With The Perrys - Fighting Temptations with Spiritual Warfare

Episode Date: January 9, 2023

Whether you believe in it or not, every believer engages in spiritual warfare. Temptation is the enemy’s way of joining forces with sin in an attempt to destroy us. In this episode, we discuss our personal experiences with temptation post-salvation, encounters with God that changed our perspectives on spiritual warfare, and the role of faith in the battle against temptation.  Subscribe to the Perrys' newsletter: https://withtheperrys.myflodesk.com/zhfus4jx1s Join Preston's discipleship community for men: https://www.patreon.com/PrestonPerry/membership To support the work of the Perrys, donate via PayPal: https://paypal.me/withtheperrys Shop BOLD Apparel: boldapparel.shop Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, St. And A's all. How are you? What's good with it? How are you? I'm good. What's that mean? Like, I'm Gucci.

Not Burberry. No, no, no, I'm just playing. No, I'm good. We just had a great conversation, a great podcast, and, yeah, and you're sitting right here looking at your little Persian eyes and your beautiful eyebrows. So you know what I want to thank God for? And your makeup is like perfect. You want to know what I was. Your edges is like, silky.

You know what I want to thank God for? What happened? So you were out of town this weekend. I was. Yeah, you were in Minnesota. Oh, yeah, I was. I told you to get it. And I was real, real backed up, not in the spirit, but in my body.

Ooh, booboo. And so. In there. And I was feeling bloated and uncomfortable. I felt like I couldn't move with ease and things. Neither can get intestines. Yeah. And so what I did was, is,

I took three laxatives and castor oil over the course of 12 hours. And I probably shouldn't have taken that much. Right. You was a running river. I was being in the middle of the night. My stomach just felt like it just felt like they were just fighting spirits and principalities on my insides. So now you feel free? But listen, I pray.

I said, Lord, though, it got to come out. Because like you got to like, you got to set me free. Like you made the body And so I know I know you can overcome this too And so like six in the morning Right when I'm supposed to get up To wake the girls up

It was a mighty Russian win Freedom The Lord of the Lord of Host did battle Oh my goodness I'm just so grateful to be to be free He rolled over the stone Wolf Yeah

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah We talk about the most darnest things After three days he got out The darnest things After four days I got free What are we talking about? Spiritual warfare and temptation. Had nothing to do with boo-bo.

That might be a demon. Some people probably constipated because they need deliverance. Hello? You're being held up. You're being controlled or depressed about something outside yourself. I don't remember how this discussion started, but we were on the bed talking about just the whole dynamic and discipline and challenge and necessity of faith when it comes to fighting temptations.

Yeah. Right? And by temptation, we mean, you know, those internal and external forces that tempt or seduce us towards disobeying God's law, in God's command. That is a temptation. And so I guess when you're in the world, you're a slave to sin. So it's not even like, I'm not going to say it's not a temptation, but it's like you're going to do it anyway. It ain't like, you know. But in Christ, that's when it becomes like, no, like this is something that is tempting me to walk away from who I love.

And so I guess as a new believer, do you remember the first time, because I have a story, but do you remember the first time you realize, oh, this is a fight? Oh, absolutely. I think for me, it was the area of sexual purity. Because I think when I became a, well, not think, I know when I became a believer, I know I became a believer, I know I, a lot of the things that I felt like the Lord wanted me to give up, I gave up pretty easy. But I think that for me, sexual temptation was just, it was just hard for me to give up because it wasn't just a sin that I enjoyed. It was a sin that I found my identity in. And Christ was trying to shape my identity in him. And it was something that, you know, that I kept running back

to and I kept falling into. And I think, you know, us talking about temptations, I think it's so connected to spiritual warfare because the enemy knows our vices. And the enemy knows what we have found identity in apart from Christ. And he's going to use that to throw at you. Because I think that's what temptation is. And that's when we fall into these temptations, it's our sin and Satan and Satan working together for our own demise and our own destruction. And so, yeah, it was just just fine. Yeah, I remember one of my first, I guess the first time I was like really made aware of temptation.

