Skip to content The Need for Spiritual Armor Oct 13 · 55 min ...more
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Support this leader
Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Give
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
665K followers
Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies.
665K followers
Comments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
The Final Move 0:00 The story is told of a famous chess champion who was on vacation in Europe, and he loved art, so he decided while on vacation he would0:12 visit a number of art galleries in Europe. He came to one particular art gallery and began to peruse it and ran across a painting that both mesmerized0:24 and stupefied him. It was a painting of a chess game in progress. On one side of the chessboard was a painting of the devil, and the devil was laughing and0:36 full of joy and gaiety and hilarity, rocking back in his chair just just in in great joy.0:48 On the other side of the chessboard was a young man terrified. Tears were running down his face, sweat pouring down his forehead. He was biting his nails in0:59 fear. It became clear what the painting was all about when the chess champion read above the painting the title. It was simply called Checkmate.1:11 The devil was about to make the final move to win this young man's soul. He was hilarious and the young man was terrified. Well, the chess champion thought this was an intriguing1:23 picture, but then he got really interested in it and he stared at it a long time, actually hours he stared at it. After a number of hours staring at the painting,1:35 the chess champion began to smile. He found the proprietor of the gallery and said, sir, would you happen to have a chessboard1:47 here? They looked around and they found a chessboard and he laid the chessboard out at the base of the painting precisely as they were1:59 in the painting itself. He looked down at his own chessboard, then he looked up at the painting. He looked down at his own chessboard, then he looked up at the painting. He looked down at his own chessboard. He looked2:10 back up at the painting and then he began to laugh. He turned to the picture of the young man and said, mister, I sure wish you could hear me now because I2:22 got good news. It only looks like the devil's winning because there is still one move left on the board and you get to make it.2:35 Your enemy has miscalculated something. I'm a chess champion and I know this game. Because I got some good news. You can wipe that sweat off your forehead, dry your weeping eyes,2:47 and take your fingers out of your mouth because you, not he, gets to make the final move. A lot of us have been2:59 duped in the thinking that the devil is winning. We've been duped into thinking that he and not us get to make the final move.Understanding Spiritual Warfare 3:12 We've been duped into thinking he's running the show, calling the shots, and we are puppets on his string. We've been duped into thinking that he is the final decision maker about3:23 our joy, our happiness, our well-being, our spirituality, and all the other elements that make life work because he seems to be running the show. Well, I came3:35 to you with some good news today. Wipe the sweat off your forehead, dry your weeping eyes, and take those jittering, fingers out of your3:48 clashing teeth because you, not he, gets to make the final move. Now, to understand that, you have to understand the3:59 history of the conflict that we call spiritual warfare. You see, God made the first move when he created angels. Lucifer4:12 reacted negatively to that move and rebelled against God, took one third of the angels with him. God countered that move by creating man in his own image a little lower than the angels.4:25 Satan rebelled against that move by getting Adam and Eve to turn the earth over to his control. But God countered that move by providing a redemptive covering for Adam and Eve4:37 so that they could return back to fellowship with God. Of course, Satan tried to counter that move by getting Cain to kill Abel in order to cut off the godly line. Well, that's when God counted that move through the4:48 birth of Seth so that men began to call on the name of the lord again. Of course, that's when Satan tried to counter that move through the birth of Nimrod who built the civilizations of Babylon and Assyria. They gathered4:59 at the Tower Of Babel to build a religion in defiance of God. Of course, that's when God counted that move by going to the era of the Chaldees, finding a man named Abraham and saying, I'm gonna create my own nation that5:11 will obey. Because that's when Satan counted that move by getting them trapped in the Egypt so that Pharaoh would not let them go. But then God counted that move by going to Moses in Midian and telling him, to5:23 go tell Pharaoh, I said, let my people go. And the whole old testament is move, counter, move, move, counter, move, move, counter, move, move, counter, move, and we're not sure who winning this game. You come to the end5:34 of the old testament, there are four hundred silent years between the end of the old testament and the beginning of the new testament. Both sides are just staring at the board. But when the new testament opens up, so and5:45 so begot so and so begot so and so begot so and so begot