The Purpose of Spiritual Warfare

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Good morning everyone, pastor Gail here. I hope you're having
a great morning. And I tried to create a program
for podcast radio for a couple of days and just
couldn't get the right subject. Then finally it just really
came to me today the topic the Lord wanted me
to share with everybody. So if you are listening to

(00:59):
this on wood or by podcasts later, or you find
it somewhere else, I hope you enjoy the topic. I
hope it's meaningful, and I hope it meets your needs.
For all the regular listeners I know that I have
out there, I want you to know that everyone is
greatly appreciated. Also, I have been loving the cards and

(01:21):
letters that I have been receiving in the mail from
you guys, and the emails that you received. And if
you want to let me know how you like the program,
my email is share at Healing Begins radio dot com.
Share at Healing Begins Radio dot com. So I don't
know what you're doing today, I just want you to

(01:43):
set back, relax, or drive if you're driving your car,
or just focus on the road and listen to my voice.
Or maybe you're working out or running down the road
or at work, who knows what you're doing. But you
know what I want you to know today. I want
you to know God loves you. I want you to
know that He has a plan and He has a

(02:06):
purpose for your life. These programs are not necessarily scripted.
I try to go with the flow of Holy Spirit
and say what the Holy Spirit wants me to say.
But knowing that you're loved, accepted a treasure, maybe you
just need to hear the words. You're gonna make it,

(02:27):
You're going to be all right, You're going to get
through the present storm or the situation that you're in.
Maybe maybe those are the words that you need to hear.
And so I was thinking about the purpose of spiritual warfare.
What is the true purpose of spiritual warfare? Well, if
we're going to talk about the purpose of spiritual warfare,

(02:50):
we first got to talk about what is spiritual warfare.
We know the Bible says in the Book of Ephesians,
chapter six that we wrestle not against less and blood,
but against principalities and powers and spiritual forces of wickedness
in the high places. So we know that spiritual warfare
is the clash of two kingdoms. God's Kingdom against the

(03:14):
Kingdom of darkness. And so the good news as I
read the end of the book, and we win Satan Louises,
and that's the good news. But in the meantime, he
still fights as if he can win. And one of
the ways he fights us is when we're going through
a hard time or when we're in a real personal battle,

(03:35):
he tries to convince us to give up, to be
quiet and stop walking with the Lord and walking in
his plans for our lives. And so I wanted to
look at Revelation chapter one, verses nine through sixteen first,
and then I'm going to talk about the purpose of
spiritual warfare as I see it. I was up this

(03:58):
morning it uh four point fifty am in prayer, and
the Lord laid this on my heart. So that's why
I'm sharing it with you. Revelation chapter one, verses nine
through sixteen says I, John, your brother and companion, and
the suffering in the kingdom and patient endures that are
ours in Jesus was on the isle of Patmos because

(04:21):
of the word of God in the testimony of Jesus.
On the Lord's Day, I was in the spirit and
I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,
which said, write on a scroll which you see, and
send it to the seven churches to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergama,
dire Tyra, Sardis Philadelphia, and Lao to Sea. I turned

(04:44):
around to see the voice that was speaking to me,
and when I turned around, I saw seven golden lamp stands.
Among the lamp stands was someone like the son of Man,
dressed in a robe, reaching down to his feet with
a golden sash his chest. His hair on his head
was white like wool and as white as snow, and

(05:05):
his eyes were blazing like fire. His feet were like
bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like
the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he
held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was
a sharp double edged sword, and his face was like

(05:25):
the sun shining in all of its brilliance. Let's open
this time with prayer. Lord, I thank you for the
apostle John that lived his whole life fulfilling your purpose
for his plan, fulfilling your purpose for his life. I

(05:46):
thank you Lord that it wasn't all easy. John had
a rough time, but he stayed true to your name,
and he trayed he stayed true to your purpose. Lord,
help us all as we walk with you, and even
if we're going through hard times, to stay true to
your purpose and plan for our lives in the name

(06:10):
of Jesus. Amen. Now I want to talk about this
scripture for a minute. We must realize that Satan hates us.
We also must realize that when we read the Book
of Revelation and we talk about John being on the
Ala Pamas, Satan hated John. Two, why does he hate
us so much? And what is his purpose in the warfare? Well,

(06:33):
the purpose for spiritual warfare exactly quite simple warfare. The
purpose is to stop you and me from walking in
the purposes and plans for that God had. Okay, I'll
say that in the purpose of spiritual warfare is simple.