One thing is in one end I was just, I was encouraged. So let me explain. So I was at work. I feel like I told this story a million times, but I was at work. I was at Wendy's. Yeah. And I was behind the cash register. And I feel like I said this is another podcast, but I was a bit of a thief.

And so there were times when if you got a $20 bill, there was this box beneath the cash register that you put all your 20s into. And sometimes there was a way that you could give somebody back their change without actually having to put the money in the register. I can't explain what I mean, but you can basically undercut the register and take the extras. And so there was this circumstance. I was probably a believer.

I'm not even lying. Maybe two days. Like I had just given my life to the Lord Fresh. And there was an opportunity for me to take this money and nobody would know. I wouldn't get caught. And for the first time in my life, I hesitated.

But it wasn't because I was afraid of getting caught. It wasn't because of some other external reason except to say I was super aware that God was watching me. And it was like, oh my, I'm not used to being convicted. by the reality of God's omnipresence or that God has a law that he wants to be obey. It's like I'm not afraid of nobody else in this moment except God and not even on something like he's going to send me to hell

but on some like he wants better for me. And I had never had that tension in my body ever to me which was evidence of the spirit's work in me that I was legitimately a new person because I'm over here debating on if I should steal or not because Jesus is watching. Wow. So like I remember asking the Lord

I don't know how to pray at this. I don't know scripture. Again, I've been a Christian for maybe 42 hours. And I remember just saying, God, help me. Because that's all I knew. And, like, now I know is that even without this scriptural context, I was simply going to the throne of grace for help in my time of need and receiving it, where I was able to just, you know, be content with the amount of money I already had.

That's so powerful because it's like the temptation was still there. And you often talk about this when you, when you, when you, when you talk about sexuality and stuff like that. But being a Christian doesn't like make us void of temptations. But the difference was you had awareness that God was watching. Because I had a mind that was being renewed. I had a veil that had been lifted. So I was able to see and understand things rightly.

I had a new fear of God that was giving me wisdom. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. And I had the Holy Spirit who was giving me power. And so I think we always have way more on our side than we can. imagine. And I think that's where Christian discipleship and the local church and friendship and all the things comes, becomes really pivotal because it's like we need fuel for our faith so that when the temptations do come, we actually have the resources to fight. I just noticed that I talked about my temptation when I first became a believer, but I didn't really talk about how like I

overcame it. And I think it's important for me to point out how I overcame it because I think it's critical for the Christian in the Christian walk to understand this. And that is, I remember sitting in my room one day and I remember, yeah, just being really convicted. And all, like, my conviction feeling like shame. And so I didn't even have language for Christian conviction. And I didn't not know how to like, like, feel convicted and not condemn myself. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? And so I remember, I told the story about how, like, you know, I asked God to reveal to me whether I'm not a Christian and I saw a fight and I really felt sorry for the man. And God was like, that's because your heart is new.

I said that on the podcast last season. But after that, what happened, I was in my room one day and I was praying and I was like, okay, God, you show me that I was a Christian. Now, how do I fight this thing? Right? And I believe, like, the Lord spoke to my heart at that moment and was like, you don't believe that I've saved you holistically. it. Like you believe when I saved you, I, like, saves you in portions almost, but you're not delivered in certain areas. Not because I'm not the God who saved you, right? I am that God, but you just don't believe me in this area in your life. There's, there's some unbelief in you still

about who I am and what I can do in your life. And I think, I think that's when we fall victim to our temptations the most. It's not merely because we want to do what we want to do. That is a factor. But it's also, no, we don't believe that God is God in this area, right? And so for me, it was like, because I love this particular sin so much, like, I trusted in, in, in my own desires and sometimes my own strength to fight this sin. And I ain't really lean to the Lord to say, you know what, you're powerful, you're God enough to take this temptation away for me, to help me to help me to find. fight this, to strengthen me. And so I think that we just really have to believe God in all areas of our lives. Hey, Saints, if you're looking for a new Bible study, I want to tell you about one from the folks at Women of Welcome. Their team has created a beautiful, simple, and free Bible study that

