On planet earth today, right at this moment there are around two and a half billion people who would call themselves Christians but the vast majority of those aren’t living in the spiritual victory that Jesus came to give them. Hmm, do you know anyone like that?

Spiritual victory is something of an odd concept, we live life, we go through all the stuff we go through, we know somehow there’s a spiritual dimension to it all but for most of us, particularly westerners like me, the spiritual dimension of life can feel somewhat distant, irrelevant even in the cut and thrust of daily life. Yet nothing could be further from the truth.

The battle’s we fight often appear to be battle’s against circumstances, adversity, other people – especially other people. Our daily battles appear confined to the here and now when all along there’s a spiritual battle raging for your soul in the heavenly places. This is what the Apostle Paul writes, Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 to 13.

Finally (he says) be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armour of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil for our struggle isn’t against enemies of blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God so that you may be able to withstand on that day of evil and having done everything to stand firm.

So today we’re kicking off a brand new series of messages called Your Road To Spiritual Victory because Jesus didn’t come and die for you and rise again so that you could spend the rest of your life being defeated by your circumstances or by people or by satan or by your sin. Gods plan for your life is victory – spiritual victory. 1 John chapter 5, verses 4 and 5.

For whatever is born of God conquers the world and this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world? That the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

And that’s why today and over the next couple of weeks we’re going to focus on spiritual victory, your spiritual victory to be precise. Often when I start talking about this to people I get a response that goes something like this, ‘Yeah I hear you but I’m not good enough, I’m such a weak person, I don’t think I will ever experience the victory that you’re talking about.’

This is way more common than you think. Perhaps you’ve been thinking along similar lines as we’ve been chatting about this whole ‘spiritual victory’ thing today. Well my job is to open God’s Word with you and show you that that’s a whole bunch of baloney.

Let’s go back to Paul’s words about the spiritual battle and putting on the whole armour of God. The whole purpose of that, he says is quote, ‘So we may be able to withstand on that evil day and having done everything to stand firm.’ In other words ‘to win the battle‘.

‘But I’m not good enough,’ I hear you say. No, you’re not good enough, that’s the truth and nor am I for that matter, we’re all in the same boat. None of us is good enough or strong enough or pure enough or holy enough or smart enough to win the spiritual battle, that’s the whole point, that’s why we need Jesus, that’s why we need the Holy Spirit.

And the starting point for the transaction of spiritual victory can be summed up in one word – grace. And that’s something that your God and mine, has available in bucket loads for you and me. Again listen to how the Apostle Paul puts it, Ephesians chapter 2, verses 4 and 5.

But God who is rich in mercy out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, has made us alive together in Christ.

There are times in our lives when we know that we’ve blown it, I mean completely blown it. There is nothing worse than waking up the morning after the night before and remembering that you hurt someone you loved and damaged a relationship that was so terribly important to you. How could I have been so stupid? How could I have said that? How could I have done that? Yeah I know, you’ve been there right? So have I.

I remember one time when I was in that place when the person I had hurt reached out to me and without berating me, without showing anger, without judging me simply forgave me and opened the door to healing our relationship. I’ll never forget it. That person was Jesus. What He did is called mercy and here’s the thing, mercy is only mercy when it’s undeserved. If we deserved it, it wouldn’t be mercy, would it?

The Bible tells us that God is rich in mercy, ain’t that the truth.

For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not of your own doing, it’s a gift from God, not the result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9)

See mercy and grace are two sides of the one coin. Mercy is when God takes away the punishment that we so richly deserve for rebelling against Him and grace is when He gives us instead untold blessings that we simply don’t deserve. You and I have rebelled against God and the wages of sin, as we’re told in the Bible, is death and yet because He loves you so much He heaps the death that you deserve on the shoulders of Jesus on that cross. Jesus suffered and died on your behalf – that’s mercy.

And then instead of the death we so richly deserve, He gives us a rich abundant life here and now, a life that we’ll spend with Him for the rest of eternity, that’s grace.

Some days we look in the mirror and we see just what we’ve done wrong. We see how unworthy we really are. We realise that there’s simply no hope and that’s the whole point, that’s why He sent Jesus, for you. He loves you so much, mercy and grace through Jesus Christ.

And so no matter how low the base that you’re coming off is in this spiritual game that we call life, God’s mercy will trump everything. In fact so much so that He’ll wipe away all of your past misdeeds, also known as sin. He’ll make your past completely irrelevant to you, to your life and to your relationship with Him. That’s how rich God is in His mercy and grace. Psalm 103, verses 11 to 14.