(06:56):
Satan wants to stop us from fulfilling God's purposes and
plans for our life. And he wants to stop us
and shut us down and shut our voice down. And
he doesn't want us to be heard talking about Jesus,
especially the testimony of Jesus. So in the case of

(07:20):
Revelation chapter one with John, let's talk about that for
a minute. So John was going out fulfilling the purposes
of God for his life. And when we fulfill the
purposes of God for our life, we're also fulfilling God's
purpose on the earth. God's plan on the earth is
going forward, and Satan's whole goal is to stop that.

(07:43):
So Satan had a plan for John. He thought, I
know how to stop John. Now, historians say that before
he was banished to the Isle of Patmos, that John
was boiled in oil, but it did not kill him.
Then after they had boiled him in oil, they put

(08:05):
him on the Isle of Patmos. And I know what
Satan was thinking. We got John. Now, this will shut
him up. He's hurting, he's been boiled in oil, he's banished,
he's all by himself on the Isle of Patmost. Surely
he can't do anything good right where he's at. Well,

(08:28):
i'm gonna give you the Paul Harvey of this. I'm
going to give you the rest of the story. The
rest of the story was that, you know, John, he
just must have been incredible, because I don't know if
I would have been in the spirit on the Lord's
Day after I had been boiled in oil, I might
have been complaining. I know the Isle of Patmos was
not nice. I don't know where John stayed or how

(08:52):
he survived, but he was going through a hard time.
But the Bible says on the Lord's day he was
in thus spirit. Now that takes work, especially if your
body is hurting. You feel like everything is going to
hell into handbasket all around you, and you know, you
feel like everything is coming to an end. Everything has

(09:14):
gone wrong. And here we got John. He's worshiping on
the Isle of Patmos. He is praising the Lord when
suddenly he gets a revelation from God. In fact, he
is taken into spirit and he has an encounter with
a risen Christ. Oh my, what an encounter. Hair was

(09:38):
white like snow, eyes were blazing fire, feet were like
bronze in the furnace. The Lord's voice was like the
sound of rushing waters. And in being in a horrible
place and hurting, he has and he receives the greatest

(09:58):
revelation that God had for his whole life and ministry,
a revelation that would that would affect the entire world
and generations to come. Out of being on the aisle
of Patmos, he was able to write the Book of Revelation,

(10:19):
and tell us about the future. And you know what,
the very thing listen to this, the very thing that
Satan had planned to destroy him and to shut him down,
God used to propel his ministry into the future and

(10:40):
to affect generations to come. I want you to know,
if you're going through a hard time right now and
you're in the middle of a personal battle, this is
not a time to give up. This is not a
time to stop. But this is a time to keep
pressing forward, keep walking in the ways of the Lord,
keep on the plan that God has for your life.

(11:02):
You see, Satan isn't doing anything new. The same plan
he had for John. He'll have something similar for us.
He will allow us to go through a hard time.
Then he comes and he whispers his lies. See where's
God in your situation? See, you might as well give up?
Why are you pressing forward? Look where you're at, Look

(11:23):
what's going on? And you know what, John did not
listen to any of that. He just kept pressing on.
He just kept pressing through. He just kept pressing forward.
And God wants you to do the same thing. You know,
if Satan can't stop you from what you're going through,
if he can't stop you from the situation. Then what

(11:47):
he will do. He will come and get you involved
with good things. He will get you so involved with
so many good things you can't do the one thing
that God wants you to do well, or you'll get
totally distracted from it. And that's the other thing Satan does.
He uses distractions to stop us from fulfilling God's purposes

(12:11):
and plans for our life. You know what, just because
you're going through something hard does not mean that you
are disqualified from the purpose of God for your life.
If you've been distracted, if you've been sidetracked, you just
need to stop and get in your quiet place, get

(12:33):
in your secret place with God. That's what I was
doing this morning. I was in the secret place with
the Lord, asking him for what he had for me.
I was in the secret place of the Lord because
you see, many things were coming at me from all directions,
and I needed the Lord to sort them out for me.
He usually sorts them out for me at four point
thirty in the morning. I know that's early, but I

(12:56):
try to give the God the best of my day
at the beginning on my day, before I go my way.
And you know, you might say well, you don't know
how busy I am. Well, you don't know how busy
I am getting up at four thirty in the morning.
Like for instance, today, I got up at four thirty
in the morning, and I won't get home to eight
pm at night. That makes a long day. But as

