The Armour of assured victory
by: lebooa
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Word Count: 11090
INTRODUCTION
There is a war raging in the heavenly places. The war is between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the devil. God has deployed both His angels and us, human beings as soldiers in His kingdom and the devil has deployed both his fallen angels and the evil spirits as his army. The war is fierce and the casualties are many. The kingdom of God is basically on the offensive and Satan is on the defensive.
All the participating forces in this warfare on both kingdoms are invisible and cannot be seen with the naked eye because they are spiritual. We humans are the only force that is visible and can be seen with the human eye. This means that we have invisible partners in this war who are on our side and are fighting side by side with us. However, we also have invisible enemies who are fighting against our cause. The invisible partners are made up of God Himself in His trinity and the host of His angels. The invisible enemies on the other hand are made up of Satan himself, his fallen angels and his host of spiritual forces in the dark places. The Bible tells us the following about this matter:
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. Ephesians 6:10-12
The above passage confirms that our enemies are invisible; they are not humans but spiritual forces, principalities and powers, rulers and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. We as human beings are physical and live in a natural world as opposed to the spiritual world. In order for a natural person to protect himself and also be able to attack and fight a wicked spiritual person God has prescribed that a certain type of spiritual clothing is required.
This type of spiritual clothing that is required to allow humans to protect themselves and fight satanic spiritual forces is called “The Whole Armour of God”. The spiritual clothing is compared to the war outfit of an ancient Roman soldier. God makes it clear in the Bible that without this whole Armour we shall be defeated and with the Armour worn fully as prescribed, we have all the victory.
The whole Armour of God consists of the following seven primary elements:
1. The Girdle of truth
2. The Breastplate of Righteousness
3. The Shoes of the Gospel
4. The Shield of Faith
5. The Helmet of Salvation
6. The Sword of the Spirit.
7. Prayer and Supplication
Five of the above elements are defensive and two of them are mainly for the offense. The Sword of the Spirit attacks the devil at short ranges and prayer and supplications is most suited for both short and long distances. With prayer and supplications a Christian can hit and destroy the devil even if he is situated in a different continent, thousands of miles from where he is. The sword of the Spirit on the other hand keeps the stubborn devils at arms length and also provides the Christian with all superiority over the devil in the frequent wrestling matches in the spirit.
The Girdle of truth, which is the belt of truth essentially holds together all the other elements of the Armour and ensures that they don’t get in the way during the fight. If this girdle is not correctly in place, the soldier will be hindered in the execution of his duties and will be defeated as a result.
The Breastplate of righteousness secures the body of the soldier from the throat to the upper parts of the thighs. The breastplate ensures that the soldier is protected in the areas such as the heart, the spleen, the stomach, the lungs, the liver and the kidneys. If a Christian soldier suffers any of these parts this could be an indication that his breastplate is licking.
The Shoes of the gospel gives the Christian the necessary authority over the devil and allows him to stay on the offensive. When a Christian is injured in the area of the legs this would be a sure indication that such a Christian is not utilizing his shoes properly in accordance with God’s prescription. The shoes of the gospel allows the soldier to travel long distances without experiencing fatigue and with all the necessary stamina.
The Helmet of salvation protects the head and the face of the Christian soldier and ensures that the soldier has all his mental and emotional faculties in order. The helmet protects us from external bad influences and allows us to stay focused on the word of God. A soldier without a helmet is a defeated soldier.
The shield of faith is a redundancy protection devise, which ensures that the entire body of the soldier is hidden away from all the darts of the enemy. It is important to know that the darts of the enemy are fiery; they can burn and cause serious injuries to the body. Therefore, the function of the shield is to absorb and quench the fiery darts even before they can hit our bodies.
The almighty God has made it a special requirement that His Armour must be put on complete as a whole all the time. The Whole Armour must not be put on just some of the time but all the time. When any single component of the Whole Armour is not in place then the Whole Armour of God cannot perform its protective work.
We shall now proceed to study the Whole Armour of God in its most generic form before we dwell into its different component items. The Whole Armour of God is there for you, it is given to any Christian who has repented of his dead works and has accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and savior. The Christian must have also subsequently been baptized in both the water and the Holy Spirit.
It is my sincere conviction that this book will open your eyes to discern the affairs in the spiritual realm and to realize that we are not alone in this world but are surrounded by a host of spiritual forces some who are for us and other who are against us. Enjoy the reading.
THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD
Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intersession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Romans: 8:26-27
PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION
“Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture,
And the sheep of His hand.
Today, if you will hear His voice:
“Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,
As in the day of trial in the wilderness,
When your fathers tested Me;” Psalm 95: 6-7
PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION
CONTENTS
1. PROCLAMATION
2. INTRODUCTION
3. THE POWER OF PRAYER
4. PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION
5. WATCHFULNESS AND PERSEVERENCE
6. SUMMARY
1. INTRODUCTION
This is study number 45 and the title of our study is “ Prayer and supplication”. We have been studying the subject of spiritual warfare for now more than two months. We started this study by identifying the parties at war, their kingdoms and their headquarters. We looked at the reasons for this war, the battleground, the weapons of war and the way the war is fought. Finally we started to identify the different forces involved in this war by name. From the kingdom of the devil we said that the forces are Satan himself, his different hierarchies of angels and the demons. From the kingdom of God we have the almighty God in His trinity, His angels, the spirit of men made perfect and us human beings.
In the last six weeks we have been studying the protection and role of the human being in this war. This part of our study is covered in the book of Ephesians 6: 10-18 and it is called the whole Armour of God. We have discussed the six great elements of this Armour and today we shall conclude our study of The Whole Armour of God. So this lesson becomes our last study on this subject.
God makes it a requirement that when we use His Armour we must always be in prayer and in supplication. Prayer is communication with God and the Armour does not work without prayer, unless we are communicating actively with God the Armour will be of no use to us. Our prayers keep us obedient to God and allow us to take direct instructions from our Father in heaven. Just like a soldier must keep constant contact and communication with his commander in the battleground and take orders as required.
Prayer and supplication are like the seventh items of the whole Armour of God because with prayer we are able to hit the enemy wherever he is. Whilst we can use our sixth element of the Armour, which is the sword of the Spirit to reach and destroy the enemy at arms length, prayer allows us to hit our enemy at any distance. Prayer is like one of those ballistic nuclear continental or intercontinental missiles, which the Americans and the Soviets intend to use in some day of doom. The devil could be sitting in America and causing havoc to our brothers there and you could hit him even whilst you are in South Africa. Prayer gives you global reach and make it possible for other members of this army of the Lord to work in synchrony with you. Let us practice to always pray and stay in touch with God.
