We have been looking at a spiritual warfare and kingdom of God and how that out works and just give a brief recap it is important just to keep recapping the important bits that we really get hold of it Matthew 10 7-8 Jesus talking to his disciples and talking to us as you go preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand another words God’s rule God’s will is here heal the sick raise the dead cleanse the lepers cast out Demons freely you received freely give that’s the commission that we have to take what God has done for us and in us and to release that into the community in which we live so whenever we see sickness it’s our responsibility to challenge that because that sickness is not the heart and will of God. God wants people to be well to challenge everything around us that would hinder God’s will and purpose and part of that is dealing with spiritual dimensions around us Jesus said in Matthew 1228 if I cast out Demons by the spirit of God then the kingdom of God is come upon you and the whole thing of Demons actually if you you look around the TV programmes today there’s a lot of stuff which is about the sum spiritual realm some of it is not too helpful some of it actually is just quite neutral it is expect then there is a spiritual realm dimension which is around us all the time we have to interact with it and the other a number of programmes and films that have come out which actually indicate this battle that we are in this challenge that were in between the spiritual kingdoms and when Jesus actually said this but if I cast out Demons by the spirit of God then the kingdom of God is come upon you and basically saying that is his will to challenge those spiritual dimensions which are negative and in verse 29 how can anyone enter into the strong man’s house and carry off his property unless he first binds the strongman and then he will plunder his house and we know the work of the enemy is to blind people’s eyes to the truth so they cannot see the light of Gods gospel that Jesus died for people sins to forgive them and give a brand-new start and a purpose in life .the enemy is trying to hide that from people and blind them and deceive them. we have to deal with that if we are to see people come into the freedom that God intends two Corinthians 2 no advantage would be taken of us by Satan for we are not ignorant of his schemes so the enemy has schemes plans purposes that are all around us all the time and he wants to take advantage of us to keep us in darkness and stop us being people that God has called us to be hindering us from fulfilling the purpose of God for our lives that’s his schemes and he has plans schemes tactics to do that to rob us to steal from us to stop us entering God’s blessings and into the things God has now we have this picture that God has given us in terms of strategy for us to deal with things and all these areas the there is a really outside are areas that God wants us to have revelation of understanding of and be operating in healing salvation quite a lot now were looking at deliverance in this area in the middle is an area God has called us to take ground and then expand that influence out more and more people and situations so were looking at this area of Demons and deliverance so that we have an understanding of the working thing that Jesus called us to cast out Demons so we need to know their origins and that’s what we looking at last week and we saw that in creation Genesis 1 in the beginning there was God. God was outside of time and in everything God formed, came out himself because he is eternal and he is infinite God prepared formed fashion and created the heavens and the earth and he created what we can see from what we can’t see and he created the things we can see and things we can’t see now Colossians 116 for by him all things were created both in the heavens and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions rule as authorities all things that he created through him and for him and we saw that last week that even before the foundation of the world in Ephesians 1:4 he chose us chose man individually every single person to be in relationship with him that we would be holy and blameless before him in love that we would have a relationship of love with him that was his intention before even he founded anything else the heart was to operate with man now God in Isaiah 45 says for thus the Lord created the heavens he is the God who formed the earth and made it he established it and did not create it a waste place but formed it to be inhabited I am the Lord and there is none else God didn’t create it in a mess he created it well but it became a mess Genesis 1:2 the earth was without form and empty waste and darkness was upon the face of the deep . another words the original world was flooded something happened to it and this was before God made man because he made the earth to be inhabited by man because that was his intended purpose we saw last week this event was to do with the fall of an angel and we would call him Lucifer or Satan the devil now but in Ezekiel 28 you were in Eden the garden of God and that was the whole planet at the time you were the anointed cherub who covers and I placed you there you were on the holy mountain of God you walked in the midst of the stones of fire you were blameless in all your ways from the day you were created Satan was a created being he is not equal with God it is not two equal forces fighting with one another there is the creator and a created being who opposition from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you you are internally fill with violence and you sinned your heart was lifted up because of your beauty you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor and I cast you to the ground Satan was dealt with and there was judgment which brought in the for the earth be in form and void us now we had this picture last week which over the next number of months we will probably go through great level this was in eternity so all this happened before time so the world was already formed before time and then God formed time some stage here and we don’t know what time there was between Genesis 2 and Genesis 3 when Genesis recreated God recreated the earth we