The Weapons of Our Warfare, Part 7

This is kind of a curious situation. We had never really sat down to talk about spiritual weapons before starting this series. Now here we are at part 7 and the list keeps growing. It seems we had not previously realized how extensive the armory of spiritual weapons really is. It seems there are different weapons for just about anyone who has a heart for the fight. For those of you who like to be loud and boisterous in facing down the enemy, there are shouting and singing and clapping weapons. If, on the other hand, you tend to be the more quiet, reserved personality type, you can hide in your closet and whisper your prayers. Since the battle is being fought by the angelic hosts of God, it really does not much matter which of the weapons we are using, the results are the same.

Prayer is kind of a tricky weapon to describe in very much detail in a limited space. This could end up being Part 7A, 7B, etc. In order for that not to happen, we are going to limit ourselves to the essence of prayer--what it is, how we use it, and what we can expect it to accomplish. That seems simple enough.


Prayer is communication with God. Oh, and of course the "with" there means both ways, to and from God. Most Christians know all about praying to God, but come up a little short on hearing from God. At least they know how to talk to God. At least they know how to talk? We love the old saying that God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason. Seriously, prayer is simply communicating with God. That should take care of number one above--what prayer is.


How we use prayer largely depends on the situation we are facing. As we have mentioned before, God has no boundaries. Therefore, when we pray to Him, our prayers have no boundaries. We are asking him to do something that we could not do. The reasons for our impotence in the situation are irrelevant. It could be that we are facing an enemy stronger than we are. Maybe the battle is at a distance from us and we cannot participate in person. Perhaps we simply do not know what else to do. Prayer is not a default, it is a good option when we are uncertain about what it is we should be doing.


Let us do a brief teaching that many have found extremely beneficial. By looking at just a few verses in the Bible we can be assured that our prayers are answered. The first thing we need to settle is this blog is intended for people who have made Jesus Lord of their lives and have been born again. We are then grafted into and abide in the one true vine. (John 15:1-8) Once we have done that, "...all the promises of God are Yes in Him [Jesus]..." (2 Corinthians 1:20, brackets added) Since all the promises are yes in Jesus, all we need do is find the promises that apply to answered prayer. We know they are good. The answer is yes in Jesus.


The first verses we want to look at promise that God hears and answers our prayers. After we explain that, we will validate it with another verse. Warning, do not succumb to the temptation to say, "I tried it and it does not work so I do not believe it." What we are about to tell you is so good and so powerful, the religious spirit has already convinced most of the church it is too good to be true. We invite anyone who doubts what we are going to teach here to study it out for yourself. If you come to a different conclusion, post a comment or send us a personal email. The email, in case you do not know how this works is, thechurchinsantamariaca@gmail.com


"Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him." (1 John 5:14-15) Briefly, for the sake of space, this verse says if we ask, He hears us and if He hears us we have what we asked of Him. You have most likely heard these verses taught to say God's hearing and answering only applies if what we ask is what is in God's will. The Greek text does not support that conclusion. His will in these verses is that we pray. It does not refer to what we pray. You may have to meditate on that statement. The verses are telling us that God calls us to pray. He does not tell us what to pray. The validation verse we mentioned above is John 14:14, "If you ask anything in My name, I will do it." We have no idea how Jesus could have been more clear than that.


The point of this post, in case you missed it, is that prayer is a powerful, spiritual weapon which is effective because Jesus has promised to do what we ask Him to do. The more specific we can be with those requests, the easier it will be for us to see the answers to them. He is literally waiting to hear us ask Him for what we want. He is trying to teach us to partner with Him in building His kingdom. With regard to this spiritual warfare, making our needs known to Him in prayer moves Him to direct the appropriate response. Try prayer. You will like the results.

The Weapons of Our Warfare, Part 5

It is as impossible to prioritize spiritual weapons by effectiveness as it is to do so with physical weapons. Sometimes a .50 caliber sniper rifle is the correct weapon to employ in conventional warfare and sometimes a .45 caliber handgun is the right one. In spiritual warfare there are times to use one weapon and times to use another. In this post we would like to discuss worship, praise, and music.


