Weapons of Spiritual Warfare

By Coni Eavenson

Weapons of Spiritual Warfare is an in-depth study designed to give every participant a deeper understanding of spiritual warfare and the weapons every Christian needs in order to defend himself and offend the enemy, Satan, and his evil team of demons. The first week of lessons teaches Satans story, including his goals to conquer God and rule over the universe and how he came to the point of viewing mankind as the enemy to destroy. Weeks two through eight give attention to each weapon of the armor of God, showing how each piece is imperative to put on and use.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512704129

Coni Eavenson

Coni Eavenson has a religious studies degree from Missouri State University. She has written and published one other Bible study, Never Walk Alone. She has a passion for theology and religion. She also loves music, books, travel, and photography. She lives in southwest Missouri with her cat. Weapons of Spiritual Warfare is her second Bible study.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-0411-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-0412-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015921002

WestBow Press rev. date: 01/22/2016

CONTENTS

Week One Identifying the War

Day One Satan's Story

Day Two God's Business/Satan's Business

Day Three Team Evil

Day Four The War Zone

Day Five Never Walk Alone

Week Two Belt of Truth

Day One The Belt of Truth: What Is It?

Day Two Holy Spirit's Role

Day Three Sets You Free

Day Four Benefits of Truth

Day Five Without The Belt of Truth

Week Three Breastplate of Righteousness

Day One Righteousness: What Is It?

Day Two Path of Righteousness

Day Three Benefits of Righteousness

Day Four To Say No to Righteousness

Day Five The Breastplate and Righteousness

Week Four Shoes of Peace

Day One Shoes of Peace

Day Two God's Peace

Day Three Peace vs. Sin

Day Four The Peacemakers

Day Five Only Through God

Week Five Shield of Faith

Day One Explaining the Shield of Faith

Day Two Trust is a Must

Day Three Must Obey

Day Four Faith

Day Five Examples of Faith

Week Six Helmet of Salvation

Day One Understanding Salvation

Day Two Why a 'Helmet'?

Day Three Strongholds

Day Four Mind Gaming

Day Five Renewing the Battlefield

Week Seven Sword of the Spirit

Day One What is the Sword of the Spirit?

Day Two Sword of the Spirit II

Day Three The Holy Spirit's Role

Day Four What's A Rhema?

Day Five How Jesus Modeled It

Week Eight Lance of Prayer

Day One Prayer as a Weapon

Day Two Six Forms of Prayer

Day Three Six Forms of Prayer II

Day Four Call On His Name

Day Five Expect It!

Bibliography

WEEK ONE

Identifying the War

This Bible study is to help you have a more in depth understanding as to what Paul is talking about in Ephesians 6:10-18 and why each piece of weaponry is imperative to your Christian walk. In the first week, we will go over in depth our enemy, his story, what his goals are and how those goals involve us. We will also study in depth what is God's business and how that affects our enemy's business. In weeks 2-8, we will study more in depth each spiritual weapon and its crucial role in helping us defend ourselves against Satan.

Learning Objectives

Day One:   What is Satan's story and why does he want to destroy us?

Day Two:   What is God's business and Satan's business regarding us?

Day Three:   Who is Team Evil and what do they do?

Day Four:   Why is the mind the main plain of spiritual warfare?

Day Five:   Why is it crucial that we never walk alone in spiritual warfare?

DAY ONE

Satan's Story

The Rebellion

Read Isaiah 14:12-15.

The morning star is reference to Satan when he was Lucifer. Before he rebelled against God, Satan was the angel with the highest ranking. Satan's original name meant morning star, which is what he is referred to in Isaiah 14:12.

In verse 12, Satan is casted where? What do you think that means?

In verses 13 and 14, what were the five things Satan said to himself in his heart?

In these verses, we read about the rebellion in heaven and Satan's fallout as the highest ranking angel. If you answered that he was kicked out of heaven, that is to say, he was kicked out of God's home, you are correct. These five things were his original goals. Now that the devil has been denied the right to be equal to God, he has a new set of goals. We will get to those in a bit.

