Christian Podcast Spiritual Warfare Us vs. Them you need to know who you are fighting

Welcome to episode 263.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I want to get right into this episode. I have been struggling, I just kind of tell you, I've been struggling with my video. I don't know what's going on. I'm trying to do the YouTube thing, I'm trying to multitask. It's not working real good for me. My podcast is going pretty good, the audio, I think I've got that fixed up. But the video is janked up and I'm trying to get that fixed. So bear with me if you're on the YouTubes and you're not seeing me, it's— there's a reason. It's not because I don't want to be there and it's not because I'm not trying to video it. It's because I don't know what in the world I'm doing. I want to get in back into this lesson and I've talked about multiple times that I'm trying real hard not to use sports as my only analogy and my only way of relating to you, because you may or may not be into sports. When you start talking about your past and things that you learned as you're growing up and growing older, which I'm getting older every day, I was involved in sports for the majority of my life. I love the competition. I love the us versus them. And that's what I want to talk to you about today, is that us versus them, when we put on that jersey, when, when you represent a school or a team or whatever it is, if you've ever competed, whether it's intramural or it's on a high school or college team, you put on the jersey and a team that's on the other side of the field or your opponent puts on an opposite jersey. And it's usually light and dark. I'm not even going to go into that. I think there's an analogy there, and I think maybe the light and the dark and We're going to dig into that because when I put on the jersey, when I've talked about this before, but when I was raising or rearing or whatever it is I did with my young boys, I tried to teach them. And one of the most difficult lessons I tried to teach my young men was that you've got to be an animal on the field. When you step across that line, whatever line, whatever boundary it is, when you step on the field or the court or wherever it is that you're competing, you become an animal and you do everything you can do to destroy or to beat down the opponent within the rules. I want to go on record as saying that is one of the most difficult lessons that I've had to teach my boys because when they step back off of the field,. I expected them to be gentlemen, and I expected them to say, "Yes, sir," and, "No, ma'am," to people, and I didn't expect them to be animals. I expect them to be young men that respected their elders, that respected the people in authority. We have an enemy, and the Bible is clear, and we talked about it in the last episode, and I'm gonna read it again because I have superior reading skills, and I know that you love when I read to you. It's kind of like a bedtime story. But it's Ephesians 6:10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance, and supplication for all the saints. And that is a mouthful, and I understand that, but I just want you to hear that because when I start talking about us versus them, I wanna go to Ephesians 6:12. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. We are not fighting against flesh and blood. If you can see the person, you are— that's not your enemy. Even though you think they have a different uniform on, they do not have— everyone you see has been made in God's image.

