A WORD IN DUE SEASON

Just in case some of you did not have time to go to The Word and read the "scriptures" that I gave you in yesterday's Encouragement,  I have decided to do your "homework" for you and tell you what they said.  I am doing this because it is so important for you to know what The Lord has to say about our personal "battles".  Even if you are not going through a battle right now, you will eventually be confronted with one if you are "serving The Lord"!  If the enemy was never going to come against you, then God would not have "equipped" you with "weapons of warfare" that He talks about in His Word!  Yes!  He says that He will fight our battles for us and give us the victory, but these "scriptures" are telling you how He does that!  He gets the "victory" for us when we do our part!  WE have to "put on His armor" . . . He does not do that for us!  WE have to "believe" in the power of the "weapons" that He has given us!  He has given us "power over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means harm us"!  (Luke 10:19)  The "power and authority" that we have against the enemy is ~~~ THE NAME OF JESUS . . . THE BLOOD OF JESUS . . . AND THE WORD OF GOD!   We have to "speak" the name of Jesus . . . we have to "plead" the blood of Jesus . . . and we have to "speak" the Word of God!  God will not do those things for us . . . it must be our own personal "decision" to do those things, and then God will honor that and fight our battles for us and give us the VICTORY!  Now for those "scriptures" that will enable us to do that . . . I am going to "highlight" parts of these scriptures for the sake of time, so I still encourage you to go and read them in their entire context ~~~~~~

2 Corinthians 10:4 . . . "the weapons of our warfare are MIGHTY through God to pull down all of the "strongholds", so that we can come against "arguments and reasonings" that the devil puts in our minds, and start taking all of our thoughts CAPTIVE in obedience to Jesus"!

Ephesians 6:12 - 18 . . . "remember that your "battle" is not with people, but with all of the forces of darkness, so PUT God's armor on and KEEP it on . . . it is the only thing that can help you "resist" the devil and help you keep "standing your ground"!  You must "gird" yourself with the TRUTH . . . it is the TRUTH of God's Word that will dispel the LIES of the enemy!  Make sure that you have on the "breastplate of righteousness" . . . you can only do that by knowing that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (when you KNOW who you are in Christ Jesus, nothing can cause you to doubt the Covenant promises of God for you!)  Walk in PEACE and share the "good news" of this PEACE with others!  Keep your "shield of FAITH" lifted up, because that will stop all of the "fiery darts" of the enemy from stealing from you!  Keep your "helmet of salvation" on . . . just knowing that you are "saved" will keep you protected!  Bottom line, and the most important thing for you to make sure that you have . . . is your SWORD, which is the WORD OF GOD!"  Okay, if you will read back over these different parts of God's Armor, you will find out that the first "five" are DEFENSIVE (in other words PROTECTION), and then He gives us the OFFENSIVE weapon, which is the WORD OF GOD!  Isn't that just like our Heavenly Father?  He wants to make sure that we are "protected" with the DEFENSE backup, before we start the OFFENSE!  If you know anything about "football", you will clearly see that this is the way they do it!  However, God came up with that "plan" before they did!