What Satan is saying in these five I's is that he was aspiring to overtake and replace God Almighty! Those were his five original goals. Obviously, he did not get very far. In fact, the furthest Satan got with these goals was being kicked out of heaven after being stripped of his blessing as the highest ranking angel who the Almighty trusted to cover his throne. He was a guardian cherub which means that he, as Lucifer the Morning Star, stood guard protecting God's throne. Satan lost this beloved position when he destroyed his holy relationship with God by becoming corrupt with evil bent on overthrowing God from his rightful permanent place in heaven. Satan felt that he should also have equal rights as God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit to rule the cosmos. The devil did not just want to rule but completely replace God and his authority. Of course, God said no then removed Satan from his home. Satan lost all of his privileges in heaven. In response, Satan further rebelled bringing down one-third of the angelic regime.

New Goals

What were Satan's new goals? According to Rick Renner in his book, Dressed to Kill, Satan has two goals: deceive people and to slander thus giving us a bad name and sending those he can into hell. When the celestial beings rebelled against God, they lost their eternity with him. It was after Satan rebelled that God created the lake of fire and brimstone for the devil and the fallen angels to eternally reside. This makes sense as prior to Satan's rebellion there was no need to have such a place of eternal punishment. Seething with fury, how determined was Satan to strike back at God when God created the earth and mankind. Because Satan could not fulfill his demented desire to replace God from his heavenly throne and be worshipped like God, he saw opportunity when God created mankind in the image of God. After he manipulated Eve than Adam into disobeying God, Satan then had his foot in the door and could raise all sorts of havoc and evil. When the devil and the demons rebelled against God, there was no second chance. When the spiritual beings rebelled against God, they knew the deal: they can never repent and restore their eternity with God. They are forever condemned. Thankfully, it is not that way for those who exist in the physical realm but once one enters into the spiritual realm, every person's situation cannot be changed. They are either spending eternity with Jesus or with Satan. It is set in stone after the grave.

Before Jesus made salvation available for everyone on the cross, Satan saw how he could manipulate God's most favored creation to worship him in many ways while offending God at the same time. He also knew that it was so hard for people to attain salvation because the only route of saving grace was through the burdensome Mosaic Law and all of its commands, laws, and decrees. Now that salvation is forever secured by personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ the promised Messiah, people do not have an excuse. (They did not have an excuse before but a rather burdensome life to maintain a relationship with God.) Satan has been forever defeated by Jesus and what he did on the cross then his resurrection from the grave. People without salvation are without excuse because Jesus has made salvation possible not just for the Jews but for everyone else as well. So, Satan's primary goal is not only to deceive and slander but to bring as many people as he can to eternity with him. The way he does that is by keeping the Gospel from being shared, attacking the Christians who do bring the Gospel to the ends of the world. Satan seeks to kill those who like to believe they are neutral in this war, believing they are not building up Satan's kingdom or God's. We will get a closer look at Satan's business in tomorrow's lesson. Satan does not, absolutely under any circumstance, want to lose any souls to Jesus. If he is going to spend an eternity in a horrific environment of torture and an eternity in the absence of God, he wants all the company possible! It is his primary goal to keep people from knowing Jesus as Lord and Savior and having a personal relationship with him. When someone does get saved, Satan tries to do what Jesus talks about in Luke 8:12.

In Luke 8:12, what does the devil take away from some people?

What are the two results?

When one becomes a Christian, Satan will try his hardest to turn them away from God. To many, Christianity is a fad or a trend or something to try out because they want to 'just go through the emotions'. One time, a lady informed me that she went to church to get holy. Going to church and worshiping with others once or twice a week does not make one holy. These people will fall away because their commitment is not sincere and does not take root in the Christian faith.

The next challenge Satan has are the Christians whose faith does take root becoming zealous for God and the Gospel. Satan tries his hardest to sidetrack, discourage even shut down these believers. An unsaved person is not a threat because they are not going to heaven themselves and are not in the business of sharing God. A 'lukewarm' Christian is one who Satan works to appease by 'yes, you are a Christian but here let's be involved in this and that'; 'don't worry about sharing Jesus, what would your friends and family think?' among other manipulative excuses. The true threat is the Christian who works hard to live the Christian walk sharing God with everyone whether he or she is a full-time missionary or an astronaut. Christians who are effective for God's kingdom are very big threats to Satan's kingdom.

Are you a big threat to Satan's kingdom? In what ways have you seen him try to discourage you in your Christian walk?

