What to Wear to the War

Many Christians are shocked to discover that the Christian life is not a playground, the Christian life is a battleground. Paul has been teaching us what it means to be a Christian. We have been going through these chapters in Ephesians.

In chapters 1, 2, and 3, Paul has talked about our wealth in Christ, and what God has done for us through his Son. In chapters 4 and 5, he has talked about our walk in Christ. Now in chapter 6, he comes to our warfare.

We have gone from blessing to behavior to battle. We have gone from the Church as a temple, the Church as a body, to the Church as an army. Quite frankly, there are many Christians who never get as far as chapter 6 of Ephesians.

I mean, they are saved. They can give you the doctrines of chapters 1, 2, and 3. They know something about the walk of chapters 4 and 5, but quite frankly, they have never experienced the satanic warfare of chapter 6. The interesting thing is that Paul is telling these admonitions to Christian people. He is not warning unsaved people about demonic forces.

He is warning Christian people about demonic forces. We have the idea that Satan is working outside the Church, and yet Paul is telling us that Satan is working inside the Church. In many respects, Ephesians 6 verses 10 through 20 represent a rather frightening doctrinal truth.

It is the truth that either God is working in and through me, and I am building the Church, or Satan is working in and through me, and I am destroying the Church. The sad thing is that many Christians do not know the difference. Satan works in business meetings.

Satan worked in Ananias and Sapphira. Satan worked through Peter. Jesus said, Get thee behind me, Satan.

You and I had better be very, very careful. It is an awesome responsibility to be on the battlefield. In this particular passage, Paul is telling us how to get the victory.

Paul is not discussing some abstract philosophical truth relating to evil. He is talking about a real person, Satan, who has a real organization and who is out to destroy you and God's Church. There is not a person here today who is born again who wants to be a part of the defeat.

Each of us wants to be a part of the victory. If we are going to be a part of the victory, there are certain essentials that we must grasp, and there are three of them. They are very simple.

First, we must know the enemy. Secondly, we must use the equipment. And thirdly, we must depend upon the energy that God gives us.

First of all, we must know the enemy. This is what Paul is telling us here in this passage, that there is an enemy that we're fighting, and this enemy is an insidious enemy. If you'll just turn back a page or two to Ephesians 2, you'll find that Paul gives us there the three basic enemies of the Christian—the world, the flesh, and the devil.

And you hath he made alive, says Ephesians 2, 1, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which in times past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh, and the children of disobedience, among whom we had our manner of life in times past, in the lusts of our flesh. These are the three enemies that each Christian faces—the world, the flesh, and the devil. When you first become a Christian, your first battle usually is with the flesh, the appetites of the flesh.

When you get some victory over that, you start moving into the conflict with the allurements of the world. And if we get victory over the world and the flesh, then along comes the enticements of the devil, the strategies of the devil. That's what Paul is talking about in chapter 6 of Ephesians.

You have three great enemies. You have an internal enemy, the flesh, the old nature. And we have an external enemy, the world.

And we have an infernal enemy, the devil. And the devil will use every trick he can to defeat the Christian. In fact, I may be speaking right now to Christians who are already defeated.

Now, we must know the enemy, and this raises two questions. What is Satan like, and what does Satan do? Some time ago I read a booklet called If I Were the Devil, and I think the booklet had some good counsel in it. He said, If I were the devil, I'd first of all try to get people to believe I didn't exist.

That's one way to win the victory. If the enemy can convince you he's not in the field, then he has you. If I were the devil and couldn't convince people that I did not exist, then I would develop a caricature of myself so people did not really know what I was like.

Of course, we have this. The cartoonists have given to us a red creature with a long forked tail carrying a pitchfork with horns on his head. And of course, this is not the Bible picture of Satan at all.

What is Satan like? Well, Paul tells us here that Satan is a real person, and he has a real organization. He has working for him principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this age, spiritual wickedness. Satan has an army.

Satan has an organization of demonic creatures, and this organization of demonic creatures is hard at work trying to get a hold of you and me. And consequently, though Satan is not omnipotent, he can't do everything. And though Satan is not omniscient, he doesn't know everything.

And though Satan is not omnipresent, he cannot be everywhere. The organization that he has is so vast that it seems as though Satan is at work in every part of this world. There are those who want us to believe that Satan has been chained.