2. THE POWER OF PRAYER
Before we can get into the subject of prayer and supplication it is important to first understand that prayer carries with it some divine power from God. Prayer shakes the world and gives you the edge. Nothing gets accomplished in the kingdom of God except with prayer. God communicates with man in no other way except through prayer. So if you do not pray, the chances are that you may never ever communicate with God. The reason most people have not had a conversation with God or heard His still voice is because they have not been in prayer.
Jesus Christ tells us the following about His people and His voice:
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. John 110:27
The important thing to realize is that you cannot hear God’s voice or the voice of Jesus unless you are in fellowship with Him. It is only in the environment of thanksgiving praise and worship that you can hear God’s voice and therefore be able to receive instructions from Him.
Let me start this morning by asking the listener a direct question. Brethren, have you ever heard the voice of Jesus? Have you ever followed Jesus as a direct consequence of hearing His voice?
Some people may think that we are just fantasizing when we talk about the voice of Jesus. The truth of the matter is that God has a real voice just like you have your own voice and God talks to you every time you fellowship with Him. The question is, do you hear His voice? Remember that Jesus specifically says that His people hear His voice. Are you one of the people of Jesus? Do you realize that no matter how much you pray, you cannot be one of the people of Jesus if you truly do not hear his voice? You cannot follow Jesus unless you truly hear His voice.
Prayer is communication with God and communication is a two way process. Communication is fellowship between two or more parties. So in a normal communication environment there are always two or more parties. If you talk to someone and get no respond or reaction, then it means that you are in fellowship with yourself. It actually means that there is no receiving party or there is no one to fellowship with you. In other words, it means that you are talking alone to yourself and this in today’s world could be an indication that you have some mental problems.
When you talk to someone and get a response then you can virtually say that you are in mutual fellowship and therefore you can exchange ideas with the party on the receiving end. So when you pray to God you literally talk to Him and He in response will talk back to you. Remember that you are soldier in the army of the Lord. God is the commander in chief of this army and He is always issuing instructions and commands to His army. If you cannot hear the voice of God then you cannot follow His instructions and therefore you cannot follow Him.
A very good example in the Bible where God is portrayed as the commander in chief of the Lords army is found in the book of Joshua 5:13-15 and it reads as follows:
And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?”
So He said, “No, as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped, and said to Him, “What does my Lord say to His servant?”
Then the Commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Take your sandals off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.
The above passage tells us that Joshua saw a Man (with capital M) standing opposite him. The Man told Joshua that He was the commander of the army of the LORD. Joshua fell down and worshipped Him. I think that it is important to realize that Joshua knew is Bible very well and he knew that human beings were not allowed to worship any other thing but God alone. So when Joshua fell down and prostrated himself face down and worshipped this Man (capital M again) He Knew that this man was God. So God came in as a man to lead the armies of the LORD into victory against Jericho.
It is also important to realize from the above passage that as soon as Joshua established the fact that he was in the presence of God he worshipped Him by falling down and prostrating himself. No further communication and fellowship could be established between Joshua and the Man God unless Joshua worshipped God.
What I want the listener to realize from this story is that when we pray and communicate with God we need to hallow Him first before we can ask of our needs. The Lord’s Prayer reminds us of this matter when it says:
… Hallowed be Your name. Matthew 6:9
To hallow God is to thank Him, to praise Him and to worship Him. Thanksgiving or thanking God allows us to enter into Gods Gates and praising God gets us into His courts and into His direct presence. The Bible has the following to say about this matter.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise,
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations. Psalm 100:4-5
So once you are in God’s presence then you can begin to fellowship with Him but not without first worshipping Him. In the above scripture about the commander of the Lord’s army, Joshua knew that there can be no fellowship with God without reverence and without worship. He knew that if he was going to have a successful communication with God he would have first to worship Him. It is therefore only during worship that you can hear the voice of the Lord. It is only in worship that you can get a response from God and take further instruction during this warfare. If you cannot worship you cannot hear the voice of the Lord and if you do not hear the voice of the Lord you cannot be His people and if you cannot be His people you cannot follow Him.
One other passage of scripture which further clarifies this matter is found in the book of Psalm 95: 6-7 which reads as follows:
“Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture,
And the sheep of His hand.
Today, if you will hear His voice:
“Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,
As in the day of trial in the wilderness,
When your fathers tested Me;”
Once again the above Old Testament passage stresses the importance of worship when we communicate with God. Notice also that the above passage refers to us as sheep just like Jesus called us His sheep in the New Testament. What is most amazing is that the above passage calls us sheep and immediately the next sentence talks about hearing His voice. This confirms the fact that in order to hear the voice of God we need to be in worship.
My brothers and sisters, if we want to pray with power and be sure to receive and answer to hit the enemy wherever he is and to be effective in this warfare, we need to pray the correct way. Above all, we need to hear the voice of the Lord and to follow Him. The only way you can get to this point of hearing the voice of God is if you worship God and the only way you can worship God is if you hallow Him, that is, if you thank and praise Him.
The problem with most of us Christians is that we behave like mad people. We often pray alone without expecting an answer and without been sure if God is available and listening to our prayers. Normally we take it for granted that God is listening and we don’t expect that God also wants to talk to us. Very often we do not pray in accordance with scripture in line with the Lord’s Prayer. In some cases we just pray to God the Father directly without coming to Him in the name of Jesus and without thanking Him and praising Him. Often we as Christians pray like rebels, we pray but are not willing to take orders from the father, we want to do what we want in the battle field, to control ourselves and fight the enemy in the best way we see fit.
If you are not hearing the voice of the Lord then you need to know that you are mostly operating out of your own strength. You are doing things out of your imagination. God could be telling you to retreat and yet you could be advancing. God could be telling you to only use your shield at that point in time and yet you could be using your sword. God could require that you be at rest and you could be actively fighting out of your own strength. This is why the Bible exhorts us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. We need to remember that the war is not ours but the Lords. We are only soldiers in this war, taking orders from our superiors.
This is also one main reason why many Christians get injured in this warfare. It is not uncommon to find a great man of God die and surrender his life to some terminal sickness such as cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure etc. Some well meaning, good people and men of God die in this warfare because they fail to hear the voice of the Lord. Remember that we are His sheep and the only way we can be kept safe from the wolves is if we hear and follow His voice. Failure to hear His voice drives us out of fellowship with Him and leads us astray into the path of wolves. The only way to keep away from the wolves is to hear His voice.