Also note that because it is Satan's focus to bring as many souls down with him into eternal punishment, it is both business and personal from his demented perspective. Remember whose side you are on, who has already won this battle and with whom you will triumph over Satan in the end.

The Losing Team

Unlike the Trinity, Satan is not omnipresent. He cannot be everywhere at once knowing everyone's business, thoughts, and actions. He is a simple being who can only be in one place at a time doing one thing at a time and know so much in one moment. In effect, he must have some help. He found it...in the fallen one-third angelic regime who sided with him when he rebelled against God.

Read Revelation 12:3-4.

In Revelation 12:3, the red dragon is Satan; he is warring against heaven. This coincides with what Isaiah talked about in Isaiah 14:12-15. Satan rebelled and this passage tells us that he warred against the hosts of heaven. In verse 4, the symbolic language tells us that the 'dragon swept his tail and one-third of the stars fell.' That is to say, when Satan went up against Heaven and its hosts, the devil managed to get one-third of the angelic regime to rebel against God. In symbolic language in the Bible, stars are in reference to angels. So one-third of Heaven's hosts (angels) went to the other side and fought against God.

Read Revelation 12:7-9.

In verse 7:

What is in heaven?

Who and his team of angels fight against whom?

Who fought alongside Satan (the dragon)?

Verse 8:

Satan was not what?

Who lost their place in heaven?

Verse 9:

Who was hurled down?

What does he do to the world (mankind)?

What is the one thing noticeable about these passages? Satan gets a team together and rebels against God! What happens? They were not strong enough to overpower the remaining two-third force of angels loyal to God thus failing miserably. The Bible states that they were hurled to the earth.

The Revelation passage is dual for history in the past and in the future. Satan rebelled against God, rallies one-third of the angels to rebel and overtake heaven with him. They failed miserably in the past but will again attempt to overtake heaven a second time. This is believed to happen when the final rounds of this spiritual war plays out in the end times on earth. Again, the Bible tells us, Satan will fail.

Satan's Doom

Read Revelation 20:1-3.

Verse 1: What is the angel carrying with him?

Verse 2: What two actions does the angel take upon Satan?

How long?

Verse 3: The angel throws Satan where?

The angel does what so Satan cannot get out?

This prevents Satan from doing what?

According to verse 3, Satan must suffer in his eternal home for a thousand years. During this time, Jesus will establish his rule in Jerusalem and will rule over all the ends of the earth. It will be a time of peace and no war. Why? Satan, the source of evil and war, will be imprisoned in hell thus prevented from deceiving people, bounding them in sin and keeping them from their creator.

From what you just read, does Satan's imprisonment sound great? Do you see how by simply removing the root of the sin problem, life will suddenly be immensely pleasant and virtually no stress?

Now this part of future history is just temporary. This allows for God to get in a day of living his ultimate dream: to have his creation to love him allowing their God to lavish his blessings upon them. While the time will be a thousand years on earth, it only mounts to a day in time eternal.

Read Revelation 20:7-10.

What happen in verse 7?

What two things does Satan do in verse 8?

What does God do?

Truthfully, I cannot help but laugh when I read these verses. Satan is dumb enough to rebel against God, loses then gets kicked out of heaven only to stand up to God a final time and lose a final time. He could not even make a human, Job, curse God yet he continues to keep striking against his creator whom is the strongest force in the universe and is without sin? What God does in verse 9 is truly deserved!

According to verse 10, Satan is sent where?

And everyone who is sent to this place experiences what and for how long?

What do you think? Do you see that Satan is the captain of the losing team? His story is of sad nature because for all the hard work that he does, it is all wasted. He will never, ever overthrow God and his defeat is clearly told in advance. Yes, the devil is very aware of this but why does he keep trying? It is a matter of getting as many souls into hell as possible. Satan and every demon are fully aware of God's rules and they know what happens to those who do not know Jesus as their Savior and stand firm in their faith. Getting people into hell with them is the sole goal of Satan's.

This is why it is imperative that we learn to focus on God and saturate ourselves in Bible study and prayer. The enemy is very, very real and very adamant about making each of us lose. If he cannot spend eternity in heaven why should anyone else?