so and so, tell you get to Matthew chapter one verse 16, who begot Joseph who was married to Mary by whom was born Jesus Christ. Up until this time, God would find5:55 a man and use a man. When the new testament opens up, God says, I'm tired of this mess. Let me come on down here and take care of this mama myself. So God became a man in the person of Jesus6:07 Christ. Satan tried to counter that move by tempting him in, the wilderness. Jesus overcame that through the use of the word of God. Then he made his final move6:19 by getting Jesus Christ nailed to a cross to forever get rid of this agent of God. But that's when God made the final move. Because early on Easter Sunday6:31 morning, a little while before day, the grave was open. Jesus Christ arose and the final move was made. The move he didn't bank on.6:45 And that move is your move. No matter what's going on in your world, that move that move, the accomplishment of the cross and the6:57 resurrection was God's final move that is your move for victory. Now I don't know what's going on in your world, your life, your struggles, your mind.7:09 No matter what it is, I'm gonna share with you today and throughout this series how you use the final move. In the passage that we are introducing this with today,7:22 Finally, brethren, chapter six verse 10, be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might. Put on the, here's our series, the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm7:34 against the schemes of the devil. Here it is. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers7:46 and world forces of this darkness, against spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places. People are not your problem. Now I know you7:58 think they're your problem because they're what you see, feel, touch, taste, and hear. But according to verse 12, whatever is going wrong in your world,8:10 people are merely the conduit for the root. They are the fruit. He says, we wrestle not against flesh and blood. The battles we8:22 have in life, whatever they may be, are not fundamentally physical in nature, flesh and blood. He says, our battle8:34 is against principalities and and powers and world forces of this darkness located in heavenly places. The word heavenly places means the spiritual8:46 realm. Whatever is going on in your world, your life has going on, is going on, or will go on is rooted first in the8:58 spiritual realm. Heavenly places. If you don't know how to navigate that realm, you can't fix this realm. Spiritual warfare9:10 can simply be defined as the conflict in the invisible realm that affects what you're going through in the visible realm. It is9:21 the battle in the unseen that is responsible for the battles in the seen. Whatever is happening in the world of your five senses, flesh and9:33 blood, it has been created in a world you can't see. But if you can't navigate that world, you can't fix this world. Most of our9:45 attempts to fix this world is through using this world. But this world, flesh and blood, is not where the battle emanates from. Our9:57 battle is in an unseen realm called heavenly places. He uses this phrase uniquely in Ephesians to describe all of the Christian's10:09 activities. In Ephesians chapter one verse three, he says, your blessings are located in heavenly places. Everything God is ever gonna do for you is located in the10:20 unseen realm. Everything God is ever gonna promise, fulfill, everything that you will ever need that will ever come your way has already been deposited in your account in the10:32 unseen realm, the heavenly places. He goes on in chapter one, and he goes on and he says about Jesus Christ he says in chapter one verse 20,10:44 which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in heavenly places. He says your blessings are in heavenly places and the one who's in charge,10:56 Jesus, is seated having risen from the dead in heavenly places. So if you wanna get to Jesus, you got to get to where he is. And where he is is in the spiritual realm, heavenly11:08 places. Chapter two verse six, he says, and we were raised with him and seated us with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He says your blessings are in11:20 heavenly places. Jesus is seated in heavenly places. We are seated with him in heavenly places. So where you're physically seated is not the only place you're located.11:32 You are equally located in another realm, he says, that is heavenly places or the spiritual realm. Chapter three verse 10, he says, so that the manifold wisdom of God might be made known through11:44 the church to the rulers and the authorities in heavenly places. He says that the angels are in heavenly places. Now you need to understand, you need your11:56 angel. Every Christian in here has at least one angel that has been assigned to you if you're a believer in Jesus Christ. The Bible says in Hebrews one fourteen that angels are assigned12:08 to believers as ministering spirits. So every believer this morning has at least one angel who's assigned to you to operate on your behalf in the spiritual12:20 realm. In the spiritual realm, you have somebody who knows that realm better than you, whose job it is to operate in that realm on behalf of you. So your blessings are in heavenly places.12:32 Jesus is seated in heavenly places. You are seated with