to cleanse that iniquity in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ask God to reclaim any ground that has been given to Satan or to the enemy, and to break down every spiritual stronghold in your life.

Psalm 103:17 tells us "the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon those who fear Him, and His righteousness unto children's children, to those that keep His covenant, and to those that remember His commandments to do them."
Father we claim that promise right now, through the covenant blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we have grown up with anything in our lives that is contrary to you, whether it is spiritual, behavioral or emotional, we reject it and renounce it.
Father, we ask you to break and dispel any spiritual influence from our families that is contrary to you. We ask you to take away any and all curses and lies and replace them with your truth and your blessing.
Father, we confess that the Lord Jesus Christ was manifested to set the captives free, and we ask you to make that true and real in every aspect of our lives. Your Word tells us that when Jesus Christ makes us free, then we shall be free indeed. Father, we claim that truth today.
We ask you to set us free from the power and bondage of any and all sin, any and all lies, and any disobedience, ours, or our forefathers, and we ask it in the name and through the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. Amen.