United We Stand! Divided We Fall!!

THE ARMOR OF GOD (PART 6), by Pastor Atukwatse Onesmus

“You cannot stand before your enemies until you have removed the things under the ban from your midst.” Joshua 7:13

We live in a material world, but we are involved in a spiritual war.  We are up against dark forces that seek to manipulate people and circumstances for their own wicked purposes. Even though people may be the puppets through which the enemy operates, human beings are not the ones we are fighting against.  Jesus came to save people’s souls, not condemn them.  Ours is a ministry of reconciliation not condemnation.

If the devil can lure us into expending all our time, energy and money battling against people, we will have none of those resources left to fight him.  That is clearly one of the most effective tactics he uses against believers.

How many married couples, families, ministry teams, churches, parachurch organizations and mission agencies are dividing or divided?  Divorce, angry controlling parents or angry rebellious kids, church splits, quarreling, back-biting, doctrinal disputes, etc. are rampant in Christian homes and churches!

Is there any doubt as to why one of the most prevalent themes in Jesus’ high priestly prayer (John 17) is for unity in the body of Christ?  Unity in the body of Christ glorifies God, because God (in the Trinity) is unified. Unity in the body of Christ shows other people that Jesus is real, because people are not by nature unified! And unity in the body of Christ is necessary for maximum spiritual authority against the devil.

An important biblical principle to remember is that “spiritual authority broadens as unity in the body deepens.”

A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways and will receive nothing in response to his prayers (James 1:5-8), so the devil seeks to divide a human heart. A house divided against itself cannot stand (Matthew 12:25), so the devil seeks to break up marriages and families. The same goes for the “house” of a church, or Christian organization.

But if that Christian individual, couple, family, church or organization is living out their unity in Christ based on their common identity in Christ, then they can exercise strong spiritual authority in Christ! What might happen if all (or even most) of the true Christian churches in your town or city started living out their unity in Christ – praying together, loving each other, meeting each others’ needs, etc.?  We might just see a full scale revival break out!?

We have spent this time talking about unity in the body of Christ, because as we read Ephesians 6:10 ff. it is easy to think that Paul is writing to individuals.  He’s not! He’s writing to the church as a living, breathing body, designed for the individual parts to work together as a whole.

Now, obviously, if individuals do not put on the armor of God, neither can the whole.  But the flip side of that is true, too.  An individual cannot be fully clothed in the armor of God if he or she is not in dynamic, intimate relationship with a body of believers.

No Lone Rangers allowed here in the kingdom of God!

The question for this week is:

Are you connected to the body, learning to put on the full armor of God in relationship to other brothers and sisters in Christ?

If not, you’ve got chinks in your armor! Don’t wait another day!  Get connected to the body!

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Whom Are We Fighting?

THE ARMOR OF GOD (PART 5), by Pastor Atukwatse Onesmus

“You cannot stand before your enemies until you have removed the things under the ban from your midst.” Joshua 7:13

During World War II, the Allied forces were able to deceive the Germans into thinking they were going to launch a major assault on an area far from their actual target. They did this by planting phony battle plans in the pocket of a dead man they placed in the ocean near some enemy ships.  The Germans, thinking they had hit the jackpot by uncovering a major military strategy, were soundly defeated when the real battle came.

Their troops were in the wrong place!

We, too, can be deceived into thinking we are fighting spiritual battle, when the real war is elsewhere.  Ephesians 6:12 warns us of that very real possibility:

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

In Ephesians chapters four,  five and the beginning of chapter six,  Paul instructs the believers in Ephesus how to properly relate to one another.  There is teaching for believers with each other, husbands and wives, employers and employees, and parents and children.  These are the primary human relationships that every child of God experiences. And they can also be the primary source of conflicts.

It would be easy to view other people as the problem.  And it certainly is very easy to allow ourselves to be drawn into quarrels and conflicts with the important people in our lives.  And that is exactly what the devil wants.

And that is precisely why Paul warns us that our war is not to be fought on a human level.  Our real enemy is unseen.
How much of our anguish and grief as Christians would be removed if we stopped for a moment and took Ephesians 6:12 seriously?

What would happen in our homes and churches and schools and places of business if we stopped fighting with one another and started fighting on the real battle front – the unseen, spiritual war against the devil and his forces?

We’d probably see revival!

And so, the question to naturally pose at this point is this:

Where are your energies being directed? Are you wearing yourself out in interpersonal conflicts or are you waging war on your knees against the real enemy?

Isn’t it time to take seriously the inspired word of God through the apostle Paul and lay down your weapons of war against your brother or sister?

“Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification, according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear.  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.  And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:29-32)

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Don’t be discouraged, but rejoice!