I hope today's lesson has been a real eye-opener. It is to your benefit to never, ever blow Satan off. He is real and he works very hard to reap souls into his kingdom. We will further study on Satan and what we need to be doing as Christians as the week progresses then throughout the Bible study.

DAY TWO

God's Business/Satan's Business

In order to have a deeper understanding of why we need to put on and utilize weapons of spiritual warfare, we should know a few things which we are studying this week. God has a primary goal in what he pursues. Satan has a primary goal in what he pursues. Both have business goals requiring each being to focus on. Those God and Satan work hard to implement these business plans upon is mankind. What is God's business? Why does it include us? What is Satan's business and why does it include us? We will learn why in today's lesson.

God's Business

God's business is of essence in both the physical and spiritual realms. Let us examine what his business is in the physical sense.

In The Physical Sense

In Ezekiel 18:32, God states he takes no pleasure in what?

He pleads for the tribe of Judah to do what so they may what?

This passage tells us that God's business is life and to him, that business is good! This passage would agree with Genesis chapters one and two. Every time God created new life in the Genesis chapters, he always saw it as good. Does it make sense that God would create life only to destroy it? For God to make death his business would completely go against his godly nature.

In Jeremiah 29:11, God desires to do what for his people?

According to this passage, God is being consistent in desiring, pursuing and giving life to his favorite creation. Truth be told, he would love to give life to everyone, but as the book Jeremiah narrates, not even his own chosen people wanted to have anything to do with him. They wanted to engage in sin and pursue what they considered life as their neighboring nations did. Unfortunately, it is still that way today.

What does Jesus say about himself in John 6:14?

When Jesus says he is 'life', he is saying he is the only source of life. Life begins with him! It is true. In John 1:1 we read, "In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (Italics mine.) Jesus is correct in saying that he is life because from God the Father and God the Son (Jesus, who is God's Word to us) life flowed literally. The whole Trinity was involved in this massive undertaking of the creation plan.

In John 10:10, Jesus states that he came so 'they' could have what and to what extent? Who is 'they'?

Put all these verses together: God and Jesus make life their business! They have a plan for every person who exists. Yes, that means every single person of the seven billion people today and all the millions to billions of souls before and to come. God the Father and God the Son embrace life. One of Jesus' goals in coming to earth fully human yet divine from his heavenly home was to give people life. He came at a point in history when the Jews were heavily burdened with all the expectations of the Mosaic Law and then the additional legalistic rules and expectations that the Pharisees had put upon them. The Jews' own religion was killing them spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and eventually the burdensome load would most likely have a negative effect on the people's physical health. Jesus came at a time to establish a New Covenant which would allow for abolishment of the Mosaic Law allowing for not just the Jew, but everyone, to repent from their sins, live life and live it fully! The New Covenant would allow for people to reconcile with their God, have a personal relationship with him, and have direct access to God through prayer. No more having to go through a Levite priest and countless atonement and other various sacrifices. When Jesus states in John 6:14 that he is the life and in John 10:10 that his goal is to allow people to have life and have it abundantly, he was meaning life on different levels.

One level was to have life abundantly while here on earth. Jesus knew that the Mosaic Law was burdensome to the Jewish people as well as the Gentiles who chose to serve Israel's God. His sacrifice was the final atonement to put an end to such a burden. Jesus wanted people to live and enjoy life. As co-creator, he meant for life to be enjoyed not stripped away which is why in Matthew 11:30, Jesus states that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Life is more enjoyable and doable when the load is easier and much lighter than the burden of the Mosaic Law and the unbearable burdens the Pharisees and Sadducees placed on the Jewish people.

How have you experienced Jesus helping you have life by having a lighter yoke and lighter burdens?

In the Spiritual Sense

From Genesis to Revelation, God makes it clear that life is his business. Especially in Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and in the Gospels, we read the emphasis to think beyond the grave. As creator, God knows everything. It only makes sense that God would know what he is talking about when he tries to get us to focus on the more important things like life beyond the grave. Beyond the grave, there are only two options: heaven which is where God and Jesus reign allowing only their followers to live and hell where people live in torment day and night. God desires that we live spiritually both while we are alive here on earth then continue living in our spirits with him after the grave. Then the question is: what does it mean to live spiritually?