One last thing I would like to mention on this subject of prayer and the voice of God is that the word that comes from God’s mouth and the breath that accompanies that word constitutes the voice of God. So the voice of God is made up of His word plus His breath working in unison. We have already taught in previous studies that the Bible is the word of God and that the breath that comes out of God’s mouth is His Spirit – the Holy Spirit. This means that whenever we have the word of God from our Bibles and in the presence of the Holy Spirit we have the voice of God talking to us. God talks to us through His voice, which is His word accompanied by His breath.
The word in general is a basic unit of any language. All languages are made up by a union of words. When we speak words with our mouth we release a breath which when combined with the words forms a voice. Likewise, when the word of God combines with His breath it gives us His voice. This means that the word of God alone without His Holy Spirit will not create the voice and the Holy Spirit alone without the word will also not create the voice. The creative power of God is in the simultaneous working of his word and His Spirit.
The Bible tells us in the book of Genesis the following about this matter:
The earth was without form, and void; and the darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters
Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. Genesis 1:2-3
From the above verse it becomes clear that the creative power of God is vested on His Holy Spirit, which was hovering over the face of the waters and on His word, which He pronounced with His mouth. God’s word said let there be light. This word combined with the hovering Spirit of God produced light.
The above finding means that everything that God ever created was created with His word and His Holy Spirit acting in unison. In other words everything that was ever created was simply created by God’s voice.
This means that if you as a Christian only study the word of God in the absence of His Holy Spirit then you can never hear God’s voice. It means that when you pray in this manner you will be communicating only with yourself, which may suggest that there is something wrong with your brains. People who only look at God’s word in exclusion of His Holy Spirit end up in fanatism, wanting to mechanically apply the word of God. They speak to themselves and yet they think they are speaking to God. They also imagine things a lot and think that God is responding to them.
On the other hand and by the same token, those people who only consider fellowship with the Holy Spirit without any relationship to the word of God also deceive themselves. These people are at the other extreme from those who only consider the word. The bottom line is that this people never hear the voice of the Lord and therefore lack the divine creative power in their lives.
When we pray God the correct way by coming to Him in the name of Jesus and by thanking Him, praising Him and worshipping Him we avail ourselves of the divine and creative power of God. In this case God will respond to us with His voice and fellowship with us. The voice of God is His creative power and it strengthens us, it heals us, it protects and communes with us. If we hear the voice of God, we can be His sheep and if we are His sheep, we can follow Him. The voice of the Lord gives us all the creative power in the universe and this power we access through prayer.
This means that we need to combine the use of our whole Armour of God with prayer and supplication. We need to pray in all manner of prayer and in supplication, as the scripture requires. We need to be watchful and to persevere at all times. We shall now go ahead to look in more detail into this aspect of all manner of prayer and supplication.
3. PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION
The Bible introduces this topic in the following manner:
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. Ephesians 6:18
I chose the title of our study today from the first part of the above passage, which reads “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.” This seemingly small passage reveals seven important requirements that God demand when we pray. These requirements are the following:
1. We must pray always
2. We must always pray with all prayer
3. We must always pray with all supplication
4. Our prayers and supplication must be in the Spirit
5. As we pray and supplicate we must be watchful
6. As we pray and supplicate we must persevere
7. We must supplicate for all the saints
For the balance of our study we shall look at each and every requirement mentioned above.
1. We must pray always
The Bible tells us in various passages to pray always and to pray without ceasing. One of such passages reads as follows:
Pray without ceasing find passage
I think that it is now obvious to the listener why God requires us to pray always without ceasing. The following are the six main facts that I want to suggest as the reasons why we need to always be in prayer.
a. We are at war with the kingdom of the devil and we need to keep the communication lines open with our Father in heaven.
b. We need to keep open skies above us and this we can only do if we keep our Father informed all the time about our condition and our requirements.
c. We need to regularly take instructions and orders from our commander in chief.
d. The enemy is not always situated at a convenient distance; sometimes the enemy could be thousands of miles away. Prayer provides us with long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles such as the Russian SS-20.
e. Prayer provides us with wisdom and revelation in advance of the enemy’s plans, tactics and strategies.
f. Prayer is the will of God and therefore it pleases God to be in fellowship with His army.
From the above six facts it becomes very clear that the Whole Armour of God is not complete without prayer. Prayer is like a seventh element of this Armour. Prayer keeps you informed of all possible war scenarios and therefore gives you the edge to stay competent and effective at all times.
2. We must always pray with all prayer
The Bible commands us to pray with all prayer, this means that there are different types of prayer and God wants us to use all these types of prayer based on our needs and circumstances. It is extremely important for us to always know the type of prayer to pray and when to pray it. The Bible tells us the following on this matter:
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. 1 John 5:14-15
The above passage tells us that the trick to get God to answer your prayers is to get God to hear you. You see, God does not hear every prayer that we pray but if He hears your prayer then you can be sure that you have what you prayed for. For God to hear your prayer you have to pray according to His will. So whatever you need from God you need to go back to the Bible and see if what you need aligns or corresponds to the will of God. Once you can prove that what you want is in line with the will of God, all you have to do is to ask and it shall be given.
Three examples of the different types of prayers are the following:
a. Prayer of Agreement
The Prayer of Agreement is given by Jesus Christ in the gospel of Matthew 18:19 and it reads as follows:
“Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.
“For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
This is the prayer that is most conducive for a husband and a wife as the basic family unit but otherwise any two or more people who are in agreement can pray it. Basically, Jesus is writing an open cheque for those two or more people who can reach agreement. The bottom line here is that agreement is so important to God that He is willing to give anything to those that agree. If people could learn to agree with each other, we could have all the problems of the universe resolved.
The devil is spending overtime in this area making sure to plant differences among individuals, families and nations. The important thing about the prayer of agreement is that the parties in agreement must have vested interest in the outcome and therefore must have good reason to agree with what is been asked.
b. Prayer of Faith
This type of prayer is best introduced in the gospel of Mark 11:24 which reads as follows:
Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
This is the type of prayer that you need to pray only once and then believe that you receive what you prayed for. If you pray for the same thing more than once, it could mean that you did not believe that you received when you prayed the first time. This type of prayer requires sufficient confidence in God and in His word. You have to believe that God will truly do what He says He will do.
c. The Prayer of Intercession.
This type of prayer can be both in the natural and in the spirit. In the natural it applies when we pray for others. An example of this prayer in the natural is found in the gospel of Matthew 9:37-38 when Jesus shows His disciples how to pray for others. The scripture reads:
Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
In the above passage Jesus is asking God for more help so that He might save more people. He is interceding for the unsaved so that they may be saved.
A second example of intercession in the natural can be seen in the book of Acts 12:5 and tells us about how the church prayed for the apostle Peter when he was in prison. The scripture reads on this matter:
So Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.