him in heavenly places. Your angelic assistance is located in heavenly places. And then in chapter six verse 12, the principalities and the12:44 powers of darkness are located in heavenly places. So every Christian in here has a demon assigned to you. The demon is assigned to you and his job is to make hell break loose in your12:56 life. His job is to make sure that Satan has his way with you. There is a demon assigned to you by the devil whose job it is to watch your13:07 tape. See, in football, what they do is they watch tape to find the weaknesses in the other team. They constantly look at tape because they want to13:19 exploit the weaknesses. So the demonic realm knows your weak spots. He knows what happened when you were a child that messed up your thinking, that lowered your self esteem. He knows about the sin patterns that have13:31 developed over your life which invite demonic presence in them. They know about the issues, the abuses, to you or from you that are operating within your world. And they have a job, one job, and13:43 that is to exploit your game film. They look at your game film, identify the weaknesses, and they are principalities and powers that are located in the spiritual realm. Okay. Let's13:54 review. Your blessings are there. Christ is there. You are there. The angels are there. The demons are there. It seems like to me what's happening is there. What's happening is there. The problem is14:06 it gets manifested here. All the physical world does is manifest what's happening in the spiritual world. If you are unaware of that world and you are unaware of14:18 how that world works, then all you are left is with the physical. But the problem is the physical can't fix the physical if the problem is started from is in the spiritual. So we14:30 spend all of our time, money, effort, strength, mindsets, relationships to help us do better in the physical when that's not where the problem emanated from. It emanated from a location14:42 called heavenly places. So if you wanna fix what started in the spiritual that's messing you up in the physical, you gotta go back to the spiritual, which is the location of its14:53 origin. Now what the demonic world doesn't want you to know is they don't want you to know that. They want you to live in the world of the five senses. The bible calls that the natural man. He wants you15:05 to live in the world of the seeing and the touching and the tasting and the hearing and the smelling. He wants you to function by five senses. He wants you to fix you using the five senses or talk to other people with15:16 five senses like you who can help fix you, only to discover all we're doing is picking fruit and not adjusting root. We're not getting to the origin of the problem.15:28 And because we're not getting see, if all you see is what you see, then you do not see all there is to be seen. If all you see is what you see, then you do15:40 not see all there is to be seen. It is the invisible that affects the visible. So if you wanna fix the visible and physical, you must address the invisible15:52 and spiritual. Failure to address the invisible spiritual cause has led to most much and in many cases, all of the inability to have16:03 physical visible cure. Because we haven't gotten to the cause, we can't come up with the cure. Amen. He says that we're in a wrestle. We're in a battle. This battle is not against16:15 flesh and blood, but it's against principalities and powers that wanna rob us of all that God has stored up for us in the spiritual realm. He says,16:28 he wants you to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. Watch this now. Watch this.16:40 The strategy of the devil. Let me tell you what devils and demons don't want you to know. They don't want you to know their methodology,16:52 schemes. Because if you ever figure them out, you got them. So they don't want you to figure them out. The devil wants you to think of him with17:04 horns, a pitchfork, and a red jumpsuit. Because if he got you thinking that way about him and you never see any horns, pitchfork, and a red jumpsuit, you don't have to take him seriously.17:17 He does not want you to figure him out. The word schemes means deceptive strategies. Deceptive strategies.17:30 Satan's one overarching he does it many ways, but his one overarching principle is to deceive, trick,17:42 bamboozle. He is the ultimate magician. He operates by sleight of hand. The bible says that when Adam and Eve17:54 were in the garden, he came into a serpent, a snake. Why did he come into a snake? It says because the snake was the most crappiest of animals, in this case, reptile, that god18:06 had created. So guess what? He found the appropriate vehicle in order to slither into the garden in order to deceive Adam and Eve.18:18 Now let me tell you why he did that, but I don't want you to miss this. In order for the devil to be a good devil and in order for demons to be good demons, they need a body through18:30 which to work. See, your problem is not the invisible spiritual realm. Your problem is the vehicle it uses to get to you,18:42 including you. It needs a vehicle. Satan had to have a vehicle in a physical vehicle, the serpent, in order to get to Adam and Eve. The bible talks about,18:53 the angel working through people as angels of light, looking like the real deal, but trickery