There is no doubt that we, as Christians, will face troubles which will test our faith. Some troubles will be as a result of our sinful nature, words or actions. With the help of God’s Spirit, we face up to these consequences, repent and seek healing from such personal sins.

But other troubles will come into our lives from the spiritual realm. They come as evil words spoken into our minds by the enemy of God. Evil words of doubt, condemnation, criticism and judgement. Evil enticement into making comparisons, fanning envy and discontent. Words of malice and cursing against others. Words of rebellion against the truth, or more subtly, subversion of the truth.

We know who our enemy is. We know, without doubt, that we are destined to battle his evil influence in our thoughts and in our lives. But where and how, in what manner and sphere of our lives does this battle take place? Can we resist Satan and his demons? A showdown, a battle is inevitable. We know that Jesus has warned us that we will have to face Satan’s subversion, that we will face trouble and opposition, but that we need not be fearful.

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. (John 16:33 NKJV )

Our Confidence – The helmet of our salvation.

A helmet protects my head. Our spiritual helmets, protecting us from the enemy’s attack on our thoughts, is the knowledge that our salvation is already secure.  . “Eph 6:¹³ 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………¹⁷ And take the helmet of salvation, … “

Eternal life is a free gift, and cannot be lost, else the gift would not have been eternal in the first place. When we accepted God’s gift, nothing done on our part achieved our salvation, so nothing done on our part can cause us to loose our salvation. There may be discipline following a disconnect with our faith in Jesus, but loss of salvation is impossible. God will never ‘kick out’ one of His children, or disinherit one of His children. Any such teaching corrupts the gospel. The only ‘loss of salvation’ that may seem to occur is if someone hears a false ‘works-salvation-gospel’ and ‘accept’ the message. Such a message, based on our self-sacrifice/good works/law-keeping, has no power to save, not even the Jews. Such that later reject such a ‘works-gospel’, seemingly abandoning their faith, show that they never believed in Jesus’ gospel for salvation in the first place, not trusting Him only.

According to Romans 8 both the Spirit and Jesus intercede for us, the saints, constantly. Hebrews 7:25 repeats that Jesus ‘ever lives’ to make intercession for us, that is why we have been saved to the uttermost! Once I’m a child, nothing ever changes as to who, and whom, my Father is. It is vitally important, for our future walk in Christ and for the power of our witness, to be thoroughly convinced, by scripture, of the eternal security we have in our salvation.

Our actions result from our thoughts. Our confidence results from our thoughts. We therefore put on our helmet of salvation daily, reminding us daily of who’s eternal children we are.

“….reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1Pet 1:4b,5)

The only work is to believe, to have faith in Jesus’ love for me…. ^“Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” Jn 6:29.

Its easy to forget to put on that helmet due to our daily pressures, but we can ‘work at it’ to put on our helmets of salvation each morning.

Scripture verses supporting our Eternal Security.

Scripture speaks for itself:

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”  John 5:24 KJV

“….All that the Father gives me shall come to me; and him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out……

And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which sees the Son, and believes on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:36-37, 39-40 KJV

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.” John 10:27-30 KJV

Hence, according to John 10:27-30, even if we let go of the Fathers hand, he is stronger than anyone, he will not let go of us.

“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” John 11:25-26 KJV

“He that believes on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believes not God hath made him a liar; because he believes not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” 1 John 5:10-13 KJV

“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 1:13-14 KJV

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:8-10 KJV

“And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Ephesians 4:30 KJV

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will ( John 6:30) of my Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21 KJV.

“But to him that works not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Romans 4:5 KJV

“Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies. 8:33

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 38-39 KJV

“For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” 2 Timothy 1:12 KJV

“Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them.” Hebrews 7:25 KJV

“By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Hebrews 10:10 KJV

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” 1 Peter 1:3-5 KJV

Only by the gospel of Jesus Christ, by believing in Jesus Christ’s death, burial and resurrection as the only payment for our sins will we be saved. His work was complete, nothing remains to be added from our side but faith. This free gift must be accepted ONLY as presented, not with any subtle repackaging of this gift to include works or our effort. Such ‘works’ makes it something else than God’s free gift, it contaminates the gift and makes it a man made gift. A man made gift has zero power to save.

All we do is accept the gift. Anything extra that ‘we have to do’ corrupts the gospel.