We all know how this story ended. God sent an angel to set him free and to deliver him from the hand of king Herod.
The prayer of intercession can also be prayed in the spirit with the Holy Spirit. This is the highest form of intercession because in this particular case we are not interceding out of our own power and knowledge but rather out of the power of God. Here we join forces with God to intercede for ourselves and for or others. This can only be done if you are filled with the Spirit and speak in tongues.
The Holy Spirit, which knows the mind of Christ, knows what is happening to us and to other saints. So when we are praying in the Spirit we are many times praying intercession prayers for ourselves or for other Christians, maybe in another part of the world that need God to intervene for them. So a saint that is filled with the Spirit goes through life much easier than one who has not been filled with the Spirit. Because God is running interference for us and solving problems before we even get to them.
If you are filled with the Spirit many times you will feel like you must pray. Right now! You have to stop and pray in the Spirit. You do not know why. But the Holy Spirit does. It could be that a missionary is being attacked somewhere in Africa, and Jesus needs someone to intercede for him. Here you are being used to the fullest in the body of Christ.
There are also other types of prayers which we shall hopefully study sometimes in the course of this new year. Some of these types of prayers are:
· The prayer of binding and loosing Matthew 18:18
· The prayer of Consecration and Dedication
· The prayer of praise and worship
· Others
3. We must always pray with all supplication
The word supplication means to ask humbly and earnestly of an official person or an organized body such as a court, to plead with an official person or organized body or to make a formal request to an official person or body. It is to petition those in authority. So a supplication is simply a humble petition.
The passage we are studying, which is from Ephesians 6:18 commands us to pray always with all prayer, and supplication. To pray always with supplication is to pray always with humble petitions. The important thing to realize is that a petition is a formal written request. Therefore, to pray with a humble petition is to have a formal written but humble request to God the almighty. In other words to supplicate requires that we should write our petitions to God.
In the conventional world when people petition government over any thing they do it in writing. It is very unusual to have a verbal petition because petitions by their nature are legalistic, they are addressed to some supreme person and they contain all the legal facts upon which the claim is made. Petitions usually will also have a specific request or demand, a date and the signature of the party that is making the request. It is also not unusual for petitions to have a reference number so that if there is more than one petition we can be able to distinguish one from the other.
The problem with most Christians is that we normally do not write our petitions, we pray out of our heads when could pray out of a well written and well thought petition. God expects us to not only pray prayers but also to pray petitions. The important thing to realize is that since petitions are normally in a written format, they can be most accurate and they can be read many times until what we pray for is attained. The Bible exhorts us in several places to pray in petitions.
4. Our prayers and supplication must be in the Spirit
One important thing about prayer and supplication is that although we may be able to pray and write our supplications in accordance with our needs, very often we do not know how to pray and what to pray for. Quiet often when we are sick, unemployed or disturbed by something, we know that we should pray to the almighty God and communicate this matter to Him in accordance with His will but often we do not know how to tell Him or what to tell Him about our situation. The Bible encourages us to pray in the Spirit because the Spirit of God is the one that knows exactly what we need and how we should report our needs to God. The Bible has the following to say about this matter:
Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intersession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Romans: 8:26-27
In order for us to be able to pray in the Spirit of God we first and foremost need to have the Holy Spirit inside our bodies. The Holy Spirit must be dwelling in us if we are to use Him in prayer. The Bible tells us that Jesus will deposit the Holy Spirit in our bodies when we formally receive Jesus into our lives. When we respond to the facts of the gospel appropriately Jesus then deposits the Spirit of God in us to mark us as His, to guide us, to comfort us, to remind us and to fellowship with us. The Holy Spirit is deposited in us as a sign of ownership and as prove that God will come for us. The Bible has the following to say about this matter.
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory. Ephesians 1:13-14
Once more the above passage confirms the fact that as soon as you accept Jesus Christ as you Lord and savior and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, God seals you with the Holy Spirit of promise and the Spirit in you now becomes the guarantee of your inheritance of the kingdom of God. It is precisely at this point that your name is entered into the book of life in heaven.
The only problem here is that if you have not received Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior you will not have the Holy Spirit available to you to help you with your prayers and supplications. All you prayers will be carnal primarily based on your personal understanding and intelligence. The Holy Spirit helps us to pray in a strange language that we do not understand ourselves and that neither the devil understands. However, as the above passage points out, the Spirit of God makes intercession for us with groanings, which cannot be uttered.
This whole aspect of praying in the Spirit proves once more that your prayers cannot become effective unless you formally accept the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and unless you accept and confess His divinity. Without accepting the divinity of Jesus Christ any claim of Christianity is really a fake.
5. WATCHFULNESS AND PERSEVERENCE
The fifth and the sixth point of our main scripture today talks about been watchful and persevering as we pray and supplicate. This tells us that when we pray we should not be careless, heedless, thoughtless, inadvertent, or even absentminded, faraway or unwatchful. We should always watch out and anticipate danger or even opportunity. The word watchful means to pray paying close attention usually with a view to anticipating approaching danger or opportunity, to be alert, to be open eyed, unsleeping, vigilant, wakeful, wide awake.
This means that we must always pray with an expectation of either opportunities or even danger. I hope the listener will remember from previous studies that as you pray you are causing wars and commotion in the heavenlies. Your prayers cause God to send angels on your behalf to fight the angels of the devil and make possible your request. So when you pray you really intensify the fight between the kingdom of God and that of the devil and therefore it is only logical that you must be watchful.
You need to be alert not to miss God’s response to your prayers, some of these responses can be instantaneous and if you are not watchful and thankful the devil may still some of your blessings. You also need to be watchful because as the war intensifies due to your prayers, the effects of this war may spill unto you and you therefore need to be ready to stand.
The word Perseverance is to be steadfast, to be firmly fixed in place, to be immovable, not subject to change, firm in belief, determined, faithful, adherence, to persist in a state, it is an undertaking in spite of counter influences, opposition or discouragement. This means that it is important to stand firm in the promises of God irrespective of circumstances. The devil will continue to try and trick you not to believe the word of God. He will try and convince you that these promises are for white people and not for black people. He will tell you that you are too old to have a child like in the case of Abraham. He will tell you that you are too old to lead Israel out of Egypt. The devil will continue to attack you and therefore it is important to stand firm in what God promises.
7.We must supplicate for all the saints
Finally the apostle Paul commands us to make supplications for all saints. This is extremely important because each one of us must remember that we are not independent individuals in this war. We are individually part of a greater army of God. We are the body of Christ and each one of us is a building block of that body. So it is important that we regularly make supplications for all saints.
