The weapons of our warfare

Believers, when the Accuser does his job of accusing you of all sorts -"you did this" "you haven't done that" "how can God love or help you after this" "you are a sorry excuse for a believer!"- don't hold on to those poison balls (fiery darts of the wicked one) that he throws at you. Christ died to save you from the condemnation and judgment that should follow those accusations. Look to Christ who died the dying that you should (gradually through things like stress, sickness, ageing etc) die for your salvation. Confess your freely-given righteousness in Christ. This is the weapon of our warfare - our righteousness - and not endless fasts or deliverance services which are as carnal (fleshly) as can be! They are done by human effort.

Remember 2 Corinthians 10:4 "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,"?

The devil wants you to bring your thoughts (including his accusations) to your own obedience (your ability to keep and fulfill whole the law which no one can) and not to the obedience of Christ by which all who believe are made righteous, as it is written in Romans 5:19 - "For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous."

Fighting/rationalising the accusations and thoughts is the spiritual warfare (the accusations are the fiery darts of the enemy) and the battleground/court of law is the mind. I bet you thought the battleground was some coven! Did you also know that in Israel today, prosecutors at law are called Ha Satan? The devil is a prosecutor whose arguments can only be cast down by you presenting our Lord Jesus as your Righteousness and Advocate. Paul rightly describes this gift of righteousness as a weapon in 2 Cor. 6 -

7 "We faithfully preach the truth. God’s power is working in us. We use the weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and the left hand for defense."

Our own righteousnesses are like filthy rags anyway and will send those counting on the good things they do or sacrifices they have made to get a favourable opinion from God the Righteous Judge straight to bondage, jail and ultimately death! Thank God for He is merciful and still blesses His elect in our ignorance by opening our eyes to Salvation. In Christ, as a believer and not just a professor, He is our Abba, Father, not a demanding Master that is just waiting to let the devil have a go at us when we mess things up as some leaders make Him out to be.

If you accept your guilt by holding on to the devil's poison arrows and start explaining to God the Righteous Judge why you sinned and how you can make amends and how you will do your best to be good next time and keep the Ten Commandments and worse, start doing things like restitution and law-keeping and saara in order to be acceptable in His sight, you reject the price that our Lord Jesus paid to set you free. You reject His gift of righteousness. You become your own advocate and reject Christ as your Advocate! Only Christ's shed blood can save from judgment. This is why many believers still suffer symptoms of the curse that Christ has delivered us from. Christ has become of no effect in their lives as it is written in Galatians 5:4 -

"For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace."

This is the only power that the devil has: accusing people who try to keep the Law to get right with God of their guilt in order to get the consequences of failing to keep the whole Law to be activated in their lives - all of the curses in Deuteronomy 28. For all who are not under Law but under Grace, who have Christ as our righteousness, the devil and his agents have been DISARMED. See Colossians 2.

Believers, we have been blessed to be able to stand boldly in the day of judgment (this is not the Judgment Day when books will be opened but any day that the devil levels accusations against us/reminds us of our guilt and demands that we be punished according to the law) because God's love has been perfected among us in making us as Christ is in this world, as it is written in 1 John 4:17-

"Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world."

When the accusations and thoughts (fiery darts) from the Accuser come, say out loud "I am the righteousness of God in Christ." Confess 2 Corinthians 5:21 out loud - "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

Meditate on these verses and others that the Holy Spirit leads you to- mutter them under your breath and say them out loud. Remember Romans 10:10 - "For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

Believers, no one can bring a charge against you, God's elect, because you are like Christ here on earth!

Remember that you are not under law but under grace. Remember that in Christ, God has made you righteous apart from your works. When those thoughts about what a sorry excuse for a christian you are come knocking, bring them ALL into captivity to the obedience of Christ by confessing scripture that says you are righteous, from thinking bad thoughts about your pastor to thinking about the times that you lied about your location and thinking that your 'comeuppance cometh' for that bad thing you've done....and worse. This is the devil subtly trying to remove you from your position of no condemnation in Christ to a position of condemnation so the curse of the law can be activated in your life, just the way he did with Eve, making her feel she needed to do more to be like God when she was made in his likeness. Remember, as Christ is, so are we in this world.

Christ's obedience made us righteous, not our works. His righteousness is a gift (Romans 5:7)

But God's grace is not a license to sin. It teaches us to forsake sin. It transforms us to live right. Grace is the Teacher, not man, according to Titus 2. Pastors and leaders, unveil our Heavenly Father’s Grace and Truth (embodied in our Lord Jesus Christ) and not the Ten Commandments again, which kill.

1 Corinthians 15:56 says "....the strength of sin is the Law." The very Law that many believers try to keep strengthens the grip of sin over them and results in them producing "a harvest of sinful deeds that result in death." Romans 7:5. The letter kills

Believers, as we continue to behold as in a mirror the Lord's glory (see His wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and His redemption of us reflected in ourselves even though we do not have it all together), His Spirit is transforming us to the image of His glory, from glory to glory. We cannot continue in sin! With Christ, we don't give to get; we get to give! The thoughts of the Holy Spirit become our action. See Philippians 2:13.

Believe Right and you will Live Right.