SPIRITUAL WARFARE - THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT PART 2

WELCOME TO PART TWO......HOPEFULLY, YOU HAVE READ PART ONE BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO READ THIS.....

 LET’S TRAVEL BACK HISTORICALLY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, TO THE RIVER JORDAN TO WITNESS JESUS’ BAPTISM BY JOHN THE BAPTIST, AS DESCRIBED IN MATTHEW 3:13-17.

 IF YOU DID A WORD STUDY OF "GOD" IN GENESIS 1:1, YOU WILL LEARN THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT WAS INITIALLY INTRODUCED AS PART OF THE TRIUNE GOD , ELOHIM  (PLURAL),  MEANING..."THE FATHER, SON, AND HOLY GHOST [SPIRIT]."  FOR “THE SPIRIT OF GOD HOVERED OVER THE FACE OF THE WATERS.” (V. 2) YOU WILL SEE EVIDENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT THROUGHOUT THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT. BUT HE TRULY COMES TO THE “FRONT”, IF YOU WILL, IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, IN MATTHEW 1:18 WHERE WE READ "NOW THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST WAS AS FOLLOWS: AFTER HIS MOTHER MARY WAS BETROTHED TO JOSEPH, BEFORE THEY CAME TOGETHER, SHE WAS FOUND WITH CHILD OF THE HOLY SPIRIT."

IT IS CRUCIAL FOR YOU TO SPEND TIME IN THE BOOK OF ACTS, WHICH IS THOUGHT TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BY LUKE ABOUT AD 62.  THE KEY VERSE SPOKEN BY JESUS IN THE BOOK OF ACTS IS 1:8.  “BUT YOU SHALL RECEIVE POWER WHEN THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS COME UPON YOU; AND YOU SHALL BE WITNESSES TO ME IN JERUSALEM, AND IN ALL JUDEA, AND SAMARIA, AND TO THE END OF THE EARTH.” IT HAS BEEN SAID THAT “THE BOOK OF ACTS IS THE STORY OF THE DISCIPLES RECEIVING WHAT JESUS RECEIVED IN ORDER TO DO WHAT JESUS DID.”

(NEW SPIRIT FILLED LIFE BIBLE, PAGE 1487) ALSO IS HAS BEEN SAID THAT THE BOOK OF ACTS IS THE BRIDGE LEADING FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT TO NEW TESTAMENT, FROM THE OLD COVENANT OF LEGALISM TO THE NEW TESTAMENT WHICH IS THE COVENANT OF GRACE.

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT AS THE EARLY DISCIPLES RECEIVED THE HOLY SPIRIT SO AS TO "DO" WHAT JESUS DID, THE “EMPOWERMENT” OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IS AVAILABLE FOR THOSE BELIEVERS WHO DESIRE TO WALK IN THE FULLNESS OF WHAT IT IS TO ACCOMPLISH ALL THAT THE LORD GOD SO DESIRES FOR US AND THAT IS TO BE BAPTIZED(FILLED) WITH/IN THE HOLY SPIRIT. ALL THAT ONE WHO IS A BELIEVER HAS TO DO TO BE BAPTIZED/FILLED IS TO ASK, JUST AS YOU ASKED TO BE BORN AGAIN!  REMEMBER THE SCRIPTURE WHICH DECLARES “ASK, AND IT WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU; SEEK, AND YOU WILL FIND”. (MATTHEW 7:7-11)  IN ADDITION, READ IN 1 CORINTHIANS, CHAPTERS 12-14 FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONCERNING THE HOLY SPIRIT.  YOU WILL BE ABUNDANTLY BLESSED!