Once again the importance of supplications is highlighted. We need to make formal written request to the almighty God on behalf of all the Christian body. The devil does not only attack you as an individual but he is busy trying to destroy the whole body of Christ. This is the reason why we need to pray and supplicate for all the saints so that those saints who are weak can all be protected by our prayers. Our prayers cripples the enemy because the more we pray, the more God sends soldiers in the form of both men and angels to the battleground. The more soldiers we have the more robust our victories and the more territory we take from the kingdom of the devil.
Finally, let me remind the listener that prayer and supplications are simply communications devises that allow us to keep the vital contact and fellowship with God. Through prayer we are able to hit the enemy at long distances and we are able to take instructions from God for further effective fighting. It is important however to realize that this prayer and supplication will only work for you if you have all the other elements of the Armour in place. You need to be in full uniform before you can communicate with your commander in chief. The commander in chief of the Lords army will not be impressed with you if you are not wearing your full uniform. The devil also knows that if you are not wearing your full uniform you do not have power and therefore he will attack you.
The Whole Armour of God is only complete as prescribed if it consist of the following items, The girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. In addition the helmet requires that we be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might and to pray and supplicate for all saints. If we wear the Armour of the Lord in the terms that I have just described we shall have victory in the battlefield and we are sure to rule with Christ in His Father’s eternal kingdom.
Our time is up now and what I would like to do now is to pray for those of you who after listening to this study have decided to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior. I hope that you realize that unless you accept Jesus Christ there is no way you will ever make your prayers and supplications effective. Jesus is the only key for you to use your whole Armour as prescribed. Without Him the devil will continue to inflict damage to your life until you perish. So I want to pray for you and if that is you I am talking to, I would like you to repeat the following words after me.
Lord Jesus
Thank you for saving me.
For bringing me into your kingdom
Forgive me my sins
And cleans me from all wickedness
I thank God for raising you from the dead
That I too may have eternal life in you
Thank you Jesus
For loving me
And saving my soul
Amen
SUMMARY
1. To make the whole Armour of God effective we need to:
· Pray
· Supplicate,
· Be watchful
· Persevere.
2. We need to pray in all manner of prayer. Some of the examples of manners of prayer are:
· The prayer of faith
· The prayer of agreement
· Prayer of intercession
· Others
3. Prayer is communication with God, you talk to God and God talks back to you.
4. God has a voice and this voice consist of the Spirit of His breath and His word contained in the Bible
5. It is vital that we must learn to hear God’s voice so that we may take instructions and to fellowship with Him.
6. God’s voice is normally most audible during worship
7. If you hear the voice of God then you are the sheep of His pastor.
8. It is impossible to follow God if you do not hear His voice.
9. Prayer allows you to fight your enemies from both short and long range
10. Prayer causes wars in the heavenlies.
11. The whole Armour of God will not work without prayer.
THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD
“Put on the whole Armour of God, “For we wrestle not against flesh that ye may be able to stand against and blood, but against
the wiles of the Devil.” principalities, against powers, EPHESIANS 6: 11 against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. EPHESIANS 6: 12
THE
BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
.. having put on the breastplate of righteousness. Ephesians 6:14
THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
CONTENTS
1. PROCLAMATION
2. INTRODUCTION
3. THE PHYSICAL BREASTPLATE AND LITERAL RIGHTEOUSNESS
4. THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
5. SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BREASTPLATE
6. SUMMARY
THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in any form or transmitted in any way without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Bible Version, Copyright 1979 and 1980 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
All royalties for this book have been assigned to Joseph Morakile Lebooa Ministries.
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1. INTRODUCTION
This is study number 38 and the title of our study today is “The breastplate of righteousness.” We continue our study of spiritual warfare and we are looking at the Christian as a soldier in the army of the Lord. You and me are soldiers at war against the kingdom of the devil.
God has given us a special Armour to use in this warfare and this Armour consist basically of the following six items of clothing namely; The belt of truth, The breastplate of righteousness, The Feet shod (shoes), The shield of faith, The helmet of salvation and The sword of the spirit.
Last week I dedicated one full hour to the study of the first piece of clothing, which is the belt of truth. This week I will focus on the second item of clothing, which is the breastplate of righteousness. In the next five weeks we shall have covered the rest of the elements of the whole Armour of God. I therefore want to ask the listeners for their patience, as you have to endure all these weeks the lessons with me in order to have a full appreciation of this warfare.
I would also encourage the listener to always have a piece of paper and a pen to jot down notes of those things you may want to refer to or those that you would like to ask me about at a later stage. It is a good practice to take notes of these lessons. You can also buy my tapes and transcripts for further studies or even for future reference. I want to encourage you to buy these tapes and transcripts, as these constitute the main lifeline of this ministry.
So today we are going to see how the breastplate of righteousness protects you against the wiles of the devil. Remember, the devil is not shooting bullets and rockets. He is shooting tricks in the form of fiery darts. This war is fought in the greatest battleground on earth, which is your mind. The entire satanic war strategy has as its primary objective the capture of your mind and mental faculties. If the devil can get you to think and do what he wants, then you will be defeated.
We are going to look at the physical breastplate and the definition of righteousness. Then we will proceed to look at the spiritual breastplate and the righteousness of God. I will also reflect on the areas of the human body covered by the breastplate and their spiritual significance.
2. THE PHYSICAL BREASTPLATE AND LITERAL RIGHTEOUSNESS
THE PHYSICAL BREASTPLATE
A breastplate is metal part of the Armour, which was used as a covering for the ancient Roman soldier from the base of the neck to the upper parts of the thighs. In the physical realm the Roman breastplate covered the body from the base of the neck to the upper part of the thighs. It covered all of the vital organs of the body, which basically are the following:
q Vocal Cords
q Heart
q Lungs
q Kidneys
q Liver
q Spleen
q Stomach
q Sexual organs
So for an ancient Roman soldier this breastplate was essentially a protective devise for those essential parts listed above. All the above body parts are typically what the enemy would attack and destroy from the base of the neck to the upper parts of the thighs. Of critical importance amongst these parts is the heart because if the enemy destroyed the heart, the soldier would die instantly.
When the enemy could not attack the heart, he would target all the other organs listed above. Such an attack on all other organs could incapacitate and impede the soldier from performing his duties and could also eventually lead to death. The important thing to realize is that an attack on the other organs other than the heart would cripple the soldier and literally render him ineffective for combat and in the worst case such an attack could also lead to death
This means that an ancient Roman soldier needed to have his breastplate properly in place all the time when he was at war or in active duty because failure to do so could expose all the eight possible organs of his body listed above which are vital for proper execution of duty.