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exploring the beautiful welcome of Jesus toward his most beloved creation, human beings. To download your free copy of the Christ-like welcome study visit women of welcome.com slash p-r-r-r-R-Y-S for your free Bible study by y'all so basically what you're saying is faith helps you fight absolutely faith is critical so and so explain that more because I just wonder if I can see how especially depending on what context you with church context you grew up in the way you you have fought, you might have succeeded at apart from faith. Right? And so you have some people who might lean on the fundamentalist side

where the way they fight is by avoiding everything. So they avoid the movies. They avoid certain people. They avoid certain context. And that's not to say it's not wise, because it is wise to actually guard your heart by watching where you go and watching what you engage. But you can do all that apart from faith.

Hmm. Yeah. That's just a, that's just a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a pattern you created. Absolutely. And so I guess what is the difference between someone who just has set up certain boundaries to keep them from sin and somebody who is actually walking by faith and that keeping them from sin? That's a really good question. I think one way, I think for us to look at it is to understand how much, how much of, God is a relational God as a relates like he's a relational like he's a father right and and the reason why I say say that is because because he's a father we have to understand that if that our faith in

him pleases him in a way that helps him to move on our behalf yes right without God you without faith you cannot please God without faith you cannot please God and so in the same way you want your like you're going to do for your children but you're going to be compelled to like to to to act on a behalf when when you know they believe in you, right, and know that they trust in you to take care of them. And so, like, when the disciples in the scriptures, the disciples tried to cast out a demon, right? And what Jesus did, Jesus came and saw that they couldn't cast out this evil spirit.

And Jesus was immediately, like, bothered by it. And it was like, no, we tried to cast out this demon in your name, Lord. and basically Jesus rebuked them by not having enough faith, right? I call him a faithless generation. Yeah, he said, you're a faithless generation. And he said, if you had faith the size of a muster see, you will say to that mountain move and it will move. Oh, we're mixing stories.

Never mind. Huh. We are mixing stories? Mm-hmm. Okay, yeah. He was rebuking him a lot. Yeah, yeah, he was rebuking him a lot. But the point that I'm trying to, the point that I'm trying to make is faith,

faith pleases God in a way that allows him to move on our behalf. And some things you're not going to be able to just put in place, some measures. Yeah, some boundaries that you can put in place is going to only get you so far. But some sin and some spiritual strongholds. And that's the reason why our temptation is so closely connected to spiritual warfare. The Bible says we don't fight against flesh and blood, but we fight against spiritual wickedness in high places. And so we have to understand because we're fighting against a real enemy that is powerful.

powerful, right? But he's not more powerful than God. We have to believe that God will, will give us the strength, give us His Holy Spirit, and give us the power to resist and flee sin and temptation. Yeah, while you were talking, I was thinking about how, you know, I think the Pharisees and the Sadducees are a really good example of people who had a lot of external measures by which to be either perceived as holy or thinking that that was holy. You know what I'm saying? Like they over here straining gnats but missing like, what is that, camels? Or like they over here got tassels all.

Like they're doing the most. Like y'all, y'all refuse to heal on the Sabbath so as not to break the Sabbath. Like just doing all of this external stuff. And then Jesus is like, man, y'all are whitewashed tombs. Yeah. Meaning like none of this stuff is actually making you holy. It's the perception of holiness, but it's not actually holiness because even when the holy one comes on the scene, you don't even recognize them.