For as the heavens are high above the earth so great is his steadfast love towards those who fear him, as far as the east is from the west so far he removes our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him for he knows how we’re made, he remembers that we’re just dust.

As far as the east is from the west – I recently had to fly from Sydney in Australia, it’s on the eastern seaboard up to Singapore and it takes about seven and a half odd hours to make that flight. Four and a half of those hours, over half of the trip, is involved just in flying from east to west to get out of Australia.

So as I made that flight I looked down on the red dusty land below me and I think ‘the distance between east and west is enormous’. So far has God removed our transgressions from us – as far as the east is from the west. Your slate is wiped completely clean and your past becomes completely irrelevant. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17.

So if anyone is in Christ there is a new creation. Everything old has passed away and see everything has become new.

Your past is gone, it’s irrelevant. You want spiritual victory in your life then you need to know the truth so that the truth can set you free and the truth is this, it’s what I just shared with you from God’s Word today, the truth is that you are forgiven, completely and utterly, the truth is that as far as the east is from the west so far have your transgressions been removed from you.

That’s the truth and that’s the starting point of spiritual victory in your life – the truth.

You can’t have spiritual victory in this world if you don’t know who you really are and way too many people who call themselves Christians really haven’t a clue of the amazing new identity that Jesus has handed them, really.

Living our lives in spiritual victory over the devil, over sin and evil, over circumstances and adversity isn’t just some theoretical pipe dream, no it’s God’s plan for our lives. Let me be even more direct than that, it’s God’s plan for your life, Romans chapter 8, verses 35 and 37.

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Don’t you love that? Not just conquerors but more than conquerors, not just victory but more than victory. There’s a reason for that and the reason is that God is a God of abundant blessing, abundant mercy, abundant grace, abundant power, abundant love. He’s an over the top kind of God and He wants you to live in this abundant life that Jesus came to give you.

And to make that happen for you, all this abundance, God gives you a new identity the moment you believe in Jesus. Instead of being the sinner you once were in God’s eyes, completely deserving of His wrath and His punishment, He transforms you through your faith in Jesus, it’s the beginning of victory.

And just as a soldier on a battlefield needs to know who he is and who he’s fighting for in order to win the battle, so you and I need to know to understand and to accept our new identity in Christ. Have a listen to this, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

In other words, God transferred all our sin onto Jesus shoulders so that now, when you and I stand before God, through our faith we look a whole lot like Jesus to Him. Jesus took your sin, He paid the price, He died for you so that you might become the very righteousness of God. That’s now your new identity if you believe in Jesus – a complete right standing with God no matter what horrible things you may have done in the past.

And not only in the past, in the present and what is to come in the future as well because God has given you a new standing, a standing in fact as a member of His family. Romans chapter 8, verses 14 to 17.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are in fact children of God. For you didn’t receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry ‘Abba’, Father it’s that very spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are in fact children of God and if children then heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ if in fact we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

When the going gets tough as it invariably does out there on the spiritual battlefield that we call life, it’s so easy for us to imagine that God has abandoned us. There’s nothing worse than that feeling of abandonment because you and I we’re created to belong – families, societies, sporting teams, clubs even countries – they’re all about belonging, we need to belong, that’s how God has created us.

And when the going gets tough that sense of isolation, that sense of abandonment is devastating but our feelings are quite fickle, they aren’t always able to witness the truth into our hearts. In fact quite to the contrary because you and I are frail human beings the devil often uses our feelings to speak lies into us in order to rob us of the truth.

Listen up, God will never abandon you no matter how ferocious the spiritual battle becomes, no matter how heavily you may stumble and fall some days, if you believe in Jesus, yeah some day’s you’ll be called to suffering just like Jesus but that doesn’t change the fact that you are His child, that He loves you beyond measure. He will never abandon you. That’s Gods honest truth because He has given you a completely new identity.

You have become the righteousness of God through your faith in Jesus Christ. You have become a member of His family through Jesus. And there’s something else you need to know about how God sees you, have a listen to this truth from His Word, this is God speaking to you about how He sees you and what He thinks of you and what He’s going to do for you right now, Isaiah chapter 43, verses 3 to 5.

For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your saviour. You are precious in my sight and honoured and I love you. Do not fear for I am with you.