My friends,

I thank you for your concern for Bashabe and myself, and our boys.  But please don’t get discouraged with what we are passing through.  On contrally, we are glad to carry the death and sufferings of our master Jesus Christ in our mortal bodies.

Many are the afflictions of a righteous man, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

One has to realize that the scripture says ” Many are the afflictions..of a righteous man…”  but before he delivers you, you have to have a very good share of afflictions.

Today’s church has much in common with the Corinthian church.  According to Nigerian Pastor Micheal Okwonko, author of “Controlling Wealth God’s Way”..

“Many are ignorant of the fact that God has already made provision for his children to be wealthy here on earth, and to live a problem free life style. when i say wealthy, i mean very, very rich… it is not sin to desire to be wealthy.”

No doubt the Corinthian church would have loved this message.  Corinth was a very wealthy commercial centre.  It attracted fortune seekers from all over the Roman empire.  The city’s emphasis on status, wealth, success, and power spilled into the church.  Many believed that they were already experiencing the eternal blessings promised in scripture.  The gospel was about success, not suffering.

In fact, Paul’s extensive sufferings caused some to doubt that he was truly an apostle.  This explains the reason as to why he focused so much on suffering in the opening verses of his second letter to the Corinthian church.  Most likely, Paul had his own sufferings primarily in view.  To challenge the Corinthian faulty ideas, Paul linked his own suffering with Christ’s suffering (v:5).  Far from disqualifying Paul as an apostle, his sufferings affirmed his unity with Christ.

Given the reality of suffering, 2 Cor 1:3-7 offers three helpful lessons for today’s church.

1. There is no limit to the comfort that God provides. indeed, He is the very source, or father of compasion.
2. God not only comfots us, but enables us to comfort others. Like most things in life, it is difficult to share something with others that we have not already experienced.
3. Suffering is not some random event or streak of bad luck. Instead, suffering is God’s means of producing patient endurance.

The desire to correct the Corinthians errorneous thinking probably explains why Paul continued to focus on his sufferings for a few more verses. 8-11.  Not only had Paul suffered as Christ, but his experience in Roman province of Asia took him to the brink of death.  The “sentence of death” in verse 9 could indicate some type of imprisonment or it could be used figuratively to indicate the severity of Paul’s suffering.  Yet it was precisely at this point that he experienced God’s resurrecting power.

It is no coincidence that Paul’s words here remind us of Jesus’ suffering on the cross and the power of God who raised him.  The status-conscience Corinthians might have equated power with wealth and success. Instead, Paul showed that God’s power was revealed to those who desperately depend upon him.

Christianity today turns this philosophy on its head.  During his time on earth, Jesus challenged his listeners.  He said that to be first, you must belast; to live, you must die.  These paradoxical ideas continued with the Apostle Paul who boasted about suffering and weakness.  He address suffering of believers in his opening words ” praising the God of all comfort..”

His idea of suffering is not one of compalint and of sorrow, but of thankfulness and even boasting.  Paul realized that we suffer for the Lord and that any boasting should reflect our identity in Christ.

But “he who glories, let him glory in the LORD.” For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends.  As we mature in Christ, we become less and Christ becomes more. (10:17-18)

Finally, Paul teaches that suffering for the Lord makes us strong. “for when am weak, then am strong”. (12:10)

How is this possible?  How can the weak be strong?

In our infirmities, we lose our focus on the temporary and restore our vision of the eternal.  In suffering, we boast not of our selves, but of God. we become less self focused and more God-focused.

Amen.

Pr. Onesmus

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Position and Authority

THE ARMOR OF GOD (PART 1) by Pastor Atukwatse Onesmus

“You cannot stand before your enemies until you have removed the things under the ban from your midst” (Joshua 7:13).

Those of us who have been involved with spiritual warfare for a while can become so familiar with certain Scriptures that they are in danger of becoming old hat—kind of like how some people view John 3:16. As well known as that verse is, it remains one of the most complete and succinct presentations of the gospel in the entire Bible.

Ephesians 6:10ff. is the classic passage in Scripture on the believer’s armor. It has it all. Other passages shed light on the subject, but none comes close to this “mother lode” of spiritual gold. And because this portion of the Bible is so familiar, we can easily write it off with a yawn, thinking “been there, read that.”

And, of course, nothing would please the enemy more.

In the upcoming weeks we will take another look at this passage of Scripture, with the hope and prayer that it will bring refreshment and encouragement to you.

In Ephesians 6:10, Paul begins his exhortation to put on the panoply (full armor) of God by writing, “Finally, be strong in the Lord. . . .” This command cannot be understood apart from the context of the whole Book of Ephesians.

Paul had spent the better part of the first chapter of this book talking about all we have and all we are “in Christ.” We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. God chose us to be holy and blameless, adopted children upon whom He poured out His grace in Christ. He redeemed us through His shed blood so that we are truly forgiven of all sins in Christ. God sealed us in Christ by the Holy Spirit, guaranteeing our inheritance to come. And so on.