So that tells you something about your heart, that your heart is actually still hard even though you look holy. So I think one way to make sure that, like, because I think a modern example is you have people who really think they are more righteous than other people. because they don't listen to secular music or because they don't celebrate Halloween or because they don't have tattoos or because they don't do these things but their hearts there's greed and there's jealousy and there's pride and there's unforgiveness all the scenes that we can't see bitterness and there's back like those are the sins that are not external but they will be if you push against their

idols hard enough and so I guess like we cannot determine our holiness like by the things we do and do not do Like it has to be no, do you trust God though? If you trust God, then you will be putting to death what is earthly in you and what is outside of you. Does it make sense? I feel like I'm not making it sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it makes a lot of sense. It makes a lot of sense.

I think because if we're not consistently coming to the Lord, one, to reveal those things. Because I think a lot of times self-righteousness takes place because we low-key are convinced that we're righteous. because of all these external things. And you know what? It don't take spiritual power not to get tattoos. It does take spiritual power, though, to not watch porn when you've been watching it for 12 years of your life. Absolutely.

It do take spiritual power to not cuss out somebody after they didn't disrespect you. Absolutely. And that's the reason not to go down the whole apologetics rant, but I think that's the main thing that we see with other religions. They follow a whole bunch of rules. And they think that these rules and these lawkeeping is, what makes them holy. And in a lot of ways, a lot of Christians live like cults. But we just, we just have Jesus Christ as a banter, right? Because the Muslims, they believe that they're

righteous by not doing, not doing, not doing. And God forbid that you say you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you believe that you're holy because of what you don't do instead of what God is done in you. Let me read a text. Yeah. To affirm what you're saying. Yeah. You ready? Colossians 2. Let me see. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why? As if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations? Do not handle. Do not taste.

Do not touch. Referring to things that all perish as they are used according to human precepts and teaching. They indeed have an appearance of wisdom and promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body. But they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. Then what is he saying in verse three? If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above. Like the faith that God has called us to and fighting our temptations requires us to seek Jesus.

And so if you do set up boundaries, if you do have these, like it is good to say, I'm not fend to go over this person's house. It is good to say, I'm not going to watch this. I'm not going to listen to this. But let it be done from faith because everything not done from faith is still, seeing. Absolutely. That's good. That's really good. With that, what is it about Jesus that one needs to be clinging to in fighting their temptations? Say it again, that one needs to be clean. What is it about Jesus that someone needs to believe that helps them fight temptations? Absolutely. I think that, well, it's a lot. Yeah, everything. Everything. But we have to believe that.

that Jesus came and defeated these things for us. Like if we don't believe that Jesus condescended and became a man to live on this earth as a man and started his earthly ministry at 30 and died when he was 33, the most gruesome and one of the most shameful deaths of his time and was put in the grave and defeated death in the grave and then rose from the grave with our power in his right hand and then ascended back to the father to see. to sit on the right hand of the Father. But before he did that, he promised that to send his Holy Spirit to dwell in the hearts of believers empowering them to walk freely in him, right? Like, if we don't believe that Jesus did this work on our behalf, we're going to continue to work on our own to try to be right. But if we believe that Jesus did all of these things so that we can be free, I think that's

when we'll be able to walk in, you know, in freedom. And so, like, I want us to truly believe the Word of God that the Word says that now, now we are in Christ and we're hidden in him. I got a word. And so, like, I think that we have to believe that Jesus defeated death on our behalf. And if we're in him, he will empower us to defeat death in our own life. This is why or where spiritual warfare comes in. Because if faith in Christ's nature and Christ's work is what it helps us to walk walk free from sin, then we have to know that one of the premier or preeminent attacks that the devil

will attack us with is about those two categories, which you see in Genesis 3. Yes. When he comes, he doesn't just attack, you know, like, it's not like he on some, like, he doesn't attack her like with stupid stuff. He attacks her with what she understands about God himself. Yes. You know what I'm saying? Like for her, for him to say, did God really say that you shall not surely die if you

eat of fruit? And then he says, but you won't die. Like he's calling God a liar. Yeah. He's calling God unjust. us. And then the original question kind of had to deal with like, if God is telling you that you shouldn't have this, he's holding something back. So now he's also coming for God's goodness, God's character. Yeah. And so it's like so much of our warfare really is us believing that

God is who he says that he is. And how that influences us. And believing that God's, and believing what God said that he did on our behalf. Because a lot of times we can acknowledge that God did something, but it doesn't compute to us that he did it from me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so we can believe that God died on the cross. But it's like, no, do you believe that God died for you? Do you believe that the God that's seated on the throne that's empowering you and will empower you to defeat sin in your own life?