How we see ourselves – you and I – has a huge impact on the quality and the effectiveness of the lives that we lead and this life of yours, hey it ain’t no dress rehearsal, it slips away a minute at a time, a day at a time. And one day it’s going to be over, one day the end of this life will come.

What a tragedy it would be to have missed out on all that God has to offer you simply because you believed what the world said about you and as a result you lived out your life through your own inadequacies and insecurities rather than believing what God has to say about you.

Hey, do you believe in Jesus? If you do this is what God has to say about you, you are precious to Him, you are honoured by Him and He loves you. That’s who you are, that’s your identity, that’s what God thinks about you. It’s your passport through life. So who are you going to believe, the world or God? Hmm?

When the devil comes against you on the battlefield and whispers lies into your ears, ‘oh you’re not good enough and what’s more you never will be, you can never win, give up, throw in the towel’ all that stuff who are you going to believe? The devil, the father of lies or God?

God never lies and as one whom He has transformed into His very own righteousness, as one whom He’s adopted into His family and is called a child of God. There is something else that you have, something else which is already yours, have a listen to this, 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 3 to 5.

By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading being kept in heaven for you who are being protected by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Around where I live real estate prices have become so prohibitively expensive there’s a whole generation of young people who will have to wait for their parents to die before they can purchase a home using their inheritance. In most families children can rely on the fact that they’ll receive the lion’s share of their parent’s estate so why is it then that so many Christians are uncertain about their inheritance from God? Will I make it to heaven or won’t I? Will it be everything I expect? Will God keep my inheritance for me?

The future can be scary some days even more so as we approach that final hurdle out of this life into the next. So in case you’re wondering the truth is this, God has an inheritance waiting for you in heaven that is quote, “Imperishable, undefiled and unfading.” And not only that, it’s an inheritance that He has actively protecting through His power. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Do you see how your new identity completely transforms your own view of who you are? Seeing yourself through God’s eyes changes everything because as we look at ourselves through His eyes, through His truth, all of a sudden we realise that by His grace and His mercy we are a completely new creation.

So when the enemy comes against you out there on the spiritual battlefield of life, you can declare with boldness, ‘I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I am a child of the living God and He has an inheritance waiting for me.

Full stop – end of story.

Elite athletes don’t become elite athletes overnight. They discover a talent, then they set about training and sacrificing, changing their diets, their whole way of life just to win the prize in their sport. So what makes us think that we can become spiritually mature overnight?

I want you to imagine a person who wants to become an elite athlete, whatever their chosen sport may be. This person sets out to become a great tennis player or footballer or track and field competitor and yet all they ever do is they sit on the couch eating chips and sweets and drinking sugar-laden soft drink. Would you expect that person to realise their dream of becoming an elite athlete on that sort of a diet and that sort of an exercise regime? Not likely.

And yet that’s what so many Christians do. They want to live a life of spiritual victory in Christ and yet they fail to turn away from the things that are ruining their lives. Those things have a collective name in God’s Book – He calls them sin. Have a listen to the Apostle Paul’s take on all of this, Romans chapter 6, verse 21 to 23:

So what advantage did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death but now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God the advantage you get is sanctification, the end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

For much of my life I shied away from God simply because I thought becoming a Christian meant living out some out dated, irrelevant bunch of rules that would restrict me and constrain me, a bit like a straight jacket. That’s the view that so many people have of being a Christian – you can’t do this, you can’t do that, how’s a person supposed to have any fun in this life?

What surprised me though when I looked closer at it is that God only tells us not to do the things that are actually going to hurt us and hurt other people. And the list of do’s and don’ts, well it’s actually quite small in the scheme of things and yet still there’s always at least one of those that we want to hang on to in our lives, isn’t there?

Listen up, there is no such thing as a small sin. Hang on to any sin and eventually it’s going to kill you, let it go and the reward is freedom today and eternal life for the rest of eternity.

Over the last few days on the program we’ve talked a lot about the powerful transformation that happens to you and to me the moment we believe in Jesus. Our past is completely forgiven, as far as the east is from the west so far does God remove our transgressions from us. So much so that our past misdemeanours become completely irrelevant in God’s eyes and in God’s eyes we’re as pure and as blameless as Jesus Himself.

That abundant mercy and grace is a kindness and a generosity that is simply indescribable and that kindness and generosity is actually meant to have a transformative impact on our lives, Romans chapter 2 verses 3 and 4:

Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself you will escape the judgement of God? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Don’t you realise that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.