(13:17):
I was up at four thirty am, God began to
give me revelation of what he had, what he wanted
me to do. I was able to lay some of
the burdens I was carrying at the cross and let
the Lord have them. See, that's the other thing the
enemy will do. He will burden you down emotionally. He
will wear you down emotionally, so it just seems like

(13:37):
you can't go on, and you got to have a
way to offload some of those burdens. You know, it
says in One Peter five, seven and eight. Cast all
your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. For
your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion,
seeking someone whom he may devour verse nine, Resist him,

(13:59):
stand firm in the faith. You see, that's the other
part of spiritual warfare. We don't always look at the
burdens that we carry are designed to weigh us down
and devour us. How do they devour us? If we
don't give those burdens to the Lord, they'll devour our time,
our mental health, and our energy. And then if that

(14:22):
doesn't stop us, Satan comes behind us and he begins
to push us and tries to convince us we don't
have the time to slow down. We don't have the
time to spend with Jesus. We don't have that time. Well,
I tell you right now, if I don't have that time,
I will never fulfill what God wants me to do

(14:44):
in my life. Because like today, this message, this message
came this morning early. I didn't have it before. And
if I would have been getting up about my day
and taking my shower and going to work and not
spending that time, I would not be bringing this message
to you right now. And I'm just like you who

(15:06):
are listening. I put my pants on one leg at
a time. I have to spend the time with the
Lord just like you do. And we're all in different situations,
so we all do different things, and we all have
different lives, but we all are in the same battle.
We are all in God's kingdom. You're either in the
Kingdom of God or the kingdom of darkness. You might

(15:27):
be listening to this and you're not saved, you're not
right with God, and maybe you're serving on the other side. Hey,
come over to the winning team. Come over to God's side.
He loves you. So if you say, man, I've given
up on all of God's purposes and plans from our life, well,
today's a new day. Today's a brand new day. Today's
the day to turn around and say, Lord, forgive me

(15:50):
forgiving up, forgive me for throwing in the towel. I'm
gonna get back on the plans. I'm going to get
back on the purposes, and I'm going to keep going forward.
And the thing you don't want to do if you're
under a lot of warfare is isolate yourself. You want
to be involved with a good church community. You want
to be involved with a small group, a Bible study.
You want to be getting the fellowship you need each

(16:12):
and every day because we all need it. You know,
every Monday morning, I have three men that have met
with me since twenty eighteen. They come to my office
and we have prayer every Monday morning together because I
need their prayers to get me through the warfare that
I will encounter during the week, and some of the
biggest things I need when I'm going through spiritual warfarees God,

(16:34):
what is your wisdom and the biggest weapon we can
use in spiritual warfare. Listen to this is knowing what
God wants you to do, when He wants you to
do it, how he wants you to do it. If
you know and are convinced in your heart that you're
doing something God wants you to do, and you know
when he wants you to do it, and you know
how he wants you to do it, when you go

(16:55):
forward in the name of Jesus, there's nothing that the
enemy can do to stop you from fulfilling God's plan.
Will he try? Oh absolutely, he tried. Oh yes, he tried.
He tried to do it with John. He boiled him
in oil and threw him on the isle of Patmos.
He tried to do it with Peter. He threw Peter
in prison and hopes to have him killed. But God

(17:17):
sent an angel and let him out of prison. You
read the whole Bible, Satan's always trying to stop God's plan.
When Jesus was in the wilderness, being tempted by Satan.
That was the very thing Satan was trying to do
to stop Jesus from fulfilling the purpose that the heavenly

(17:38):
Father had for him to do. But Jesus kept saying
to Satan, Satan, it is written, it is written. It
is written. He battled the enemy with a word, and
then after his time of testing, the Bible said, he
went out in the power of the spirit. And here's
something else I want you to know. If you're in

(17:58):
a battle and you remain true what God has called
you to do, when you come out the other side
of that, you're going to come out in the power
of the spirit. You're going to come out and you're
going to see promotion. You're going to see growth. You're
going to go to a different level because you stayed
true when it was tough to the purposes and plans
for your life. I mean, even if you haven't stayed true,

(18:20):
you can get right back to where God wants you
to be. You know, the more I think about God's sovereignty,
he knows when we're going to take detours, he knows
when we're going to get sidetracked. He knows how to
bring us back to the right path. He's amazing like that.
I don't know anyone that knows how to do that
like Jesus. You know what I like about Jesus. I

