Victory in Christ: The Truth About Spiritual Warfare

In this powerful episode of Relentless Pursuit, we delve deep into the critical topic of spiritual warfare and the strategies Christians must adopt to stand firm against the enemy’s attacks. Nathan explores the nature of the spiritual battle, reminding believers that we are not fighting for victory, but from victory—because Christ has already won the ultimate battle on the cross. Through an in-depth look at key scriptures like James 4:7, Hosea 4:6, and 1 John 5:4, Nathan unpacks how understanding our identity in Christ is essential to overcoming the enemy’s schemes.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• The Importance of Being Presence-Driven: Discover how deepening your personal relationship with God and staying sensitive to His presence empowers you to withstand spiritual attacks.
• Fighting from a Place of Victory: Nathan explains how recognizing the finished work of Jesus allows you to approach spiritual warfare with confidence, knowing the victory is already secured.
• The Role of the Armor of God: Learn how to equip yourself daily with the full armor of God to protect your mind, heart, and spirit from the enemy’s deceptions and fiery darts.
• Living a Crucified Life: Explore what it means to live a life surrendered to Christ, crucifying the flesh and aligning your will with God’s in the midst of spiritual battle.
• The Power of Consistent Spiritual Discipline: Nathan emphasizes the necessity of cultivating consistent spiritual practices like prayer, fasting, Bible study, and worship to build strength and resilience for the battle ahead.

This episode is a must-watch for anyone looking to grow in their understanding of spiritual warfare and how to stand victorious against the enemy’s attacks. Whether you're in the midst of a battle or preparing for one, these biblical insights and practical applications will equip you to fight with confidence, wisdom, and faith.

Transcript

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What's up, RP family? Welcome back to another episode of Relentless Pursuit. I'm so excited for you all to be joining us today. My name is Nathan, and this is Relentless Pursuit. This is where we deepen our pursuit after God as He relentlessly pursues after us. In this episode, we're going to be talking about spiritual warfare. And I wanted to lead it with this because, or I wanted to lead this season with first discussing the relationship that you have to have with God, and then going into certain things that come with having a relationship with God. For example, in order to be a friend with God, in order to have the fear of the Lord, in order for secrets of heaven to be revealed to you, you need to be presence driven. And to be presence driven, we have to understand that, that as a result of that, it invites the enemy to attack us. Not necessarily saying that we are, our guards down or not necessarily saying that will be overcome. There is that invitation because what the enemy is trying to do is diminish the will of God. And so I want you guys to understand the spiritual warfare in its nature. Many Christians misunderstand it. And almost dumb it down. I don't want to say it like that. They almost avoid it. Because spiritual warfare is overlooked by so many people. We have then been caught defenseless against our adversary. And in the new Testament warfare it starts with the first battle, which is the battle of one's self. It's. Bad the battle in your mind and in james 4 it says resist the devil and he will flee And so your spiritual warfare primarily is concerned with fighting your flesh's desires in order for you to be set free. And then you can go on in on behalf of others. And in Hosea 4, 6, it says ignorance of God's word leaves us vulnerable. And so we are vulnerable. I'm sorry for whatever. We are vulnerable to the enemy from, for because we've been so defenseless when it comes to spiritual warfare. We have an ignorance when it comes to the devices and the schemes of what the enemy does. And I'm not trying to give all our focus to the enemy, but I want you to be made aware That there is an adversary that tries to diminish and tear down, kill, steal and destroy everything that God is doing in your life and everything that God is doing in the earth. And so in 1st John 5, 4, it says for whatever is born of God is victorious over the world and the victory that conquers the world. Even our faith. So this is saying that we fight from a place of victory And we don't fight for victory. It has been overcome by our faith. God on the cross and I want you to see this because last episode we were saying how presents driven and that everything comes from The cross and that there are certain times where we try to add to our salvation We try to add to what God has already done. And this is one of those circumstances where we try to add To the victory as if we don't have the victory already and in Matthew 16 18 It says and I say to you Peter and upon And this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell, or the gates of Hades, death, will not overcome it by preventing the resurrection of Christ. And so this is saying how hell won't overcome us because the builder of his church, the builder of his people, the one who has already set in motion and ordained these moments in our life is Jesus. And the enemy and the adversary Can not overcome Jesus because he's already overcome the enemy. And so I want you to see this because all warfare is based on deception that you are not already victorious. The battle is fought in God's presence before even facing the enemy. We have to establish your victory in Christ. We don't fight from. Again, we don't fight for victory. We fight from victory because everything that was won on the cross. And Jesus has placed victory over the enemy within us through the Holy Spirit. So I see, I was thinking a couple of days ago and that Jesus is purpose. Was to be a bridge if and in one of his purposes was to be a bridge He bridged heaven and earth with on the cross He bridged the new covenant and the old covenant. He did not destroy the law, but he built on it. He fulfilled it He bridged And it's so crazy to think that Jesus is a bridge. He brought us from death to life. Bridge. He bridged us to the next place. And so Jesus has placed victory over the enemy with within us. We fight not from personal gain, but we fight the reason we fight. The reason we go through these warfares, the