Right. Is your faith in that? Are you trusting in that? Yeah. And if so, you might be being lied to by the enemy. And the thing that I hate about the enemy the most is that he is the ultimate bully and he's the ultimate manipulator, which means that the devil. will feed you your idols, right? And then once he feeds you your idols, he'll, he'll, he'll, he'll, he'll, he'll, he'll, he'll, he'll, he'll, he'll, he'll, he'll, he'll say, he'll say, he'll, he'll say, no, no, take this pride. This pride is going to make you feel more comfortable. This pride is going to make you feel, you know, he's going to protect you. And then once, and then once you, you know, you, once you, once you eat it, once you, once you eat the idol, he'll say, you're not, you're not a, you're not a good person. You're not a good friend. You know what I'm saying? And so, like, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he

manipulates you and then he bullies you, bullies you. But Jesus, he came to set us free. Not from just death, but from the lies of the enemy that's trying to keep us away from God. And so I think that we just have to know what God has done on our behalf. And we have to know that the devil has been a liar from the beginning. I'm going to say one thing and then I'm going to ask a question. Yeah. And the one thing is, I think to wrap this whole last 10 minutes up is, I think, to recognize that's why in Ephesians 6,

the armor of the spirit or the arm of the spirit like one of the defenses is the shield of faith yes like to to have a shield means like I'm covering my body but not my legs not my head because that's what a helmet is for in the leg there's a different set of armor but shield is is covering my torso and my heart the really sensitive parts that if someone puts an arrow through that I'm dead and so it's like to have the shield of faith, the Bible says that that is by which we extinguish the flaming dart to the evil one. Yeah. And so it's like, if he's going to come for anything, it's going to be what you believe, you know?

Yeah. And so I think with that, I wanted to say, now how do we discern when what we are feeling, what we are hearing about God and even ourselves is coming from a demonic place? Because it sounds like we're talking to ourselves. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. I think that we have to understand the shield of faith is not going to really work well if we don't have the helmet of salvation. Right? Because the head, the mind and the heart, the mind is always going to inform the heart. And so if we believe, if we don't believe something about God, it's always going to affect our heart and how we move in and in our life. So I think that we have to consistently pray and ask God, God, reveal to me who you are and how that impact. my life. Allow your word to transform my mind, right? The Bible talks about being renewed by the transforming of our mind. It doesn't say heart, our mind. Because if our mind is convinced,

it's going to affect our heart. So how do we discern the voice of the evil one? Yeah. And so I think the way we discern the voice of the evil one is consistently reminding ourselves about what God has said about us in his word, that God says that we are, we are made new in him, reminding ourselves that God said we are righteous in him. That reminding ourselves that when God says that he is holy and in him we are holy, reminding ourselves that we're not how we used to be, right, that he has made us new creatures in him, reminding ourselves that we are new, right? And even when we fall, the Bible says that we have a throne of grace to come to a boldness

that we might find mercy and our helping our time of need. And so not allowing the devil to convince you that you are a sinner and that you are worthless when you sin, but because even when you sin, God says, you know what? Because you are in me, you have access to this throne at all times and you can find grace and mercy in your time of need. And so reminding ourselves and not what we've done and not what we do on the everyday basis, but who we are in. That's good. We are in Jesus, right? And he's holy. And I'm not made holy by my own doing, by my own righteousness, but I'm made holy by him. And so I think continuously to look in him. and him for our righteousness and our holiness is going to help us fight against the enemy because

the enemy wants you to think that every time you fall that every time you slip you are your failure yeah yeah yeah that every time you do something you are that that that bad person but it's like no you've made a bad decision or you got an attitude or you're this and you're that but you are not this sin you are who christ says you are you're a new creature you're a new creature and so just reminding yourself that you are yeah i'll add a really personal example, which is probably a couple weeks ago. Well, maybe the last few months I've been having a lot of shame. And I'm a really overly, well, I'm just really a confident person.