Certainly one of the chief themes of the Book of Ephesians is our position in Christ. It is the basis of unity in the body of Christ, holy living, harmonious family relationships and victorious spiritual warfare. Our position in Christ determines our authority in Christ.

Our position in Christ is at the right hand of the Father in heaven (Ephesians 2:6). Our authority in Christ is “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come” (Ephesians 1:21). Jesus Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18), and Christ exercises that authority on earth through His church, the body of Christ.

So, the first and foremost thing we need to realize and appropriate in our daily warfare against Satan (both as individuals and as a church) is that we are in Christ. We need to know the truths of our identity in Christ backwards and forwards. And we need to believe that they are true about us as individuals and as a church. And then we need to step out in faith and do battle, based on who we are. That is what it means to be “strong in the Lord. . . .”

Who we are in the flesh counts for nothing in our battles against the powers of darkness. Who we are in Christ means everything. Christ has already won the war and defeated Satan at the cross! Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil and He succeeded! And we are in Christ, the Victor who is on His throne!

The army of Saul saw themselves as mere men before the giant Goliath and cowered in fear. The little boy David saw Goliath in view of Almighty God and ran to the battle.

Child of God, you are in Christ, the victorious and invincible Warrior who reigns and rules from the right hand of the Father in heaven! You, too, can stand up to the giants in your life and slay them as you are strong in the Lord.

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Stand Firm

THE ARMOR OF GOD (PART 4) by Pastor Atukwatse Onesmus

“You cannot stand before your enemies until you have removed the things under the ban from your midst.” Joshua 7:13

I cannot overstate how critical it is for us to “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might” (Ephesians 6:10).

Walking according to our new and true identity in Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, is the foundation of victorious spiritual warfare. To ignore or neglect these realities and plunge ahead into attempting to put on the armor of God would be sheer folly. But knowing who you are in Christ and choosing to abide in Christ opens the way for us to appropriate God’s defensive and offensive weapons!

“Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.” Ephesians 6:11

A quick glance at this verse gives us some broad strokes in understanding how to win spiritual wars:

1. The armor belongs to God.
2. We have the responsibility to put on the armor (an active, not passive action).
3. We must put on the full armor (not just one or two pieces).
4. The purpose of the armor is to be able to stand firm.
5. We are enabled, by the armor of God, to stand firm against the devil’s schemes (clever tricks, strategies, ploys).

Unlike King Saul’s armor which was too big and bulky for the little boy David to wear into battle with Goliath, the armor of God fits every child of God perfectly. But how do we put on something we can’t see? By faith.

As we will see in the following weeks, putting on each piece of God’s armor involves something we choose to believe (faith) and choose to do (by faith).  What an encouragement to know that God’s armor is sufficient for every spiritual battle that may come our way. Contained in the panoply of those six pieces of protection is everything we need to stand firm against the devil’s schemes! Praise the Lord!

Many times we feel like helpless victims, caught in some kind of a spiritual tug-o-war match between God and the devil. Well, if you feel at the end of your rope today, the truth of Ephesians 6:11 is what you need to claim. Claim it now:

In the name and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and His word, I renounce the lie that I am a helpless victim, unable to stand against the devil’s attacks. But I choose, by faith, to claim today that by putting on the full armor of God I will be able to stand firm against any and all of the devil’s schemes!

The goal is to stand firm. This brings a picture to mind of occupying a piece of ground and not budging, no matter what forces are arrayed to try and move you. So stand your ground, beloved! Don’t let the devil push you around! No matter what devious scheme comes against you, no weapon fashioned against you will stand (Isaiah 54:17). But you will, in Christ, filled with the Spirit, having put on the full armor of God!

“Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:58

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Our Source of Power

THE ARMOR OF GOD (PART 3), by Pastor Atukwatse Onesmus

“You cannot stand before your enemies until you have removed the things under the ban from your midst” (Josh. 7:13).

The importance of the power of the Holy Spirit in waging spiritual battle cannot be overstated. Spiritual warfare demands spiritual weapons. Paul, in his second letter to the Corinthians, put it this way:

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses” (2 Cor. 10:3,4).

Jesus,”full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led about by the Spirit in the wilderness.” After successfully resisting the enemy’s temptations for forty days, “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit” (Luke 4:1,14).

If Jesus found the filling of the Holy Spirit to be essential to His victory over the devil, how much more is it necessary for us?

