Strategies Of Spiritual Warfare

TRINITY HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH

SUNDAY SERMON
17th of March, 2024
Topic: Strategies of Spiritual Warfare
Preacher: Reverend Ebenezer Olawuyi
Text: 1 Peter 5:8 – 9

MESSAGE
I welcome you to Church this morning. This is your morning of testimony in Jesus Name. The Devil is a big liar. This morning is your morning of testimony, amen.
Don’t joke with prophetic words. I heard a testimony on Tuesday; after the service, I was about coming in for another meeting here when somebody came and stop me by the door that he wanted to see me. He said it was very important. I told him to please, allow me but he implored me to listen to him. So, I had to turn back and go with him to my office. There, he shared with me an awesome testimony, but I will not relay everything here. However, one bit of the testimony that touched me was this: He said he and his wife usually sit at the back of the church, and that there is something they have been pursuing since 2019 but wasn’t just coming through. He told me then that one day, I prophesied and said, ‘Let somebody move to the front and as you move, your life is moving forward.’ That day, he told his wife that they were the ones the Pastor was talking about. So, they moved to the front and he said that the next day, what they have been expecting since 2019, the story suddenly changed and they got their testimonies. The testimonies he told me were just so awesome that I had to tell him that other people who don’t hear them from him could easily count them as lies.
There are times when God moves in mysterious ways. How can you explain that an unbeliever King, Cyrus… maybe there were believer Kings then but what they could not do, an unbeliever King did it for them. Cyrus said Israel could go back to their land and even gave them all what they need. Miracles still happen! God’s words are true, don’t joke with the prophetic. I shared with you last week also, that it doesn’t happen whatever the person is, either a believer or an unbeliever, once you can believe it, it works for you. When a Muslim came to me and told me, ‘I believe you, just say a word.’ I told him that the Lord will open doors for him and he convincingly said ‘Amen.’ He left after that and something he never imagined happened. He was called the next day from a Federal University in Nigeria, asking if he was so-so-and-so. He, at first thought it was a fraud; they told him to come to their University right away and ask for a particular person. He traveled there and they gave him a contract to sew the convocation gown for the first graduating set of the university. He was amazed and was shaking. He said he didn’t know them, and didn’t even know the person who gave them his number. Miracles still happen!
The scripture says blessed is he who believes. Some people in the body of Christ are too familiar with the Word or the prophet, because they have heard it over and over, they do not believe. That’s why the scripture says, ‘…many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness…’ (Matthew 8:11 – 12). Believe the Word! You may not understand how it works, even the speaker may not understand, but believe it. I have seen things that make me shake and ask ‘How?’ but the more I hear them, the more I get humble that God still works in mysterious ways.
God can give you strange favour. The Bible says in Hosea 12:13, ‘By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved.’ I told you that there are two parts to the prophetic: the first is the release out of that captivity and cage, the second is the preservation. Unfortunately, some people use the prophetic to get out and then they run away, that’s why most times, the second part (the preservation) doesn’t work for that which they got in the first stage. Don’t joke with the prophetic. Every word concerning your situation, health, etc., don’t joke with them.
I say to someone here: The door you cannot open by yourself, let the Hand of the Lord open it now in the name of Jesus. I am releasing upon you strange favour.
This morning, I will leave you with two words. I am looking at ‘Strategies of Spiritual Warfare’ and would mention two of those strategies this morning:
1. Submission: This is not submitting to the enemy but submitting to God. You need an ally in the battle of life. You need a helper, you can’t do it alone. None of us can match the devil; He has been existing before we came in, he is very old and you can’t match him but you can connect with the Ancient of Days to help you. He is the Lord of Hosts, the Lord of the Angels’ Army. The scripture says, God is in the midst of thousands of angels, that is, He has them at His beck and call. You don’t need so many angels, you just need one, that is why you need God to help you. If you dare go into the battle alone, you will get into trouble. Psalm 60:11 – 12 says, ‘Give us help from trouble, for the help of man is useless. Through God we will do valiantly, for it is He who shall tread down our enemies.’ He will go ahead of you and mess them up; He will break up their backbone. Deuteronomy 33:26 is also related: ‘There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to help you, and in His excellency on the clouds.’ That supernatural help… He rides on the Heavens to help you. V. 27 says, ‘The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; He will thrust out the enemy from before you, and will say, “Destroy!”’ God will break their backbone and they won’t be able to do anything.
You need Him to be your help, that is why you must submit to Him. The problem with a lot of us is that we want God to help and fight for us, but we are not submitting to Him. You want God to fight for you? Submit yourself to Him. When you raise up a banner… the Lord is our banner, that’s why He is called Jehovah Nissi. Banner stands for a rallying point; all the armies under a banner shows that they are under the same commander. So, when the enemy conquers them, they put down the banner to show their defeat. Rallying under a banner means you are submitting to authority, so, when you get out of the banner, it means you are breaking out and no longer submitting. Many believers don’t submit to His words and instructions. He tells you some things, yet you do some other things and you want Him to be your help?