Like I just kind of, you know, I just be feeling like, oh, I can do that. And I don't have a problem. And so I never thought that shame would be something that describes me. because I thought shame was for insecure people. Until recently, I started to deal with this shame because I started to be aware of the way I fail people, whether that's in my friendships, whether that's you, whether that's with my children.

And I started to meditate on my failures a lot to the point that I started to be content with the idea that I was trash. And I would say that to myself, like, you're trash. You're worthless. And I really didn't think it was a big deal. I just was like, oh, you're trash and you're worthless. And to a certain degree, I thought that that was actually a good way to fight pride.

Yeah. And so it would be like, if I did feel super hearty, it would be like, yeah, but remember when you failed last week, you're actually trash. It's like, yeah, you're right. I am trash. I am worthless. I am this. Until I realized how much that shame was actually opened in the door for other sins, even a lack of, not a lack of. not a lack of fruitfulness because I've still been fruitful but even just kind of like a like a not being

able to it receive and experience God's love and God's joy because of the shame yeah and I realized like I felt like the Lord was like show me and us like that's demonic Jackie yeah and it was like you right because it's like wearing God's word would he ever say those things about you no Where would he ever say you're trash? Where would he ever say you're worthless? Only a devil would tell you that. And so I had to be like, oh, wow, even shame is a spiritual demonic attack on God's people. But hear this too.

That's so good. It's like, I think one of the practices of discerning the voice of the evil one is actually practicing the art of believing and disciplining your mind to only think on what is true. like in Philippians like think on these things whatever is righteous whatever is pure even concerning ourselves yeah you are a new creature in christ yeah there is no condemnation for those who are in christ jesus to him who was able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all you ever ask i think according to the power that work within you to him who was able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless and blames us for his glorious presence with great like these things are true and so often we meditate on untruths all day and don't understand how that keeps us in a cycle of like slavery

or oppression to things that are untrue. So here's the word that came in my mind. I just remembered it. Is that like the Lord was showing me that the same energy and faith I put into fighting sexual sin. Like I've created a whole like that's a muscle I have consistently worked like to make sure that I honor you and honor God in my mind and my heart when it comes to sexual sin. I don't even play with it. It's just like a thought like, no, I'm casting that down. Like anything. It's just I resist it with all zeal.

But I felt like the Lord was like the same energy you put into fighting that is the same energy you need to put into fighting shame. But here's the deceptive part is that sometimes the enemy makes a feel like sexual sin is more demonic than things like shame, you know, or bitterness or jealousy. And so we entertain those ideas because they don't feel as illicit. They don't feel as dark. Yeah. But those things don't exist in heaven. But where do they exist? Yeah. Like that's the enemy. That's the spirit doesn't produce those things. And so if the spirit doesn't produce it, we can't walk in it.

That's what I wanted to say. It came back to me. Thank you, Father. That's good. That's real good. So, man, yeah. That's one thing I had to learn. I had to learn that what I think about God will inform what I think about myself. Let's talk about prayer. What's the place of prayer in fighting temptation and spiritual warfare? Man, prayer is so important.

because I think ultimately we talk about spiritual warfare right and I think this is what I'm learning the more and more I've I've been in prayer a lot lately and what I'm learning is I think when we think about spiritual warfare we think about you know calling down heaven and calling down fiery darts and and going through, you know, yeah, like asking God to start a war with the enemy and all that. All that is cool. But I think prayer allows us to be in close proximity with God. And because we fight against spiritual wickedness in high places, we have to understand that the enemy is the ultimate bully. And he's the ultimate manipulator, right?