RIGHTEOUSNESS
Righteousness can be described in any of the following four ways:
q Righteousness is the view one takes of oneself
q It is a perspective of one self
q The way in which you view yourself
q The self image you have about yourself
The way you view yourself can be determined by various influences such as:
q Your own perspective /self image
q The perspective of your friends / image your friends have of you
q The perspective of the critics / image your critics have of you
q The perspective of your psychologist
q The perspective of your pastor / image you pastor has of you
q The perspective of God / image God has of you
q Etc
So whatever perspective or view we have about ourselves allows us to find some balance in our lives. Most of us develop a view of ourselves that we can live with and in which we can take comfort in under all circumstances. How you view yourself can be good for you and help you build your confidence or it can break you in the end if that confidence is wrongly placed.
I know of some people for instance who will not buy or wear anything new without finding out first how other people feel about their clothing and about how they look. If they are to wear anything they will ask for a second and a third opinion. If the second or third opinion tells them that the clothing is not good then they will not put on that clothing. Such people tend to view themselves from the perspective of their friends and they are comfortable to live their lives based on what their friends think. This view of oneself can be referred to as the righteousness of friends or third parties.
I also know of other men who will pick up a pink trouser and a red shirt with yellow shoes from their wardrobe and wear them without requiring anyone’s opinion. Such people have a right standing with oneself and they view themselves from their own perspective. We tend to consider such people as independent people.
In mental and psychiatric institutions where counseling is offered to patients for instance, they always try to pinpoint some positive area in your life so that you can use that point to rally your self-esteem and form a better view of yourself. People who loose hope or want to commit suicide tend to have a negative view of who they are and so one way of helping them is to find something positive in their lives and use it to change their opinion of themselves.
So my brothers and sisters, it matters what view you have of yourself. Very often such a view you have of yourself determines who you are. Some people think that they are better than others whilst others have surrendered and think that they are no bodies. Some people’s opinion of themselves is based on their families or even their wealth. The important thing to realize is that how you view yourself will give you a feeling you may be willing to live with for the rest of your life. You may see yourself as a good guy, bad guy, cool guy, wise guy etc.
One form of righteousness, which is of interest to us today for the purpose of our study, is the righteousness of God. This is a view of yourself that is not from your own perspective or from the perspective of your friends, your critics or your pastor. This is instead the view God takes of you. If the view you take of yourself or what we call your self-image is based on God’s perspective or image about yourself then we can safely say that you have the righteousness of God, in other words you have a right standing with God.
The Bible commands us to adopt the righteousness of God and not our own self-righteousness or the righteousness of our friends. God wants us to view ourselves in exactly the same way He views us. If our self perspective is not the same as God’s perspective for us then we cannot enter into His kingdom and we cannot fellowship with Him.
Now that we have seen the definitions and the use of the word “breastplate” and the word “righteousness” we can now proceed to look at the meaning of the title of our study today which is the “The breastplate of righteousness”
3. THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
The Bible introduces the subject of the breastplate of righteousness in the following passage:
Stand therefore … having put on the breastplate of righteousness Ephesians 6:14
The introduction of this topic in the above passage clearly talks about standing against the wiles of the devil. There is no doubt that God wants us to use the breastplate of righteousness as a protective devise that will give us victory against the devil.
We have said that a breastplate is a protective metallic Armour or devise that covers the body parts from the bottom of the neck to the upper parts of the thighs. Righteousness on the other hand is the view one takes of oneself. This means that if we merge the two definitions we can therefore say that the breastplate of righteousness is the protective metallic Armour that covers the view one takes of oneself.
From the above it is important to note two things namely; that from a spiritual point of view we are no longer talking about a metallic breastplate but the breastplate is now made of righteousness. Secondly, the righteousness we are talking about is no longer your self righteousness but rather the righteousness of God. I must emphasize that this righteousness of God is the image God takes of you.
So if we take the above two considerations into account we can finally conclude that the breastplate of righteousness is a spiritual devise that protects your image, your perspective and the view you take of yourself. The protective device is made of God’s righteousness and your perspective is God’s image of you.
This is an extremely important revelation because what it means is that in the spirit you need to protect your image, and by this I mean the image that God has about you. Another important revelation from the above is that only God’s righteousness is sufficient to protect your image. Your own righteousness or the righteousness of your friends is not enough to cover and adequately protect your image.
This also means that the devil continuously attacks our image. He wants to distort the image you have about yourself. He wants you to have a self-image that is different from the image God has about you. He wants you to have a perspective that is different from the perspective God has about you and finally he wants you to have a view of yourself that is different from the view God has of you. Once the devil can get you to believe that you are a different person from what God says you are, then he can defeat you.
What the listener needs to realize is that your own self-righteousness is not sufficient to cover your image. The devil attacks your image, which is your perspective or what you think about yourself. Your image is like a small badge on your body, it cannot even cover one of your breasts. It cannot cover your chest or your stomach. The devil will always point his weapons at the parts of your body that are not covered. The devil is not going to shoot at your small badge but rather at the parts of your body that is not covered. This is the reason why I want the listener to be aware that only the righteousness of God covers completely and protects us against enemy attacks on our image.
What all this is telling us is that in order to make use of the righteousness of God we need to disregard who you think you are. You need to disregard all your achievements as though they meant nothing or even never existed. Get rid of all those old badges because there is no place to pin them on your breastplate.
It does not matter how you see yourself and how your friends see you. What matters is how God sees you. However you see yourself is not good enough to cover your body. So your perspective on yourself cannot protect you from the fiery darts of the devil and in order to have a breastplate that is big enough, you need to have God’s perspective of yourself. You need to view yourself the way God views you and therefore you need the righteousness of God.
Not only is our own righteousness insufficient to protect us from Satan’s attacks; it won’t even get us to heaven! We can rationalize all we want about how good we are but from God’s perspective, we all deserve to die because of our sin. So we all need to view ourselves from God’s view. We are the righteousness of God and not our self righteousness.
GOD’S PERSPECTIVE OF US
One important thing about the righteousness of God is that it must be received by faith. God imputes His righteousness to us on the basis that we accept His son Jesus Christ. The Bible states that:
The one who is righteous will live by Faith. Romans 1:16-17
But not only is God just; He is also full of love and mercy. He went to the ultimate length to provide a way out for us. He sent his only Son to become the target of all the consequences of our sin.