If he has been chained, my friends, that's an awful long chain, and I would certainly hate to be around when he is loose. And so Satan has an organization, and this organization wants to use people. Paul makes it very clear that we're not wrestling against flesh and blood.

I suppose everyone here today can think of some person who makes life difficult for him—a relative, an enemy, a landlord, an employer, a fellow employee, maybe even somebody here in this church. There might be someone that when you wake up in the morning, you think of that person, and it just bothers you all day long. Paul makes it very clear that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood.

Our problem is not people. Our problem is the person, Satan, who wants to use people. How is God getting his work done in this world? Through people.

Yield your bodies to be the instruments of God. Yield the members of your bodies as instruments of righteousness. Just as the Holy Spirit uses people to get his work done in this world, so the unholy spirit, the spirit that works in the children of disobedience, uses people to get his work done in this world.

And if he can, he uses Christian people. Now, it's a conviction of mine that Christian people cannot be demon-possessed. I will not make this a test of fellowship.

I do believe, however, that many Christians are demon-obsessed. Satan so gets a hold of their mind that their thinking gets twisted. They become obsessed with something, and Satan goes to work to use their lives to wreck the work of God.

And so you keep in mind as we talk about Satan, we're not talking about Satan working outside the church. Paul is talking about Satan working inside the church. He's not talking about Satan using the horrible, unsaved leaders of the world.

He's talking about Satan working through the lives of professed believers. And so Satan is a real person who uses people to get his work done, and Satan is strong. Don't ever joke about the devil.

Several times in this passage, Paul says, you be strong, you be strong, you stand, you take your stand, because we're fighting against a very formidable foe. He's compared to a lion. I have no anxiety, no desire to meet with a lion.

He's compared with a dragon. He's compared with an angel of light. He's compared to a subtle serpent.

He's compared to a destroyer. He's very strong, and he's very subtle. Paul tells us here that we might be able to fight against the wiles of the devil, verse 11.

That word wiles is the word methods, strategy, the tactics of the devil, the strategy of the devil. And consequently, being so subtle and so wise, he is able so to work to trick people up. Satan is organized and strong and subtle and wise, and he has many tactics that he uses to fight against you and fight against me.

If you'll just take the different articles of the armor of God and get the opposite of them, you'll find what Satan does. What are the devices that Satan uses? What are the devices of the devil in accomplishing his work in this world? Well, there are several of them. For example, he says in verse 14, have your loins girded about with truth, because Satan is the deceiver.

Yea, hath God said. He tells us in the rest of that verse, the breastplate of righteousness, because Satan is the accuser. He is the denouncer.

He wants to come to you and accuse you of sin. And so he's the deceiver and he's the accuser. Verse 15, the preparation of the gospel of peace.

He is the destroyer. It is the Christian's responsibility to bring peace. We ought to be wearing the shoes of peace so that wherever we walk, we are bringing peace.

May I make it very clear that in this world, Christians do not create problems if they're in the will of God. They reveal them. You say, Pastor, I went to work in an office and we've had trouble ever since.

If you're in the will of God, Christians do not create problems. They reveal them. The problems were already there when the light comes shining in.

That's when people begin to see the darkness and see the dust and the dirt. And Satan is, of course, the accuser and Satan is the destroyer. I don't think we appreciate that.

Satan is out to destroy homes. He's out to destroy marriages. He's out to destroy Sunday school classes.

He would destroy your body if he could. He's out to destroy the testimony of the church. There are people in this world who go through life building, and there are people who go through life destroying.

Jesus said that Satan is a thief and he's a murderer and he's a liar. The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. And so the loins girded with truth, Satan's a deceiver, and the breastplate of righteousness, he is the accuser.

And the feet shod with the gospel of peace, he's the destroyer and the divider, the shield of faith. He's the great doubter. He doesn't want you to believe what God has to say.

The fiery darts of the wicked one that are thrown against us. The helmet of salvation. He wants to confuse your mind.

He wants to darken your mind. If he can get a Christian thinking the wrong kind of thoughts, he's got him. For as he thinketh, so he is.

And of course, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, he's the great denier. He denies the word of God. So here are the six parts of the believer's armor to meet the six devices of the devil.

