Extinguishing Satan’s Flaming Missiles - Part 2

Dr. Charles Stanley: Let's say that Satan has really fired a missile at you. You come to the word of God and you read this verse. Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. Surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. That's a godly person's answer to Satan's firing missile. My God will take care of me, and the shield of faith says I believe that I do not have to accept Satan's lie that I have to be afraid of anything.
Guest (Male): Is there a spiritual stronghold in your life, a thought pattern or habit that has a powerful grip on you? These areas of weakness are difficult to overcome, but not impossible. Stay with us on today's edition of In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, and hear how to fight and win against the satanic attack. Let's listen in to Dr. Stanley's message.
Dr. Charles Stanley: The title of this message is Extinguishing Satan's Flaming Arrows. How do we do that? What's that all about? Well, it's very evident that the apostle Paul believes that somehow you and I can have victory in our life because he says four times, stand firm, stand firm, stand firm, stand firm. And often times we don't realize why we keep on being defeated. And those are the very specific reasons why we are. Paul very graphically explains that in this simple verse when he says in verse 16 that Satan is sending these flaming arrows, that is the he says we'll be able to extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. So we know what the source is. The source is Satan himself. Flaming arrows, what does he mean by that? Well, if you'll think about it for a moment, what he's doing, he's taking the imagery of a Roman soldier, which he knew very well. And here's what he says. He says these soldiers were dressed in a certain fashion, armed a certain way in order to be able to deflect in some fashion those flaming arrows. Now what they would do is simply this. They would take an arrow and dip it into pitch and then light it with fire so that it had a two-fold weapon. That is not only would the arrow penetrate whatever it hit, but it would also splatter that pitch, which was a flame, and so there was fire wherever it hit. And so what he's saying to you and to me is simply this. So I want you to go back if you will to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Turn there for a moment. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. And let's notice what the apostle Paul says in this passage. Chapter 10. He says in verse 4, for the weapons of our warfare, acknowledging the fact that our Christian life is a warfare, the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. Now what does he mean by fortress? I'm coming to that. He says we're destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we're taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Now in essence here's what he's saying. He says we're in a warfare, and we're going to be in this warfare until the day the Lord calls us home. And then he says, our weapons are not of the flesh. That is the kind of warfare we are fighting is not a physical war, and so therefore our weapons aren't physical. Though he uses the image of the Roman soldier, the sword and shield and helmet and breastplate and all the rest, he says we're in a spiritual warfare. This is a spiritual battle. Our weapons are spiritual. Faith, for example, in the word of God. And so he said, they are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses, which simply means this, that the weapons God has given us has made it possible for you and me to be able to withstand the onslaught, the assaults of Satan upon us individually and often times in groups, but it's always ultimately individually. We have to resort to the proper armor and the proper tools of the proper weapons in order to overcome the kind of assaults he makes on us because they are very very carefully designed. Satan doesn't cast some evil thought our way at random. He knows exactly where to hit us, where we're the weakest, and when to do it. And listen, now watch this. Satan can't make you think anything. He can't make you think about anything. He can't force your hand to believe it. Now if you're not a child of God, he's got all kind of power over your life. But a child of God, listen, Satan can't make you as a child of God do anything. So when these flaming arrows come to your mind, you have within you the power to turn away and say no. If you look and you know it's wrong, then don't keep looking. If you listen and know what you've heard is wrong, don't keep listening. If somebody makes you some big deal offer or something that you think and they said you just there's no way you can turn this down, you listen. You know what he said? Bring every thought to obedience to Christ. Every thought. And listen, this can happen instantly. Any man or woman knows, and women are just as guilty, any man or woman knows the look of lust is wrong. That is a look with the intention to do something about it. And therefore you stop now or you entertain the idea and the next thing you know you're in trouble. For example, often times when it comes to finances, Satan will offer you an opportunity that looks fantastic. When you hold it in light of God's words, God says to you, don't go there. Don't