When Jesus died on the cross, an exchange took place at Calvary, this exchange is presented by in the Bible by 2 Corinthians 5:21 which reads as follows:
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
So the righteousness of God is only in Jesus and without Him it is impossible to attain the righteousness of God. Christianity is the only religion on earth today, whose philosophy of righteousness is based on the righteousness of God and not on self-righteousness and the righteousness of the Law. God is not impressed with your own good behavior and with your individual efforts to look good or to do well. In fact, your best works to God are like dirty rags. So the only way God can see you righteous is if you come to Him in Jesus.
When we decide to turn our lives around and accept what Jesus has done for us through His death and His resurrection from the dead, we automatically gain that righteousness. This means that we first receive grace by receiving Jesus Christ and then God imputes His righteousness to us.
No longer do we have to worry if we're good enough for God, or if our past record of wrongdoing will keep us from any of God's blessings. All that past of ours has been put on Jesus in exchange for His righteousness. He became sin with our sin - we become righteous with His righteousness. There's absolutely nothing we can do to improve on that.
When we wear that righteousness as a breastplate by focusing on Him, God sees us as though He were looking at Jesus. Everything that was a part of our old life; all the bad things and our failures, all of our achievements, everything is forgotten - as though it never happened. Remember, that's not only our failures, but also our achievements.
It's important that our self-image become based, not on what we've done, not on what we always thought we were, not on what we want to become someday, not on what psychology textbooks say we are, nor on what other people say we are; but on how God sees us in Christ. Our righteousness in Christ means that God has accepted us in the same way as He accepts His own Son. We must learn to accept ourselves on the same basis on which God accepts us. As we learn this, the way other people see us will mean less and less to us.
This matter of accepting ourselves on the same basis on which God accepts us is extremely important because that’s as far as the breastplate of righteousness will protect us. The breastplate of righteousness only covers the area of the righteousness of God. Where we still cling to our own view of ourselves, that's where the breastplate of righteousness doesn't protect us.
Our breastplate protects us to the extent that we accept ourselves as God sees us without adding anything of our own achievements to it, nor subtracting anything due to past or present failure. It's a place of humility, to be sure, because we don't get to show anything off except for what Jesus is in us. The breastplate of righteousness is one sure way to die to yourself and only live for righteousness.
4. SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
We are now going to look at the different body organs covered by the breastplate of righteousness and then seek the spiritual significance of each one of them. We will study the function of each organ covered by the breastplate both in the natural and in the spiritual in order to properly understand the reasons why these organs must be protected. Once we understand the function of these organs in the natural, it will be much easier to understand their spiritual significance, why do they need to be protected and the way Satan attacks these organs.
So I will be alternating between the spiritual and the natural and suggesting to you how the devil attacks and condemns us in each and every area covered by the breastplate.
Area covered by Breast Plate Natural use Spiritual use How Satan attacks/condemn you
Vocal Cords Enable speech q Talkq Communicate q Witness to others q Spread the good news of the gospel q Not good enough to witnessq Not a good speakerq You are too fatq You are too skinnyq You are too tall / shortq You don’t know enoughq You make too many mistakes
Heart q Pumps blood to the bodyq If it stops pumping blood we die q Preserve the issues of lifeq Wicked and righteousness reside in the heart q Makes you think you can be saved by some other methods (false doctrines)q Harden our hearts with sin and unbelief
Lungs q Takes oxygen to the bloodq Oxygen gives life to the blood q Purity of our spirit and soul q Attack lungs with smoke and other poisons like drugsq Causes the lungs to loose their elasticityq Attacks our spiritual lungs with poisonous doctrines which will kill us
Kidneys q Takes acid out of the Bodyq Without them we swell up and die q Keep us humble without prideq Win souls for Christ q Cause us to be self righteousq Cause us to become Phariseesq Swell up with spiritual prideq Never win souls with pride
Liver q Purifies the blood q Purified by washing of the word and the Holy Spirit q Causes us to doubt God’s Wordq Confuse us with regard to the Holy Spiritq Attack the liver with exceesive alcohol
Spleen
Fights infection. It has been also termed as the seat of our emotions. Satan will certainly attack us through our moods and our feelings and make us doubt our salvation. Satan would tell us that Christians don't get mad, Christians don't have bad thoughts. So once we develop bad thoughts and get mad we may feel condemned and loose our assurance. Satan will condemn us and take away our assurance if we don't recognize his tactics and resist him. But if we see ourselves in the same way God sees us we will remember that scripture says that now there is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Satan will try to keep you from studying God's Word. He will make it hard for you to find time and if you do find time he will make it hard for you
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About the Author
My resume Joseph Lebooa was born in Soweto, South Africa. He studied in Cuba at one of its best engineering institutions, ISPJAE, where he obtained a masters degree in Telecommunications Engineering in 1986 after spending seven years in Cuba. Joseph also studied Spanish full time for a period of one year and also speaks and writes a number of other modern languages amongst which are included both Portuguese and Swahili in addition to several South African languages. In the late nineteen seventies, whilst serving the ANC in exile, Joseph was converted to an atheist and believed himself to be a communist. He started a protracted period in his life of complete opposition to Christianity and its doctrines. Joseph spend two years of his high school studies in Nigeria from 1977 to 1988 preaching atheism and deviating people from their Christian faith to the doctrines of Marks, Angels and V.I. Lenin. It was characteristic in those days to find Joseph surrounded by curious students and even teachers who wanted to learn each time more about the wisdom of communism. In 1979 Joseph was offered a scholarship in Cuba were he finished both his high school studies and university education. In Cuba Joseph became the best Marxist student in his class for all times. He helped most foreign students with their materialist philosophy lessons and entrenched even more his believes in atheism. Cuba as a communist country also strongly discouraged Christianity and all other religions, in fact, the Marxist philosophy insisted that religion was an opium of the people and had a reactionary character and therefore threatened the Socialist movement. However, and besides every other thing, Joseph always had a miserable life. Despite his knowledge and his relative fame (athlete, teacher, member of several political structures etc) he never enjoyed his life. Joseph never lived beyond struggling; he always had to scratch harder to put something into his belly. The very fact that he was exiled at the age of 13 and had to live for 3 years in an unbearable ghetto in Nairobi even with his masters degree explains it all. Joseph returned to South Africa in 1990 and has since been searching for answers to the intricacies of life. From 1990 to 1998 Joseph embarked on an intense study of all success motivational literature and the so often talked about sub conscience. During this period he grew at work from virtually nothing to the post of general manager and still he did not find answers to his problem, purpose etc. Joseph still felt miserable, his paternal family was disintegrating, his marriage was troubled and his health was degenerating. Each time he dwelt into this so-called “success theory”, his troubles increased exponentially. He began to experience the spiritual world without a guide and was virtually lost out there. And finally, after