The sad truth, however, is that many, and perhaps most, Christians in America know little or nothing of the Spirit-filled life. Their lives are characterized much more by “immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissentions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, etc.” (Gal. 5:19-21) than by the fruit of the Spirit. They are ferociously laying up treasures on earth, rather than being “fervent in spirit, serving the Lord” (Rom. 12:11). Their passions are for the temporal things that can be seen, rather than for the eternal, invisible things of God (2 Cor. 4:18). They are filled with the selfishly ambitious wisdom of the world, flesh and devil, rather than the peaceful, righteous wisdom of God (Jas. 3:13-18).

How about you? Do you long for a life characterized more and more by the Spirit’s fruit of “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Gal. 5:22,23)? I know I do!

Jesus talked about a life of intimacy and dependence upon Him in John 15 when He said:

“I am the vine, you are the branches: he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

(For a detailed look at “THE VINE” get a copy of my alone with Jesus in the secret place book.)

The extent to which you truly believe those words of Jesus will determine the extent to which you are continually filled with the Spirit. For if you are convinced that you can do some things without Jesus, you will. But if you are walking in the blessedness of being poor in spirit, then the kingdom of heaven will be yours!

Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, warned against grieving the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30). The Spirit of God is grieved by the sin in our lives, especially that which hurts others. But, rather than bringing grief to God, we can be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18). In fact, we are commanded to be filled—directed, empowered, led—by the Spirit.

Are you filled with the Spirit of God today? Do you know that you are? Ephesians 5:19-21 tells us what the Spirit-filled man or woman will be like:

“. . . speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”

Are you praising or pouting? Grateful or grumbling? Fearing God and submitting to others or fighting to get your own way?

You have a spiritual battle to wage against the enemy. But before you can be victorious in that way, you must win the battle of your own will. Will you surrender the controls of your life to God and let Him fill you? Will you choose today, like the fruitful branch, to draw your strength and life from the Vine, Jesus?

The choice is yours: the fruit of the Spirit or the deeds of the flesh. Whichever you choose will be obvious—to God, to men and to the devil.

“For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith: and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:14-19).

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Standing Before Your Enemies

The Armor of God – PART 2  (Ephesians 6:10-13)
(Sermon by Pr Onesmus – Sunday, 7th Feb. 10.)

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.”Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

“Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

“You cannot stand before your enemies until you have removed the things under the ban from your midst.” (Joshua 7:13).

God was in the process of establishing His church in the City of Ephesus—what was then a hot bed of worship of the demon-goddess, Artemis (to the Romans, she was called “Diana”). Artemis was apparently the ruling spirit over the city, and merchants in that city who made a nice living off people’s devotion to her were not happy when Paul and company came there to preach the gospel. Demetrius stirred up a hornet’s nest against them. For two solid hours the people chanted, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” until they finally calmed down. Don’t you wish we could get people to be so excited about Jesus for two hours on a Sunday morning?

This City of Ephesus was also where the exorcist-wannabes, the seven sons of Sceva, got their whipping at the hands of a demon. “I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” were the words the evil spirit spoke before thrashing the seven imposters. Strong words for those who would seek to minister for Jesus in the flesh!

Apparently, Ephesus was kind of an occultist’s Mecca, as numerous sorcerers from that city turned to Christ, repenting of their evil deeds. They even publicly renounced their wicked practices by burning their scrolls of magic spells. A lot of their money literally went up in smoke as those scrolls were quite expensive. But, praise God, when Christ truly gets hold of a life, there is no cost too high to pay for freedom from bondage to Satan!

I’m sure the Ephesian believers did not need to be convinced of the reality of the spiritual battle around them! The spiritual atmosphere of the place must have been like living today in Salt Lake City, UT; or Lhasa, Tibet; or Sedona, AZ.

What an encouragement for those young Christians to learn about the presence and power of the Holy Spirit! They already knew about the powers of darkness; knowledge of their activity was woven into the very warp and woof of their worldview. What they needed to know about was the power of the living God!

You might recall from Acts 19 that the first 12 disciples in that city had not even heard about the Holy Spirit until Paul met them. They had just been baptized into John’s baptism of repentance. Their ignorance about the Spirit is probably why Paul talks so much about the Holy Spirit in his letter of them.

Though believers today aren’t as ignorant as the Ephesians were about the Spirit of God, there is still much misunderstanding about His ministry. And Christians in this country desperately need to obey Paul’s admonition to be filled with the Holy Spirit. (See Ephesians 5:18.)

In fact, you cannot be “strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might” (Ephesians 6:10) unless you are filled with the Spirit. You cannot wage effective spiritual warfare against the enemy if you are walking in the energy of your own flesh. You must be filled with the Spirit. You cannot wield the sword of the Spirit without being filled with the Spirit. And you certainly will be unable to pray in the Spirit if you are not filled with the Spirit.

The filling of the Spirit is so critical to living the Christian life that we will make that the topic of next week’s Prayer Prod. For now, Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian believers is my prayer for you as well:

“For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith: and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen”
(Eph. 3:14-21)

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