Paul’s Footsteps #195

Footsteps #195

The primary tool in our spiritual warfare is the word of God which is the sword of the Spirit. Everything we do needs the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Another spiritual weapon is Love, “speak the truth in love” (Eph.4:15). We will never win the battle for the minds and hearts of people until we learn to treat the opposition with respect; as individuals created in the image of God, with feelings like ourselves. That’s hard, because sometimes we hate what they do. Nevertheless, we must learn to hate the sin while loving the sinner. If that sounds trite, it’s not. Every one of us does that automatically for ourselves.  

Another weapon is faith. This is the recognition that God is in control of history, He is the Supreme Commander, and He is working out all things after His own will. In Heb.11 we have the account of ordinary men and women who found, by faith, that they could stop the mouths of lions, open the doors of prisons, and change the course of human history.  

Right after the sword of the Spirit Eph.6:18 mentions another weapon: Prayer.  Pray that our words are clothed with His power, not our flashy personalities or clever expressions, words that will worm their way through the defences of the mind and bring the rebel to their knees.  

Why is it important to employ these weapons rather than the weapons the world uses? Because they work! God’s weapons accomplish more than the world’s weapons ever could. Read again vs4-6: They have divine power to demolish strongholds, (impregnable fortress with high walls, moats, draw bridges, & ramparts.) Far more souls have been lost through Satan’s manipulation of the intellectual and ideological fashions of the age than through his recruitment of a handful of witches or luring people into the occult. The strongholds Paul sets out to besiege are more likely value systems, world-views, habitual patterns of thought, addictions, proud castles of the mind with the banner of self, floating from the ramparts. It is the mind that is the seat of rebellion against God. That is where he asserts the desire for autonomy, but Paul saw the Gospel as a powerful way to infiltrate the citadel of the human mind and heart. 

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