He—

they are an image bearer of God himself. Father God put his image on that person. If you're looking at that person, and that's why I said multiple times, and one of the key cornerstones of this whole podcast is to remind you that you are God's favorite. If God had a refrigerator in heaven, your picture would be all over it. And it is important you understand anybody that you can see with your eyes is not your enemy. But here's where you got to use faith, and here's where the woo-woo stuff comes and all the spiritual stuff, and that we've talked about before. That we are in a battle and it's against spiritual beings. It's against spiritual sons of God. I believe that God made earthly or physical man and he made spiritual angels or spiritual beings. And I believe the Bible is clear that God has made a whole host of people and sons and daughters, and they're not all flesh and blood. Some of them are spiritual. Some of them are angels. Now there's good angels and there are bad angels or demons, and we have to use faith because it's impossible to please God without faith. That is in Hebrews, Hebrews 11:6. But without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.. And that is a key, is we have to be all in. We've talked about this before. I know you probably get tired of me talking about it, but there is a commitment, and it's a level of commitment that we can't just walk around. We have to be all in for Father God, and we have to start building. And when I say we, I'm really talking about me. I need to start building the kingdom of God. God's kingdom, not Greg Ryan's kingdom, not no doubt, no fear, only believe kingdom, not the next book that I'm gonna write kingdom. We are building the kingdom of God. This earth is gonna pass away and everybody that's in it is gonna one day be dust, and we are gonna be face to face standing before Father God. And what I've talked about multiple times is I want to help you hear Well done, my good and faithful servant. If I help enough people hear well done, I believe Father God is gonna tell me well done. Right now, at this point in time in my walk with Christ, I feel like I'm gonna hear welcome. I think that's wonderful. I don't have any fear of not making heaven. I believe that I have submitted my body a living sacrifice. I believe I've declared Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior. And I believe my life reflects that. I believe that I am a child of the King. I believe that if I died tomorrow or this evening, if this was my last podcast episode, I believe that I would be standing before Father God and he would say, "Welcome." And what I am striving to do, because God has shown me, start looking at the end, to the beginning, and I see the end that I want to have happen for me. And that is the goal now. That is where I am pointing my ship or my vessel or whatever you want to call what I'm in right now. I am pointing to, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." And I am doing the best I can. I'm doing this day by day, just like you are. And I just want to encourage you, the only way we're gonna beat down the punk is if we stay in the Word of God. And I know this is a little late for my soapbox moment, but we've got to get in the Word of God. I just want to encourage you that no one's gonna put you in the pulpit, no one's gonna make you do extra laps, no one's gonna make you work harder at the gym, or mow more yards or grass. It is okay to read the Bible. It's okay. It is going to change your life. I've got to tell you, this word has changed the way I see everything, but I am still deceived. There's still things in my world and in my mind that are not right, and you probably already know that. But when I start getting, you know, those thoughts in my head, I I go into the Bible and I start praying and I start talking to God because the Holy Spirit is right here with me. He said he'd never leave us nor forsake us. And you can read in his word that God heard when people murmured and he heard when people talked. I believe and I know that God hears when I thank him. I know that God hears when I call his kids idiots on the drive, and I'm doing better at that now. But I still sometimes get angry when I'm driving and I grip that steering wheel and it comes out and I'm like, dang it. Then I apologize. I'm getting better. I'm not all the way home yet, but there are things in my life that I need to continue to put the word of God on. And I just believe that if we can see the enemy, if we can see that this enemy not the people we're looking at, but the spirit behind it. And if you can see and you start looking at what's going on and all this evil and all this lying, you know, and I heard a joke and I thought it was pretty funny, but the difference between a conspiracy theory and the truth, it's about 6 months on Twitter. And I thought that was hilarious because when you start looking at what the world is trying to do, they're trying to keep people silent about the real thing that's going on. And don't talk to me about my lying eyes. Don't tell me that gas prices aren't high, and if they are high and if you're suffering a little bit, it's only because of Russia. And it's all of this blame, blame, blame, blame, blame, and I'm tired of all of it. I think we ought to blame this spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places. We need to blame the principalities and the powers. We need to start blaming the enemy, the punk. And I don't know that I'm ever gonna see Satan. I really honestly don't think that that's going to be a deal. But there are imps, little small demons, that's probably been assigned to me because I keep opening my mouth and I keep going over the airwaves, because he is the prince and power of the airways. And so when I go on to this podcast, one of them imps is probably listening. And I don't care, I just put the name of Jesus on it. I am no longer worried or concerned at all. I know who I'm fighting, and I'm not fighting flesh and blood. But does that mean that I don't get angry? No, I am still learning. And I want to encourage you, the truth, when you start getting it into you, that's when we start winning some battles. And that's how we're going to overcome the enemy. And this us versus them, this is just kind of an introduction, and we're going to talk about this in the next couple of episodes, I believe. But this us versus them mentality— we are not fighting the liberal Democrats. We are not fighting people that don't look at the world like I look at the world, or that have a different worldview and not a biblical worldview. We are fighting the punk., and we are fighting all of his demons, and we are to use the Word of God, and we are to ask the Holy Spirit for help, and we're gonna get all in the middle of that. I wanted to read Ephesians again because this armor of God is a big deal, and we need to understand who we're fighting, and we also need to understand why we're fighting. And so I hope in this little introduction that this is kind of maybe getting you fired up. Let's kick Satan in the teeth. I'm sick of him. So let's pray real quick. God, I thank you so much for everything that you've done in my life. God, I thank you for your word. I thank you for Romans 12:1, that it allows me to say, I present my body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. Lord, you know that it's my reasonable service, and I try to do it every day. And I pray that this listener will would get encouraged and they would present their bodies to you, a living sacrifice, that they would become a walking animal in the spirit realm to kick the snot out of these demons that are having their way, it seems like, in the world. Father God, I love you. We thank you. We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you in the next episode.

Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast. At www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.