The Weapon of Praise

Happy Thanksgiving weekend! I hope you all had a good celebration on Thursday and continue to have thankful hearts. I’ve always felt that this is one of the happiest holidays in America. Christmas and Easter have such profound spiritual significance for those of us who truly understand God’s plan of salvation for the world, but the forces of secularism have eroded that understanding for our nation as a whole. Christmas is now mostly about consumerism, and what is Easter about, the Easter bunny?

However, Thanksgiving is still mostly about being thankful. Saying “Happy Thanksgiving” is still acceptable to people who insist on “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” I guess there is the risk of overindulgence in good food, but the gathering of family and friends is generally a happy time, especially if we remember how truly blessed we are.

What is the connection between Thanksgiving and spiritual warfare? Today we are going to talk about another important weapon in our arsenal: the weapon of praise. Praise and thanksgiving are often mentioned together in the Bible. For example, Psalm 100 calls God’s people to

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.—Psalm 100:4

Captivity is not Defeat

Welcome! Today we continue our series The War, which explores spiritual warfare in depth, taking as its key text the passage on the armor of God in Ephesians 6. So as to have context to today’s passage, and as a reminder of our past recent messages, here are the first half of the verses we have looked at so far in this series:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.  – Eph. 6:10-13

The Secret Weapon

It’s great to be back with you again – and thank you for your prayers for what seemed like a very long trip this time. As we continue in our series on spiritual warfare, we now come to a very special weapon – a secret weapon, if you will, that allows us to catch our enemy off guard.

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.--2 Corinthians 10:4

Weapons with divine power. When we talk about putting on and using the whole armor of God in this Great War that we are engaged in, we don’t usually list the secret weapon that we are talking about today, even though it is mentioned in the very next verse – after the other items that we have been talking about for the past several weeks: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit.

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.—Ephesians 6:18

Defend with an Offensive Weapon

Welcome! Today we continue The War, our series on spiritual warfare. Just in case you have somehow forgotten, we are in a war, a war not against flesh and blood, but against something much more powerful. Often it is true that flesh and blood gets co-opted into this war; that is, people, wittingly or unwittingly, become powerful and effective foot soldiers for Satan and his demons. But even then, they are not the real enemy; the real enemy is behind the scenes.