Spiritual Warfare: Guarding Our Hearts

-John Brydon

I pray we don’t loose sight of the fact that fasting and spiritual warfare are fastened at the hip.  We really cannot separate them.  Our goal in fasting is:

¨ To be obedient and surrendered to our Lord

¨ To gain a new and increased intimacy with Him

¨ To be better equipped to love and serve Him

That will put us in conflict with Satan, who won't want any of those goals to happen.  Thus, our fasting necessarily involves spiritual warfare. 

We need to be prepared! The following Scriptures will help.  Can you think of, and perhaps share any others? 

Ephesians 6:11-13   Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

John 10:10  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Ephesians 1:17-21   I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength  he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

Colossians 1:10-14   So that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Colossians 2:10    And in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.

II Timothy 1:7   For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.

II Corinthians 10:3-5     For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.