We said in a previous post, the word of God is the most effective spiritual weapon because it is the very essence of God and brings all His power to bear in any given situation. It works every time it is employed. We also noted it is employed by speaking it out loud. When we add music to our speaking of the word, we move into a different dimension in our use of the word of God. Music opens our spirits to the Spirit of God. We make the distinction between speaking and singing the word of God understanding that we will not always be quoting scripture in our singing. Music can, in and of itself, be a spiritual weapon or it can add power to the weapons of praise, worship, and prayer.

Music was created by God. Theologians and preachers like to point to Lucifer, who before challenging God's authority, was the worship leader in heaven. They say he was a being uniquely created to lead worship because he was created for that purpose. As far as we can tell, this is probably true. He is only mentioned twice by name in the Bible, but there are other references that are generally believed to refer to him. He is also generally believed to be Satan since the time of his fall from grace in heaven.


Ezekiel chapter 28 is almost universally considered to refer to Lucifer. Verse 13 says, "...The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created." He had timbrels and pipes! What an amazing being he must have been! It is true Lucifer was uniquely created. Such is the nature of angels. They were each uniquely created. None of them is like another. We are going to let you in on a little secret. You have timbrels and pipes. It is true. A timbrel is a simple, percussion instrument. Clap your hands together. You just made the sound of a timbrel, more or less. There is a tube that runs from your nose to your lungs. It is generally referred to as a wind pipe. We have timbrels and pipes. We can worship. We can make music. Granted that some of us make music and some of us just make noise, but God still receives it as praise or worship. I, for one am glad of that. I have four children who sing like angels. They did not get that ability from me.

Music elevates and empowers our words and moves our speaking of the word of God to a higher plane. Music inspires the angels who fight on our side and confuses the demonic hordes who fight against us. By way of real life illustration, consider your personal reaction to different types of music. I am not a huge fan of opera in most cases. I feel less enthusiastic about rap music. I have been known to leave the room if someone is listening to rap--or change the station in the mission van. (Were I preaching this message, I would add something like, "Angels cannot fight to the accompaniment of rap music because they have to put down their swords to cover their ears.")


As mentioned earlier, we will not always be quoting scripture when we are singing. Although scripture is the best thing to speak or sing, God receives praise and worship from our lips whether accompanied by music or not. He delights to hear what is in our hearts. He knows it is good for us to hear it too. That is why He encourages us throughout scripture to speak or sing.

We discussed a little on the difference between praise and worship in an earlier post, More on Spirit vs. Soul, 6/28/09. We do not intend to reprise that here. However, it is important to understand that praise and worship are two different activities. Someone has summarized the primary difference well in saying that praise is thanking God for what He has done while worship is thanking God for who He is.

Praise is a two-part activity. While our spirit is supposed to always be active, it is not necessary for it to be when we praise. We make a decision to praise (soul) and tell our body to do so. That can involve using the pipe and timbrels and doing anything else with our bodies that seems right. There are some in almost any church who think it undignified to dance or lift hands or objects to to the Lord during praise. Unfortunately for them, God does not agree with that perspective. The Bible is replete with examples of various physical activities associated with praise. Granted most of those things are in the Old Testament. For those who believe Jesus did away with the Old Testament celebrations and such, we would strongly encourage you to re-read your Bible.

Worship is a three-part activity. Worship may look like praise to the outside observer. The difference is that in worship, the worshipper is one on one with God. Many "worship" leaders make a fundamental mistake in leading people to worship. They do not get out of the way so the individuals in the group they are leading can get one on one with God. The job of a worship leader is to lead in praise so the people turn their souls and open their spirits to God. When this is accomplished, they are ready individually to enter into the presence of God. It is only when our spirit touches His that worship happens. Most people do not understand this concept, but now you do.

Jesus told the Samaritan woman, in slightly different words that it does not matter where we worship. God is simply looking for those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:23-24) Where we worship, how we worship, with whom we worship is unimportant. What is important is that we worship the one true God in spirit and in truth. Those are the kind of worshippers God prizes. We would challenge you to be one of us.