No Holds Barred

 Scripture:  Ephesians 6 v 10 - 13:  "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."

The difference between the Old Testament and the New is the change from physical to spiritual battles.  Satan had thrown down his gauntlet before the foundation of the world.  His human ammunition was pre-loaded with sin and demons before God made Adam and Eve.

Jeremiah 1 v 4 - 5: "Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
5  Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."

God responded to the satanic gauntlet by producing at strategic times, men of renown, hand-picked by Himself, to change the course of history and defeat the battle plans of His enemy.

It has always been a no holds barred wrestling match which depended upon pure faith to win.  The enemy threw the worst of sinners into the pot to try outwit Abraham and Lot.  Abraham reasoned with God's mighty angels to try to spare Sodom and Gomorrah.  There were not even ten righteous people left to stop the outpouring of sulphur and brimstone that destroyed those cities.

Again the enemy caused sin to explode, which caused our God to repent that He had made mankind.  He chose Noah and his family to build the Ark, into which pairs of every creature He created were safely held, while every kind of waterspout, tsunami and superstorm flooded the whole planet.

After the Flood mankind had a shortened lifespan from 1000 years to 70.  God wanted to speed things up, to save more than a handful when things went badly.  So when the Babylonians built their tower of Babel to enhance their astrology, The Lord gave everyone a different language so nobody could understand another.  The people scattered and created their own nations, cultures, gods, religions, identities.

Moses delivered the Jews out of Pharoah's hands and brought them to the land of Canaan, which became Israel.  King David fought many battles against the tribes, whom God wanted utterly destroyed.  Those battles continue to this day.

Jesus Christ came to Earth with a different agenda.  God had realised that sin had to be completely conquered.  Jesus came to take away the sin of the world by taking on every sin, much like the Ark took on every creature.  He suffered beatings, thorns, crucifixion, and a sword thrust, which killed Him.  It killed the power of sin over us.

If we believe in Jesus we are forgiven and expected to sin no more.  Unfortunately, this got twisted into live like you want to as God will forgive you.  And the deterioration of the human race, including careless Christians, has brought us back to the time of Lot and Noah.  Very messed up humans.

So now we must fight as soldiers in God's army to overcome evil and restore righteousness.  This battle started in Heaven and it is now our responsibility as the Body of Christ, to employ the weapons of Heaven to subdue the enemy.  We may think its unfair that the enemy is very crafty and has had longer than us to fine tune his attacks.

However, we have Jesus within us to guide every individual battle.  We have the whole armour of God, but Satan and his demons have zero protection.  We have the name of Jesus as our power of attorney against our hugely legalistic foe.  In that name, the enemy is defeated.  Through the shed Blood of Jesus he is wiped out.

We have all the powerful gifts of the Holy Spirit which give us a huge advantage in being able to discern spirits of good and evil.  The Word of Knowledge gives us their names.  We have the equivalent of all Western armies, navy, airforce, intelligence, armaments, at our disposal.  The sad thing is that so few have taken the steps to do the no holds barred thing against Satan.

It means that when we wrestle against the rulers of darkness there are no rules to stop us using any and all of God's talents that He has given us to divide and conquer.  We must separate them, bind them, rebuke them and cast them out in the name of Jesus.

But we sit back and let the professionals do it!  When God has equipped every born again Christian with the potential to fight the good fight.  I exhort the brethren to unite in prayer, and purpose, to set this planet free of the defeated foes which have conned us that they are still winning.  

Faith frightens Satan.  He tries to steal it before it grows as when it is strong he is in big trouble.  We can turn the world upside down.  The corrupt governments pretend to care about us but look around and see the mess we are all in.  It's not too late to rise and conquer.  Jesus died to give us His power and abilities.

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, the mighty love of God has given us life, hope, ability, miracles, victories.  Let us not neglect our heritage, nor expect others to fight our battles.  Father inspire Your children to engage the enemy in a no holds barred contest.  They cannot beat us unless we turn our backs. Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war with the Cross of Jesus going on before!  In Jesus' name.  Amen.