don’t know but we know when man was created there were already two wills in existence God’s will Satan’s rebellion there were two trees in the garden the tree of life and the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil two kingdoms the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness they were already there when man was formed Genesis 1:3 God said let there be light and there was light but God now starts this recreation process 2:7 God created man in his own image in the image of God he created him male and female he created them God bless them that word blessed means to empower to succeed to prosper God said to them be fruitful multiply fill the earth and subdue it and rule and that subduing it there and that subduing it was Donovan and in that place that works of subdue that means outside of the garden which God created there was the enemy in operation we were supposed to go and subdue and rule God’s intention in fact psalm eight talking of man it says what is man that you take thought of him the son of man you care for him yet you have made him a little lower than God so God created man higher than the angels with a greater ability than angels had a little lower than God and you crown him with glory and majesty and you make him to rule over the works of your hands put all things under his feet. it is God’s intention that as man we would rule in his kingdom and in his way now we have to look at this point this is where we start today
the process of what happened to man in the garden created by God to go out and take that message out to the world now we have this in Genesis 3:1 now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God made now the likelihood is that serpent was not the snake that wiggles around the floor as we know it now is later on God told it would have to crawl on its belly. the likelihood is he could walk around now the serpent basically said and the serpent was inhabited by Satan and Satan knew the words of God he said to the woman in deed has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden. so Satan new the words of God and he came into the garden in the form of this serpent to try and deceive man. because Satans fall he wanted anyone and everyone else to fall as well so there was a battle now between God and man and satan was actually part of that battle he wanted man on his side rather than God’s so comes into the garden trying to do this. it is really important we understand this process because actually the same thing happens today the devil does not change how he works he just does it today in the same sort of way to deceive us. now first problem she entered into dialogue rather than rebuke the suggestion that Satan made to her and
Whenever we enter into dialogue with the devil were on dodgy ground Jesus never entered into dialogue with the devil he just rebuked him so he basically told him the truth straight out. Eve who have a relationship with God God walked with her in the garden she new God’s love she knew God’s provision everything God had prepared if you basically told Satan get lost I know what God is like my God is not like your suggesting then that would have been the end of the problem but she didn’t, she entered into a dialogue and verse two
the woman said to the serpent the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat but the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden God has said you shall not eat from it or touch it or you will die and she, in one sense argued to the devil about God, she added stuff in there which God never said because this bit hear if you touch it God didn’t say just if you eat it you will die so she’s adding stuff in and all of a sudden she is listening to what Satan is saying now what was Satan’s tactic in this? Now words, the words that she heard formed thoughts and thoughts formed feelings and feelings formed decisions. Decisions form actions and actions have consequences it is true in anything.
this is the process that goes on in everyday life for us we hear words and they form thoughts and if we in those thoughts don’t deal with them correctly they produce in us feelings, those feelings can be good which means we will make good decisions or they can be bad and they will lead us into wrong decisions and those decisions once we act on them have consequences and these things happen every day in our lives .we need to understand it but the first thing here first thing that Satan did he questioned that eating the fruit as being sin he does it every day all the time to us it’s okay everyone does it nothing wrong in that everyone does that in the world that is the same tactic today that the enemy has. he questions whether what we doing is contrary to the word of God what God says he creates doubt over God’s goodness and God’s word. he does this all the time one day many this if you’re honest have thoughts when something bad goes wrong as thoughts which actually indicate God can be good another words a disaster happens in the world well how can God be a good God if he let that happen someone dies in our family was close to us well how can God be good if he allows that person to be taken from me. it is a tactic the enemy uses all the time it cast doubt on God’s goodness how can God be a good God if these bad things keep happening. and it causes us to doubt God and if we start doubting God and start thinking about those things it leads us into wrong ways of thinking and wrong ways of feeling Genesis 3:4 the serpent said to the woman you shall not surely die now it is no longer just doubt that the enemy’s casting he is actually outright lying because God has said you will surely die. Now the woman’s got a choice am I going to listen to this lie because I know God said the opposite or am I not? and she listened now the enemy was denying that there would be any danger and consequences to sin and the enemy does that all the day-to-day it is like if you do this there is no nothing wrong in it and all the sin that we do and all the wrong things we do in our lives the enemy wants to convince us that there is no problem with that it won’t hurt God it won’t hurt anybody else and then to miss-trust God’s motives because all of a sudden now she’s entered into this dialogue all of