and deception. Now let me explain this. This is the principle that I don't want you to19:05 miss. His scheme is to trick you. He doesn't want you to seek him for what he really is, so he comes looking like something else. In order19:17 to get you to move away, watch this, from the protective covering of God now I'm a get to that in a moment. He knows as long as you are undercover,19:30 as long as you're under the protective covering of God, he can't get you. So he's gotta get you to relocate. So what he does is he tricks you into a relocation.19:42 If he can get you to relocate, he's got you because you're no longer under protective covering. So he tricks you to remove you like he removed Adam and Eve from the protective19:54 covering of God so that he could get them to move and to turn over their world to him. So he is the ultimate trap. He is the ultimate deceiver.20:06 He is his schemes are designed to trick you and trap you into seeing things from his perspective. I remember, a TV show20:18 that I used to like to look at. It comes on occasionally now, and you've all probably seen episodes from it. The Outer Limits, sci fi. And on this one particular occasion,20:30 this particular, fleet, one of the ships crashed, and it was captured in this alien environment. And this alien, this scaled creature, took this20:41 human and put him in a room and kept asking the human, where is the rest of your fleet? And the human wouldn't give up the information, and the alien couldn't get it out of him.20:53 One day, a beautiful young lady comes in and is incarcerated with him. And this beautiful young lady is said to have been part of another fleet that was against this21:05 alien nation, and so she was there. They began talking to one another and engaging one another, and she began asking him questions about his fleet. And he began asking her questions about their21:17 fleet, and then the alien creature would come in and ask them both about where their fleets were, but they weren't giving up any information. Every day, they would take the lady, the aliens outside21:29 and, bring her back the next day. Over a period of time, scales began coming out on the woman. And the man said, what are they doing to you? What are they doing to you?21:40 The woman said, well, they they're injecting me and they're making me like them. And so they began continuing talking about their fleet. But every day, she would get more and more scales on her until one day she21:52 was totally scaled and looked just like the creatures that were picking her up every day. Finally, they came to get her and said, we're taking you out permanently.22:05 The man looked at her having exchanged all of his information and said, you have completely changed. She said, no. I have completely22:17 changed back. I was always this. I was just made to look like you to get the information. Now that I got the information, I can go back to being who I really22:29 am. See, the devil is an angel of light. He wants the information. He wants to pull from you what God has for you, then he can go back to what he really is.22:41 He says, the angel has schemes, the schemes of the devil, and they're designed to draw us away from God. But here's the secret that he doesn't want you to know. But I'm a tell22:53 you because God wants you to know it, and I'm a validate it in just a second. But let me give you a heads up. The only power that Satan and demons have is the23:04 power you give them. You're gonna discover in just a second, they have already been defeated. They've already lost. So they are23:16 losers. They have already been defeated. That's not just a song nor is it just a saying. It is what God declares. But the23:28 problem is, well, if they're defeated, how come I'm not winning? Anything they can do, they do because you told them it was okay. You see, you have that's why23:40 they need a body. They need something to loan themselves to them that they can work to and through to express themselves through them. The only power that they have is23:52 power that people grant them. The only reason Satan could take over planet Earth is because Adam and Eve gave him permission to do it. They need permission from us to bring24:04 hell to us. So if hell is going on in your life, you gave him okay. You told him through sin and circumstance, through yielding to him, it's okay for24:16 you to rule my mind. It's okay for you to rule my world. It's okay for you to rule my emotions. It's okay for you to rule my will. I give you permission to tell me I'm not really a man, although I was born a male. I give24:28 you permission to tell me I'm not really a woman, although I was born a female. I give you permission to tell me I I need drugs, want drugs, can't get rid of drugs, can't shake drugs because drugs are what keeps me24:39 going. I give you permission to tell me, I need that drink, gotta have that drink, can't live without that drink. I give you permission to tell me, I should wake up depressed, stay depressed, go to bed depressed, wake up24:50 the next day depressed, Satan, demons. I give you permission to tell me for the next ten years of my life, I gotta live in misery and depression. Until you've addressed the spiritual, you really don't know whether it's25:00 just physical. See, we assume it's just physical because it's physical. But if it