But he cannot manipulate you when you are in close proximity with the God of the universe. Prayer, that's what prayer does. It keeps you close. In Psalms it talks about hiding us under the shadow of the Almighty from the enemy, right? And so that's what prayer does. It invites God into your life and it ushers you into the presence of God. And it's not that we don't have an enemy no more. It's that, you know, the school bully can.

cannot bully you when you're with the God of the universe, right? And so I think prayer is so important because it helps us to fight. It gives us strength because it allows us to have a relationship with the one who controls it all. And so I think that's what prayer has been for me lately. It's been a way, it's a song by, I think, Maverick City called Defender. Bethel. Bethel, I'm sorry, called Defender. And it's basically talking about fighting.

And one of the lines that said, all I did was worship and all I did was praise, you know, and that's how I fought. And I think in a lot of ways, you know, that's true. I think this intimacy with God. And I think it's initiated with just talking with him because that's how intimacy is initiated. conversation brings us in close proximity in the way that God is with us and protects us. Yeah, I'm going to read the scripture and then I have an idea, which is just to affirm again, like this, like even prayer is a part of the armor of God because after Paul talks about taking the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word, he says,

praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer in supplication. And, you know, there's arguments made that praying in the spirit means to pray in tongues. But usually when Paul is saying praying in the spirit, he's basically saying like, because he says that a Jude as well. It's praying as the spirit would pray. And so being alert, praying the scriptures, praying what is true, interceding for other people. Because even the spirit is not self-serving. He's humble and he's considerate of others. And so even how you, like praying as the spirit would lead you to pray.

Now with that said, prayer is an act of warfare because prayer is a function of dependence. And you cannot fight when you fight independently, right? Like it's like we don't have the strength or the tools or even the morality to be able to fight an ancient demon and win. Like we need a power outside of ourselves, which is God. Like in our weakness, we are made strong. And so I think that's why prayer has to be an emphasis in all spiritual warfare and prayer with the saints, which Ephesus says too, is because we have to lean into God so that we got the humility needed to fight the war. With that, though, you've told this story before.

I don't think we've told it on the podcast in a while, which is a long time ago you had a dream about our family. And in the dream there was this figure who was trying to get into our house. Yeah. I think this story is fitting for this moment. Yeah, I had a, I had a dream that an evil spirit was trying to like find its way into our home. And the moment I begin to try to like rebuke it by telling it to get away, it just ignored me as if like, you know, it didn't see me, it didn't hear me. but the moment I sat down and just rested on this chair I felt like the Lord was saying this is how you fight you fight the enemy by resting in me right and then begin to like go away in the in the in the in the dream begin to fade and I think to add to your point about prayer like like praying in the spirit it's been times where I have felt the closest to the Lord especially lately because you know

know what I've been going through lately. Right. And I've just been in prayer and I'm praying. And because I feel closer to the Lord, I feel like the Lord is like literally guiding me to pray for things that I didn't even think about. And so because we fight against spiritual wickedness, because we fight against things that we cannot see, a spiritual realm that we cannot see, we have to understand that we have to look to God to even teach us what to pray for.

Yikes. We have to look. We have we have we have we have, we have, we have, it has to be this dependency. on God to say, God, I'm so helpless, which is humility has to come into play. I'm so helpless. I'm a, I'm a created being. I can't see the spiritual realm. I can't see, you know, things ain't going in and out of my room. You know, I can't see these things, but you know, you see the things that's trying to fight my children in their sleep. You see the things that's trying to fight me in my mind when I'm at work. You see like all of these things.

