The Battle

By

Neville Salvetti©

This booklet is in three parts:

If there was no battle we wold not need amour or weaponry . The fact God provides these to His Body indicates there is a need for them to be used so that there must be a battle to use these in.

As there is a battle you must fight or go under unless you are resting, training or being trained for the battle.

Every Christian following Jesus is at was, if only because they are hated by Satan and he is trying to destroy them. Satan is the enemy of your king and never sleeps so that he is always seeking ways to attack you. Thank God he is limited in what he can do as he is not allowed to attack you more than you can stand (1 Cor 10:13).

The citizens have weapons to defeat the enemy but these weapons are of no use if the citizen does not have the knowledge of them, how they are used, the maturity to use them and the desire to use them. There is also armour provided for the citizen to assist them in this battle.

The Bible plainly states what you should be doing, as a citizen, in this battle so that you are without excuse to ignore it. If you really want to obey Jesus and fight this battle then He will send people to train you and you will also have the help of The Holy Spirit in this training and battle.

This armour has no rear protection as a citizen is always to face the enemy and be ready to attack them or hold ground as is necessary. There is no way to turn your back on the enemy and run from the battle without being seriously hurt.

Any citizen not in this battle needs to ask whether they are in a period of rest from the battle, too immature to do battle, being trained for it, too tied up with the things of the enemy (worldly things) or maybe whether they even belong to The Kingdom.

The more a citizen loves their King and spends time with Him and seeing his Love working for them, the more they want to serve and represent their King and protect what is His.

The Armour of a Christian

The Christian live is a series of attitudes resulting from you beliefs. The armour is one of these groups of attitudes. These attitudes result in salvation and the maintaining of our position in the Kingdom of God as a citizen of that Kingdom. We are in a position for Jesus to protect us and use His delegated authority to defeat Satan.

The armour is a result of our attitudes and resultant position in The Kingdom, of God and as long as we maintain these Satan cannot harm us spiritually or cause us to lose our salvation (Rev 3:5).

Armour is put on by a person before they goes into battle. It identifies them as belonging to a certain army and ruled by a particular king. It allows them to fight with the weapons provided by their master. In the armour, they are able to attack the enemy and plunder the enemy’s territory! The armour of the Christian is received at salvation and is proof they belong to Jesus and The Kingdom of The Father and are a part of their army on earth.

As it is a spiritual battle The Armour is spiritual.

An Overview of the Armour

The attitudes of a person who has The Armour of God on them:

The protection and authority of the armour depends on the authority of the King providing it and the way in which it is built to protect the soldier and more importantly, as to how much of it has been accepted and put on by the soldier. The armour is only put on with the approval of the king and for his purposes. We serve the mightiest and greatest King before whom all other kings must bow!

The armour is always put on for a purpose which is to defeat the enemy and their works.

The parts of the armour are the foundations of our Christian life. If we do not have all of these on us then we will have difficulty protecting our self fully against the attacks on our faith.

The area of battle as well as who we battle needs to be known to effectively fight the battle and as the battle is spiritual, fleshly weapons are of no use. You need to use God’s spiritual weapons as nothing else will work in this battle. We fight the plans of the leaders not just the individual demon soldiers. Demons work to a plan given to them by their rulers so you need to hinder or prevent the plan they are a part of as well as the efforts of their soldiers enforcing these plans. Just as God has a plan for each person so does Satan have a plan for each person. God’s is to keep removing the leaders so that there is no one to enforce the plans of their commander or order replacement troops into the field.

The choice of armour is very important. It must all be put on and must be appropriate for the battle or you will not be fully protected or able to stay in the battle for long.

Deliverance may be necessary to be able to put on the full armour or a better understanding of Salvation. These will remove weaknesses in our attitudes that Satan can try and use to attack us.

You must know what you are fighting for and live according to the requirements (truths) of the King to be authorised to battle on His behalf. You need to know God’s truths to fight the lies of the enemy and be in a proper relationship with God so there is no weak spot in your life that the enemy can use to attack you. Jesus must be Lord of every area of your life so there is nothing unprotected that Satan can attack. The framework of five steps will help you in this.

Reconciliation with God must first occur (The good news of the Gospel of Peace) so you can be a part of His army and worthy to fight His battles. The Gospel is also a weapon in stealing people from the enemy kingdom. Without reconciliation with God there is no foundation to the Christian life. We preach reconciliation and peace with God as our main weapon. Remember, we preach the Gospel of The kingdom and demonstrate its authority over Satan as part of our preaching.

It is the demonstrating that The Kingdom of God is different and superior to that which Satan offers that frees people from their security in the things of Satan so they can trust God and His Things.