started in the spiritual and you're only addressing the physical, you'll never get rid of the problem because you've25:12 given demons permission to stay at home. And once they're given permission like roaches, they are not going anywhere because we have decided25:24 to let them live there through their worldview, through the schemes, the deceptive programs of the devil. The devil operates by consent and by cooperation.25:37 Some people say, well well well, some people are just too demon conscious. The problem is most of us are too demon unconscious. He says, we wrestle against an unseen world25:48 of evil. That's Satan and demons, and you have been assigned one. Some of us got a whole platoon.26:01 And their job is to keep you from experiencing the will of God for your life. That's their job. That's their full time occupation. And they are good at it.26:13 You're not their first assignment, and neither am I. So now we we can't really go further unless you buy that. Everything else I say coming up is gonna be26:25 wasted information if you don't buy that, that we wrestle not against flesh and blood. If you don't see, if you think people are your problem versus the fruit of your problem, then all you26:37 are addressed are people. If we gave the spiritual world as much a piece of our mind that we give people because, you know, we'll give people a piece of our mind in a minute. But if we gave the26:49 spiritual world a piece of our mind, as much as we give the physical world a piece of our mind, we'd still have our minds. But we didn't lost our minds because we're giving the wrong thing27:01 a piece of it. And when you give so many pieces of it around, you don't have mind left to give. He says, people are real. The flesh and blood is real,27:12 it's just not the root. And so he wants our consent. He needs our consent because his power is based on our consent. That's why27:24 he says in verse 10, be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might. Translation, not your strength or your might.27:37 Not your strength. Why can't I get him off my back? Because you've been using your strength. And your human strength doesn't work in that realm. That that27:48 realm, your strength can't work in. That realm can't use your strength. You aren't strong enough for that realm. Now watch this.28:00 Please notice what he says over and over. In verse 11, stand firm. The end of verse 13. Stand firm. The beginning of verse28:12 14. Stand firm. Okay? Somebody say stand firm. Stand firm. Stand firm means don't go nowhere. Stand firm. Hold what you got. Stay where you are.28:25 Stand firm means stay in the area that has already brought victory.28:38 Stand firm. Don't don't go over here. Over here is leaning to your own understanding. Okay. Don't don't don't go over there. Stay in this spot where victory has already28:50 been achieved. Don't go to your own victory because you're gonna leave the spot. If you're under an umbrella and it's raining, it's raining all around you but29:02 you're not getting wet. If you got a good size umbrella, you're not getting wet not because rain isn't happening around you, you're just undercover. Because you're undercover, you stay under the29:14 umbrella because you don't wanna get wet. You stand firm under the umbrella, which doesn't stop it from raining. It just stops it from raining on you. Alright? Your standing29:26 firm doesn't change the fact that evil is all around you. It just keeps evil from raining on you because you are undercover. But the scheme of the devil is to get you29:37 to step right or step left with the umbrella over here. So you're no longer the undercover. And once you are no longer undercover, they can rain on29:49 you because you're not undercover. In western days, a father was out trying to outrun a prairie fire with his son in a wagon, And they're going real fast, but the prairie fire was going too fast, and they were gonna be30:01 consumed in a moment. The father, to the confusion of the son, turned the horse around and went to a spot that had already been burned. He said, jump out quickly.30:13 They jumped out, and he said, now you stay here and don't move. He said, but, dad, the fire is coming all around us. It's coming in all directions. He said, boy, stay here. Don't you budge. He said, but, dad, I30:25 don't understand. There's fire all around us. I he said, son I said, stay here. But, dad, why are we gonna stay here? He says, because this spot has already been burned. And since30:37 this spot has already been burned, there is nothing left to burn. So if you'll just stay here, the fire may get in the vicinity, but it can't touch us because it's nothing for it to grab hold30:48 of. You see, what Satan wants you to do is he wants you to step away from where the fire has already been burnt. Jesus has already been burnt. Jesus has already been crucified.31:00 The resurrection has already occurred. He says, stay in that spot. Stand firm in that location. Don't leave the cross because that has already been set on31:12 fire. And if you don't leave there, that place can't be burned twice. That's called double jeopardy. What Jesus has accomplished has already happened. So that raises aShow more In this video 0:00 The Final Move3:00 Understanding Spiritual Warfare31:18 The Armor of God
Comments
Keep it kind. Comments are public.