(18:41):
like a lot of things, but here's what I like.
I like the fact that he knows how to spoil
the enemy's plans. If you are called by God and
you're walking in his purposes, whatever Satan has planned, God
has a way of ruining it for him. You know,
you don't got to focus on Satan. Just focus on Jesus,
focus on what he wants, focus on staying in prayer

(19:01):
with him, focus on getting his revelation, focus on being
in his presence. And then as you go forward, the
Bible says the steps so the righteous are ordered of God.
They're ordered because you spent time with him. You've been
in his presence, You've been talking with him, and you
come out of your war room. I love that war
room movie. You come out of your war room or

(19:23):
your place of prayer and you go about your day
because now you know what God wants you to do
this day, and you just go out and fulfill it.
You know, God already knew it this day was gonna hold.
He saw it a long time ago, because God is
in our past, present, in future all at once. So Lord,
just help me to fulfill this day what you saw

(19:44):
me do two thousand years ago, because you knew about
me before the foundations of the world. Oh, them are
some heavy thoughts. I know them are heavy thoughts. So
I'm thinking today that many of you are discouraged. I'm
thinking this morning that a number of you are dis
courage is if you're up at one am in the morning,
listen on iHeartRadio. Not a lot of people are up

(20:05):
at one am, somewhere over seven hundred, between seven hundred
and eight hundred people. But I know you're listening for
a reason because maybe you're discouraged. Maybe you feel like, man,
I don't know if I can make it through another day.
I don't know if I can make it through another hour.
I just don't know. Well, you know what the Lord said,
He would never leave you nor forsake you Isaiah forty

(20:28):
one ten, verse thirteen. I the Lord will take you
by the right hand and walk with you. So my
prayer is that in the midst of all this, God
would take you by the right hand and walk you through.
And it says in Isaiah, when you walk through the water,
I'll be with you. And when you walk through the fire,
and I set your blames. And so because the Lord
is with you, he loves you. And if you haven't

(20:49):
had your hand in his, all you got to do
is stick out your hand and say, Jesus, I'm ready
to walk with you again. And whether you feel it
or not, he'll take the hand. He'll take you right
by the hand. He'll walk with you through the land
because He's got a plan. And so I hope this
is an encouragement for you this morning, and I want
to say a prayer for you. I know a number

(21:11):
of you are probably discouraged, or maybe this is really
encouraged you to walk further. Just look at it. Just
because a battle is going on doesn't mean that you're
to stop. That just means you're on the right track.
Right the Bible says, beware when i'm men speak well
of you. And so just because a battle is going

(21:33):
on or something hard is happening, doesn't mean you're to stop.
It means you to press on, press forward, press through
because God's with you. Let's pray Heavenly Father, I thank
you for everybody under the sound of my voice that
will listen by radio or by podcast leader. I pray
today that you would take them by the hand, walk
through the land, be with them all the time, and

(21:55):
show them what your plan is for their life. Lord,
I thank you that you love these person listening and
that you care about them and that they're important to
you because you died on the cross for them for
them to have eternal life. And Lord, I pray that
if there's anyone out there that's not right with God,
they would just say, Jesus forgive me my sins, Come

(22:15):
into my heart, be my Savior. I rededicate my life
to you in the name of Jesus. Amen. So, Lord,
I thank you for all those that pray that prayer.
Thank you for those that are listening. I pray that
you would bless each one in the name of Jesus. Amen.
I'd really love to hear from you. My email is
share at Healingbegins Radio dot com. Share at Healing Begins

(22:39):
Radio dot com. And I'm so glad that you're listening,
and I'm so glad you're out there. And so I
just want to say, as I close out this program
in this podcast, may the Lord bless you. May the
Lord keep you. May the Lord cause his face to
shine upon you, be gracious to you and give you peace.

(23:01):
May the Lord walk with you every step of the way.
May he reveal his plan to you as you go forward.
Despite everything that's going on, Lord, I thank you that
every storm has an end to it. And I thank
you Lord that you are the master of the winds
and the waves and the circumstances. Lord, we rest in

(23:24):
your love and in your purposes this morning in Jesus'
name a man, thank you so much for listening. I
hope this has been an encouragement and have a great morning.

(24:01):
Healing Begins is brought to you by Spiritual Care Consultants
located in Hastings, Michigan. At the Healing Center, we see
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(24:23):
You can email me at Gail G. A. L E
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(24:45):
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