And unless you and I use the whole armor of God, Satan is going to get us. And he's going to use us to tear down the work of the Lord. We must know the enemy.

When you wake up tomorrow morning, you've got to recognize the fact that Satan has got some plan to ruin that day. The next time you come to a committee meeting or a church meeting, recognize the fact that Satan has got some plan to wreck that meeting. The next time a committee or a board makes a decision to move forward in the work of God, you can be sure Satan has got some plan to put a roadblock in the way.

And I have to ask myself the question, and so do you, is the Holy Spirit of God working in me to win victory, to withstand and stand and gain new ground? Or is Satan working in and through us to defeat the work of God? It's a serious thing. The sad thing is Satan is so subtle, and he has some Christians so confused and so deceived, they actually believe that what they're doing is the will of God. We must know the enemy.

Now, the best way to get to know the enemy is to read this book. In the Bible, you're going to find Satan from Genesis 3 through the book of Revelation. You're going to find the trail of the serpent all the way through this book.

I suggest you read your Bible, because the word of God teaches you who Satan is and what he does, and all that you need to know about him. The second essential for victory, we must use the equipment. He tells us here that God has provided armor for us, and this armor, of course, is spiritual armor.

Strictly speaking, the pieces of this armor represent the Lord Jesus Christ. He is truth. He is righteousness.

He is peace. He is the faithful one. He is our salvation.

He is the word of God. Strictly speaking, when you and I were saved, God made available to us all of Jesus Christ. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.

So strictly speaking, he is the armor. But in everyday application, he's talking here about individual steps that you and I can take in winning victory over the devil and all of his forces. He tells us, first of all, to put on the whole armor of God.

I read an interesting thing about a famous man the other day, Sir Philip Sidney. I think in high school we had to read some of the poetry that Sir Philip Sidney wrote. Back in 1586, Sir Philip went out to battle.

The British were fighting in the Netherlands, and he went out to battle. Before the battle started, Sir Philip looked and saw his friend Sir William Pelham going out to battle, and Sir William was not wearing his armor. Sir William did not have on the leg pieces for the armor.

Now, Paul here doesn't talk about the leg pieces because he's not trying to make everything in the armor stand for something. But Sir Philip looked at his friend Sir William, and he said, You're not wearing your leg pieces. There's no reason why I should wear mine.

After all, why should I go out to battle dressed better than my friend? And of course, you know what happened. A musket shot came along and hit Sir Philip in the leg, and he was killed. He was killed because he was not wearing all of his armor.

When David laid aside his armor and got off of the battlefield, Satan got to him, and he fell into terrible sin. Paul warns us to begin with that there are six parts to this armor, and all of it is necessary. Paul is saying to me, Don't get so smart and so proud and so cocky and so self-assured.

You can say, Well, I have conquered that area. I've taken care of that. The devil can't bother me there anymore.

Satan just retreats a little bit and waits until we get real confident. Then he subtly moves up, and the place where we aren't guarded is where he attacks. And so we take the whole armor of God.

Now, let's take these pieces individually. We'll not go into detail on them. We could.

We could spend week upon week studying these individual pieces of armor, but let's just make it practical for us today. First of all, he says, if you're going to defeat the devil, you've got to use the equipment by putting on the girdle of truth. The Roman soldier wore a tunic, and in order to keep this tunic from getting in his way, he wore a girdle.

He would have this girdle around his waist to tie everything together. The girdle of truth represents the truth of the word of God controlling our lives. When we wake up in the morning, the first thing we do is reach for the word of God and let the word of God get into our lives.

The girdle of truth, the word of God. Three or four years ago, I was sitting upstairs in the study, and I bent over to put a piece of paper in the wastebasket and could not straighten up. Something happened in my lower back that just gave me such horrible pain.

I don't to this day know how I got home. I remember getting to my car, and for several days until the doctor was able to give me treatment, I was as weak as a baby. I had a hard time walking.

I could not even turn over in bed. You see, this pelvic area, this area right here, is where you get your strength for running and for walking and for wielding the sword and for standing. And the first thing we do is get our strength from the word of God.

If I am questioning God's word, if I am not believing God's word, if I haven't taken all of God's word and applied it, then Satan is going to get the victory. The girdle of truth is just simply the application of the word of God to my life. Satan is the liar, and if my loins are girded with truth, I'm not going to believe his lies.

