Why We Fight
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Why We Fight By Terry Bennett Terry Bennett Ministries, USA Copyright © 2015 by Terry Bennett Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Scripture quotations noted AMP taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal. First Printing: 2015 ISBN 978-0-9964341-0-2 Terry Bennett Ministries 727 Leatherwood Rd Vanleer, TN 37181 www.terrybennettministries.com Contents Part I: See the Battle 1. We Are in War 1 2. Our Responsibility in This Battle 13 3. Intimacy and Submission: Required! 25 4. The Battle over Relationships 41 5. Ephesians: God’s Military Battleplan 55 6. Our Preparation for Battle 73 Part II: Learn to Fight 7. The Weapon of Right Living 87 8. The Weapon of Unity 99 9. The Weapon of Right Relationships 119 10. The Weapon of Prayer 129 11. Battling on Heavenly Ground 145 12. The Priestly Warrior 163 Part I: See the Battle chapter 1 We Are in War e are in a fight! This is not just a theory—this bat- tle is taking place every single day in our homes, Wour marriages, our churches, and the heavenlies. It is imperative for believers today to see that the fight is real, to understand where this fight takes place, and to see God’s strategic purpose and goal through battle. Yes, God is a warrior! We will look together at God’s military battleplan and our role as priestly warriors in this conflict, a people set apart for His name. It is my prayer that through these pages the Spirit of God will bring clarity to our hearts as to why we fight. Who Are the Players in This Fight? 14The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you will go and dust you will eat all the days of your life; 15and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed 1 Why We Fight and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel. Genesis 3:14-15 This passage lays the foundation for the war we are in. We need the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s meaning and distinction be- tween the two seeds. We can see in God’s promise to Abraham that the seed of the woman is ultimately a reference to Christ Himself, the Seed of God. So we must be rightly informed that there is an enmity, or another good translation would be hostility, between the seed of the serpent and the Seed of Christ. There are really only two sets of humans in the creation and in the universe: the seed of Satan and the Seed of Christ. The Seed of Christ is all those who are His, who have been born again (which is only the beginning) and who are progressing forward into the fullness of God’s purpose, life, plan, and desire. It is ongo- ing in this life and in the life to come, but in this life there are clear choices that we must make in order to come into God’s full desire and purpose. We can see that this conflict is still active in the New Testament in this familiar passage from James: 5Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose, “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”? 6But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. James 4:5-8 James clearly lays out here the progression of humbling our- selves as God gives grace, submitting ourselves to God, resisting the devil, and drawing near to God. These are the four things that James points to, but I want us to notice that James says, “Resist the devil.” This underscores what Genesis 4:15 is very clear about, 2 We Are in War that between the two seeds there is open war, open hostility and conflict, which was raging during the New Testament and is still raging today. It is important for us to understand the basic principle that yes, brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ the Lord absolutely defeated Satan: “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him” (Colossians 2:15). But the divine economy of God has been so ordered that although the Lord has defeated Satan and secured a universal tri- umph over all of His foes, those foes are still left for us to deal with today. They are left to train us for war. They are left to test us, try us, and prepare us through battle, i.e. conflict. It is strategic that the Lord left these foes here on the earth. Yes defeated, but still here. Some will say, “Well if they are defeat- ed, they have no ability to harm.” But that simply is not true, nor is it in keeping with the Scriptures. James is very clear that we are to resist the devil. So although the enemy is defeated, he has been left to be defeated by the saints as well. The saints absolutely have something to do with the full defeat and putting away of Satan and his evil forces. The Lord has not put our foes out of the universe or out of the earth, though He Himself has triumphed over them. He has left them for us to deal with in His triumph. This is how you and I get our spiritual and moral development. It is by conflict. It is by battle—grim, terrible, spiritual, and physical battle—that the moral excellencies of Christ’s triumph will be brought out through us. We will triumph in His victory, but we know that our faith will be tested and deeply tried in the battle. It is not simply an ethereal conflict. It is oh so very real. I want to be as clear as I can about this without in any way making Satan larger than he is. He does that well enough without our help. He is constantly trying to make himself appear more powerful, larger, and more important than he is. We must, how- ever, think rightly about him, and we must not underestimate our 3 Why We Fight enemy. That is one of the key principles in any warfare. Never underestimate your enemy. The New Testament is clear in the book of James: we are currently in a fight, and that fight is with the devil. I want you to think about this for a moment. We will get to Ephesians 6 and 2 Corinthians 10 and Paul’s other writings concerning these things as well, but here in James, he is telling us to resist the devil. The devil had been defeated by Christ previously, before the book of James was written, and yet we are still told to resist him. We are still in battle with him. It’s important that we see that. And if we see the strategy of God in this—to use this conflict to perfect the vessel, perfect the instrument that He is making us to be, perfect the priesthood, perfect the bride, perfect the church, perfect the body—I believe we will glorify God and not complain. I believe it is God’s heart for us to go through this battle. Thus, we must fight. We must fight it out. We must resist. The full realization of the victory of Christ will be brought to bear upon these demonic forces through us, His people, His instrument. With that in mind, look at 1 Peter 5, another important passage of Scripture on this subject. 8Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to de- vour. 9But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. 10After you have suf- fered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. 1 Peter 5:8-10 Notice the end result of this conflict and suffering. It is to perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. Again, what is the end result of conflict? What is the end result of this battle? What is the end result of wrestling with and resisting this adversary the 4 We Are in War devil and the forces with him? It is to perfect, strengthen, and es- tablish us. I want us to see that both Peter and James understood that we are in real warfare, and this very real warfare is with the devil. We are at war with Satan. With that in view, let us look at what the Apostle Paul has to say in Ephesians 6:10-11: 10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.