Isn’t it funny how quick we are to judge others and yet how readily we find excuses to rationalise our own behaviour. Maybe it’s time for us to stop kidding ourselves. Other people’s sin, by and large, isn’t our responsibility but our sin is and one day Jesus will come back and judge the living and the dead, each one of us, Christian and non-Christian alike will stand before Him to give an account for our lives, our behaviour and our sin.

Make no mistake judgement day is coming but right now God has done everything that needs doing, He has shown us every kindness, He has given us every opportunity to repent, to turn away from the things that we know are wrong and to turn our lives back to Him.

The right response, the only response to God’s kindness is repentance. The right response, the only response to Jesus death on that cross is letting go of our sin and loving Him in word and in deed. Surely that’s not too much to ask, is it? And it’s not as though we’re powerless to change because God gives us the very power we need to leave that sin behind. He never takes us to a place where temptation is more than we can bear, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13.

So if you think that you are standing watch out that you don’t fall. No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength but with a testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.

Let’s be honest we all struggle with sin, somehow each one of us has that one Achilles heel and one temptation, that one sin that we’re vulnerable to and doesn’t the devil know it. He waits for just the right time, when we’re tired, when we’re distracted, when we’re under pressure, when we haven’t prayed or opened our Bible for a few days or weeks and then whammo, he swoops in and he strikes.

The result, we succumb to the temptation, we stumble, we suffer guilt, we suffer condemnation and we want to run and hide from God just like Adam and Eve did. What’s your Achilles heel of temptation and sin? What are you struggling with? Are you wondering what you can possibly do to overcome it?

Well here’s a powerful promise from God, whatever it is He will never allow you to be tempted beyond your ability to withstand the temptation and He will always provide you with a way out. That’s Gods promise to you, He will always be there to help you overcome the temptation and that’s important because that sin robs us of the spiritual victory that He wants for our lives. That sin steals the very thing that Jesus suffered and died and rose again to give us, abundant victory.

God’s thought of everything, of forgiveness, to be set free from the past and of the power we need to overcome the future. Yeah, God’s thought of everything. Ephesians chapter 1 verses 17 to 20:

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him. So that with the eyes of your heart enlightened you may know what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.

It took me a long while and maybe I’m a slow learner but eventually I came to the conclusion that I cannot overcome my sin in my own power. In fact the harder I worked at it the more I would fail and the more condemnation I’d feel. So far as I can see working harder at becoming a better Christian is a recipe for a life filled with guilt and condemnation and failure.

What you and I really need is some power, I mean serious power to overcome our sin and not surprisingly God already has that figured out. Through the Apostle Paul there in Ephesians chapter 1, that verse we just read, He tells us that we already have available to us the same immeasurably great power that raised Jesus from the dead to give us a new life.

If I go back to the original Greek word which I don’t do very often on the program and I try and transliterate the meaning of the verse it comes out like hyper ballistic, mega phonic, dynamic power. That same incredible resurrection power to overcome your sin is available to you now, today through Jesus.

So stop praying for power and start praying with power. You have the power to live your life in spiritual victory, it’s already been given to you, that’s the God honest truth and it’s the truth that will set you free to live your life in victory over the devil, over sin and over every obstacle that this world throws in your way.

Question: How long do you expect a marriage to last in which the husband and wife barely communicate? How well do you expect that marriage to handle all the stresses and strains of life? Ha, it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? That marriage is heading for a crash and burn. So how much spiritual victory then would you expect a person who doesn’t communicate regularly with God to have in their lives?

For many Christians prayer is one of those optional extras. It’s something we fit in now and then when we can and it seems we’re especially good at fitting in a quick prayer when things aren’t going so well. ‘Oh God please help me, oh God please stop the pain, oh God when are you finally going to show up’? Sound familiar?

Imagine that someone you love only ever talks to you when they’re in trouble, it wouldn’t make much for a relationship now, would it? I wonder sometimes if we don’t have a completely wrong view of prayer because the only sort of prayer that the Bible teaches us about is the sort that has powerful results.

