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Peter 5:8-11 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks
about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in
the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood
in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory
by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish,
strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion
forever and ever. Amen. NKJV
The definition of warfare is the process of military
struggle between two nations or groups of nations; armed conflict between two
massed enemies, or armies; conflict, especially vicious and unrelenting,
between competitors.
The entire media conglomerate has been designed and
is being run by the devil. For those who have not a relationship with our Lord
Jesus Christ, the ipads, iphones, laptops, other smartphones, dvd’s, Netflix,
hd tv’s, internet/online tv and movies, etc. are all aimed at keeping the
unregenerate so entertained/inoculated in sin keeping them blinded lest the
light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine on them.
Ephesians
4:17-19 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no
longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,
having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God,
because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their
heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work
all uncleanness with greediness. NKJV
For those of us who have been redeemed the enemy
seeks to use those weapons against us to get us to fall into sin and so sully
our Lord Jesus’ Name and damage our testimony to the lost world around us. Therefore,
we must recognize that we are foot soldiers in a spiritual war for our sexual
purity. The enemy of us and our Lord, Master, and Savior Jesus Christ is
constantly going amongst the children of the Living God seeking to lure us away
from our intimacy with Christ. Here is a quote from my upcoming book “Silent
Assassins of the Soul”, “The enemy does not take breaks or holidays. Just as
God neither sleeps or slumbers nor does our adversary the devil. He never
rests. He seeks to devour us by stealing our joy, victory, piece of mind, and
the like.” We must be building up our inner man so that we will be alert and
aware of the small and subtle attacks upon our mind that will draw us from the
love of God.
We must put on all of our armor every moment and
keep our hearts with all diligence in the love of God. Connecting our prayers
with other brothers and sisters in Christ is a good way for us to build each
other up into perfect men and women in Christ. We must fight every impulse to
allow the enemy through deception to intimidate us to indulge any sins of the
flesh or spirit, but we must resist him steadfast in “The Faith” once and for
all handed down to the saints from Christ and the Apostles. The enemy’s lies
along with his persecution reveal those who eventually Apostatize from the truth
of the gospel and live in sexual impurity.
Here is what Adam Clarke had to say about how the
devil tempts, “As a roaring lion - Satan
tempts under three forms
1. The subtle serpent; to beguile our senses,
pervert our judgment, and enchant our imagination.
2. As an angel of light; to deceive us with false
views of spiritual things, refinements in religion, and presumption on the
providence and grace of God.
3. As a roaring lion; to bear us down, and destroy
us by violent opposition, persecution, and death. Thus he was acting towards
the followers of God at Pontus, etc., who were now suffering a grievous
persecution.”
We must navigate our way through these traps being
laid for us by our enemy by being watchful in the Word of God and persistent,
and continual in prayer. Our Lord said, “Watch and pray for the spirit is
willing, but the flesh is weak.” We must be so Heavenly minded that we dim the
false light coming from the world and let our complete conversation be as that
of the entire Heavenly chorus going on right at this present moment at the Holy
Father’s Throne. From the onset of our new birth we are being trained by God
the Holy Spirit for warfare with the devil. Some may ask why must we fight
against the devil since now we have God living in us (He is greater than the
devil)? This is true but God the Holy Spirit will never fight our battles
without our participation. We must fight in His strength using the Word of God
to keep ourselves sexually pure. For all of my single brothers and sisters in
the Lord Jesus this will not come without suffering.
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Peter 4:1 (AMP): “So, since Christ suffered in the flesh {for us, for you}, arm
yourselves with the same thought and purpose [patiently to suffer rather than
fail to please God]. For whoever has suffered in the flesh [having the mind of
Christ] is done with [intentional] sin [has stopped pleasing himself and the
world, and pleases God].”For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. — Hebrews 4:15
Until we are born again, the only kind of temptation
we understand is that mentioned by St. James - "Every man is tempted, when
he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." But by regeneration we are
lifted into another realm where there are other temptations to face, viz., the
kind of temptations Our Lord faced. The temptations of Jesus do not appeal to
us, they have no home at all in our human nature. Our Lord's temptations and
ours move in different spheres until we are born again and become His brethren.
The temptations of Jesus are not those of a man, but the temptations of God as
Man. By regeneration the Son of God is formed in us, and in our physical life
He has the same setting that He had on earth. Satan does not tempt us to do
wrong things; he tempts us in order to make us lose what God has put into us by
regeneration, viz., the possibility of being of value to God. He does not come
on the line of tempting us to sin, but on the line of shifting the ! point of
view, and only the Spirit of God can detect this as a temptation of the devil.
Temptation means the test by an alien power of the
possessions held by a personality. This makes the temptation of Our Lord
explainable. After Jesus in His baptism had accepted the vocation of bearing
away the sin of the world, He was immediately put by God's Spirit into the
testing machine of the devil, but He did not tire, He went through the
temptation "without sin," and He retained the possessions of His personality
intact.
By Oswald Chambers
Clifford D. Tate, Sr.
Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you
Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus
Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women
in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book will be available soon… 
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