You must have faith in the strategies of your King and in His ability to supply your necessities to fight as well as to heal any wounds obtained in the battle. You must believe He is more powerful than the enemy and is worth following otherwise Satan can make you doubt these and the Kings love for you so you become weaker in your resolve to fight the battle.

The arrows attack our mind so we need to protect our mind through faith in Jesus and the truths of His promises to us (so we need to study The Bible to learn and understand these) and through putting every thought under His Lordship and Will for us.

You must accept the call of the King to join the army as well as use the weapons He provides for you to fight with. You must know what the weapons are, how they are used and where to get them.

You must also understand God’s Salvation so you know that you have it and are part of The Kingdom of God and thus part of God’s Army

The helmet protects the head where we think. God’s Salvation places us under His protection in His Kingdom and His truths protect our mind. It is the truths of the Word in your mind that keep you from the deceits of the enemy (Satan and his kingdom). It is a spiritual battle which is why The Word, as explained by The Holy Ghost, is such a strong weapon.

If you do not study and meditate on The Bible you will not know the truths of God that The Holy Spirit will use to set you free and use to guide you in this battle.

This is prayer as led by The Holy Spirit for the purposes of The Kingdom. It is not for our needs as Jesus promises to provide these as we do His work Mat 6:33).

We are to ask for fellow labourers and the things the enemy has as they really belong to Jesus and He will work to help you obtain them if they are in accordance with His Will. We are also to war for our fellow Christians who do not see they are under attack or have a need of deliverance.

All prayers of request should be in accordance with God’s Will or for the purposes of doing God’s Will.

You must support each other in any action against the enemy, either as trainer, teacher or helper.

The Gospel of The Kingdom is an attack on Satan’s kingdom and we should warfare and support those preaching and teaching The Gospel of The Kingdom (but only as The Spirit says to give and not from guilt or emotion).

The armour of a Christian is dynamic based on what Jesus has done for us at Calvary and upon our accepting what He has done. It signifies that our citizenship belongs to the Kingdom of The Father and that our battles are those of Jesus for despoiling the Kingdom of Darkness and rescuing souls from its clutches. It shows we stand for Jesus, His rules and requirements and like all soldiers, are willing to die for our commander.

It is also relational, based on our attitude to our King and the resultant position in His Kingdom. As long as we seek to have the Mind of Christ in all we do this relationship will never be broken. When it is broken repentance is necessary an possibly deliverance to help you restore and keep the attitudes necessary for this relationship with your King.

A soldier goes into battle knowing he may die but he obeys the orders given to him as they are the best chance he has for life and carrying out the King’s Wishes! The soldier is willing to die for His King and for the sake of The kingdom and the people in it whether related to him or not. So it should be with all who serve in the army of Jesus!

This spiritual armour of the Christian is God’ preparation for you to be able to take part in His battles as well as be protected in the battle. It is interesting that the armour has no back to it as if a Christian’s only defence against Satan is to attack Him.

The Weapons of a Christian

Our war is a spiritual one and so the weapons must be spiritual. Their effects can be seen in the physical though, which is why some have assumed it is a physical battle. Medicine is based on this assumption and is not successful in many illnesses because it treats only the physical so cannot explain what happens when a spiritual approach is taken and there is healing. The flesh (man’s reasoned methods) does not avail in this battle.

There are at least four weapons:

The committing of all problems, circumstances and needs to Jesus to be lord of is important in an attack. This removes the area from Satan’s attack and is usually the first step in a battle. (The framework of the five steps is designed to do this).

Rewards

God is not a hypocrite and must reward us according to His rules. This belief in a reward is one of the requirements of faith in God’s goodness (Heb. 11:6). According to how you serve as a citizen of His Kingdom will be your reward (Gal 6:7-8):

If we really believe these rewards then nothing on earth will be more important than serving our King and using what he has given us for the good of others once we have met the needs of those we are responsible for.

God is our Reward

In Gen. 15:1 God says to Abraham that He is his protection and Reward. This has not changed so when we follow Jesus as Lord and Saviour He, The Father and The Holy Spirit are our reward and protect us. We are given a relationship with all three and from that relationship also follows our rewards as we reap the benefit of these relationships because they allow God to give our rewards to us.

The more we understand and develop the relationship with God, the closer the intimacy with God we will have, the more we will expose of ourselves to Him, the greater the service we will do for Him and the more He is able to reward us.

The relationships with The Father, Jesus and The Holy Spirit and the salvation resulting is our eternal reward. To seek anything else as a reward misunderstands how God relates to us and is idolatry. All other rewards in heaven are a result of the quality of the relationship we have with them.

