Danger of Rejecting Warfare

Christian ethics and theology with an Anabaptist perspective
Sudsy
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Re: Danger of Rejecting Warfare

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appleman2006 wrote:Something I like to keep in mind when thinking about this topic is Eph. 6:12. Any discussion on what it means exactly?
I'm reading God at War by Greg Boyd on this topic so I may have a thought or two on this later. In the meantime here is Greg speaking about how we are often influenced by these principalities and powers that cause us to take ungodly responses to conflicts. These conflicts can and do occur not just in the world outside the family of God but on these forums and I have been sucked into them before by these demonic powers when my identity is not anchored in Christ as Greg explains. We have the one weapon as Kingdom believers to be used in all these conflicts and it is up to us to decide to use that weapon.

If you want to jump in at a later point in the video start at the 17 minute point

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Sudsy
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Re: Danger of Rejecting Warfare

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For whoever may have taken the time to watch some of this video sermon, do you agree that as imitators of God, we are to pour out love on those that don't deserve it (which is all of us) in a sacrificial earnest desire that they turn to Christ and accept His wonderful gift of salvation ? No one, no matter how terrible their sins may be, are unworthy of this love because God sees them as worthy and we must also.

Perhaps some here may care to discuss the spirit world and it's connection with us. I will start it with my understanding and feel free to give yours.

When we become born again, our old nature or 'flesh' is not changed. It still hangs around and if given opportunity it will cause us to sin. Rules or no rules it will find a way to sin. However, we now have a new nature as our spirit is made alive and desires to follow Christ. Our life now is a battlefield between these two natures. We are told to deny what this old nature wants and how it thinks and to follow our new made alive spiritual nature. We also now have the Holy Spirit living within us to guide our spirit in a new way of Kingdom life. We are to allow the Holy Spirit to control us now in how we operate.

But we are still free will agents able to chose to follow the Holy Spirit and to also chose to deny this old nature. We can chose to guard our hearts from powers that war against us to make us ineffective and so we are told to put on the full armour of God to deal with these evil powers from the spirit world. As radical as this sounds to worldly people's thinking, turning the other cheek is a tactic we can use against these offensive powers. Love is our main weapon to overcome these powers of evil.

Well, I'll leave it there to see if anyone is further interested.
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Sudsy
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Re: Danger of Rejecting Warfare

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Well it looks like no takers yet but this topic did surface elsewhere. I will provide this link to the first sermon in our series at church on Spiritual Warfare and this one is called 'A War Already Won'. The war is won yet the battle continues. One of the main points here is that satan does not have authority over a believer. We first must understand how satan has lost the war to Jesus and how he now goes about taking it out on us to hopefully, ultimately wear us down to giving up. Perhaps someone is going through some big battles right now and would like to look into this series called 'The Good Fight' - https://networkcmo.com/meadowbrook
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Sudsy
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Re: Danger of Rejecting Warfare

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I would like to share here a thought or two on slippery slopes. I do believe watching out for slippery slopes is part of spiritual warfare and appreciate those groups that remind me of what might be a slippery slope. And I don't disagree that some who have gone in a new direction in their Christian practise, that may have provided more freedom, have allowed satan to influence them down this freedom road into areas that don't bring God glory. On the other hand, some strays from tradition can be a positive change to better further God's Kingdom. If I get too concerned about a slippery slope, I may get to a point where I cannot any longer relate to those Jesus came to save. So, I need to see if my direction is one that Jesus and the apostles took or not.

Satan is sly and if I am not careful, I can become ineffective in being an ambassador for Christ. We can be 'too worldly' or be 'too holy' (so to speak). What I mean by 'ineffective' is that the light I am to shine into the darkness is not noticeably affecting the darkness. I have current concerns of this in my own life. Who is being drawn to the light in me to at least be interested in knowing what that light is about. And what is satan's part in seeing that this light does not dispel the darkness ? How is he causing this light to be hidden 'under a bushel' ? What has he deceived me in my thinking so that this light is not like a 'city on a hill that can't be hid' ? Has protections from going down a slippery slope or lack of protections from going down a slippery slope hidden this light from doing it's work ?

In the second sermon in this series, it made me realize just how I have not been alert to the schemes of the devil. That is one of the reasons we need each other, to keep us aware of our adversary, the devil.
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