Spiritual Warfare

Enjoying the view of God's creation; why we moved west

I'm going to attempt to recap Pastor Jimenez's sermons from the last 3 weeks.  I feel like I've been inundated with God in the last few weeks, and I feel slightly run over with the Holy Spirit.  I've taken what I feel like is pretty good notes, so I'm going to try and impart a small piece what I've learned since attending VBC.

1.  We are constantly engaged in spiritual warfare.  Satan WANTS us to die and go to Hell.  When we die as non believers, we die 2 deaths; a physical passing out of our body, and a 2nd death where we are cast into the lake of fire.

2.  Our country is compromised.  Satan is the king of the earth, NOT God.  This is why you see God being taken out of school, God being kicked out of our government, and homosexuality/drug/alcohol use promoted as being mainstream and cool.

3.  Demons are actually fallen angels

4.  Anyone can be infused with a spirit ... a godly spirit will not cause you to do things you don't remember.  People oppressed by mental illness make great hosts for demonic spirits.  Our world is more accepting and tolerant of evil spirits than it is of godly spirits, ex. voodoo/fortune tellers

5.  Satan is currently living and walking here on Earth.  He has NEVER been to Hell.  Lucifer is beautiful to behold, and will try to tempt and trick you into sin and unbelief.  People full of self pride are much more susceptible to the influences of Satan than of God.

6.  When we hold onto residual guilt after committing sins, it is Satan.  Once you repent, God forgives your sins; move on!

7.  An obsession with death is characteristic of someone more in tune with Satan than with God.

8.  In order to be saved and go to Heaven, one must "Submit to God, resist the Devil, and he will flee from you".  James 4:7

9.  If YOU submit yourself to PRIDE, God will then resist YOU.

10.  Your defensive armor against Satan is Truth.  God is rooted in truth.  Satan is rooted in lies.  Churches that tell parables and fables instead of the cold, hard truth are promoting Satan.

11.  You can't have truth without faith.  You MUST have faith in order to encircle yourself with the truth of God's word.  Attending church helps you to surround yourself with people of like minds, and to fend off Satan.

12.  Ministering to others will help to physically FIGHT Satan.  The more people you help to bring to God, the less people Satan can cast into Hell.  Prayer is our most powerful weapon.

Here are some bible chapters/verses mentioned that support these points.  What I have posted is the highlights of what I have gleaned over the last 3 weeks.  If you're interested in sitting with your bible and looking up some verses, here they are.
*Luke 22:31
*Romans 10:14-17
*Hebrews 11:6
*Revelations 12:10
*Ephesians ch 6
*John 8:44
*2 Timothy 4:3
*John 4:24
*James 4:7
*Revelations 20:10
*Hebrews 2:14
*Luke 4:5-7
*John 12:31
*1 Peter 5:8
*Acts 10:38
*1 John 3:8
*Revelations 12:9
*Ezekial chapter 28
*Mark chapter 5

The crazy thing?  This isn't even all the verses mentioned!  I told y'all the pastor is a bible scholar.  It's so interesting to really follow along with him and flip back and forth and read all these passages.  I'm so enjoying myself, I hope that I continue to follow along and learn.  I'm seriously considering beginning to tithe to the church; I've NEVER done that before.  It will certainly hurt, at least conceptually, but maybe the results will be worth it.  Even a little $20 offering hurts right now, so stretching to tithe will really equate to stretching that faith, but I would be a hypocrite if I didn't at least make the effort.  I will be getting baptized soon, I finally feel as though it's the right thing for me to do.  I've been baptized before as a young child, but my primary motivation was to be the center of attention, and to not let my best friend do something without me.  Hey, at least I'm good at not lying to myself!  I told y'all, I can self analyze way better than any shrink can;)