Only as you focus on Jesus and the relationships we have with He, The Father and The Holy Spirit can The Father truly reward you as He wants to, now and in heaven.

This affects our attitude towards prosperity and the like. Things like prosperity theology are wrong as they focus on wealth and possessions being our rewards and not on the relationship we have with Jesus, The Father and The Holy Spirit as being our reward.

Prosperity and wealth are things Satan uses to reward His Follower. On Earth Jesus promises to provide all our needs but stated our rewards are in heaven. His reward on earth is more intimacy and spiritual promotion as we grow closer to Him, giving Him more of our life to be Lord over and serve Him as He desires us too.

Some crowns mentioned as rewards are as follows:

Types of Rewards

Relational Gifts (a result of salvation)

Service Gifts (a result of our desire to serve God)

Rewards (These are for services rendered - a result of our obedience)

While the Gifts are a result of God’s Love and Mercy to help us minister, the rewards and crowns are a result of obedient service. A person will not be given the spiritual reward of another’s labour or a labour they had no part in. While they may benefit from the results of that labour they cannot partake in the rewards God has for that labour (Gal 6:7-8). While the physical rewards on earth may be taken from the person by Satan when the person sins, Satan cannot remove from anyone their rewards in heaven. Only the person can through unrepented sin.

Prosperity or wealth is not a reward. God promises to provide all our need and prosper us as He needs to for His purposes. To seek prosperity for its own sake is to say that God has not given you what you need and will allow Satan to sidetrack you.

The true follower of Jesus is not content with what this world offers and rejects it preferring to use and enjoy what God gives them. Their treasure is in heaven so they do not seek the prosperity this world offers but that which their God gives which can never be taken from them.

Remember that we can lose our crowns (Rev 3:11) and salvation (Rev 3:5) and that it is our decisions that determine our salvation, rewards and relationship to Jesus.

The Battle has already been won

A King’s seat is the place of their power and authority.

Jesus rules The Kingdom of God and we are with Him so our seat of authority is The Kingdom. This is where our delegated authority comes from. When we use delegated authority it is as if the King is speaking through us and what we command has the same authority as if The King was saying it. The requirement being that it is The king’s Will which is actually being commanded.

The kingdom is above creation so all creation must obey The King’s Will and the commands of those who have His delegated authority and use it to command The King’s Will.

Satan was cast out of The Kingdom as he was defiled because of his rebellion and nothing defiled can enter the Kingdom. He was cast down into creation and it is possible that creation was made to contain him as there was no place else for him and his demons. It is not known when he fell but it was probably after the sixth day as all was good on those six days. God knew Satan was going to rebel and made creation to contain him.

All in creation must bow to The Will of The King and that includes Satan and his demons.

Satan was taken captive at Calvary (Eph 4:8) so has no rights as prisoners have no rights in the country they are imprisoned in. This means he and his demons can be sent back to prison anytime they are found in creation or elsewhere as they have no right to be there (being a prisoner).

Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn 3:8) so we are authorised to do this anytime we find these works in creation.

Satan tries to make us believe he has legal rights with people. He has none as he is a captive (Eph 4:8) and has no right to be out attacking people (the Children of The Father) as he should still be in prison.

The only danger when attacking Satan and his demons is to cast demons out of non-Christians as seven worse ones take their place. However, in Jesus’ Name they can be bound and forbidden from using the person or influencing the person in any way.

Jesus said, that if we did anything according to His will it would be done and that if we loved him we would only ask what His Will is (Jn14:14-15). So if we know it is His Will then creation must obey it as His will is from The Kingdom which is far above and greater than authority in creation.

This means the battle has already been won over Satan and his demons as well as his works against people and it is all a matter of removing demons and their works from people (as that is God’s Will) or commanding creation to obey the Will of God (which The Holy Spirit will tell you what it is you are to command and when to command it).

The Victory is there. It is just a matter of taking up your delegated authority and applying it in accordance with The Will of God. Everything has been prepared by Jesus so it is only a matter of having the required faith and making the effort to do it and requires no effort but obedience on our part. Jesus commands it and The Spirit carries it out. All we need to do is believe and command (speak it out) in accordance with The Will of Jesus.

God has prepared all we need to battle Satan. All we need to do is go out and claim the victory as well as to attack him when he attacks us.

Overview of Satanic Attack

A little background

Satan is created being and he knows that. He knows he only takes his next step and ‘breath’ because God allows him too yet he resists God knowing he is defeated and will one day be sent to the lake of fire. Having been condemned to this lake he now seeks to take as many as he can with him to this lake of fire and so attacks God’s creation with the objective of destroying it and taking as many of the people (God’s Children) as he can with him to the lake of fire.