reason why we fight. We battle against the enemy. The reason why we come in agreement to what God is saying over our life and diminish the desires of the flesh and walk by the spirit is not for our personal gain, but to advance the kingdom of God in order to bring the light to the darkness. And so I want you to see that our authority is rooted in identity. of our identity in Christ because it causes the devil to flee from us, not through the volume of our voice. And there's a lot of times where, I'm guilty of this as well. When I get louder, I think it has more power. I get louder. I think it has greater impact. And granted I'm a very energetic person. I'm a very loud person. And I give myself grace in that area, but just our volume does not great in or widen the authority of our spirit or God's spirit. And so we have to understand that we have to fight this battle, not by volume, but by authority, not by volume, but by God's spirit. And so where is this battle taking place? A lot of times if we've. Seen at the previous episodes and I think last season one of our guests said our mind is a portal to the spirit realm. And so our mind is a portal to the spirit realm. And I really want to focus on that because our mind is the spirit Is really the doorway for through to our heart, the doorway to our soul, the doorway to our emotions. And so our mind is extremely important. And that's why the enemies wages. War in our mind, he tries to feed us with deception. He tries to feed us with strongholds. He tries to feed us with lies and the battlefield is in our mind where we encounter these temptations and deceptions. And so Satan the devil seeks to plant strongholds in our mind of deception, aiming to manipulate us through actions. And what I mean by that is, is this, he's trying to plant a lie in our mind so then it will change the way we react to certain things in our life. For example, I know when I don't spend time in, in prayer, that. My emotions become to, to get a little agitated. And what I mean is that when I don't spend time in prayer, I'm quicker to react in anger. I'm quicker to react out of spite. I'm quicker to react out of my emotions that then diminish or lessen my spirit. And so I want you to understand is we must conform our minds to God's image. And yeah. Deny ourself these desires and we must cooperate with what God is saying through the enemy's suggestions and there's an ignorance That we have a lot of times of God's word that leaves us vulnerable to our spiritual attacks because I was listening to a message today and it was Jesus image. I can't remember the Pastor Michael, I'm not even going to pronounce his last name. And he was saying, all you need is one one to five scriptures in your arsenal. All you need is one to five scriptures and just keep replaying those scriptures. And the enemy's attacks will lessen will weaken. And I was saying I was at the gym and I was just like, I was just thinking about it. And I was like, and the first scripture that came to mind is be holy as I am holy. And for some reason I just kept repeating it over and over again. And then the Lord spoke to me. The Lord spoke to me and said, holiness is not just purity. Holiness is wholeness. That means you are completely put back together. That means every area of your life is being restored. And so I kept declaring it and then it was like a revelation of that brought me into this. You know what? I need to keep saying this. I am holy as God is holy. I am holy as God is holy. I am holy as God is holy. And it was pushing back and pushing out the suggestions of the enemy. And so what do we do in order to counteract, counterattack what the enemy is doing? We live a crucified life. Simple as that. We live a crucified life. We are called to live a crucified life. And we have to die to our flesh daily. Because our flesh will say, We don't need to pray this long. We don't need to pray. And during prayer, you're thinking about, Oh, I need to respond to this person. Oh, I need to do this. Oh, I need to go there. And so we need to live a crucified life because it will remove the temptation for for the lives of the enemy to follow the lives of the enemy. Submission of our desires to God is essential to protect the anointing and authority that's over our life. A consecration, purity, and a life of commitment are crucial defenses against the enemy schemes. Real spiritual warfare requires a life fully committed to dwelling in God's presence. And this is the beauty of it. Because as you spend more time with God, you will begin to reflect Him more. You will begin to look like Him. And you will begin to act like Him. You will begin to speak like Him. There's a lot of times my wife will say I'm like a chameleon because whoever I'm talking to I will try to replicate their accent. And we have some friends from Africa and they were talking to me and and they say Africa. And so, we'll go back to Africa. And for some reason in my head, my mind just process said, okay I'm from America and I didn't even think about what I was doing, but I was trying to replicate what, how they were speaking. And it was funny in the moment. And then after a while, I'm like, like embarrassed but. It's, it, that's what happens when you spend time with God, you begin to emulate their, the way he speaks, you begin to, to copycat, in a way the way he acts, the way he responds, his heart's desires, his heart's longings and the role of the Holy Spirit and spending time with God it. When you spend that time, you begin to put on the armor of God. And sometimes we lack the strength to carry, I'm sorry, not sometimes, we lack the strength to carry God's armor on our own. And so we need the power of the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit to live within us. In order to carry this armor that will strengthen our defenses, but the thing is about it that the six some argue seven, Like the helmet of salvation that the breastplate of righteousness the belt of truth the shoes of peace the sword of the spirit and the shield of faith. That's not just used for defensive it's used for offensive and sometimes we misinterpret or Misunderstand what God is saying that be ready for when the enemy comes, but at the same time, it says push back the gates of hell. So the gates are stationary that we need to attack the kingdom of darkness because we need to go into the world and bring in people that are lost. And so the role of the Holy Spirit and the armor of God is