a sudden well if God didn’t say that why didn’t he say it. if God is lying he is told me the truth and I can’t trust him in anything in my life the enemy wants to cast doubt on our trust of God on the motives that God has so if God has said this why did he said that what is he trying to do what is he trying to stop me doing all the things that start to happen Eve as she does it and then verse five God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil. all of a sudden there’s an advantage to doing this thing and this is hitting into her pride in her life all of a sudden she can be like God and the enemy does this all the time in us the suggestion that there would be an advantage to sin brings pride or fear what am I missing out on what God holding back why does he want to keep me down why is he excluding me from something all these things are the process that happens when we start listening to the deception and the lies of the enemy and giving it a place in our thinking all of a sudden it start changing how we feel and in verse six the woman saw that the tree was good for food but it was a delight to the eyes of the tree was desirable to make one wise and took from it its fruit ate and she gave also to her husband with her and he ate as well. So now what happens her mind has embrace Satan’s thoughts her imagination become defiled
Imagination is something that gods given us a powerful tool to be creative. her imagination was defiled it was messed up because she had Satan’s thoughts her wrong emotions were awakened now she had desires that she never had before all because she listened to the words that created thoughts and this is what happens even today in our lives if we listen to the lies of the enemy. she start seeing from the wrong perspective she delights in wrong expectations and she desires the wrong outcomes
now she wants something to make her like God when she had God in relationship all along she yielded her imagination she willfully dissipated God and she leads Adam in joining her in sin, sin never likes to be alone always wants company wants to bring other people into it with her that process went on and it had severe consequences for all of us today and even today for us today we have to be aware of the enemy schemes so when were questioned. When thoughts come into our mind and question the goodness of God we need to be aware of where they are coming from. Sin is acting independently from the will of God. to be God yourself that’s the basis of all humanism we can be God ourselves we have the right to be God ourselves and the reality is we have one John 2:16 for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life it’s not from the father not from God but it’s from the world. that is what operates that leads us into sin James 114 each of us is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust and when lust is conceived it gives birth to sin and when sin is accomplished it brings forth death because the enemy knows that sin brings death that’s why he wants us to sin, he wants to screw up our lives and mess them up wants to rob us from the life the blessing that God intends and he does it very craftily and he does a really good job the question is are we going to listen to the lies deception of the enemy or whether we are going to listen to the truth the truth of God’s word and what God says God says he loves the whole world and he wanted to undo this problem and will see that in future weeks what God did to deal with it but why a tree at all some people say it’s a test. Actually I dont believe it I believe actually God made us to be so like himself in his image that just as Satan fell because he looked at himself and the beauty of everything that he was and rather than praising God for what God had made pride rose up in him and decided he wanted to express that in a different way than God intended. so being almost godlike they needed to be reminded daily were all the blessings came from and that only God was God because God didn’t want man to fall in the same way that Satan felt so he gave man the opportunity of seeing that there was God separate from himself and bigger and better and he created everything and unfortunately that didn’t work now in Matthew 4: 3 to 7 when Jesus came along as if you like the second sinless man and he came along to undo the works that the devil had done
The devil came to tempt him as well he wasn’t in a wonderful garden with all the provisions everything else he was actually in the wilderness where he had been fasting for 40 days. so he had everything stacked against him not like man who had everything going for him and yet when the devil came the tempter came said to him you are the son of God command these stones to become bread he didn’t enter into a dialogue just spoke the truth straight to him, he answered and said it is written man shall not live on bread alone every word that proceeds from the mouth of God so he wasn’t gonna listen to any words that satan had to bring he was going to only listen to the word of God devil took him up holy city and stand on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him you are the son of God throw yourself down for it is written. The devil knows the word of God. He will use it and twist it to try and get us to do things outside of God’s will. He says that he will command his angels concerning you and their hands will hold you up so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. Jesus said to him on the other hand it is written began using the word of God you shall not put the Lord to God to the test that. Jesus dealt with the enemy effectively and completely defeated him. we have the same authority today we can deal with the enemy effectively if we use the word of God in power and in the right way we don’t listen or enter into dialogue we don’t listen to the thoughts the things that the enemy come we use the word of God the truth to defeat the lies because it says in John that the truth that we know will set us free so we need to know the truth and be able to use the truth to defeat the lies of the enemy but let’s go back to the consequences of the fall what happened Genesis 2:2 the Lord said to hold man has become like one of us knowing good and evil now he might stretch