Join us for part 2 of a conversation discussing Spiritual Opposition. Gina discusses the keys to operating in the armor of God: Confidence, Perspective, Positioning, Engagement. To read part 1 of this conversation click here.
Follow along in the video below starting at 28:15.
Trusting God
There’s a worship leader, Steffany Gretzinger. I was at a worship event called David’s Tent. It’s an event that started in England several years ago, and it’s a 72 hour worship festival.
People come and camp and just worship for 72 hours. They did one in San Diego in October 2019. I had the honor of leading worship for one of the hour long sessions within the 72 hours. There’s worship leaders from all over. Some names like and Amanda Cook, Jeremy Riddle, and Steffany Gretzinger.
On Saturday they did a Q&A with those worship leaders for those of us who were local. Someone in the room asked about spiritual warfare, “how do you guys see spiritual warfare in the context worship? And what does that look like? And we’d love any thoughts.”
It was really interesting because she was raised in the church, and her dad was a pastor, and her mom is still serving at the church in Ohio that he pastored for several years. She’s been in very charismatic environments and Pentecostal environments and more conservative environments.
She answered, “I have been on the front lines and prayed, and interceded in worship in huge ways, and God moves. You know, the longer I live with Jesus, the more I’m realizing I don’t need to pick up a sword. I am a sword.” I don’t need to pick up a weapon because when I’m in God’s presence.
When I’m with Jesus, I’m dependent on Him. I’m surrendered to Him. I’m fully here, then I am a weapon. Now I am a threat. And I don’t need to try to wield something. Doesn’t mean I never engage in spiritual warfare in other ways. But the more and more I realize it’s trusting Him.
Over and over in the Old Testament, “stand still see the salvation of the Lord. Do not be afraid. Do not be dismayed. This battle is not yours, but God’s right stand still.'” Trust Him. Trust who you are in Him. I want to take us to Ephesians six. We’re going to kind of close on this before we take communion.
The Armor of God
We all know these passages, it’s the armor of God. “For we don’t battle against flesh and blood. So put on the armor of God, the helmet of salvation…” All those things. But I think that it’s easy because the imagery is really amazing. We can kind of reduce the armor of God to a VBS cartoon. You know what I mean?
But, there’s so much power in this and I’ve divided it into four sections. Starting in Ephesians chapter 6:10, “Finally be strong in the Lord and His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” Confidence. This is about confidence. Not in your own strength, confidence in God.
“Be strong in the Lord and His mighty power.” Where is your confidence? Verse 12, “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.” Perspective.
I can’t tell you how often in ministry we have to be reminded that we are not wrestling against flesh and blood. This person that you are struggling with who is combative with you, is not your enemy. Stop making people your enemy bot online or in person. What’s your perspective? Have confidence in who God is and shift your perspective.
The person in front of you is an image bearer. If they’re a believer, the person in front of you loves Jesus. You may not agree with them, but they’re God’s son, they’re His daughter. So pull yourself out of the flesh and lift up to a spiritual perspective.
Verses 13-15, “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’ve done everything to stand, stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” Positioning.
Position yourself. How many times did Nehemiah position people? Position yourself in Him, Have confidence in the Lord. Have the perspective that the battle is not ours, it’s His. It’s a spiritual battle. Position yourself in the truth of who God is. Position yourself in Jesus’ righteousness. Position yourself in the gospel.
We’re going to take communion in a minute. Position yourself at the table, His body broken for you, His blood that was shed for you. Position yourself.
Verses 16-18, “In addition to all of this, take up the shield of faith, 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 and with all kinds of prayer and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”
So finally we come to engagement. We usually start with, “I’m ready for the fight. Okay, Lord, let’s take ’em out.” No, where do we start? We start with confidence and who God is. We start with our perspective being righted. We start with our positioning and then we come to engagement.
We want to take somebody out and like to clock someone on the chin. But what is the engagement? Extinguishing the arrows and praying in the Spirit on all occasions, every kind of prayer, always praying for everyone and all of the saints.
That’s your warfare: Prayer in the spirit. Because in prayer He’s going to speak to you, He’s going to defeat your enemies. He’s going to break off spirits of control and fear and anxiety and things that oppose Him and oppose you. He’s going to expose things. He’s going to give you insight and discernment. That is your engagement in warfare.
The book of Nehemiah is just a beautiful picture practically of how that looks, because he never pulled out a sword. You know, Peter in the garden when they arrest Jesus, Peter is like, “I’ll save you Lord.” And he like wacks off this guys ear and then Jesus has to go, “I’m so sorry.” Picks up the ear and heals it. Right? Because Peter didn’t understand.
The disciples didn’t understand. They thought Jesus was going to overthrow the government. Jesus came to die and they didn’t see it. So again, our instinct, our weapons of warfare, we want to storm the castle, but the Lord’s going, “You know what, stand still. I’ve got you. This is not on you. I’ll take care of it.”
We’re going to take communion, and I want you to be thinking about this confidence, perspective, positioning and engagement. I don’t know what you’re facing in your life right now. I don’t know what kind of things that you’re receiving opposition over. You could be fighting for your marriage. You could be fighting for your kids.
You can be fighting for your own relationship with Jesus. You long to get closer, but you feel like you just keep failing or you keep running into a wall or you keep bumping up against something. I don’t know what it is.
Ephesians 6 Chart
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Confidence |
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. |
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Perspective |
12 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. |
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Positioning |
13 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. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. |
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Engagement |
16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 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. |
See His Salvation
There’s a great story in 2 Chronicles 20, When Judah is surrounded by an army and they’re terrified and Jehoshaphat, their leader, goes to the Lord and says, “I don’t know what to do. We’re terrified, we’re surrounded. Help.” And God says, “Do not be afraid. This battle is not yours but mine. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.”
So Jehoshaphat takes that advice. They all get on their face, all of the people, and they worship. And then Jehoshaphat actually deploys his army, but he deploys them with, “You sing to the Lord, you praise the beauty of His holiness.”
That was the deployment: worship. It says at the end of chapter 20, “And as they worshiped, their enemies were defeated.” Exodus 23:22 says, “If you listen carefully and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and I will oppose those who oppose you.”
So as we worship, I encourage you to come to the table posturing yourself before the Lord, positioned in front of Him to receive the significance that His body and His blood were given, so that you wouldn’t have to fight this battle. His blood defeats your enemy, His body broken brings your hope and your healing.
As His kids and as a community, it’s time for us to believe and trust who He says we are, who He is. It’s time that we tend to His presence in our lives and trust Him. So Father, I thank you that You’re here, that You’re speaking, that You’re moving. Lord, we want to lay down our weapons that aren’t your weapons.
We want to lay down the things that we’ve picked up to fight. Lord, we want to surrender to you and trust you to move in this place. Speak to us, show us the things that we need to surrender to you and give us the capacity to do that. In Jesus name. Amen.
Check out Part 1 of this Message: Spiritual Opposition – The Book of Nehemiah
Check out the Dwell Meditations
Check out another blogs about this topic: Spiritual Opposition & Worship as Warfare
