Westshore Christian Church
Everyday an invisible war rages around you. You have an enemy who is seeking to kill, steal, and destroy. He will do whatever he can to make you futile and unproductive in your walk with Christ. He wants you suffocating in sin, insecurity, fear, and discouragement so that you cannot live freely or fully. He is crafty.
He is deceitful, and he wants to take you down and take you out.
But, this enemy has also already been disarmed, embarrassed, overuled, mastered, rendered powerless, and has had all of his hard work destroyed because of the victory of Christ over sin and death. Christ's victory is your victory.
We are in spiritual batter. Standing in the power of God, we win. Fighting with God's weapons, infused with God's power, we overcome.
Ephesians 6:10-20 NIV
The devil has been:
• Disarmed and embarrassed (Col. 2:13-15).
• Overruled (Eph. 1:19b-22).
• Mastered (Phil. 2:9-11).
• Rendered powerless (Heb. 2:14-15).
• And all his hard work has been destroyed (I John 3:8).
Ephesians 6:14 NIV
Satan attacks…
§ Your Mind: distorting your thinking with lies about God, His Word, and even yourself, trying to cripple your soul through negative, unbiblical thought processes
§ Your Will: redirecting your ambitions away from eternal, godly pursuits luring your toward interests that are temporal, short-sighted, even directly opposed to the will of God.
§ Your Emotions: tampering with your feelings, piggybacking on runaway responses like anger, discouragement, revenge, or sadness to persuade you into making unstable choices.
§ Your Conscience: influencing your conscience so it steers you to life in a way that doesn’t line up with biblical guidelines.
Quoted from The Armor of God (p 71).
by Priscilla Shirer
Lifeway Press 2015, 2017
Imputed Righteousness
“Imputed righteousness defines and declares you innocent before all accusers”
—Priscilla Shirer
from The Armor of God (p 77).
by Priscilla Shirer
Lifeway Press 2015, 2017
Ephesians 4:21-24 NIV
Practical Righteousness = Putting off
• Lying (4:25)
• Letting anger control you (4:26)
• Stealing (4:28)
• Unwholesome talk (4:29)
• Bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, and malice (4:31)
• Sexual immorality, greed, impurity, obscenity, foolish talk, and coarse joking (5:3-5)
Practical Righteousness = Putting on
• Humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with each other, peace, unity (4:2-3)
• Truth (4:25)
• Kindness, compassion, tenderheartedness, forgiving as God forgives in Christ (4:32)
So What?
1. Seek God asking what is spoiled in your life --> confess and repent
2. Know your imputed righteousness (Perfect make practice)
3. Put off and put on by the power of the Spirit of God living inside of you
4. Meditate on the Word, internalize God’s principles, and implement them in your actions through prayer.