God has provided us three main spiritual weapons, the word of God, the name of Jesus, and the blood of Jesus. We launch these weapons by these means, prayer, praise, preaching, and testimony. Let's look at these briefly. In Ephesians, Paul lists the spiritual armor that the Christian soldiers need for spiritual conflict.
The first five items of armor are all defensive, girding our waste with truth, putting on the breastplate of righteousness, seeing that our feet are shot with the preparation of the gospel of peace, taking up the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation. These protect the believer. There is no weapon of offense or attack until we come to the 6th item, which is the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Here is the great weapon of
attack. If you do not use the word of God, you may be able to protect yourself, but you have nothing
to attack Satan with. If you want to put Satan to flight, if you want to get him out of your way, out of your home, out of your family, out of your business, if you do not want just to tolerate him and hold him off, the weapon you must use is the weapon of attack, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Note 2 that it is the sword of the Holy Spirit. We can take God's Word in our mouths, but it only achieves its full effect when it is the Holy
Spirit within us who actually wields it. The perfect pattern of how to use the sword of the Spirit is provided by Jesus as an encounter with Satan at the time of his temptation in the wilderness. Three times Satan approached Jesus with a temptation, and each time Jesus drove him back with the same phrase It is written. Jesus used no other weapon but the spoken word of the Lord. God has made the same weapon available to each Christian. It is important, however, to
bear two things in mind. First, Jesus had already been filled with the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit in Jesus who directed him in the use of the sword. And 2nd, Jesus, like every Jewish boy of his day, had memorized long passages of Scripture. When Satan confronted him, he did not need to consult the concordance or go to a library. He had already stored up the Scriptures in his memory. Surely we today need to do that
just as much as Jesus did. Another powerful weapon for us to use is the name of Jesus. These two verses in Psalms 8 gives us a unique understanding. O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, who have set Your glory above the heavens, out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants. You have ordained strength because of your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger. The enemy and the avenger is Satan, and God has given us the
means to silence him. I hope you have connected the name of the Avenger with the satanic institution. Marvel. Your children are marveling over The Avengers, the ones who come to earth to corrupt and destroy you. So take up your weapon. What is the weapon? It is the name of the Lord. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth. The channel that launches the name is the human mouth out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants.
Spiritual things find expression out of the mouth. This is true for both good and evil. Look at Revelation 16 verse 13 for instance. John saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. Why does the psalmist refer to the mouth of babes as nursing infants?
To show that we do not have to be spiritual giants, God has chosen the weak, the foolish, the things that are despised, to bring to naughty all Satan's Kingdom in the heavenlies. The devil is so busy trying to keep you from praising the Lord when you effectively, perfectly, with your whole heart in unison with one accord, praise the name of Jesus, it shuts the devil's mouth. And if ever there was a thing he does not like, it is to have his mouth shut.
He will do everything he can, religious pressure, social pressure, fear of man, to keep you from turning loose in your prayers and praising the name of Jesus. The land and air around us can be purified through perfect praise, the blood of Jesus. Revelation 12, verse 11. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. Who is they? The believers on earth. Who is him?
Satan. What I want to emphasize is that the final victory comes not to God's angels, but to the believers. This passage describes war in heaven. Michael and his angels are fighting. Satan and his angels are fighting. But the believers overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. When you want to praise Jesus, or utter the word of God, or testify to what the Lord has done for you, Satan will put a barrier in front of your lips. Why?
Because you are casting down a stronghold. The blood of Jesus is the ultimate weapon. The whole issue of our battle against evil centers in one thing, righteousness. Because of Jesus's righteousness, God has made it possible that the devil will have nothing to bring against us in heaven. God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
You can proffer the best Baptist lifestyle, you have the best Methodist principles, the best Roman Catholic piety, and he can tear it to shreds. But when you bring in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, he is silent. He has nothing more to say. You will find that you can almost measure your spiritual progress by the extent to which you accept and appropriate by faith the righteousness of Jesus Christ on your own behalf. This is the great lesson that we have to learn as children of God.
We are accepted in the Beloved, not for what we are, but for what Jesus is. The words of Jesus in Matthew 633 are often misunderstood. Seek first the heaven of God and His righteousness, in other words, not your own righteousness. In Romans 10/3, Paul wrote that the Jewish nation was attempting to establish its own righteousness. They had not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ.
It takes humility to accept Jesus righteousness because it means first of all we have renounced every shred of our old self righteousness. All our righteousness are like filthy rags. Notice not our sins, but our righteousness are nothing more than filthy rags in God's sight. As long as we flaunt the filthy rags of our church membership, our good deeds, our godly living, the devil will tear us to shreds in the presence of God.
