"Is Spiritual Warfare Real?" 3 Steps to Implement to Stand Firm in Your Faith During the Battle

In today's episode, I'm going to be going over standing firm during spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare is real. I want you guys to be able to recognize it and to be able to know there that there is a constant battle happening right now between good and evil. The devil is always on the prowl, there are good spirits and bad spirits, and it's a constant battle between good and evil. We have to make sure we're standing firm in our faith because we're going to face this spiritual warfare every day. So I'm going to go into some scripture about standing firm in our faith, being equipped with everything that we need to face these battles of spiritual warfare, and being able to stand firm whenever it happens.

First I want to say a quick prayer. LORD, I pray that you lift up every single person reading this right now. Please guard our minds, open up our minds, and open up our eyes, our ears, and our hearts to you LORD. I pray that you give us everything that we need to be equipped to be able to stand firm in our faith and resist temptation, and to be able to stand firm during the time of spiritual warfare. I pray that whatever it is that each person is supposed to receive from this episode, they receive it and they implement it in their daily lives. I love you with every ounce of my being. In Jesus' name, Amen.

So there are constant temptations that everybody deals with. You know the struggles that you face, you know the temptations that the devil has, and maybe you don't even realize that it's the devil doing it. But I'm telling you right now, whenever you're going through all these temptations, that is evil, that's not goodness. That is the enemy trying to persuade you and stray you away from God. Everybody has their own struggles, and everybody has different temptations, but everybody goes through it. So how can we stand firm during this spiritual warfare, during these temptations, and during all of this, how can we guard our minds and stand firm?

Let's get into some scripture:

"So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word." -2 Thessalonians 2:15-17

"When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." -James 1:13

So that right there shows that temptation doesn't come from God, it comes from evil, and it comes from our own sinful desires. Whenever we give in to sin and whenever we do different things, then the enemy knows exactly what to tempt us with. He doesn't use new things to tempt us, he always uses the same things because let's face it, they work. It's so important for us to make sure we're standing firm and realizing that these temptations are coming from our sinful desires, these temptations are coming from the devil, from the enemy, and we're constantly battling spiritual warfare. We have to win the battle, we're going to win the battle, and we have to stand firm. God equips us with everything that we need, but we have to make sure we're standing firm.

There are going to be times when we give in to temptation, and there are going to be times when we are going to sin because we're human, but when that happens, we repent, we ask for forgiveness, and we seek to truly change our ways. We have to make sure that we are standing firm and we're doing everything that we can to resist because it's a constant battle. We as disciples of Jesus Christ, want to seek to live and have a heart like Jesus, and we want to please the Lord. He gives us everything that we need, He equips us with everything, and whenever we are just getting into the Bible, diving deep, studying our word, praying, and seeking that knowledge, understanding, and wisdom and doing those things, we're going to be able to stand firm. I'm actually going to go over this next week on how we can hold onto the truth of God's words and use that as our weapon against the enemy's lies.

"For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want."

-Galatians 5:17

So that right there shows we have that constant conflict. The sinful nature wants one thing and the enemy's going to use that sinful nature to tempt us. Then our spirit wants another thing. The Holy Spirit is full of goodness and the fruit of the spirit, and we have that within us, but we also are constantly battling with our sinful nature. It's so important for us to remain steadfast, stand firm, and listen to the truth of God's words.

"Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil." -Matthew 4:1

In Matthew chapter four, verses 1-11 are all about the temptation of Jesus, so I'm going to skip back down to verses 10-11.

"Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'" Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him." -Matthew 4:10-11

So right there, we need to worship the Lord our God and serve Him only. When the devil tempts you, read that scripture. When the devil tempts you say, "Away from me Satan, I'm going to worship the Lord my God, and I'm going to serve him only. I recognize these temptations are coming from you. I recognize that my sinful nature wants to do these things, but I'm going to stand firm in my faith, I am going to resist, I am going to know that I have to worship the Lord of my God, serve Him only, and He equips me with everything that I need to not give in to these temptations. Because these things that I desire to do, these things that you want me to do are just going to get me further away from what God's calling me to do." So that right there will help us to stand firm when we're getting those temptations to say "Away from me Satan, I will worship the Lord my God and serve Him only." That is super powerful right there.

"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 saints." -Ephesians 6:10-18

These verses show us right there that the battle is not just against ourselves, the battle is against the evil ones. We have a constant spiritual warfare going on against the authorities in the dark world. We have this constant thing going on and God has equipped us with the armor. We can use His word as truth and we can stand firm in our faith, but we have to make sure we're putting on that armor every single day, we stand firm, we resist the temptations, we resist our sinful nature, we resist all of these crazy thoughts in our head telling us to do all these things that we know that we shouldn't do, we resist that and we stand firm in our faith and we do the things that God has called us to do. We have to make that conscious decision every day to guard our minds, to stand firm, to put on that armor of God, and to go out there and do what God wants us to do. If you guys want me to go more into depth on the armor of God, we can make it a whole series if you want, just comment and let me know or you can email me at faithfuelsmyfire@gmail.com If you have suggestions of any episode that you want me to go over, anything you want me to do with an episode when it comes to faith-based tips or even Bible studies, different books of the Bible that you want me to dive deep into, email me or comment and let me know. Give me some suggestions because I'm always open and I want to help you guys, so if there's something specific that you want me to go more into to be able to help you, I definitely will do that and I will help you to the best of my ability.

Here are 3 Steps to implement when going through spiritual warfare:

1. Pray

You can pray and say whatever you want to God, but it's so important for us to keep that open communication with God and let Him know that he is the one that we worship, He is the one that we serve only, He is the very most important in our lives. Whenever we're getting those temptations, whenever we're feeling those tugs of spiritual warfare, and we're getting these crazy thoughts in our head and different things like that, just stop and pray to God. Sometimes I don't even know what to say so I just say, "Lord, please help me." He always equips us with everything that we need. So in those moments, in spiritual warfare, during those temptations, during those moments of weakness, during the hardships, during all of it, just take a moment and pray to God. He is the very most important thing and he will provide everything that we need.

2. Put on the armor of God

We have the armor, we just have to put it on. It's not something that we already have on every day. We have to actually put that armor on, make a conscious decision to put that armor on every day, stand firm in our faith, and worship the Lord our God and serve Him only. We can not give in to our sinful desires, our sinful nature, what the enemy is telling us to do, and the temptations that we're facing. We have to put on that armor of God and make that conscious decision every day to do that.

3. Stand firm and hold on to what God has equipped us with

Now that we have that armor put on, we have to stand firm and resist the devil. We have to resist the temptation, resist those crazy thoughts, and stand firm and push through toward what God is calling us to do through every aspect of our lives. We have to stay focused and look toward the Lord and what He wants us to do in our lives.

So I hope this episode helped you to realize and recognize that spiritual warfare is a real thing. Whenever we are going through those temptations, when we're going through that spiritual warfare, when we're having those moments of weakness, I hope you know that God already equips us with everything that we need and we can put on that full armor of God and we can stand firm in our faith. Also, I hope that you take these steps and implement them. Whenever you're getting those moments of weakness, whenever you are going through that temptation, I hope that this really does help you when you implement those things and that you're able to stand firm because God equips us with all of it. We can stand firm, we can do this, we've got this, God's got this and He gives us everything that we need. So next week I'm actually going to go into holding onto the truth of God's words and using the truth of God's words, using His word as our weapon against the lies of the enemy, so make sure you come back for that.

I love you guys so much.

Never forget to choose faith over fear.

-Lorena Camille (Faith Fuels My Fire)

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