In John 3:3, Jesus states that in order to become alive spiritually, one must be what?

John 3:6 gives the explanation of what it means to be born again, what is it?

To be 'born-again' means to be literally 'born from above'. 'From above' would mean heaven and the only one of such power and authority would be God. So, through Jesus and what he did for everyone on the cross, God will make every believer who is sincere in repenting from sin and serving God born of spirit and cleanse the believer from unrighteousness. You are still you in the physical sense but when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in your heart (mind, thought life, inside your very being which is your soul), you begin to be a changed person. You are released from your past. The world may try to hold you to your past, but God says he forgives and forgets. The Almighty moves on, so should the newly born-again believer. We are told in Psalm 103:12 that God removes the sin in our lives as far away as the west is from the east.

Read Romans 6.

In verse one, Paul asks if we should what?

Continuing in verse two, he makes it clear that as born-again, saved, and redeemed Christians, children of God, and co-heirs with Jesus to God's kingdom, we are freed from our sins and sinful ways.

In verse three, we are told that our baptisms, where we make public profession of faith in Jesus Christ in action, we are spiritually cleansing ourselves of our sins. So it makes sense that we should not continue to pursue them or live in them.

In verse four, Paul tells us that as Jesus was raised from the dead by God, we also are what?

In verse five, Paul is saying that now that we are saved and are 'dead' to our sins, we are now on the path to righteousness (holiness). We are to focus on this life in the spiritual sense and it goes from the time of salvation continuing on into eternity with God. It is meant to never stop. Continuing in verse six, Paul is saying that as Jesus' physical death on the cross allows for us to spiritually put to death our sinful ways and resurrect in the life he has made possible for us. We start that life here by pursuing holiness and a personal relationship with Jesus. As he put sin to death in the spiritual sense on the cross, so we are to put sin to death in our own lives even as we are still living. Verse seven echoes this from the physical sense. When we die physically, we are not able to live in sin. We really are freed from sin's death grip on us. Jesus made it his business to die a wretched, inhumane physical death so that as he lives in eternity, we might also live in eternity (v. 8). Because of Jesus' perfection and divine power over death, he was able to die physically in order to conquer death both spiritually and physically which is why he was able to return and be with his eleven disciples for another forty days before ascending back to Heaven. This is why he will be able to return for his followers at the Second Coming. For the Christian, even though he dies physically, he will live spiritually and not experience the second death. In verse eleven, Paul commands us to be dead to sin, which means we must conquer our sinful ways saying yes to life in and through Jesus and God. It is through their saving grace that we are capable of doing such a spiritual thing.

In the spiritual sense, we are to conquer and put to death all things sin in our lives and pursue life as Jesus and God meant for us to. As they make life their business for us in both the physical and spiritual sense, we also must follow in pursuit making life in both senses happen.

According to verse 18, we are to be slaves to what?

We are either going to live in sin or in holiness. Holiness is why God cannot and will not face sin. It is his utmost divine holiness for why we cannot even see his face because our sin is so deeply offensive. If we could see our sin as God does, we would also be sickened and offended as God is by it.

In verse 21, Paul makes what observation about the results of sin?

In verse 22, Paul says that the benefits of serving God lead to what two things?

In verse 23, the gift of God is what?

Life both here and in eternity is God's business. It is God's top priority to bring us to him so we may be set free from sin which leads to death both physically and spiritually and live abundantly both here and in eternity.

Read Romans 8:1-17. What observations of what is God's business do you find in the listed verses?

V. 1 No what for Christians?

V. 2 The law of the Spirit of Life sets us free from

V. 3 By sending Jesus to us in our likeness (became human) and became the sin sacrifice, God was able to

V. 4 Christians can live according to

V. 5 Have our minds

V. 6 Have Spirit-controlled minds to have

V. 9 No longer controlled by what but by

v. 10 If we are saved even though we will die physically, our souls are what because of what?

v. 11 If the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from death is in us, we will also experience:

v. 12 God and Jesus worked hard to make life possible for us, we are under obligation to:

v. 13 Live according to the sinful nature, expect to

v. 13 Live according to the Holy Spirit, the Christian will

v. 14 Holy Spirit only leads those who are

v. 16 If we belong to the Holy Spirit, we are God's

V.