Now, having put on the girdle of truth, which is all of the word of God, the next thing is the breastplate of righteousness, which is for the front and the back. This was the part that covered the heart, the viscera, the very delicate, important organs. This righteousness is not our righteousness.

This is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which we received when we were saved. Satan wants to come to you and me and say, Oh, you did that. You did this.

Uh-huh. Why don't you quit? We have on the breastplate of righteousness, and when he accuses us, the righteousness of Christ answers him. I think more Christians are defeated by the accusations of the devil than anything else.

You're serving the Lord and doing the very best you can, and all of a sudden something hits you like that and says, What right do you have to serve the Lord? Remember when you did this? Remember when you thought that? Or what about this? What about what you did before you were saved? Now, if you listen to that, he'll defeat you. But if you say, Satan, I want you to look at something. I am wearing not my righteousness, not even the righteousness of D. L. Moody.

I'm wearing the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Now, find fault with that if you can. You see, when he comes to me as the deceiver, he meets the girdle of truth, the word of God, all of it.

When he comes to me as the denouncer, the accuser, he meets the breastplate of righteousness, the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to point out to you an important thing. The breastplate of righteousness covers the heart.

Too many Christians go by their feelings, and you can't go by feelings. If you go by feelings, Satan will gradually lead you into false feelings, counterfeit feelings, and then absolute feelings of defeat and discouragement and despair and suicide. Your feelings, my feelings, must be covered by the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

We don't get victory because we feel a certain way. We get victory because we have received the righteousness of Jesus Christ in our lives. Which leads, of course, to the third piece of armor, the shoes of peace.

First, the soldier puts on the girdle of truth, Satan the deceiver. Then the breastplate of righteousness, Satan the denouncer, the accuser. Then the shoes of peace, Satan the destroyer.

He is a destroyer. I have preached in churches where Satan has almost destroyed the church. I have visited homes where Satan has almost destroyed the marriage.

I have talked to children whose parents, because Satan has been at work, have almost destroyed them. I have talked to employees whose employers have almost destroyed them. Satan is the destroyer.

This we better take seriously. The soldier puts on the preparation of the gospel of peace. A Roman soldier wore hobnailed shoes.

He did so for two reasons. One, the hobnailed shoes gave him stability. Wherever he was, he could stand.

He wouldn't be slipping. He wouldn't be afraid of hurting his feet. He could stand there.

Jesus Christ has given to us peace. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. When we are at peace with God, we can stand.

We can face anything. Let me tell you an interesting story. Some years ago over in Scotland, a great man of God was being persecuted publicly.

He was being falsely accused of things that, of course, he hadn't done. He was weathering the storm. One day a friend of his met him and said, I'm so sorry about what's going on, but I want to ask you a question.

How in the world are you able to be so calm and so quiet and so serene in the midst of all of this accusation? He smiled and said, I have peace at home. In other words, because his family accepted him and because when he went home there was peace and love, he could face anything out in the world. Now you and I walk out into a world where Satan is at work.

When we have God's peace, when we're standing and having peace with God, we can have war with anything. The hobnail boots gave to them stability. Secondly, the shoes gave to them mobility.

They were able to move around for swordsmanship and for dodging and for using their shield. When Paul says stand, he doesn't mean stand still. Most Christians think he does.

He doesn't mean stand still. Most Christians don't want anything to change. Just always the way it was as it was in the beginning.

So shall it ever be world without end. The theme song of many churches is I shall not be moved. That's not what Paul's talking about.

Paul is saying, stand that you might be able to move. You're able to have mobility. And when Satan attacks here, you can move so you can gain some territory.

We are content with protecting what we have instead of moving in where we ought to be. Now, the interesting thing is this. You wouldn't expect a soldier to be wearing shoes of peace, shoes of war, yes, but not shoes of peace.

But you see, we have that peace with God. It's the preparation of the gospel of peace, because we know the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, because we have trusted Christ as our Savior. We can now go with the message of peace.

Do I have to tell a church like this that the greatest weapon to fight the devil is a witnessing Christian? You get busy witnessing for the Lord and you'll find victory. The best way to get victory is to put on those shoes of the readiness of the gospel, always ready to share Jesus Christ. It will give you mobility.

