Been In A Good Fight Lately?
By: Simeon Young, Sr.

Paul wrote that “the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Romans 14:17).Jesus taught us to, “seek not what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of a doubtful mind … but rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:29, 31, 32).

God does not want us to live in careful suspense, grasping for material necessities which He has promised to provide. Why do so few Christians have the righteousness, peace, and joy which God is pleased to give us? Perhaps we are seeking the wrong things. Jesus said, “All these things do the nations of the world seek after.”

Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.” To have righteousness, we must take it by force. If we are going to have peace, we will have to go to war to get it. To have joy, we must fight for it with a vengeance. Laid back Christians will never have righteousness, peace, or joy. The devil is a joy stealer. He is a peace thief. Though he tries to keep us from living righteously, we must be forceful with this blustering enemy of joy, peace, and peace.

Has the devil plundered your life? Has he robbed you of peace? Has he ransacked
your spiritual life? Are you struggling to live righteously? Fight for what
is yours. Get violent with your flesh. Quit pampering the Adamic nature. Don’t
take a sinful, compromising lifestyle sitting down. Fight for a revival of
righteousness in your life. Make up your mind that you will not walk after the
flesh. Purpose that you are going to do right, live right, think right, and be
right. Quit being a pushover. Be confrontational with the devil.

But don’t use carnal weapons. “Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after
the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through
God to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations, and every
high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into
captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

The devil wants to establish a beachhead in your mind. A beachhead is “an area
on a hostile shore occupied to secure further landing of troops and supplies.”
Your mind is a hostile shore for the devil, and the devil wants to occupy your
mind and land his troops, and dump negative, lustful, doubtful thoughts in
your mind. If the devil has dumped worry and fear and doubt on the beaches of
your brain, the following four spiritual smart bombs can destroy Satan’s
beachheads.

First, there is the Word of God. The sword of the Spirit is the living and
powerful Word of God which is able to expose our thoughts and intentions. Use
the Word to deal with unrighteousness and worry and fear and unbelief. Second,
there is the name of Jesus. The name of the Lord is a strong, spiritual
warhead.

We have the authority to demolish our fleshly desires in Jesus’ name. Third, we
have the blood of the Lamb. “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb . . . ”
(Revelation 12:1 1). We have the right to plead the blood of Jesus over our
thoughts. Fourth, we have the word of our testimony. “They overcame him by
by the word of their testimony’ (Revelation 12:1 1). A personal testimony
effectively smashes satanic strongholds. We’ve got what it takes. Let’s go get
’em!

The above material has been published in the May 1995 issue of Trumpet magazine,
pg.11. This material has been copyrighted and may be used for research and
study purposes only.