Thoughts for Life: #138 Use Your Mighty Spiritual Weapons (5, 6)

Dr. Wesley L. Duewel: (5) The weapons Jesus provides you are mighty to restrain Satan and his demons. Jesus came to destroy the Devi's work (1 John 3:8).

The Greek verb here means to annul, do away with, deprive of authority; hence, to destroy. In other words, Jesus came to destroy Satan's power, deprive him of all authority, and neutralize his influence. (Google image, People worshipping God)

As His representative, you are to enforce this defeat by using the supernatural weapons He has provided. The nearer our Lord's return, the more you can expect the Devil to rage and try to hinder Christ's work. But Christ has delegated to you the authority to use these weapons on His behalf.

Our God-given weapons are divinely powerful and designed for our prayer warfare; they exactly serve God's purpose and our need. They are divinely effective to defeat Satan, to drive back his forces, to nullify his efforts, and thus to win God's objectives. Skill in using these weapons will make your prayer warfare feared in hell.

a. The name of Jesus. There is no more effective spiritual weapon than the name of Jesus. It announces His presence, reminds of His victory on the cross, and gives you authority as His representative.

b. The blood of Jesus. The unbeliever does not understand the seriousness of sin, the infinite worth of each human being, the absolute necessity of the sacrificial redemptive death of Jesus Christ upon the cross as our only hope, our only Mediator between God and ourselves.

To such unbelieving and uninformed people, mentioning the blood of Christ may sound offensive. But to anyone who understands spiritual truth and who knows the Scripture references to Christ's blood, the cross, and His atoning death, nothing is more precious than the blood of Christ.

The very mention of the blood of Jesus is torment to the ears of Satan and torture to his memory. Throughout eternity he will wish he could blot out the sight from his eyes, but he will never forget that memory. That sight will torment him for ever and ever in hell.

The blood of Jesus, so precious to us, is a terrifying weapon against Satan. It shouts "defeat" in his ears. It shouts "doom" to his mind. It proves him the ultimate villain of the whole universe.

It causes him to be despised by both heaven and hell. It has covered him with eternal shame. It has made him the most contemptible of all beings in history, the vilest of the vile. Plead the blood of Jesus. It is agony to Satan. He will want to flee from the sound of your prayer.

But the blood of Jesus speaks more than that. It is the guarantee of Christ's victory. It is the measure of the infinite commitment of Christ to the elimination and the destruction of Satan and all his works.

The Passover blood in the Old Testament was total protection against the death angel. The blood of Jesus, our Passover (1 Cor. 5:7), is our total protection in time and eternity.

We are covered by His blood, sheltered by His blood, and made infinitely precious to God by Christ's blood. We are saved, purified, and made victorious by His blood—by His death on Calvary. His blood, His death, His cross are our glory, our guarantee of victory.

Satan cannot stand before the blood. Satan cannot fight the blood of Jesus and must flee from its reminder. It is your battle cry; it is your spiritual weapon. Use it to defeat Satan. Plead and praise the blood of Jesus, and drive Satan from the battlefield.

c. The Word of God. Scripture tells us to take "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" Eph. 6:17). When you take the name of Jesus, when you militantly praise the name of Jesus as you launch your attack, and as you flash the sword of the Word in the power of the Spirit, Satan knows that heavy fighting has begun. At any time he may decide to run, to abandon his fighting position, to fall back still further in retreat.

The Word is full of battle instructions. It is your manual of war. The Word is full of battle resources, for it records God's holy war and promises power for your total and final victory. It is full of God's ammunition for you. Take it and use it.

d. The prayer and command of faith. The prayer of faith, the command of faith, and the song of faith are God's weapons for you to restrain and bind and defeat Satan.

Restraining and binding Satan has to be a work of faith. By faith we insist that Satan advance no further. By faith we shield from his attack. And then by faith we launch an attack upon his strongholds.

The faith that binds Satan is the faith that takes the offensive; it immobilizes Satan's forces and disarms his weapons (doubt, discouragement, fear, temptation). The prayer of faith maintains the flow of heaven's power to us and exercises the authority of the name of Jesus.

e. The word of praise. Praise and singing can also be used militantly in faith as a weapon against Satan. God can make your faith a hymn, a militant song of triumph. (Check #137 How to Bind Satan, Part 2 (4) to read about the 12-yr-old boy who sang as he was being used to cast out a demon).

Faith is the victory that overcomes the world (1 John 5:4-5). You must pray from your position in the heavenlies to defeat Satan, and when are you more in the heavenlies than when you praise God?

Praise lifts your faith and your perspective far above the battle. Praise powerfully resists and repels Satan. Not only does he hate praise, but somehow praise seems to bring God's angels rushing to assist you in your battle.

You need them to help bind Satan. But they seem specially near when you assault Satan with praise. Praise becomes a mighty phalanx to drive Satan back and paralyze his power.

6) Make a united attack. Binding Satan's power in a given situation so God can work in mighty power often takes time and united efforts. Remember that Matthew 18:18 (binding on earth so that heaven endorses and enforces it) immediately precedes verse 19 (if two of you on earth shall agree).

Both verses are speaking of our actions on earth being ratified and helped from heaven. God the Father does this by working through the Holy Spirit, through the multitude of His angels, and by His miracle answers to prayer. He gives His help when we unite in prayer initiative to bind Satan and all his force.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Used by permission of the author and Duewel Literature Trust, Inc., Greenwood, Indiana, (with Jean's impressions added).

Mighty Prevailing Prayer
#138 Use Your Mighty Spiritual
Weapons (5, 6)
by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel

(pp. 272-277) Zondervan

Reading the Bible

Prayer-

Father, as Christ's representatives, we are to enforce Christ's authority
to defeat Satan by using the supernatural weapons You gave us.
We're seeing that the closer we come to Christ's return, the
more Satan rages, trying to hinder Christ's work in and through
us.
Satan fears the very mention of the blood of Jesus, as he remembers the day he caused Christ's blood to be shed, and it will torment him forever in hell.
May we activate our faith through our spoken words and songs as actual weapons to restrain, bind and defeat Satan.
Because Christ has delegated His authority to use through our mighty weapons of warfare, we will fight on His behalf!
Help us unite with others of like faith to bring about victory for Christ in our situations.
I ask this in His name. Amen.

Today's Bible verses-

Matt. 18:19 (KJV) "Verily I say unto, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my father which is in heaven."

1 John 5:4, 5 (AMP) "For whatever is born of God is victorious over the world; and this is the victory that conquers the world, even our faith. (5) Who is it that is victorious over [that conquers] the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God [who adheres to, trusts in, and relies on that fact]?