It will give you stability. After we've done that, we take the shield of faith. Now, Satan is the great doubter.

He wants to throw doubts at us. Paul compares these doubts to the fiery darts of the wicked one. People come to me and say, Pastor, sometimes I have the most blasphemous thoughts in my mind.

Where do these come from, the fiery darts of the wicked one? I know of no scripture that tells me that Satan can read my mind, but I do know of scripture that says that Satan can influence my mind. He wants to throw things at my mind—doubts and fears and blasphemous thoughts and hatred. He wants to start a fire in my mind.

If he can start a fire in my mind, it'll spread to my heart, and if I become hot-headed and hot-hearted, there's going to be some destruction. Remember the story about the farmer who was out taking care of his cornfield, and he saw a little mouse about this big, and he grabbed the hoe and began to go after it and kill the mouse. After 15 minutes, he had destroyed one acre of corn and still hadn't killed the mouse.

That's what some people do in churches and families. If the devil can throw some fiery darts and get us hot-headed and hot-hearted with tempers burning and tongues on fire, oh, the damage he can do. But we do these things, of course, in the name of the Lord—righteous indignation.

Well, I wonder. The shield of faith. When Satan begins to throw his darts, we just put our faith in God.

One verse I quote to myself faithfully is from Philippians 4. Whatsoever things are true, think on these things. If the devil can get you to think a lie, he'll get you to live a lie. Oh, how he likes to throw those fiery darts.

By the way, you should know that these big shields that they carried, two feet by four feet, were so fixed that they could interlock them, and a whole line of Roman soldiers could lock their shields together and move forward. We'd have a hard time doing that today. We're too busy fighting each other.

Christians today are so busy fighting each other, they haven't got time to lock their shields together and move forward as one army. We sing, like a mighty army moves the Church of God. Did you know that D. L. Moody would not permit Mr. Sankey to use that song too much? Now, D. L. Moody liked the song—onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war.

But Mr. Moody said the Church is so unlike an army, it's hypocrisy to sing that song. I'm not sure I agree with him, but he has a point. The shield of faith, quenching the fiery darts of the wicked one.

Then the helmet. Now, the helmet that he's talking about was not a long helmet made out of metal. It was a leather kind of a cap over their head with some metal over it to protect their head.

Oh, how the devil likes to get a hold of the mind. He loves to darken and deceive the mind. If he can just get us thinking the wrong way.

You can read through Ephesians and find each of these in the church at Ephesus. Now, how do we put on the helmet of salvation? I think we put on the helmet of salvation by yielding our minds to the Lord and saying, Lord, give me the mind of Christ. I have the mind of Christ.

Now, think through me. May the mind of Christ, my Savior, be in me from day to day, thinking God's thoughts, thinking God's principles. Jesus said to Peter, you're thinking like a man.

You're not thinking like God. And then having done all of that, we take the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Now, the word of God was the girdle of truth.

That's all of the word accepted for my life. The sword is using individual parts of the word when they are needed. But in order to do that, you have to know the word of God.

If you are going to go out to battle and if I were going to go out to battle with a sword, I would practice swordsmanship. I would get to know my weapon. It constantly amazes me here at the Moody Church how many people do not need Sunday school.

They know so much of the Bible, they don't need Sunday school anymore. I don't think the day will ever come when anyone is going to know so much of the Bible, they can afford not to study it. All the advantages we have in this Chicago area for getting to know the word of God, and people ignore them.

Taking the sword of the spirit, the Holy Spirit gives us the sword, which is the word of God. And unlike a regular sword, this sword never gets dull. Unlike a regular sword, it pierces the inner man, not the outer man.

Unlike a regular sword, the sword of the spirit pierces to bring life, not death. And Satan hates the Bible. Jesus used the sword of the spirit in the wilderness when Satan attacked him.

It is written, it is written, it is written. And with three mighty thrusts of his sword, Jesus defeated Satan. We've got to use the equipment.

Let's not come running to God and say, Lord, you failed me. No, no. God has given to us the equipment.

God has given to us all that we need. Put on the armor for defense, pick up the sword for offense, and we can defeat the wicked one. Which leads us to our third essential.