This is your enemy who goes around as a roaring lion seeking to destroy you. You either fight him or are overcome by him and possibly may eventually lose your salvation.

Comments on their attacks

An attack is always started by Demons. People do not ask to be attacked by demons. The demons attack your mind and body trying to find a weakness in you. If the demon is cast to the The Throne of Grace the temptation finishes and a different demon will attack. The demon may use the same type of attack to exploit the same weakness or may try a new area to attack. If the attack is successful the demon may enter you trying to build in you incorrect coping mechanisms or incorrect attitudes and reactions so they can control you. Once in, or if there is a weakness in you they are using, deliverance is needed to remove them.

They use the incorrect reactions and attitudes to build on and gain more ’control’ of you through engineering the way you think and react. This is why you must never react or assume what a person, or demons in your mind say about you is correct, but go to the Holy Spirit and ask Him what to do. Satan also lies to you or tells you half-truths to mislead you or sidetrack you from what Jesus desires you to be which is why you must never assume things but ask The Holy Spirit how correct the thing is.

The temptation will use a compensation for pain you have or will try and build a compensation in you for this hurt or pain. The compensation or temptation is designed to give you pleasure and entice you to more sin. You will need to find the root cause that has allowed the access of the demon or caused the weakness they have exploited. Once in they will use your reactions, attitudes and emotions they have fostered in you as well as compensations and other pleasurable things they have taught you to try and control you.

Wrong vices, addictions and pleasures are forms of compensation.

They will also use other people to attack you in some way, either physically (with actual or implied violence) or mentally (words or body language showing negative emotion towards you).

Sometimes the actions of others that allow demons to attack you. This is usually through a curse or a desire to see you hurt.

Curses can only affect you if there is a point of access in you for it to ‘land’ on you. The types of curses are:

These are broken through the authority of Jesus delegated to you.

Someone may also express a desire to hurt you without actually uttering a curse. Demons use it as a reason to attack you. You may need to deal with an offence against a person before you can remove the demon successfully that is enforcing this desire of a person against you. It is not so much the words said but the unrepented offence that allows the attack.

Demons can also enter through shock or trauma but these are easily cast out as they have no right to be there in the first place.

The objectives of demonic attack are various:

Conflict results in the person attacked and there are only two possible results:

The demonic attack is unsuccessful because:

The demonic attack is successful because:

Remember that demons are subtle in their attack on you and use your emotions, desires and reasoning patterns against you through suggesting things that appear to come from your own thought processes but are really from them. They must make you accept what they want you to do or else the attack cannot succeed.

In this is perhaps the secret to overcoming them, just simply do not accept what they want you to do and send them to the The Throne of Grace in Jesus Name.

For a demon to have you accept what they want you to accept they must persuade you that something is not there that is, or is there that is not. In other words whatever they tell you the truth is the opposite, unless it is a known weakness they are trying to reinforce in which case you need deliverance.

Authority and Power

It is no use having armour if you are just going to stand there and not attack. Authority and power are given us to attack the enemy. They are used to destroy the works of Satan and attack his possessions so that his plans are thwarted or prevented and people are released from his captivity.

The battle is for the souls of people not for physical territory or wealth and the main use of this authority and power is to destroy the works of the devil so that the Kingdom is demonstrated and people are won for The Kingdom as a result (evangelism) and to remove the effects of Satan from people (deliverance).

This power is from God and really is empowerment as The Holy Spirit does the work but empowers (authorises) it when we command it in accordance with the Will of Jesus.

The word used here for "power" is the ability to do miracles and similar but there is a condition to this being granted to a person. In other words, you have been appointed (anointed) and authorised by this to be in that position of authority and empowerment. The Holy Spirit must come upon you in a supervisory position. The idea behind this is that you are both as one in that His Will (which is the Will of Jesus) is Your will. It is a voluntary arrangement on the part of both and the communication can only be broken by us through rebellion or just plain ignoring The Holy Spirit.

This empowerment is a result of our attitude to The holy Spirit in us and it is not of anything we can do spiritually or physically, but only mentally by a decision to allow this union of purposes (wills). We are then used by Jesus to express His power and Authority and through this show His Glory (Greatness) to all.

As a result of God using us miraculously we also receive glory because we are used by Him. In a sense it is reflected from His Glory because it only exists when His Glory exists through our being used by Him.

As we agree with the Will of God and do what He asks us to, by praying or declaring in Jesus Name what we have been asked to by Jesus, The Holy Spirit brings it to pass on behalf of Jesus. We are vehicles to express the Will of God so He can manifest it in this world through our faith as we declare the Will of God to this world. This is the way He has usually chosen to work in this world. According to our faith will be what we ask or declare. According to our relationship with The Holy Spirit and how well we hear Him will be the accuracy of what we ask or declare as being the Will of Jesus.