do that. Well, what's wrong with that? Then Satan says to you, listen, it's the opportunity of your life. This is your opportunity to be have security in your life. And you know what? He's going to pile on the arrows. You ask yourself the question, does this fit who I am? It is is there anything in scripture that says this is a violation? It's what I call the critical moment of decision, CMD, the critical moment of decision is this. When it first hits you, that's the time you deal with it right now. You don't You don't say, well, you know, I'm going to think about that for three or four days. And you know what? When you do, all you've done is you've allowed Satan to do what? He's firing one arrow after the other. Toe hold becomes foothold. Foothold becomes what? A stronghold or a fortress in your life. Now he has a place in your thinking to govern your conduct because you have allowed him Listen. You have allowed him to set up a train of thought in your life. You've listened to his lies. You've been deceived by him. It can never come out right. You can't ever make wrong right. You can't convince God to do something different than is his will. This is a way Satan operates. This is what warfare is all about. And you're wondering how you got in the position you are in, why you feel this bondage in your life. You can be delivered. What I want you to see is how you got there, and I want you to see that because you're not going to get delivered and remain delivered if you don't know how you got there and how to defend yourself against it because I can tell you, Satan is not going to let up on any of us. He hates what we're doing. He hates the believer. He hates the praying person. He hates the godly person. He hates those who are honest and want to do the right thing and walk in the and and do the will of God. He hates that. So what does he do? He's this invisible force who is extremely powerful but not omnipotent, extremely knowledgeable but not omniscient. And he knows our point of weakness, and when we yield in that point of weakness, all he does is build a stronger fortress, a stronger stronghold in our life from which to operate. So we have to deal with that. So you need to ask yourself the question, Lord, is there some area of weakness in my life? And it can be one as we said of a number of things. We just mentioned some, and there are many others. But what is it that's there that keeps defeating you? You want to do what's right, but in spite of your best efforts, you come up failing. And so finally you've said, well, I guess this is just the way life is. I guess that you really can't live an obedient life in this world. I guess this is just part Nobody's perfect, and this is just part of living, and sin's just part of living, and therefore I'm just going to accept the way I am, and I'm I'm not going to I'm not going to get all been out of shape. Listen. Why do you think God put scriptures like this in the Bible? Let's say for example, let's take an example of fear cuz that's a major problem a lot of people today. Fear about their future security, all these things. Fear about their health. Fear about decisions they're about to make. Fear, fear, fear. Go back to Isaiah chapter 41. Isaiah chapter 41. Let's say that Satan has really fired a missile at you, and he's got you afraid about your future, your security. Let's say for example that you've lost your job and Satan is just pouring the arrows on. And here's what he's saying. He says, you know, you lost it. You don't have a job. You don't have any security now. What are you going to do? What are people going to think about the fact that you lost your job? And what about No, it's He just goes on and on and on. Listen. When that thought hits you, you don't invite it, you don't dwell on it, and you don't entertain it. You come to the word of God and you read this verse. Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. Surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. That's a godly person's answer to Satan's firing missile. My God will take care of me, and the shield of faith says I believe that I do not have to accept Satan 's lie that I have to be afraid of anything. For example, suppose he fires the flaming missile of pride at you. What do you fire back at him at this? Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you at the proper time. You know what? You do not have to entertain thoughts of pride. Humble yourselves before the living God. By faith I'm trusting God to to bless me the way he wants to, to deal with my life the way he chooses, and I acknowledge, Father, that listen, everything that comes my way, you are the source of it. Satan hates that because he wants to replace God in your life. Okay, let's say that for example, you get tempted morally. And Satan throws He fires one at you. All right, turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 for a moment. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. When Satan fires one of these at you, listen to this verse. It is the will of God that you abstain from sexual immorality. No question about it. That he says the will of God that you abstain from it. Then he says in verse 7, God's not called us for the purpose of impurity but sanctification, that is holy living. Verse 8 he says, so he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives his Holy Spirit to you. So see this what Satan does. He fires one of these arrows of some kind of seductive uh immorality. And so if if you entertain the thought, the next one's going to be, well, nobody's perfect and you're this and you're normal and you're natural and you have your needs and God understands. Listen to this verse. This is the will of God, your sanctification, a holy life that you abstain from sexual immorality. And he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives you the Holy Spirit. Very simple, very clear. Satan will do everything And And he has convinced millions and billions of people that a little bit of this and a little bit of that is okay. What does he say in his word? God knows. Listen, the sword, the sword of the Spirit. Listen. The word of God is part of our defense against Satan's attacks. The shield of faith. I'm I am trusting God to meet my needs, trusting God to give me wisdom, trusting God to give me direction. We don't have to yield because remember this, every single firing arrow that comes your way originated in the mind of a liar, the chief liar who is the devil himself. Jesus said he's the father of lies. He is the evil one, so that everything that comes from him is bad. It's all bad. It's ultimately bad because anything that good he may allow or send into your life is a form of manipulation to get you to enjoy his good and all that you would yield to his evil. That's the way he operates. And you wonder why you're in the bondage you're in because you opened your mind, you entertained the thought. You didn't deal with it instantly. Listen. That moment in time, critical moment of decision is when the when the thought first comes. Is this of God or is it not? Most of the time you not know it's not of God. We know enough to know it's not of God. We don't have to piddle around and say, well, you know, there are different views. That is another one of Satan's arrows. Well, there are different views. The truth is when he says thou shalt not steal, there are no other views that are worth listening to or anything else he says thou shalt not. It is Satan's way. It's just one more firing flaming arrow to say, well, you you know, this is a different day. This is a new society. This is a different time in history. All of this is mental jargon to get you to think the way Satan thinks because he knows if he can get you to think a little bit that way, he's got your son or daughter. Now in a very practical way, how do you do two things? Number one, how do you deal with these satanic attacks? And secondly, how do you deal with a stronghold if it gets in your life? Let's look at the attack first of all. Before you get out of the bed tomorrow morning, you dress first. You say, Father, I want to thank you today as I put on the helmet of salvation that you'll protect my thinking. I put on by faith the breastplate of righteousness that you protect my emotions, how I feel. I put on the belt of truth today to be able to know the difference between truth and error, right and wrong in every aspect of my life. I put on my boots of preparation to be able to stand today to face anything that comes my way. Father, I take the shield of faith. Today I'm going to trust you. I'm going to trust you in every aspect of my life. And today, Father, I take the sword of the Spirit, your word. And through your word I 'm going to check everything that comes my way to see if it fits who I am and your will for my life. And what you've done is you have prepared yourself for any firing dart that comes your way because listen what Paul said. He said extinguishing all the flaming firing darts of the evil one, which says that you are equipped today. You say, well, now this You can do that once a week. Let me ask you a question. Does Satan work on you once a week? No. How many arrows Listen. If you take this sermon to heart and you go to work tomorrow morning, you just count how many times tomorrow you get one of those flaming arrows. If you'll think about negative, wrong, evil, seductive kind of thoughts, all those came from the evil one, and every single one of them can be deflected by faith in the word of God. Suppose you already have one of those strongholds in your life, and I mean it's it's just got you. You You know it. You know it's You You just You You fight it all the time and you're thinking. And you know what? You know why a lot of people do a poor job in their vocation? They have a divided mind. The stronghold is always working. And what's happening is that while they're trying to do that job over here the way they ought to, the stronghold is dividing their mind. If it's something they look at, something they think about, something they want, whatever it is, always dividing their mind. How do you deal with that? The first thing you do is you acknowledge it. God, here's a weakness in my life. Here's a stronghold. I've allowed Satan to get in my life. He's got me in bondage and God, I can't do anything about it myself, but I do believe that because you said this poor man cried and the Lord delivered him. I am crying out to you in genuine repentance. That means I am genuinely truly sorrowful for the fact that I have allowed Satan to get such a hole in my life. Genuine repentance and asking God to set you free of that fear, set