serving Severing our relationship with the things that leave us vulnerable to the enemy's devices and schemes. And so it's breaking the ties to the strongholds that the enemy is trying to place in our life. And so we are then being equipped by the armor of God through the Holy Spirit. With the armor of God by the Holy Spirit. And so we are being empowered with God's dunamis power. And dunamis is translated to like dynamite. So think of dynamite like power. So we can actively push against the enemy's domain. And so we are coming against the kingdom of darkness. And so who is our adversary? The enemy is Satan. The adversary in Greek, it means atikidos or something like that, means opposed to righteousness. That means opposed to righteousness. And so Satan hates righteousness. And in first Peter five, eight, it says, be sober, balanced and self disciplined, be alert and cautious at all times that our enemy of the enemy of yours, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, fiercely hungry, seeking someone to devour. The devil observes and targets those who are truly righteous and submitted to God. The devil's The devil's resources are limited. And I want you to understand that so he can't attack everybody at the same time. The devil's resources are limited. He is not omnipotent. He is not omnipresent. He is not omniscient. And so we have to understand that the all powerful God that we serve and are submitted to when he fights our battles, then we will see victory. We will see the victory manifested. We, and so we have to look at it from a different perspective that thank God the enemy's attacking me because that means I'm doing something right. Does that make sense? And so when we are doing something right or righteously we are then being covered by the Holy Spirit who then who equips us with the armor of God. And using these spiritual weapons, the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit, which we use against the enemy. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He used the Word of God. He said, It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord your God. He used the English word. It is written. And that's what I was saying. When I was hearing this preacher say all you need is one to five scriptures and repeat them against the enemy. I am holy as you are holy. I am holy as you are holy. And it's a consistent repetition through this scripture that begins to renew our mind that begins to sharpen our heart. Consistent prayer, consistent study, and consistent consecration sharpens your spiritual weapons. And the lack of consistency on the opposite end, the lack of consistent time with God, weakens our weapon. Or we can say, dulling our ability to stand against God. The spiritual attacks and spiritual warfare are past encounters with God are insufficient for the current battle, meaning we can't rely fully on the previous encounters. We need to spend time with the presence of God now. We must be continuously sharpened. And so our preparedness and persistence go in hand as we go into battle. Each battle is prepared before the battle event starts. Each war in the spirit is prepared for before the war starts. You will never see a soldier going to war and then getting putting the armor on. He puts the armor on and then goes to war. And so we have to be prepared in God's presence. We have to create the strategy in God's presence. We are not merely facing just the enemy. We are preparing for whatever the enemy tries to do, but not we have to understand though, our focus is not the enemy, our focus is God. And so we are prepared in God's presence. Spiritual warfare involves realizing that our limitations allow for divine breakthrough, meaning where we are weak, God makes up for the difference where we are weak. God makes us strong. And one of my favorite scriptures is that God will use the foolish things to confound the wise because I'm a fool. Praise God. And so storms and spiritual attacks that often happen, tempt us to give up. But the perseverance, that's why James, I believe it's James, says count it all joy. Let's go there. Count it all joy. James 1. Consider it nothing but my joy. Brothers and sisters, whenever you fall into various trials, be assured that the testing of your faith through experience produces endurance, leading to a spiritual maturity and an inner peace. And so we are receiving the storms in order to receive endurance. It's we are running the race that God has for us. We are running the marathon. We have trained in the presence and now we're running with God That perseverance strengthens us for the battles. That perseverance will help us through these attacks. And so we have the, we are a friend of God. We have been revealed his mysteries. We have the fear of the Lord that's instilled in us. We are. We had deepened our relationship in the presence of God. And so now we have to understand that what comes from this is a potential, or I should say it, there will be spiritual attacks that try to deter you from following God. But God is saying that I'm strengthening you. That no weapon formed against you shall prosper. God is saying to you that just find your stronghold in my presence. And don't listen to the lies of the enemy. The enemy comes to kill, steal, and destroy. He comes to deceive you. But he will not overcome you because God has already overcome the world. Thank you guys for joining this week's episode of Relentless Pursuit. I'm so excited for what God is doing through Relentless Pursuit. Don't forget to follow, share, and subscribe to all our social media platforms. We just hit a milestone this past week of 1000 downloads. And I want to thank you guys all for your support and for what this podcast has grown to. And also I want to give a little announcement that every Thursday. Every Thursday at 4:30 AM I know that's early, but at 4:30 AM we will be going live on YouTube for 15 to 30 minute prayers. I'm so excited for that because I know that everything will come through prayer, having relationship with God, building the connection with God. And so I encourage you to join me. I will be live, but I will be posting the prayers later on. So if you wanna see them or if you just wanna pray with. The prayer in the background. I completely get that too. And so don't forget. Don't forget. Don't forget to share this like this subscribe to the Platforms and just know that god is pursuing after you so this is our pursuit for him Jesus name. See you guys soon