Our eternal security is only possible if we accept Jesus’ gracious free gift of eternal life with Him, by faith in Jesus’ work on the cross to cancel our sin, without any ifs or buts whatsoever. (Eph 2:8)

Accuser of the brethren

In the previous post we referred to Satan as the ‘accuser of the brethren’. His chief occupation is to accuse those who believe in Jesus. Accuse us in our thought-life and accuse us before God. To what purpose, for what reason does he do this, the continual pointing out of our failures?  What gets triggered in us when we are accused? How does Satan’s accusation weaken us and cause us to lead a defeated life?

Satan knows guilt separates us from God’s presence. When we feel guilty we hide from God, we feel unworthy to enter into His presence, or speak to Him. Satan knows that, as long as he can keep us feeling guilty, we cannot defeat him. He does not want us to understand that all our past sinful acts, no matter how many or how serious, have already been paid for and and have already been cancelled when we came to Jesus.

He loses his power over us when we affirm and testify, confess and declare that our righteousness, our cleansing, redemption, our sanctification, our eternal life is by the blood of Jesus, that by it our access to the Father and His mercy is assured.  We will embed and entrench the power of Jesus’ blood into our lives and we will become unshakable. Knowing our righteousness is the key to our victory.

Whenever you are accused of wrongdoing because of sinful behavior, you can confess and agree with the accusation, but just for a moment.  Immediately afterward speak repentance and apply the blood of Jesus. (Refer to post 5.1 on how to do this) Satan accusation is immediately rendered powerless, and we can maintain our closeness to God.

We can continue with confidence, with an even closer walk with our wonderful Saviour, more thankful of His mercy than ever before. When we put our faith in Jesus, we were cleansed of our past sinful behavior. Not only confident that we are cleansed from past sins, but also confident that we are cleansed anew daily and will be also be cleansed likewise in the future. Confident that we are continually being cleansed by the blood of Jesus.

The battlefield of the mind.

2 Cor 10:3-5: “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,..”

It is very important that we understand in what realm the battle is taking place. We firstly understand that our warfare is not physical but in the spiritual realm. Therefore the weapons we will use are spiritual and appropriate to the spiritual realm of warfare.

Next we need to understand where the battleground is. Note Paul’s words in this passage, taken from various translations: he uses the words imaginations, reasonings, speculations, arguments, knowledge and thoughts. Notice that every one of those words refers to the same particular realm: the mind. Satan is waging and all-out war to captivate the minds of the human race. We understand that this is where all our battles are fought: in the realm of the mind.

Satan is deliberately and systematically building strongholds in our minds. These strongholds and fortresses resist the truth of the Jesus and the word of God and prevent many men and women  from being able to receive the message of God’s rescue plan for the human race. A stronghold is something that blinds our minds so that the light of the Jesus’ words cannot shine in. Examples of strongholds are prejudices and preconceptions. When a person’s mind is already made up in advance, no amount of facts to evidence or reason can change it. You may remember a stubborn  ‘block’  you or someone you know used to have, one which defied reality.

Only spiritual weapons can break down those strongholds in our minds. When a person is in that condition it is worse than useless to argue with him or her. The more you argue, the more they do re-state their error and the more firmly they are stuck in that error. The only way to deliver such people is to use our spiritual weapons and break down the strongholds in their minds. As God’s representatives, we have the authority to break down these strongholds. We have the authority to liberate the minds of men and women, and then to bring them to obedience in Christ.

Much of the above guidance below comes from the sermons of Derek Prince, these are all available on YouTube. Also refer to section six, which deals with healing from inner vows and strongholds, and identifies how strongholds are built. Strongholds are not built overnight. When any christian identifies a wounding in his spirit or emotions, he or she needs to deal with it promptly. If God’s truth is not spoken and applied,  a negative spiral into a stronghold commences, a process which may be traced as follows:

• An event of wounding or trauma. (this can be pre-natal)
• Inner judgement and inner vows (against the person or situation)
• Bitter expectancy, (a root of bitterness rises up)
• Behaviors and triggers develop,
• Agreement with the lie is made., normally for self-protection.
• Habits of the mind, mindsets. worldviews develop.
• A stronghold is formed.

Confession and repentance, and applying the blood of Jesus sets us free. However, most people are blind to the strongholds they have. To come to the point of recognizing a stronghold requires us to apply our spiritual weapons, as described in the next section.