But when we come to the place where we are relying on nothing but the blood of Jesus Christ and His righteousness, there is nothing in us that the devil can put his finger on and bring up by way of accusation before God. You might want to commit these verses to memory. Forgiven in Christ. Ephesians 17 tells us two things that we have when we are in Christ. In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to
the riches of His grace. Remember when we are outside of Christ, the blood does not avail. Redemption means bought back by a ransom price that had to be paid. Psalm one O 7 verse two. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy. This by the way is one of the most powerful scriptures for teaching us the value testimony.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so means to take the Word and use it. Here then is my testimony on the basis of Ephesians 17. Through the blood of Jesus I am redeemed out of the hand of the devil. This same scripture tells me that all my sins are forgiven. So my next testimony is this, Through the blood of Jesus all
my sins are forgiven. Next is first John chapter one, verse 7. If we walk in the light as Jesus is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. These verbs are all continuing present tenses indicating an ongoing process. If we walk in the light continuously, we will have fellowship continuously, and the blood will cleanse us continuously. The cleansing by the blood of Jesus is not a single isolated
experience. It is ever present. This is why we pray without ceasing that fellowship, and prayer keeps us cleansed. If I am meeting the conditions, if I am walking in the light, if I am in fellowship with my fellow believers, then my testimony is this. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, continually cleanses me from all sin. Romans 59 tells us that we are justified by His blood. The word justified is not understood by many present day believers.
Just and righteousness are interchangeable terms both in Hebrew and in Greek, in the Old Testament and in the New. So to be justified means to be made righteous. Here is our next testimony. Through the blood of Jesus I am justified, made righteous, just as if I'd never sinned. Hebrews 1312 tells us that through the blood of Jesus we are sanctified, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered outside the gate. The word sanctify is similar in
form to the word justify. To justify means to make just or righteous. To sanctify means to make saintly or holy. Here is our next testimony. Through the blood of Jesus, I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God. The climax of our testimony is found in First Corinthians chapter 6, verse 19 and 20. I want to look first, however, at two other verses from this chapter in First Corinthians. Here is one. Now the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord,
and the Lord for the body. And then we read, Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are gods. The Lord wants you for Himself. He has paid the price of His precious blood. If you want to hold on to your own life, you can.
But remember, in that case you have not been bought. You cannot have it both ways. If you belong to God, you do not belong to yourself. If you belong to yourself, you do not belong to God. This is our next testimony. My body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, redeemed, cleansed, sanctified by the blood of Jesus. Therefore, Satan has no place in me, no power over me through the blood of Jesus. Here then, is our testimony by which we apply the blood to our lives.
The references precede each confession. Through the blood of Jesus, I am redeemed out of the hand of the devil. Through the blood of Jesus, all my sins are forgiven. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses me continually from all sin. Through the blood of Jesus, I am justified, made righteous, just as if I'd never sinned. Through the blood of Jesus, I am sanctified, made holy, and set apart.
My body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, redeemed, cleansed, sanctified by the blood of Jesus. Therefore, Satan has no place in me, no power over me through the blood of Jesus. If you really believe those words, the next thing to do is praise the Lord for it. Here is a word of praise that you might use. Thank you God for the precious blood of Jesus. Thank you for the redemptive blood of Christ.
Thank you for the justifying, sanctifying, precious blood of the Lamb of God. Blessed be the name of the Lord. I praise you, Jesus, for you paid the price of my redemption. You shed your precious blood on the cross. You are the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And now, Lord, I have taken the blood from the basin and transferred it to my own personal needs by the word of my
testimony. Amen. Let me direct your attention to one more passage of Scripture that is relevant to this type of prayer, speaking about Jesus. The Word says this. This is he who came by the water and blood, Jesus Christ, not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. There are three that bear witness on earth, the Spirit, the water and the blood, and these three agree as one.
There is nothing in the Christian life that is just a set of rules. Salvation is not a technique. Healing is not a technique. Deliverance from evil spirits is not a technique. Anybody who tries to reduce any of these things to a set of rules misses the point. The purpose of it all is this. When we use the water of the Word, when we use the blood in our testimony, and when the Spirit bears witness, then heaven's floor drops out and
heaven comes to earth. Wherever God's people fast and come together and praise, there always will be prophetic revelation. Pathetic ministry comes out of the fellowship of God's people earnestly seeking Him. No religious games, no parlor tricks, no spiritual cocktail parties, Just desperate hearts before God. You minister to the Lord. He ministers to your problems. If God's people could only see this. Our weapons are mighty through God.
We reach up to God and we split that mid heaven of darkness between us. God reaches down and touches whatever problems we face as nations and individuals when we use the spiritual weapons that God has given us. God will be just as faithful to us today. Matthew chapter 18 verse 19 and 20. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in
heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.