Battling Spiritually & Clashing with the Unseen part 11  Eph. 6:10-12

Enlighten Us to Manage Our Adornment v.10

Enlighten Us to Measure Our Adversary v.11-12 

Satan Is a Defeated Foe

    Satan Is a Destructive Force

He’s a Twisted & Devious Schemer         the wiles

He’s a Tricky Diabolical Slanderer         of the devil 

    Satan Is a Decided Fact

For our fight is not against any physical enemy

         He Tussles 

In this vigorous struggle guide our every move to productivity

         He’s Temperamental

In the face of a variety of mood changes in others train us to be correct & compelling

The challenging alert in our need to be strong in the Lord conveys the opposing perilous hazard in an implication of our drift of being weak in the Lord.

No event in our life is incidental; every happening is purposeful with possibilities and potential.  It’s hard to understand the reasons for Job’s losses, Joseph’s victimization.  It’s mind boggling to fathom David’s family upheavals and his political crisis was overwhelming.

The thing that stands out in these men’s lives is they became strong in the Lord.  They developed in Godly character and they turned their bitter experiences into worship and encouraging writing.

The reasons for misery are measureless and diverse.  They are as varied and wide-ranged as the personalities of people.   Everyone is affected by misfortune, as Job says, man is made for adversity as the sparks fly upward.

It doesn’t matter who we are, how rich or poor we may be, or what station in society we’ve arrive at.  We all get hurt, everyone is vulnerable to heartache, and the unfailing statistic is that one out or one dies.

How we respond to our pain shows where we’ve allowed God in our heart.  Do trials and disruptions in our relationship draw us to a deeper intimacy with the Lord or do we become sour and bitter in the hurts of life. It’s natural to ask the Lord why He’s letting the destroyer into our tender inner hearts.  At times the specifics are given but more then often it’s the general answers that we have to rest in.

There’s a paranormal conflict rampant through the universe.

Satan is a decided fact, he tussles and he stirs us in pushes of temperamental moves.  He’s unpredictable getting us into a feeling that life is unreliable, erratic and volatile.  We have to trust that all is screened by God and permitted in His love.

The demonic forces try to push us away from the peace Christ has redeemed us too and they plot to dislodge the peace we gain by pray dependence.

The context of 1 Timothy 4:1-3 is a bio of the false teacher.  My thought is to expand its reference to include the decided fact that demons are on the prowl in the spiritual realms of our lives seeking to create conflict at all time.

Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;

Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

Forbidding marrying, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them, which believe and know the truth. 

The prediction of demonic attack Now the Spirit speaks expressly

God’s Spirit specifically tells us and He speaks expressly, deliberately and definitively.

The period of demonic attack       in the latter times 

The historical stage for this battle theater is the latter times, which are, our present time frame.

The purpose of demonic attack some will depart from the faith. 

This departure is what is defined as apostasy. There are various forms of apostasy and this is merely my personal spin on faith default.  There is intellectual apostasy, emotional apostasy, psychological apostasy, moral apostasy, doctrinal apostasy and spiritual apostasy.

Paul says All they which are in Asia be turned away from me. That had to be a major disappointment. Any departure from the faith is dangerous.  We’re experiencing a seizure when we drift from faith to fallacy. It’s a flip from truth for an embracing of error. The problem lies in the treachery that we may mentally hold to the truth in our heads while we emotionally abandon it in our hearts.

The premonition behind demonic attack   giving heed

The forewarning is we’re not to give heed but close the ears of our heart to these lethal voices.

The power behind demonic attack            to seducing spirits

The objective of seduction is to lead another in a predetermined direction and to win them over with a lure while hiding the hook.

The principle behind demonic attack         doctrines of devils

Demonic powers have a exhaustive doctrinal statement but their main tenant is you’ll become like God with an ability to call your own shots.

The phoniness behind demonic attack       Speaking lies in hypocrisy 

What we listen to is a major issue.  Psalms 1 warns us where not to walk, where not to stand and where we shouldn’t sit and relax.  Ephesians tells us also where we’re seated in Christ, how to walk with Christ in the power of His indwelling Spirit and what we need to stand against in the power of Christ’s provisions.

We are not to allow ourselves to be spiritually seduced and lulled into an inattentive stupor.  Seducing spirits allure and entice us away from the truth. Seducing spirits use fascination and charisma to bloat our senses. They’re pushing at us, to drive us away from the Spirits leading into God’s design.

When we reject the truth, an invisible illusion from “another” spirit begins to take over in our thinking.  This isn’t possession but it’s an abhorrent variance into all kinds of delusions and deceptions.  We’re living a fairy tale if we think that demonic powers are incapable of communicating in complete sentences. They are in attack mode constantly and untiring in verbosity and longwinded garrulity.

A Demon is behind every false teaching. Demons spurn the truth, snub God’s design, slight God’s person and scorn the access we have to God’s power through prayer and faith.  There is a tyrannical grip that vises down around us, and it’s the grasp of devil powers constantly altering truth in our world.

The painkillers behind demonic attack having the conscience seared

                                                                                 with a hot iron 

When our conscience no longer alerts, or if we’re numb and sedated between wrong and right we may have become calloused to spiritual influence.  When our souls pain center is muted as if it’s seared flesh, we’ve been anesthetized by demonic powers.

Being seared with a hot iron was a brand put on slaves and criminals.  Scripture refers to a variety of conditions in our conscience.

A weak conscience      1 Corinthians 8:10–12

A cleansed conscience Hebrews 9:14

A clear conscience       1 Peter 3:15–16

A good conscience       Acts 23:1

A seared conscience    1 Timothy 4:1–2

The devil wants to drag us down, drug us up and dumb us into being insensitive and impervious.

The perversity behind demonic attack  Forbidding marrying

The common thought is that forbidding marriage is the ludicrous religious thought that commitment to celibacy gains high points with God.  Many who’ve claimed they have put marriage aside to serve God have had some tragic mishaps.

But forbidding marrying could have a broader scope that demonic influences are stirring in our current culture. In the name of a life of devotion they’re charting out a path of deviance.

The other aspect of forbidding marriage is that those that marry are incapable often of a growing intimacy in their union, which devolves into some stage of divorce.  This too could fall into the category of yielding to the alien spirit of forbidding marriage.

The Spirit of God has clarified in Ephesians 5 the model of marriage and His design is to fill us to achieve that model.

But unfamiliar spirits drive couples apart, deter them from cleaving to each other and stir the selfish animosities that lure couples to be treacherous and disloyal to each other.  Betrayal is a poison of the evil one.  Duplicity and betrayal entered the heart of Judas, to the extent that Jesus says of him, that it would have been if he hadn’t been born.

We could even say, in the midst of wavering commitment, that shacking up or so called common law marriage is a fence straddle which is the diluting influences of the evil one who convinces a forbiddance in marriage.

The prohibitions behind demonic attack commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them, which believe and know the truth.

Exclusions and omission’s are a key element in devil related religious maneuvering. The deceptive nature of satanic attack is that it not only hawks avarice where we dive into acquiring everything under the sun but the devil peddles asceticism.  Abstain from this, withdraw from that, curb something else and refrain from another thing.  Both extremes of abstinence and the other end of the accumulation of things and experiences through indulgence are generally devil driven from our invisible struggle.

We’re fighting a supernatural enemy.