For God to use you effectively you need to learn to walk with one ear open to The Holy Spirit so you can hear what He wants you to do and then pray or declare it on the behalf of Jesus so that it can be brought to pass through your obedient faith. It is as if our expression of God’s Will allows Him to do it on earth so that it is not an imposition of our free will by God, but on acceptance of His Will as ours, He is able to express His Will in our life. God does not rely on us but has Graciously chosen to work this way with us for our benefit and encouragement.

All Power, Glory and Authority is in Jesus and He has delegated to us only some of His Authority (that to do with demons and health, the latter which deals with removing the effects of demons on our body).

Power is expressed by His representative on earth at the moment, The Holy Spirit. We have been delegated His Spiritual Authority to be used according to His Will. The Holy Spirit empowers us as we seek to use our delegated authority for the Will of God. Glory results from our correctly carrying out His Will.

Demons recognize the Authority of Jesus and defer to it. They have to as they are spoils of war, being defeated at Calvary and no plan of theirs can stand if it is attacked in Jesus Name in accordance with the Will of God.

We have been delegated only spiritual authority so we can only fight spiritual battles, the effect of which at times will manifest in the physical realm. We are told in Ephesians 6:12 that our battle is against spiritual leadership and not against the physical out working of it. Healing and deliverance is the result of victory over the plans of a ruling demon that the lower ranking cast demon out was enforcing.

All that happens in the physical is a result of a spiritual choice made at some time.

How do we get this empowerment

Jesus told us to wait until He gave it, so you must wait on Him and He will give it to you to do His work and not just because you desire it.

Anyone person or church not illustrating the power of God or the delegated authority of Jesus and so not fighting spiritually has lost the battle before it even starts. Satan knows this so has people fight the physical outworking but not the demonic forces behind it which is why so many churches lose out in the battle against Satan and so many people go to doctors for healing and not too Jesus.

When you fight the battle spiritually then the physical result will occur as the effects of the victory flow there through in the physical what has been started and won in the spiritual by Jesus at calvary.

Power is the result of authority (the right to do something) It is either imagined, assumed or real (granted by one authorised to grant it).

God gives you authority and empowers you to minister for Him. It is granted as needed and not as we believe it should be as it is dependant on the Will of God and how much authority is needed to proclaim and carry out that Will. It is a result of promotion by God (Ps. 75:6,7) and is a reward for service to enable you to do greater service for Jesus.

It is humbling that The God of All sees fit to empower us and give us some of His authority when He does not have to do so but does it out of Love for us so that we have value and worth and can show our Love to Him through the way we use this empowerment and delegated authority.

You do not study, obtain a diploma in theology or similar or get appointed by man according to your success at your study. God appoints you and authorises you to the ministry He wants you to do for Him and trains you to prepare you for it.

It has been said that God does not use the qualified but qualifies those He chooses. In other words God does not use those man trains but trains those He wants to use.

Theological colleges are only really necessary if you want to satisfy denominations. God never authorised them as He does not need them. He needs people who are willing to listen to Him and learn from Him and of Him through personalised training by The Holy Spirit and God appointed teachers.

People denominationally trained can often hinder the work of God by being in the wrong place as they are often placed there by the denomination and not by God. They are often in the wrong ministry as their ministry was determined by denominational guidelines and not by The Holy Spirit. These people can actually hinder The Holy Spirit working in the church by placing denominational plans, guidelines and theology before His truths and blocking the plans of Jesus that He is trying to guide them to implement.

Happy is the man who is in the ministry God has called Him too and is where God wants them to be doing what God wants them to do.

The Ministry of deliverance

In the bible deliverance is never mentioned as a specific ministry. It is what Jesus did as a natural part of His ministry. This work is the natural outflow of one who serves Jesus as it is his ministry expressed through them.

So where does the idea of a deliverance minister come from? From denominations who have to categorise every thing and not from God. It is part of every ministry but more so the pastoral ministry but every Christian needs to know how to do it. Every Christian can do deliverance in the authority of the Lord when led by and empowered by The Holy Spirt. This ministry is not dependant on the deliverance ministers except for them to be a vessel to use by Jesus to express His Will and Authority through and help the person being delivered to focus on Jesus and His Lordship.

You do not need a deliverance minister to be free from Satan as Jesus does the deliverance for everyone so all you need to know is how to do it. The with the framework of the five steps makes it easy

Every Christian has this delegated authority so the only excuse they have for not using it is that: