God’s Kingdom vs satan’s kingdom
Welcome to the first episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies! Because it's our first episode I want to take a few minutes to give you a rundown of what we are going to be examining during this journey to develop spiritual discernment and conquer our unseen enemies. I'm going to let you know now, where we are going together is considered controversial by many. For some, discussing demons is scary, for some, understanding curses should be off limits, for some, exposing witchcraft will be convicting. I will be sharing stories of how to develop spiritual discernment and experiences with both the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of satan. I welcome you to share your experiences as well, you can submit those to me at contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com. We will go deep into understanding how Satan works, and answer questions like how do demons group, how do demons enter people, why do poltergeists exist, and do people really see their relatives who have passed?
So why do I, as a believer, want to have these conversations? The misguided will say that we should not focus on such things, but instead focus on the Kingdom of God. Well, by exposing how Satan works so we can begin to exercise the authority the Bible says we already have is by its very nature focusing on the Kingdom of God. Where we need to go is to a place where we no longer fear the devil like he is the big bad wolf or see him as a red cartoon character we joke about. We need to go to a place where our discernment enables us to see, know and understand what he is, what his minions are doing and how we can get their influence out of our lives. Eliminating demonic influence will reduce conflict and chaos and clear your path for a better life. You will hear stories you may not believe, at least not at first. The deeper we go, the more we will expose the lies and deception the enemy consistently uses against us. There is so much darkness out there in the world. Together we can position you to be able to send the devil packing.
Before we step out and begin our journey, I want to lay out a few ground rules for us:
First and Foremost, all that we discuss is grounded in the Word. We have scriptural references for the Biblical principles we are applying in our discussions.
Second, we will be discussing a lot of demon activity, but our focus is how to defeat the devil. We are not so focused on demons that we see a demon around every corner. Demons are not responsible for every bad thing that happens to us, sometimes our negative consequences are a result of bad choices. So, we aren't going in with a victim mentality and everything is the not the devil's fault.
Third, these issues we discuss are black and white – literally and figuratively. There is no gray. We are not to be like the church in Laodicea, lukewarm, where we get spit out of the Lord's mouth.
Fourth, these issues we will be discussing are polarizing in the Christian community. Because we are grounded in the Bible, we are grounded in Truth.
Fifth and Finally, this is a challenging area to address in our lives. Stepping into this is real and you will find out more about yourself than you realized. We will do this together, and this journey will strengthen you and develop your Spiritual discernment to conquer our unseen enemies.
Are you ready?
To go into all of the places we will need to go in order to Conquer Our Unseen Enemies, we need to create our foundation and clarify the worlds in which we are living. We have a natural world and a spiritual world. These worlds have two kingdoms.
The first is the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Light
People living in this Kingdom are believers. We have our salvation in Jesus and this kingdom is built on the Word of God, Truth. Those living in this kingdom know where they are because it is light, they can see. Anyone who is a citizen of God's kingdom is automatically at war with the kingdom of satan and most don't even know it. This Kingdom is everlasting, and it is where God and Jesus rule forevermore.
In terms of where it is located, we'll start with referencing Genesis 1:1, which states "in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Notice it says God created the heavens, plural so we know that the Kingdom of God functions in more than one area, and that God created these areas. Paul describes Jesus' ascension in Ephesians 4:10 and again describes heavens in the plural. In 2 Corinthians 12:2, Paul tells us he knew a man caught up in the third heaven. In 1 Kings 8:27, King Solomon is speaking to God and also talks of multiple heavens "The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you." And again, in verse 35 referring to the heavens shut up, referring to a lack of rain. So, from this we know that there are at least 3 heavens in which God's kingdom functions. We will dig into this more when we discuss battles the Bible describes but for our purposes here understand that there are 3 levels of heaven revealed to us in scripture.
So who has access to these heavenlies? Based on Daniel 10, we can see that both God's Kingdom and satan's kingdom have access to at least one of the heavens. The Angel appearing to Daniel describes a battle with the prince of the Persian Kingdom. The Angel further tells Daniel he was held back from responding to Daniel's prayer sooner by the king of Persia. The battle was so difficult, that Michael, one of the chief princes, another Angel from God's kingdom, had to come to help him. So in this we also hear about the structure of the kingdoms. There is a hierarchy with the Angels and both God's kingdom and Satan's kingdom have access to at least one level of the heavens at the same time. Another place we can gain some understanding of the heavens is in Job 1:6. The scripture says " 6 One day the angels[a] came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan[b] also came with them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”
This scripture is huge for us, we gain an understanding of satan's activities and a hint at his objective. So, let's talk about the kingdom of satan.
The Kingdom of Satan is a kingdom of darkness, deception, people cannot see truth in this kingdom. Jesus tells us in Luke 10:18 that he saw satan fall like lightning from heaven. When Jesus says this he is referring to Isaiah 14:12 "How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!" So, this tells us that the kingdom of satan is a created kingdom, created by God originally before the fall where satan was cast out of heaven. When Satan was cast out, the angels under him fell with him. Revelation 12:4 reveals that one third of the angels went with satan in the fall which are now what we refer to as demons. So now we know the size of the kingdom of darkness in relation to the Kingdom of God. In John 10:10, Jesus tells us the objective of satan: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. Believers can participate in this kingdom even though they are citizens of God's kingdom, sometimes it is by choice in turning from God, other times it is in ignorance as a result of falling for satan's deception.
So now comes the question, in which kingdom do you spend your time? I certainly hope you said the kingdom of God, but the truth is even though we live in the kingdom of God, we are influenced daily by the kingdom of darkness. Some influences are obvious and those can be pretty easy to avoid, but it’s the subtle, deceptive, disguised influences that get us into the most trouble. This is where the kingdom of darkness will try to cloud issues and make what's dark appear grey, or even worse, deceive us enough to think darkness is light.
