This week we are going to continue with wise preparations in regards to spiritual warfare

This week we are going to continue with wise preparations in regards to spiritual warfare. There are some things we can do to prepare for the battles we will have to engage in and these are some of the things you can do. Fasting, seeking direction, prayer, worship are some preparations you can do but warfare requires physical action as well. For example, when unexplained sickness hits, seek the most qualified Doctor and follow his directions. When the IRS calls, get the best accountant. If you have a house and a car, get good insurance. To obtain these things is not a lack of faith, they are shields for our protection. Many godly soldiers in the Bible had faith in God but they also had a shield so don’t let people tell you that to have insurance is a lack of faith on your part. We have to learn who or what our enemy is. Pray and plan your method of defense or counter-attack. Purify yourself spiritually before the Lord and build up your supplies, fortify your defenses and guard your gates. Do all you can do to win a battle. After you have done all you can do, then look to the Lord to be your deliverer.

 Now, you build your walls with what you understand and know about the Lord and His Word. That is your armor (protection) as described in Ephesians 6. The shield of faith is confidence in Him, it deflects untruth. The more you know about the Lord the more confident you will be. When you know what you believe you can stand. My walls cannot be your walls, you must build your own emunah (faith), da’at (knowledge), binah (understanding), chachmah (wisdom). Isaiah 33.6 says that “wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability (walls) of your times and the strength of salvation, the fear of the Lord is his treasure.” Others can help you but you must fight your own battles. What kind of “fort/city” do you want? I want a broad wall, with crenels, bastions, a glacis, moat, towers with top-notch weapons and strong gates! But, I can’t build these overnight by attending a few meetings, listening to tapes and reading a book. You must immerse yourself into the Lord and His word and learn, but gaining wisdom at the same time, with much thought in the process. I know many who learn but have no “chachmah” (wisdom) and they fall for any rumor and false teaching that comes down the road because they lack wisdom and discernment. So, we must prepare our walls but call on God also (2 Chr 14.5-11, Prov 16.1). But there is a trap to all this. If you look for only the “tavnit” or pattern you won’t get a good foundation that will allow you to build your walls. Read all the scriptures all the way through over and over again. Then you will know what’s right and wrong when a book or a message comes along. Let the Scriptures mold your mind, not the book or the message. You will find that when you center yourself in the Scriptures many of the programs, books, messages you wanted to read or hear won’t matter anymore.

When should your defenses go up? Following great victories or revelations. And another thing, don’t waste your time on stupid arguments with people who don’t know what they are talking about. They say they are “serving the Lord” when they are only serving themselves. In the next phase of spiritual warfare we are going to talk about psychological warfare. The essence of psychological warfare is to confuse the meaning of words and infiltrate the mind with conflicting concepts. So, before a battle even begins the enemy will be working on you so don’t miss this very important subject of psychological warfare and how it relates to our spiritual battles.