And so I think that depending on the Lord in prayer, he will teach you and show you what to pray for, even when you don't even know what to pray for. Amen. Man, yeah, I agree with everything. I've been reading Ephesians a few times three through in the last few weeks. And I don't know all the things because Ephesians is a really deep book. but I think one thing that has been encouraging me is that you saw me in the bed where I started I kept seeing the word or the phrase in the in heavenly places and she was stuck on that in heavenly places but it was in heavenly places it was because repetition in scripture means something yeah like if if something is being repeated this is a theme that the spirit is inspiring in the writer to to to highlight and so it kept saying in heavenly places in heavenly places and i was like bro like i've only like like chapter one blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ who has blessed us in christ with ari spiritual spiritual blessing in the

heavenly places uh chapter one verse uh 20 uh jesus he worked in christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand of god in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority verse five chapter two even when we were dead in our trespasses he made us alive together with christ by you have been saved and raised us up with him seated with him in the heavenly places chapter three uh Jesus came and did all the things that so that through the church the manifold wisdom of god might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places for this reason i bow my knee before the father from whom every family is oh that's not it so like it's this constant theme of in the heavenly places and sometimes we only consider that the place where warfare is happening but in the

first two chapters, it says that we're seated in the heavenly places where Jesus has defeated all of the rulers and powers and authorities that exist there. And so in the same place where there is warfare, there has been victory. And so I said all that to say. You better preach. Like we are like Elijah, where it's like his servant comes out and sees these people from the king of Syria coming out and he gets scared. And Elijah says, Lord, like open up his eyes so that he might see. And what he ends up seeing is angels and horses and flames of fire surrounding him. And he says like there is more with us than with them. And that's the reality of every Christian is that we have more power than we could ever imagine.

Yes. So that's good news. I think we can end it there. You just preach the whole word. That was good. Now we got to gird up our spirits for all the attacks because we probably going to have an argument tonight. So we usually, we usually, we, we usually, um. I have an argument in 10 minutes because of the spirits of the principalities.

We usually end by saying peace or by Saints and AIDS, but I feel led to just pray for everybody who's listening to this podcast looking at this YouTube video to pray for you. And I would invite you guys to pray for us because I want us to know that we don't fight against flesh and blood. We have a real enemy that wants you to be away from the presence of God. So let me just pray for us and pray for you. And so, Lord, I thank you, God, for this podcast. I thank you, God, for your truth. I thank you, God, that this is not just a podcast for us to tell jokes, but God. to display your truth and display your love.

And so, God, I pray, God, that you will strengthen us, that you will strengthen your body to fight not just their sin, but the enemy who works together with that sin for their own destruction and for our own destruction. God, I pray, God, that you will give us the faith in you to turn to you when it's the hardest. I pray, God, that you would strengthen us, God, in these last days to proclaim your truth and to walk in your love

and to walk in your goodness. God, I pray, God, that we will fight for your joy, that we will fight for your joy, Lord. When it's hard, God, I pray, God, that we will fight for your peace. God, I pray, God, that we will not just read your word, but we will believe it. The enemy is not afraid of the Bible. He's afraid of Christians who believe in it. So, God, I pray, God, that you will give us the power to believe what we read and to live it out so the world can see. God, I pray against everybody in this, for everybody in this podcast.

who's experiencing spiritual warfare, I pray, God, that you will be with them. God, you are a comforter. God, it says in Hebrews that we have a throne of grace to come to a boldness that we might find mercy in helping our time of need. And so, God, I pray when they fall, they won't turn to condemnation, but they will turn to your throne. God, where they can come to freely and ask for your help because you are the one who pass through the heavens and you are a great high priest. And so, God, I pray, God, that we will trusting you more than our own vices, more than our own sin. and more than the voices in our head that's trying to make us not believe in you. We love you, we thank you, and we believe you for everything we've asked in Jesus' name.

Amen. Shando, he's shed, they make his shape. Peace. 30 Minutes with the Perry's is a production of Ivy Media Podcast, edited by Angie Elkins, video recording and audio production by Kim Powell, artwork by hop and music by swoop. Join us on Patreon for early access to With the Perry's episodes and other exclusives. got two options you can go to wwwpatriot com forward slash with the paris or just go ahead scroll you'll find a link in our show notes we are the paris thank y'all for listening now go

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