In each episode we will breakdown more of the kingdom of darkness and reveal the truth so that we know how to get out of dark situations, and also how to recognize deception as it approaches you. The challenge in doing this is not to become so obsessed with hunting down demons, destroying idols or, letting fear grip you. Fear can prevent you receiving the information you need to be able to grow in understanding and wisdom. Similarly, when we become obsessive, even if it is for the right reason, it will create an obstacle for you to grow. We need to remain balanced and open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and we need to remain consistent in the Word, which is our source. If you don't have a consistent Bible reading schedule, now is a great time to start one. Spiritual discernment cannot be developed without it.
In Ephesians 4:27, the Bible tells us "never give a place to the devil." Well, if we leave the devil alone, we are permitting him to continue his deception completely unchallenged. The result is more people will be brought down into his world. More lives will be lost through suicide or drug addiction, more marriages ripped apart through adultery or domestic violence, more violent crimes will tear our communities apart and terrorize innocent people, more…well you know all the terrible things we have in this world; we hear about it daily in the news. It doesn't have to be this way. For some, it will unfortunately, because they choose that path even after being given an opportunity to know the truth. But for others, gaining understanding and wisdom in satan's tactics can be the difference between a life of misery or a life free of bondage. Satan is all about bondage. As long as he can keep us suspended in unbelief or prevent us from understanding we have authority over him or even challenging us so we won't use that authority, he will beat us every time.
Bad theology perpetuates common misconceptions among believers that keeps satan in business so to speak. One of those misconceptions is the belief that if we have enough faith, God will automatically take care of demons. Maybe calling that a misconception was not the right word, it is actually a lie. It's a lie satan wants us to believe but Jesus told us otherwise. In Matthew 10:1, Jesus gave his disciples authority to drive our impure spirits and heal every disease and sickness. It is repeated in Luke 9:1, and in Mark 16:17, Jesus says " 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
As believers, we have been given both the authority and the responsibility to rid ourselves of demons. If we were not able to do so, Jesus would not have left us here alone to fend for ourselves. He gave his life for us, so he clearly cares for our wellbeing. He gave us what we need to take care of the devil ourselves, not to rely on God to do the work for us. To be passive and not take a stand and confront satan's deceptions and tactics in our lives will keep us in bondage. Faith does become integral in this process by believing in the authority we have received from Jesus, in acting on that authority in the name of Jesus and in trusting in that authority to take care of the problem in Jesus' name. So, we are required to act, and have faith in our action, but the power is in the name of Jesus. Jesus gave us authority to use and we need to use it, not expect someone else to do it for us.
We will talk much more about authority in other episodes, but I wanted to at least lay some groundwork here, so we are all in the same starting point. We will be building each week.
Coming up in the next few weeks we are going to continue to clear up misconceptions, lies, myths, whatever we want to call them. This is really important to get these out of our way because they can interfere with you being able to apply Biblical wisdom and understanding. When we carry manmade religious beliefs that are not based on the Bible, those beliefs will counteract the truth the bible reveals about satan's tactics. That is how satan works to keep us confused. Many churches do not teach on the topics we will cover. The denominational church I was raised in didn't address the spirit realm or the Holy Spirit. Not teaching the body of Christ about the Holy Spirit is robbing the body of the head. Not teaching the body of Christ that "we do not wrestle against flesh and blood" is equally disastrous. Jesus never told us that demons will disappear and cease to be when he ascends. To the contrary, we know that if we read the Book of Revelation that there is warfare to come. The Spiritual realm was there in the beginning when God created everything, and it will be there throughout eternity, so we need to understand it is in existence today where we are right now. We may not know when satan was thrown down from heaven, but we know he is still roaming the earth, so we have work to do. Ok, enough of my soap box, what I was telling you was some of the topics we have coming up in the next few episodes.
We will talk about ways demons enter, we will address discernment, explain strongholds and how we defeat the strongman, explain poltergeists and how to clean out our houses. We will also begin to breakdown how demons group and how demon groups function. I think at the top of my list are the demon groupings of Pride, that is such a huge issue people don't realize. Pride is what caused satan to be thrown out of heaven so believe me he will use that to mess with us. High on my list of areas to discuss are the demons of control, the demons of perfection and the tools used in witchcraft. Some of these topics are so heavy they will take more than one episode to get through. I hope too that as we go through these you will send in your questions and experiences. We need to elevate our understanding and one way to do that is by sharing experiences. I hope to develop some episodes as well that are purely question and answer so don't be afraid to send things in, privacy can always be protected and nothing is stupid, nothing is silly, nothing is too scary. We need to get this darkness in the open, into the light and understand it through the Holy Spirit giving us wisdom and understanding.
Ok, so let's recap where we have been today.
Top show points to remember:
· New Podcast, Conquering Our Unseen Enemies
· We are Bible based focused on developing our spiritual discernment understanding satan and his tactics
· Your knowledge in understanding satan and his demons will strengthen you and help you build those around you so we can send satan packing in the name of Jesus!
· There are 2 kingdoms, God's Kingdom, which is light and Truth and Satan's Kingdom which is darkness and deception. God created both kingdoms, satan was thrown out of heaven and there are at least 3 heavens.
· Believers live in the kingdom of God, but we are influenced daily by the kingdom of satan
· We are responsible for and required to use our authority in the name of Jesus to conquer our unseen enemies, satan's kingdom.
We encourage you:
· To have an active bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment
What we ask of you:
· Subscribe! Subscribe! Subscribe! Share with friends
· Follow us on social media……
Send us your questions and stories to share on an upcoming show. Send them to contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com