you free of that jealousy, set you free Listen. of that doubt, set you free of this of this discouragement that just clouds your life, set you free. Crying out to God to set you free in genuine repentance and asking him with the power of the Holy Spirit, not your energy, the power of the Spirit of God, set me free. And accept it's done exactly what he said. You say, well, well, well, is it that easy? I didn't say it was easy. He said, he who comes to me I will no wise cast out. Do you think God would refuse that kind of a prayer? No, he will not. He will answer that petition. Do you think Satan's going to let up on you? No, he's not. He's going to keep firing away. The difference is this. Now Now you understand what's happening, and you now you understand you have the power of God within you to be able to say no. I'm telling you, my friend, almighty God, who is the sovereign of this universe, will set you free. No matter what it is, he will set you free. If God can't set you free, he's not God. If he can raise somebody from the dead, he can set you free. Create this world, set you free. Keep everything in balance, set you free. Take you to heaven one of these days, set you free. If you want to be free, if you cry out to be free, you choose to be free. That's the kind of God he is. And you may have never trusted Jesus Christ as your savior. You're saying, well, I'm not a Christian. How's all this going to work in my life? It's not going to work until first of all you make this decision to be willing to confess your sins to God through his son Jesus and acknowledge your sinfulness, your rebellion, your waywardness, and say to him, Father, by faith I receive the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal savior. I don't understand it all, but I know that I've sinned against you. I do believe that he went to the cross. He died and took my sin debt in full. I'm accepting his death as payment for my sin and accepting him as my personal savior by faith and the truth of the word of God. And my friend, that's all it takes to transform your life, to change your eternal destiny from hell to heaven, and to begin setting you Listen. Once you do that, you simply take the truth that you've heard today. No matter what bondage is in your life, God will set you free. No matter who you are and where you are, he'll set you free if you'll trust him.
Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. There is no stronghold that cannot be torn down if you put your trust in God to overcome it. But remember when the enemy comes with temptation, counter his assaults with the truth of the word of God. To learn more about God's word and how to study it, visit us at intouch.org. And to listen to this lesson again, look for the link to Today on Radio. And to order a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message, Extinguishing Satan's Flaming Missiles, visit us at our online store. The message is also included in our teaching set titled A Satanic Attack. Again, log on to intouch.org or call or text us. The number is 1-800 In Touch. To write to us, address your letter to In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357. How does addiction begin? Learn to identify the devil's tactics coming up in today's moment with Charles Stanley.
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Guest (Male): You're listening to In Touch. The path to addiction is an avenue of lies. Learn how Satan leads people progressively toward bondage in a moment with Charles Stanley.
Dr. Charles Stanley: Well, people, for example, who in all kinds of addiction and all kinds of bondage, how did it all start? For example, Satan will say to a young person, look, one just one drink's not going to hurt you. I mean after all your friends are doing it, and so just relax and have one. He's never fired an arrow and said, become an alcoholic. No, just take a drink. So he says to a young person, just take one. Then Satan says, look at your friends. I mean they they drink a little bit and it doesn't hurt them. And this if you want a a real firing arrow, then Satan says, well, look in the refrigerator. Your father's got a six pack in there, and he drinks beer. He's your dad. I'm telling you, he's a master. Not only Listen. He's a master at proof. He's a master at convincing us. And all he does is fire one convincing arrow after the other. And if you let the first one in, what he's got is a toe hold. That's all he wants. Because at his proper time he'll fire on the barrage. And before long he's got a foothold. Next thing you know, he has your thinking so confused, so mixed up, and you begin to rationalize and listen to what you've done, you fall into the trap. You're talking Satan's language. You're thinking the way Satan thinks.
Guest (Male): The only real defense against temptation belongs to those who have received God's gift of forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ. Trust him today and learn more at intouch.org. And if today's program has motivated you to get to know Jesus better, we'd love to hear from you. On the next edition of In Touch, Satan is only one of the forces that work against us. Learn about the troublemaker within us when we return on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on the station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.