Look at what the scripture says in James 4:6 – 7, ‘But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.’ See the secret now: ‘Submit to God’, after that, ‘Resist the devil and he will flee.’ It is dangerous to not submit, by doing so, you can become a victim. How can you fight your enemy without submitting to the one who should help you? Submit to Him, stand under His banner, be under Him, rally under Him, do not leave that banner. After you have submitted, you can fight and let me tell you this, the devil is a coward. As fierce looking as the devil is, he is a coward. I was watching a documentary of wild animals and I saw lions battling a buffalo who was struggling with them. But at a stage, when they saw that the buffalo was strong, they all ran away. The devil is a coward. One of the ways to handle the devil is to submit to God, then, the devil will flee from you. You won’t need to struggle with him to go. But when you don’t submit to God, you will struggle. Whatever God tells you to do, do it and the devil will flee from you.
2. Stand firm in the faith (1 Peter 5:8 – 9): That hymn says, ‘Ho, my comrades, see the signal, waving in the sky… Hold the fort, for I am coming.’ Here is a background to this hymn: During the American Civil War in 1864, General Sherman, before his march to the sea had his army go ahead to the neighbourhood of Atlanta and while they were there, the enemy army, led by General Hood passed by their right flank in a well-prepared movement. They went to the rear of General Sherman’s army and started cutting the railroads to prevent supplies to General Sherman’s army. They were destroying the storehouses and taking over the fort and the armories. In the midst of this, when General Sherman finally discovered, these people had gone far. What’s left now is for them to run after them and fight to prevent them from taking over the large garrison at Altoona Pass.
In Altoona Pass, one of General Sherman’s men, General Corse was stationed there with 1,500 soldiers. General Hood, the commander of the enemy army commissioned General French with 6,000 armies to take over the large garrison in Altoona Pass. In the midst of the battle with the 6,000, General Corse’s army was struggling and many of them had been wounded, yet, they kept on fighting in that murderous battle. In the midst of all this, while they were almost getting weak, they saw a signal of their commander, General Sherman, on a far mountain saying ‘Hold the fort; I am coming. W. T. Sherman.’ This steered up their courage and geared them to continue fighting. They refused to give up because they already saw that their commander was coming with a greater army, even General Corse had been shot through his head, but he persevered. By the time General Sherman arrived, General French of the enemy army had no other option than to retreat.
This story was what inspired the hymn by Philip Bliss and is a charge to Christians to hold on, amidst the battles of life. That was what Peter wrote in this Bible passage also, that ‘Be sober and vigilant… resist him, steadfast in the faith.’ To have a win in the battle of life, you must keep fighting. Victory is surely yours, but you must not give up, because winners don’t ever quit and quitters don’t ever win. You must stand firm, not in yourself, but in the faith.
Stand firm in the Word of God, say what God said concerning your health. Confess what God said concerning your finances and children. The children may be behaving contrarily to what you have prayed about but don’t ever accept no for an answer. Say it boldly: ‘My children will serve the Lord. In their generation, they will be far from terror. My children shall be mighty in the land. Great shall be their inheritance.’ This is why the scripture says stand steadfast in the faith. Are you battling in your academics, don’t ever accept no for an answer. The Bible says, we are not of them who go back to perdition. Stand! (Heb. 10:36). So many believers throw away their confidence. Don’t give up, resist him but you need to constantly stand firm in faith (1 Pet. 5:9).
In that area of life that the devil is hitting you, stand firm. You are more than a conqueror, stand firm against the devil and be strong in the faith. No wonder, Abraham was able to win the battle. For 75 years, Abraham was able to stand his ground. He did not consider the deadness of his body but he was strong in faith, giving Glory to God (Rom. 4:19). He must have kept on saying: ‘Father, thank you because I am the father of nations. Thank you because I will carry my baby. Thank you because Sarah will be a mother of children.’ He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but he was strong in the faith, giving glory to God. Stand firm in the faith, don’t give up. After you resist the devil, you must stand firm in your faith. Ephesians 6:13 says, ‘Therefore take up the whole armour of God… and having done all, to stand.’ After you have given your seed; as you live in righteousness, stand! Over that situation, you will laugh at last. You will see the end of that affliction.
Prayer
Father, I submit to your authority. I submit to your Word, in the name of Jesus.
Devil, you are a liar. I rebuke you in my life, in my family, etc. I command you to flee in Jesus Name.
Psalm 18:44 – 45 say, ‘As soon as they hear of me they obey me… the foreigners fade away, and come frightened from their hideouts.’ Every stranger in your head… say after me: O, you stranger, in every part of my body, hear the word of Lord, go out!
Every stranger lurking in my family, home, businesses, go out!
I stand firm against you, Satan. From today, no parking, no loitering, no waiting, in the name of Jesus. I stand firm against the devil. I stand firm against the devil. No waiting, no parking, no loitering in the name of Jesus.
Declaration
O wind of God, blow and bring testimonies to the Children of God from every corner of the earth. Wind of God, open that door. Let the dead come alive again. Let that health come alive.
Call to Salvation
Are you here this morning and want to make Jesus your ally? You want to surrender your life to Him so that He can help you? You want Him to be your Master and Lord? Say this prayer: Jesus, I make you my Lord and Saviour, be my master from today. I surrender to you. Take this heart and use it for your glory. Amen.