Let me say that again just in case you missed it – the only sort of prayer that the Bible teaches us about is the sort that has powerful results. Now when you think of it that way you have to ask yourself, so why do I keep banging my head up against a brick wall? Here’s how Jesus put it, John chapter 15 verse 7. He said that:

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you can ask for whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

In other words if we’re close to His heart, if we know what He wants then our desires will be aligned with His and in that context we can ask Him for whatever we wish and it will be done for us. That’s a powerful statement and when we live that out in our lives it yields powerful results.

We’re in the middle of a series of messages called Your Road To Spiritual Victory because that’s what God wants for you, for your life, spiritual victory. And as I said at the beginning of this program, you can’t have that sort of victory if you don’t spend time in prayer. I mean you just can’t.

So many of Christ followers want spiritual victory but they’re too busy to pray. Huh, that’s about as smart as the couple who want a great marriage but are too busy to talk to one another about the things in life that really matter, as though that was somehow going to work. Yeah I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking, ‘Berni that’s great for you but I don’t have the sort of faith that you need to get powerful results through my prayer.’

Well you’re not alone, I know many a Christian who firmly believes they don’t have enough faith to go and ask God for the things they need, for the help they need and for the victory they need. It turns out that these people have more than enough faith to believe that they don’t have enough faith but not enough faith to believe that their loving powerful God could give them the breakthrough that they so desperately need.

I mean when you put it like that it sounds crazy but that’s exactly what’s going on here. Now let me warn you, I’m one of these crazy nut cases who takes Jesus at His word. In other words, if Jesus said it it’s not just true but it’s actually true for me. So what did Jesus say about how much faith that you and I need to overcome a whopping great obstacle that’s in our road? Matthew chapter 17 verses 19 and 20:

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, ‘How come we couldn’t cast the demon out?’ and he said to them, ‘Because of your little faith. Look truly I tell you if you have faith the size of a mustard seed you will say to this mountain ‘get up, move from here, over there’ and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you’.

Did you get that? NOTHING will be impossible for you. The answer to how much faith you need is that faith the size of a mustard seed which was the tiniest of all seeds known to human kind when Jesus was walking this earth, faith the size of a mustard seed is more than enough to move the mountain, to move the obstacle, that’s what Jesus said. Question is, will you take Him at His word? Because it’s not about the size of your faith, it’s about the size of your God – a God who is so powerful that He created the universe.

Have a listen to this beautiful and powerful truth, Psalm 33 verses 6 to 9:

For the word of the Lord is upright and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

Isn’t that beautiful?

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made and all their host by the breath of his mouth. He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle, he put the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him for he spoke and it came to be, he commanded and it stood firm.

When you and I are praying that’s the God we’re praying to, the God who created the whole universe, a trillion stars by the breath of his mouth. Do you think that He doesn’t have the power to deliver on His promises? Really? And yet He’s the very same God who wants to hear the deepest thoughts and secrets of our hearts. He is the God who delights in the intimacy of prayer. He wants a relationship, a real conversation.

The sort of prayer I was taught when I was growing up was formal prayer, kneel down, bow your head, clasp your hands together and then come up with some really sensible words maybe words that someone else wrote for you. The problem is though that that’s not the sort of prayer that the Bible talks about at all.

Jesus, just before He was crucified we’re told, threw Himself on the ground and prayed, He poured His heart out to His Father in heaven, He told His Dad exactly what He was thinking and feeling. Matthew chapter 26 verse 39:

And going a little further he threw himself on the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it’s possible let this cup pass from me yet not my will but let your will be done’.

Think about it, God loves you more than words can possibly ever say and when you love someone that much you want them to be real with you, you want them to pour their hearts out to you to tell what’s really going on, right? It’s exactly what Jesus did when He was under that terrible stress of being crucified.

Well your Dad in heaven wants the same, your Dad in heaven wants your quiet times of prayer as the most intimate moments that you and I will ever have with God. But prayer isn’t just a one-sided conversation, I know this is going to shock you, it shocked me too I have to tell you but prayer is more, so much more than just rattling off your shopping list to God.

Now don’t get me wrong I absolutely believe in asking God for His blessings because without His blessing nothing I do is going to amount to very much at all. But if our prayer is a monologue instead of a dialogue then it’s not much of a relationship, is it? If our prayer is a one-sided conversation, us talking at God, then just imagine what we’re missing out on, just imagine what God thinks of that.

Hearing the voice of God, hearing God speaking back to us, that’s what the Holy Spirit is ready, willing and able to do. Have a listen to what Jesus has to say about hearing His voice, John chapter 10 verses 1 to 4:

Very truly I tell you anyone who doesn’t enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him and the sheep hears his voice, he calls his sheep by name and leads them out. When he’s brought out all his own he goes ahead of them and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.