out his hand and also take from the tree of life and eat it and live forever and God he couldn’t have man living forever in that state because forever he would be separated from him. so basically therefore the Lord sent him out of the garden to cultivate the ground from which was taken so he drove the man out the East the garden of Eden station a cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way of the tree of life .so immediate consequences spiritual death God was now separated from man, man was separated from God separated from the life of God, the access to the tree of life was removed continuing consequences which go on now I have 11 of them subjective –how we feel ,our attitude to God has change there was now fear guilt and shame Genesis 38 they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they must have heard that sound every day they lived they were able to walk with God have a relationship with him which was which was awesome but now that same thing produced something else and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God why because of guilt and fear and condemnation because they’d sinned .then the lord God called to man and said where are you. he said I heard the sound of you walking in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked so I hid myself we still feel the same way today separate rejected guilty full of shame full of fear in our lives until we come into a personal relationship with God and even when we do come into a personal relationship with God the enemy will still try and get us to feel those things when we mess up we get something wrong and we will because we human and we are living in a fallen world but God wants us to know that we can be free from guilt we can be forgiven we can be free from shame we don’t have to feel bad about ourselves any longer we can be free from fear because of the love of God has been poured out in Jesus we can have a relationship with God second thing is an objective thing our relationship with God was now subject to judgement and wrath. Romans 623 the wages of sin is death consequence of sin unforgiven is death that will be eternal death if we don’t know Jesus God obviously does not want us to have that operating in our life three- cosmic all creation was damaged Genesis 317 Adam said because you have listen to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree which I command you saying shall not eat of it cursed is the ground because of you in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life up until this point God provided everything for them to eat on trees fruit they didn’t have to toil and go and plant they basically could just eat now it was all messed up both throrns and thistles it shall grow for you and you will eat plants of the fields and now they are to eat different types of food they are to eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your face you will eat bread so now they had to make your own bread as we know the fruit of the fields wheat, corn you cannot eat it straight you have to grind it up and then turn it into something else all this was not God’s intention till you return to the ground because from it you were taken for you are dust and dust you shall return there was a loss of rest and peace there was no toil and striving pain in childbirth ladies consequence of the fall Genesis 316 to the woman he said I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you will bring forth children six gender conflict to the woman he said yet your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you that I got time to go into what that means but it really means that there will be a desire for the husbands place and there will be conflict between man and woman never God’s intention racial all future mankind will be affected by this act Romans 518 as then through one transgression that resulted in condemnation to all men for us through one man’s disobedience many were made sinners everybody was made a sinner through Adams disobedience could were all born into that same racial situation. death Romans 512 just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin so death spread to all men because all sinned. the fear of death Hebrews 214 through death he might render – Jesus might render powerless him who had the power of death that is the devil and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. one subject that people do not want to talk about in the world now you go into a pub and you can sit down you talk about politics you can talk about religion you can talk about sport all sorts of things you can have a debate. People don’t want to talk about death. They don’t Wanna face it because they know there is fear associated with it this fear associated with that fear of death as a consequence of what happened with Adam and Eve. satan becomes ruler of the world. Before this adam was to be the ruler of the world. one John 5:19 we know that we are of God and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one now we know when we look at the future will see that Jesus came and he undid this so for Christians we don’t have to live under the power of evil one, but anyone else’s not Christian does because they live in a world which Satan has ruled 11 conflict Genesis 315 I will put enmity between you and the woman between your seed and her seed he shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise on the heels but the second part is talking about Jesus coming the first part is talking about the conflict would go on from now on between the seed of the woman and between the seed of Satan and ultimately that seed of Satan is the fallen angels or demonic spirits and unsaved people because the enemy can use them for his purposes the seed of woman is Jesus and the good angels and saved man and now there is conflict between these two constantly we live in this conflict we are called in this conflict to bring the kingdom of God the rule of God into this situation to set people free from their control of Satan and their blindness and bring people into the light to God’s light and now we will live in this conflict essentially over here man is permanently confronting choices. A- God’s will b- Satan’s will or rebellion or our own independence from God.
