Winning the War that
Wages Within and Without

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” Psalms 23:4

Jesus had to go through Gethsemane before He could conquer Calvary! Surrender and the Cross are Essential for Biblical Spiritual Warfare!

“Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. ² I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. ³ I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God. ⁴ They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away. ⁵ O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.” Psalms 69:1-5

Notice that in the midst of spiritual warfare, the very attacks of Satan’s children, this man after God’s own heart acknowledges his own need for ongoing repentance.

Yes the sins and persecutions of others are wrong and yet this does not negate our own sin and need to honestly acknowledge such before the LORD.

“O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.” Psalms 69:5 (memory, life verse)

We are shown repeatedly that true victory, as defined in the divine economy, can only come through and to those who are truly honest, acknowledging any and all transgression (1 John 1:9).

“He that covereth (hides) his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” Proverbs 28:13

Listen to James:

“Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. ⁹ Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.” James 4:8-9

Let’s peer a bit more into this piercing passage:

“But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. ⁷ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. ⁹ Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” James 4:6-10

The war of Satan rages against Christ’s “ambassadors” and yet, such a reality does not negate the frailty of the disciple. In the following passage as well as others in Scripture, we see both the warfare and the sin of God’s servants and their need to continue to draw near to, repent, and abide intimately in Jesus (Romans 7; 2 Corinthians 5:17-20; John 15:1-16).

There was no other way for Jesus but the cross and there’s no other way for you than the cross (Luke 22:41-44). And you will not make it without the cross He commanded you to take up daily (Luke 9:23-24). It’s only when we worshipfully, obediently resign ourselves in the death and burial of Christ – when we are “crucified with Christ” – that He raises us upward in His victory! (2 Corinthians 4:10-12; Galatians 2:20) In the divine economy the resurrection is the victory and it of necessity, must be preceded with our own death and burial (John 12:23-25; Romans 6).

The true wise virgin saint must remain perpetually “poor in spirit” and ever so aware of that “old man” that must be daily crucified and therefore nullified (Matthew 5:3; 25:1-13; Colossians 3:1-10).  If not he/she will become hardened in heart and fall away (Hebrews 3:6, 12-14). Read Colossians 3:1-14 daily when you arise from rest.

“Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. ¹³ But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;” Hebrews 3:12-14

I simply cannot blame the devil for things that are my fault (Job 19:28). The LORD calls His children to be absolutely honest and it’s out of “an honest and good heart,” that they remain in Christ and bear fruit to His glory (Luke 8:15; John 15:1-16).

The battle on the inside of us must be won daily by the putting off of “the old man” in that daily cross (Colossians 3:1-14). Have you, like Peter, noticed just how blessed by God you can be and then wham, how you can manifest evil moments following a time of blessing? Note here in this exchange, how just after Jesus told His disciple Peter that the Father had given him the greatest revelation (CHRIST!), Christ then rebukes Peter and likens him to “Satan.” When Peter sought to hinder Jesus from doing His divine mission – going to the cross for our sins ….. here’s what we read:

“But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. ²⁴ Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. ²⁵ For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” Matthew 16:23-24

As is the case with each of us, there is a simultaneous warfare raging – that which is within and that which is without. Let’s hear Paul:

“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰ Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. ¹¹ For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. ¹² So then death worketh in us, but life in you. … For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; WITHOUT were fightings, WITHIN were fears.” 2 Corinthians 4:8-12; 7:5

Paul’s resumes of sufferings reveal to us that those who truly serve Christ – HIS way – will be assailed by those within and those without… Paul was most insidiously lied about, slandered, and attacked by those who were false, Satan’s very “ministers.” (2 Corinthians 11:12-15). Read the book of 2 Corinthians with this in mind.

It was when Peter, filled with pride like Satan, sought to derail the very divine mission of redemption, that Jesus severely rebukes him here.

The cross is the prescribed method of divine victory.

It was those in Corinth who had not repented who were in trouble with the LORD and therefore His servant Paul. Listen please:

“And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.”  2 Corinthians 12:21

Paul indicated here that there were “many which have sinned” (among the church) and yet some of those “many” had “not repented.” It should be obvious to us that some among this group of saints, had also sinned and yet repented. This is a clear illustration of the honest and the dishonest. The promise of eternal glory is only to those who are first born again and then become and who remain honest before the LORD and will be with Him eternally (Luke 8:15). The deceitful who refuse to abide in Christ will be damned (Psalms 101; John 15:1-6).

Why would God have given us passages like Lamentations 3:19-22 if in His infinite divine wisdom He didn’t foresee the great need for us to get back to Him if we err, stray?

“Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. ²⁰ My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. ²¹ This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. ²² It is of the Lord‘s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. ²³ They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. ²⁴ The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. ²⁵ The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. ²⁶ It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.” Lamentations 3:19:26

Being truly holy, as God defines it, requires an ongoing and desperate cry and dependence on the LORD. The life of David and many others in Scripture is a testimony to this truth. Remember that there is a true and there is a counterfeit (false) holiness. If there weren’t a false, self-righteous holiness being peddled, the LORD would never have used the term “TRUE holiness” in Ephesians 4:23-25. Counterfeit holiness is founded in pride and self-love, purporting itself to be “holier than thou.” (Isaiah 65:5) God hates this evil and will eternally damn the souls of the Pharisees of every generation (Matthew 23).

Sinless perfectionism, as defined by some, is scary. The self-righteous ones I am speaking of put on this act of sinless perfectionism, proclaiming that they never sin and therefore have no need, like the patriarchs and Jesus’ twelve, to humble, repent afresh, and get a new washing (John 13). The self-righteous are in trouble with God as Jesus taught us clearly, including in the parable of the two men who went up to pray (Luke 18:9-14). The man who was condemned refused to acknowledge His utter need for the LORD and His mercy. The justified man was truly “poor in spirit” which simply means he remained desperate for the LORD, realizing his own perpetual need for God’s saving and enabling grace (Matthew 5:3).

The definition of the Greek word is an actor or impostor. This is the case with those who feign sinless perfection absent from truly, daily, momentarily trusting and crying out to Jesus.

Please read and pray Hebrews 13:9 and 2 Peter 1:2; 3:18.

“As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. ² My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?” Psalms 42:1-2

“One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple. … ⁸ When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” Psalms 27:4, 8

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