We must depend on the energy. He tells us in verse 18, praying. Prayer is the energy for the Christian soldier to accomplish his work.

Prayer is the energy for taking the word of God. Prayer is the energy for using the shield of faith. It is prayer that gives to us the power that we need.

Now, he tells us what kind of prayer, not just getting up in the morning and between the bed and the bathroom saying, Lord, bless me today. It's amazing how many people pray like this. He's telling us here, always praying.

Why? Because Satan's always at work. Always persevering in prayer. That means sticking with it.

Keep on praying. May not always to pray and not to faint. Pray without ceasing.

Praying with all prayer. Now, what is all prayer? Well, there's prayers of supplication, prayers of intercession, prayers of thanksgiving. All prayer.

There are times when the greatest way to get victory is just to praise God. There are times when the greatest way to get victory is to pray for somebody else. God turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.

So we have all prayer, always, in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God praying in and through us, and you pray with your eyes open, watching. You see, if you're going to fight the enemy, you don't walk around with your eyes closed. You pray with your eyes open.

While we're praying, noticing what is going on. Nehemiah did this. We set our watch and we prayed.

And we pray for all the saints, verse 18. Not just for me, not just for my family, not just for my loved ones, not just for our church, but for all the saints. Why? Because all the saints are going through the same battle.

Oh, you say, Pastor, nobody's ever gone through what I've gone through. Stick around. Somebody will.

In fact, the devil likes nothing better than for you and me to say, oh, nobody's ever been through this before. Bless your heart. Lots of people have been through that before.

I received a five-page letter this week from a lady describing a series of problems that were so unique to her. Interestingly enough, I can name another couple that's been through the very same situation. All the saints, all of us are involved in this.

All of us are a part of the army. And so we're in a battle. I thank God for the joys of the Christian life.

I thank God for those days when the sun is shining brightly and the Lord is blessing wonderfully. But I tell you, I've also learned to give thanks for those days when there's been battle. There can be no victory without battle.

There can be no victory without enemies. There can be no battle without enemies. And we're in a battle.

And if you're taking your Christian responsibility lightly, remember, you're in a battle. I wonder what it would be like if the army of the United States ran the way the average church does. Show up if you want to.

If you don't want to, stay home. Can you just see an army running like that? Roll call. Adams here.

Anderson here. Jones. Jones is playing golf today.

Now, I didn't make that up. Halford Lukac made that up. Halford Lukac wrote a marvelous article called Like a Mighty Army, in which he took the army and the church and showed how ludicrous it is when people call themselves Christian soldiers and don't act like it.

Can you imagine what it would be like if officers did not show up for planning sessions and strategy? Can you imagine what it'd be like if families were divided and weren't working together to win the battle? Is Moody Church in the city of Chicago just to hold services and maintain a piece of property? Or are we here to move into some new territory and conquer some of Satan's territory and claim it for Jesus Christ? Isn't that why we're here? Then we better start being an army, which means we haven't got time to fight each other. There has to be a sense of loyalty, loyalty to God and loyalty to one another. There's got to be a sense of sacrifice.

There has to be knowing the enemy and seeing when he's at work. There has to be the wearing of the equipment, and there has to be the depending upon the energy that God gives us through prayer, which leads to that very personal question, whose side are we on? Who's on the Lord's side? Maybe you've never been saved at all. You've never trusted Christ as your Savior.

Then you ought to give your heart to him and get on the winning side. But whatever God's saying to you or to me, let's receive it today. As an army of God's people, we are responsible to move into the devil's territory and claim the spoils.

Jesus said, The gates of hell shall not prevail before the onward march of the church of God. If a church does not move forward, it doesn't stand still, it goes backward. Would you help us this coming week in the name of Jesus Christ to move into new territory, to claim the spoils for him, to the glory of our great Captain of our salvation, Jesus Christ? Heavenly Father, help us truly to be an army united.

Help us, O God, to be an army energized from above. May we be able to lock our shields together and move forward in unity. Heavenly Father, help us to know when Satan is at work.

O God, deliver us from being the instruments of the wicked one. Help us to be the instruments of the Holy Spirit. I pray for any here today who need our Savior, that they might trust him.

And Lord, challenge each of us to be Christian soldiers for your glory. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.