Every day we have to face that choice that’s why Jesus said to his disciples every day you need to deny himself take up the cross and follow me because every day we got a choice. we can do things our own way we can do things God’s way if we do things God’s way he will empower us to succeed in those things that we do if we do things our own way it will bring death into our lives. It is not necessary death as we will just drop down dead everything about sin is to produce destruction hurt damage to us and the people around us that is what sin does. Damages our lives it damages the people around us. It is the enemies intention mess up what God wants was to bring us into life and abundance every day we have to face this conflict of these choices as Christians whether we are going to be surrendering our lives to the will of God and doing what God’s kingdom wants us to do and be part of extending God’s kingdom or whether we are going to do things our own way and give the enemy access to us to use us in the world and everyone has those choices every single day that is the consequence of the fall of man we now live in this situation where we have conflict. God wants us to choose his way every day we can in fact Romans eight talks about the whole of creation’s creation anxiously longing for what the revealing of the sons of God the whole of the creation which is bound up all this problem we live in, is waiting for God sons his children to be revealed for us as God’s people to actually start living in the power and authority of God’s kingdom we been called to have so that we start demonstrating the power of God through healing the sick through raising the dead to casting out Demons through un doing the works of the enemy and bringing people into that life and its in hope the whole of creation is longing that creation itself will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory the children of God. God wants us to be reflecting and that demonstrating his glory is power is authority his Majesty that was his intention and he wants that intention to be fulfilled. so all of us have an opportunity of been involved in this conflict on God’s side and if we do that he has called us in Colossians 1 rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son and he wants us to bring that also into other people’s lives to rescue people from the domain of darkness and bring them to be transferred and transformed in God’s kingdom into the people god has created us to be a part of. Man is in the centre of this battle we are the only ones who can give the enemy authority if we deny God’s will and choose to follow our own direction we give the enemy authority to continue bringing darkness into people’s lives. If we choose God’s way we can bring light that can undo that. and bring people in from that darkness into light but the choice is ours we have free will we can choose every day whether we say to God now I’m going to deny my free will today only want to do what is right in your site because we know every time we chosen to do things our own way it is messed up whenever we choose to do things God’s way even though Sometimes it’s a battle God empowers us to succeed so we have this choice and I want to read to you i was gonna read it out just as we were worshiping as we were worshiping him while we were singing about this sacrifice nijah was singing about the sacrifice of God was made on our behalf Jesus died for us so we can come into freedom. I wanted to just read this in two Corinthians chapter 5 and six and it says this Jesus died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who died and rose again on their behalf Jesus gave his life he rose again and conquered death so he could bring us into life and he gives everyone of us the opportunity of receiving that life today we don’t have to be living in this conflict being on the wrong side being deceived any longer God wants us to come into the light and in the next verse 20 says this we are ambassadors for Christ everyone here who is a Christian becomes an ambassador and ambassador is someone who lives in one country but actually is representing the authority and the power of the other country so in this country say we got US ambassador that area that he lives is American soil even though it’s in London . roland square I think it is. It is in London but it’s actually American soil he is an ambassador for their kingdom in ours. we are ambassadors for God’s kingdom in the world in which we live and the ground we occupied is the kingdom of God in this world that’s why we got to see that kingdom expanding and growing so we are ambassadors what are we ambassadors to do. it says as though we are making an appeal through us we beg you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God we are ambassadors with a message of hope and life and truth to call out to people to say to them choose God be reconciled to God, get a relationship with God because Jesus died so that we can be free from the past from sin and the effects of the fall we can actually come into new life says he made him Jesus who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf to die for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in him today everyone can make that choice to choose to accept Jesus and be forgiven to enter into a new life to be rescued from the domain of darkness the blindness to be transferred into the kingdom of his son the kingdom of light. And I want to give people an opportunity of doing so if you’ve never made a decision to truly follow Jesus. If you think I am not really sure about that, it says here we are ambassadors and we have to appeal and beg you! This is how serious it is! We beg you to make this positive decision to be reconciled with God as we know the benefits of it no one can tell you what the benefits are until you make that decision you won’t know when you do you will know that it’s true you will know that you have a relationship with God a restored relationship in which now you are no longer subject to that fear of death you are no longer in bondage to it any longer there is life in abundance that God wants you to come into. Yes there is a process of transformation you enter into a new kingdom. So I am just going to pray. i encourage you to close your eyes and I am just going to pray if you feel I want to surrender my life to God today I want that relationship I want to come out darkness into light, i want a new start, I want to be forgiven I want my past wiped out I want a new start in which God is with me to strengthen me and to enable me to fulfil the purpose of God for my life if you want that today then just pray this prayer from your heart. I am just going to read this out. Just a prayer but if you mean it from your heart and you pray it out along with me. then you enter into the kingdom of God and have transferred from one to another.
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