WE READ, BEGINNING IN ACTS 1:4-14, THAT JESUS PROMISED HIS DISCIPLES THE HOLY SPIRIT, "BUT TO WAIT FOR THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER 'WHICH HE SAID YOU HAVE HEARD FROM ME…..FOR JOHN TRULY BAPTIZED WITH WATER, BUT YOU SHALL BE BAPTIZED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT NOT MANY DAYS FROM NOW'”. AND AGAIN IN VERSE 8, “BUT YOU SHALL RECEIVE POWER WHEN THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS COME UPON YOU….” CONSIDER ACTS 10:38, “....HOW GOD ANOINTED JESUS OF NAZARETH WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT AND WITH POWER, WHO WENT ABOUT DOING GOOD AND HEALING ALL WHO WERE OPPRESSED BY THE DEVIL, FOR GOD WAS WITH HIM.”  AS HE IS WITH EACH OF US WHO DESIRE TO BE EMPOWERED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, THANKFULLY!

AS WE READ IN CHAPTER 4 OF MATTHEW, IN ORDER FOR JESUS TO BE EMPOWERED TO BE THE VICTOR IN THE BATTLE AGAINST SATAN ON EARTH, AGAIN AS I DECLARED EARLIER, IT WAS IMPERATIVE FOR HIM TO BE BAPTIZED IN THE HOLY SPIRIT.  AND AGAIN IN CHAPTER 4, IT IS WRITTEN THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT LED JESUS INTO THE WILDERNESS TO HAVE A SHOWDOWN WITH SATAN WHO WENT THERE TO TEMPT JESUS AS HE BEGAN HIS MINISTRY,  FOR THIS WAS THE INITIAL BATTLE THAT HAD TO BE FOUGHT BETWEEN GOD AND SATAN SO AS TO ESTABLISH WHO JESUS ACTUALLY WAS AND IS THE SON OF GOD!

AGAIN, THIS IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF WHERE THE “SWORD OF THE SPIRIT” I.E. THE RHEMA (SPOKEN) WORD OF GOD, NOT THE LOGOS WHICH IS THE WRITTEN WORD OF GOD, WAS SEEN IN ACTION WITH JESUS TAKING HIS AUTHORITY AGAINST SATAN IN VERSES 4,7,10 FOR  WE SEE JESUS WIELDING THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT…I.E., HE SPOKE , OR "DECLARED A THING..." AS DID GOD WHEN HE DECLARED (COMMANDED) "LET THERE BE LIGHT, AND THERE WAS LIGHT AS WELL AS OTHER COMMANDS IN GENESIS 1:3-31.

JESUS, WITH HIS AUTHORITY AND EMPOWERMENT, SPOKE TO WHATEVER THE SITUATION WAS...AND THOSE OF US WHO HAVE BEEN JESUS, WITH HIS AUTHORITY AND EMPOWERMENT, SPOKE TO WHATEVER THE SITUATION WAS...AND THOSE OF US WHO HAVE BEEN EMPOWERED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, HAVE THAT SAME AUTHORITY/EMPOWERMENT OVER THE ENEMY'S ATTACKS UPON US! FOR IT IS WRITTEN IN ACTS 1:8 (WHICH IS THE KEY VERSE IN ACTS) "BUT YOU SHALL RECEIVE POWER WHEN THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS COME UPON YOU AND YOU SHALL BE WITNESSES TO ME IN JERUSALEM, AND ALL JUDEA AND SAMARIA, AND TO THE END OF THE EARTH." THIS IS AN INCREDIBLE SPIRITUAL WARFARE STRATEGY WITH WHICH WE HAVE BEEN BLESSED. THE QUESTION TO BE ASKED..."DO WE UNDERSTAND THIS AND ARE WE PUTTING THESE TRUTHS INTO ACTION"?  PLEASE REMEMBER JESUS' DECLARATION IN JOHN 14:12 "MOST ASSUREDLY, I SAY TO YOU, HE WHO BELIEVES IN ME, THE WORKS THAT I DO HE WILL DO ALSO; AND GREATER (IN QUANITY, NOT QUALITY)WORKS THAN THESE HE WILL DO, BECAUSE I GO TO MY FATHER."

PART THREE TO BE CONTINUED....

AND AGAIN, DEAR READER, I ALWAYS ENCOURAGE YOU TO BE LIKE THE BEREANS: "TO FIND OUT WHETHER THESE THINGS WERE SO." (ACTS 17:11)

YOUR FEEDBACK IS ALWAYS APPRECIATED!