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Issue link: http://magazine.kcm.org/i/489400
Increase your knowledge and application of God’s Word with our new website. + More content on topics you want. Even more ministry resources on faith, relationships, finances, healing, prayer, life & work, spiritual growth and more. + More video than ever. Easy-to-find "Believer’s Voice of Victory" broadcasts and videos of past KCM events in our new Watch section. + New faith courses. An online learning center called “Believers’ Academy,” where you can take in-depth courses on a variety of topics. + New Partner Community. A place where KCM Partners can connect to pray for each other, create and join groups, share interests, make new friends and much more! Visit us. ******************************************* The Holy Spirit is obviously speaking a strong message about spiritual warfare to us in these days. Christian leaders and churches all across the nation are awakening to this reality. In light of this, we must give heed to what the Spirit is saying to the Church and proceed with the Word of God as our guide and foundation. As we seek to engage in spiritual warfare, we must be very careful to walk in balance. For one thing, we need to realize that this subject involves more than just dealing with the devil. Other major elements of spiritual warfare have to do with taking control of our minds and crucifying the flesh. We must not forget that these latter elements of spiritual warfare are just as vital as the first. The truth is, the devil’s attacks against our lives wouldn’t work if our flesh didn’t cooperate. If we were truly mortifying the flesh (Colossians 3:5), living lives that were “dead to sin” (Romans 6:2) as we are commanded to do in Scripture, we would not respond to demonic suggestions and to fleshly temptation. Dead men are incapable of responding to anything. Thus, we see the power of a crucified life! Living the crucified life is a critical part of spiritual warfare. If I wrote a book on spiritual warfare without mentioning this truth, I would do my faithful readers a great injustice by giving them a very unrealistic view of the subject. A person can scream at the devil all day long, but if that person has willfully permitted some area of his mind to go unchecked and unguarded—if he is aware of an area of sin but has not been willing to deal with it—he has opened the door for an attack on himself. In that case, all his prayers against the devil will be to no avail because his real enemy is not the devil. Rather, it is his own carnal mind and flesh, which must be submitted to the control of the Holy Spirit in order to eradicate these attacks. The bottom line is this: If people focus only on the devil as they pursue the subject of spiritual warfare and fail to consider other equally important areas, their emphasis on spiritual warfare can and will be very damaging to them. Although spiritual warfare is real and we cannot ignore it, we must be careful to remember that the real battle with Satan was won at the Cross and the Resurrection. Now this same victorious Christ who single-handedly defeated the devil lives in us in the Person of the Holy Spirit! This is why the Apostle John tells us, “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). Our view of spiritual warfare must begin with this basic understanding of Jesus’ already accomplished victory over Satan. If we don’t start out with this as our foundation, eventually we will be led to utterly ridiculous spiritual conclusions. The victory has already been won; there is nothing we can add to the destructive work Jesus did to Satan’s domain when He was raised from the dead. V This article is adapted from the book by Rick Renner titled, "Dressed to Kill." For more information, or to order your copy, go online to renner.org. ABOUT: Rick Renner is a respected Bible teacher and leader in the international Christian community. The author of more than 30 books, his best-sellers include "Dressed to Kill" and "Sparkling Gems From the Greek." In 1991, Rick and his wife, Denise, moved to the former Soviet Union with their three sons, establishing churches, a Bible seminary, a pastoral association and the first Christian television network in the former USSR. BVOV : 25