going through much confusion and whilst he was writing what was to be his first book whose title was “How to be Happy Healthy and Wealthy”(the book never saw the light of day) Joseph was led through some divine revelation to the Holy Bible. Since then, Joseph was forever saved and converted and accepted Jesus at the beginning of 1999. He was soon after baptized in water at the Hatfield Christian Church in Pretoria into the body of Christ and also baptized in the Holy Spirit by Jesus Christ Himself and into the spiritual world. Soon after his conversion Joseph was retrenched from his very lucrative five-year career in South Africa and has since dedicated his life to the Lord Almighty. He is presently in the process of setting up his ministries in Pretoria, South Africa. Title of my work The reality of demons. Genre Biblical studies, Spiritual warfare, Sermons, Motivation, Theology and individual defense and protection. Similar works in the market My works are very similar to the works of very renowned authors like Creflo Dollar, Derek Prince, Kenneth E Hagin, Tim Storey and Miles Monroe amongst others. There are also lots of articles on the Internet on this subject. Other works by me which are not published yet I have more than 50 booklets all of which can be grouped into ten different books. Each week I produce at least one booklet. The different potential books are: 1. God’s prescription for healing your body 2. The Christian perspective of sex 3. Prosperity and good success 4. The power of forgiveness 5. The Lords prayer 6. Thanks giving, praise and worship 7. Dead works and the power of the weak 8. Abortion 9. The Christian foundation doctrines 10. The history and career of Lucifer 11. Demonology God’s prescription for healing your body This book deals with the healing of our bodies using Biblical principles. There is basically a way prescribed in the Bible through which a person can be healed from any infirmity using Biblical principles. The Biblical principles used are spread across the Bible but essentially summarized in the book of proverbs 4:20-22. In principle God gives us two different promises of good health if we fulfill 5 basic conditions, which he has set. This book basically deal in detail with the two promises and the five conditions. The Christian perspective of sex This book is written primarily to teach about the danger of sex outside marriage. The book proves that sex outside marriage is wickedness and therefore brings about, curses, demons, defilement, sickness etc. I have presented this material at various AIDS/SEMINARS in South Africa and it has been received with great appreciation and interest. Prosperity and good success This book teaches a Biblical formula for prosperity and good success. The book distinguishes between prosperity and good success and provides a scriptural method to attain prosperity and to build good success. The method consists of three very detailed steps, which is the essence of the book. The power of forgiveness This book Teaches on the Biblical principles for forgiveness. It primarily teaches that lack of forgiveness is sinful and brings curses into our lives, which open us up to demonic attacks. God cannot forgive people who do not forgive others of their trespasses. If we want God to blot out our sins in the book of life we need to forgive others. To not forgive is to be tormented and to disqualify our prayers from God’s favor and response. This book also tries to establish a mathematical pattern and requirement for forgiveness. There is a formula, which can be used to establish the required number of times we ought to forgive those who trespass against us. The Lords prayer This book teaches that the Lord’s Prayer is simply a manner of prayer. It is a structure of prayer and not the prayer itself as often used by Christians worldwide. The Lord’s Prayer is a skeleton of prayer, which guides the structure of our prayer. The book looks at every sentence of the Lord’s Prayer and explains the structure of each and every sentence. For instance, the very first sentence of the Lord’s prayer talks about “Our Father”. In this respect the book would analyze the meaning of the statement “Our Father” and provide Biblical definitions and references to this expression. In this book I would also explain who qualifies to call God his Father and who does not qualify. I go through the same exercise for all the sentences of the Lord’s Prayer and in this way help the reader to get into a new and powerful way of praying. Thanksgiving, praise and worship This book teaches us of a scriptural way to approach God and get into His presence. Many people think that you can approach God anyhow you please. There is an appointed way to get into the presence of God and ensure that your prayers are answered. This appointed way to fellowship with God is through thanksgiving, praise and worship. The books shows us why our prayers are often not answered and what happens when you follow the prescribed method. Dead works and the power of the weak This book teaches us that our judgment in eternity is dependent on our works on earth. There is a book of life in heaven in which all your works are recorded and through which you will be judged on the last Day of Judgment. Any activities you are involved in on earth, which is not executed by faith, constitute a dead work, which is also sinful. The entire book is intended to teach us about the importance of operating in faith in all our daily activities. God requires the righteous to live by faith and anything outside faith is deadwork. Abortion This book teaches about the sinfulness of abortion and how abortion is the crime of murder. The book proves based on scripture that God placed in the women’s womb a finished person from head to toes. What is in the woman’s womb is not a fetus but rather a fully fletched human being. The Christian foundation doctrines This book presents Christianity as a faith with a specific foundation and not just an arbitrary faith. Jesus Christ is presented as the foundation of Christianity; however, this foundation, which is Jesus, is also presented in the form of Six elementary doctrines of Christianity. The book encourages all Christians to resume their careers as Christians by empowering themselves and planting in their lives the foundation doctrines. The six foundation doctrines are; repentance from dead works, faith in God, Baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. The entire book focuses on each and every one of the foundations. Demonology This book deals with the subject of demons. The book focuses on describing and defining who demons are, their characteristics, their nature and works, how they enter into our bodies and how to cast them out. My level of education I have a master’s degree in Telecommunications Engineering (Msc Telecommunications) obtained in 1986 in Havana Cuba. I have done more than 60 other management and none management work related courses since my graduation in Cuba. I am globally traveled and have attended more than 200 conferences and meetings around the world in all the continents. My age I am 44 years old. I was born on the 9th February 1963. Writing experience I started writing in 1976 when I left South Africa to go to exile (at the age of 13) where I spend 16 years. I started by writing poems and dramas and often speeches for presentation to the public in various theaters and radio stations in Africa and in Cuba. I used to be in charge of various cultural groups of the liberation movement (The African National Congress) and my primary job was to compose both drama and poems and to stage the shows when required. I participated in several theatrical events in Africa and in Cuba. In 1990 when I came back to South Africa from exile, I stopped writing because I began to look at my writings as rebellious type of content and I was no longer happy with that type of material. I started writing again in 1999 after I became born again. Since 1999 until today I have been invited by various groups and churches to make presentations. I also have a radio program in Pretoria, South Africa where I teach the Bible for one hour every Sunday morning. I have made more than 52 one hour written presentations on radio and these presentations are what I present as possible 52 short books that also can be grouped into ten different books. My initial writings were works against apartheid mostly in the form of poems. This type of writing I did for 16 years. I had a break of 9 years (from 1990 till 1999) without any active writing and I started writing again in 1999. This time all my writings are based on Biblical teachings. It therefore means that I have been writing now for 21 years.
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