It’s exactly how it happened back then when the sheep were all mixed together in a yard and one shepherd would come and call his forty or fifty sheep, they would know his voice and they would follow him, they wouldn’t follow a stranger just the real shepherd.

So let me ask you, do you know Jesus voice? Have you heard that sweet, quiet, powerful whisper in your heart? If not be still, just wait on Him, He will speak – absolutely He will.

Take this whole communication thing, prayer thing seriously and you will be amazed at the victory that the Lord brings to pass in your life, real victory, make no mistake.

Many couples, when they’re courting, write love letters to one another but as the marriage wears on year after year and the passion and the enthusiasm in the relationship wanes, those love letters, well they end up in a box down in the basement or up in the attic somewhere gathering dust. And sadly the same is true in the lives of many Christians as they consign Gods love letter to them, the Bible, to a dusty drawer or a shelf somewhere.

I guess in a good loving marriage if you love someone it’s not unreasonable to expect that they would from time to time, even reasonably often, say kind, loving, encouraging, uplifting things to you. Not an unreasonable expectation, right? And yet so many Christians have never heard God whisper those sweet nothings into their ears.

Why? I was having lunch with a friend the other day and he said something along the lines of, ‘Well, look, I don’t read my Bible, I find it boring. In any case I have a deal with God, as long as I have love in my heart that’s all that matters.’ Yeah right. My question to him was this, ‘So if you don’t read your Bible, if you don’t listen to the loving things that God has to say to you and about you how can you possibly have His love in your heart?’

If you want to hear God speak read your Bible, if you want to hear God speak audibly then read it out loud. That Bible is His love letter to you.

As we journey through this series on living our lives in spiritual victory we have to talk about one of the greatest maladies in Christendom today, the Biblically illiterate majority who are so longing for victory, real victory over sin, over the devil, over trials and obstacles and circumstances and situations and yet they leave the one offensive weapon in their armoury locked away in a cupboard somewhere.

The Apostle Paul had this to say about the spiritual battlefield on which we live, have a listen, it’s Ephesians chapter 6 verses 10 to 17:

Finally (he writes) be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armour of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle isn’t against the enemies of blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of the present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.

 Therefore take up the whole armour of God so that you may be able to withstand on that day of evil and having done everything to stand firm. Stand therefore and fasten the belt of truth around your waist and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the Gospel of peace. With all of these take the shield of faith with which you’ll be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6: 10-17)

So there is one of the best pictures of the spiritual battlefield on which you and I live that you will ever find in the Bible. The point he’s making is that we focus on the things we see, the things of flesh and blood and yet there is a spiritual battle raging in the spiritual dimension, in the heavenly places, that is every bit as real as anything you and I can see or feel here and now.

A spiritual battle that sits aback of the trials and the troubles that we experience in this world. A spiritual battle that we ignore at our peril. We can’t have spiritual victory without being aware of that spiritual battle and then doing the things that we can do to win it. As Paul puts it, ‘Putting on the whole body armour of God’ not just part of it but all of it.

Now when you think about it armour is by and large defensive, in other words it’s there to protect you. The belt of truth holds things together, the breastplate of righteousness protects your chest, your heart, your lungs, the shoes for your feet they make it easier for you to run, the shield of faith quenches the fiery darts of the enemy, the helmet of salvation protects your head. All of those are passive and protective to stop the enemy attacks from hurting you, great.

But you don’t win a battle just by defending yourself, you win a battle by attacking, by going on the offensive and in that whole list we are given only one offensive weapon, did you pick it? It’s the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God. In other words your Bible – the living Word of the living God is the one offensive weapon in your armoury.

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness the devil came after Him by misquoting and twisting God’s Word, how did Jesus respond? Each time He responded with the truth, He defeated the devil with the truth, with God’s Word, Luke chapter 4 verses 3 to 12.

Jesus filled with the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days and when they were over he was famished. The devil said to him, ‘If you’re the Son of God command this stone to become a loaf of bread’. But Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, man does not live by bread alone’.

Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world and the devil said to him, ‘to you I will give their glory and all this authority for it has been given over to me and I give it to anyone whom I please. If you then will worship me it will be yours.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, worship the Lord your God and serve only him’.

Then the devil took Jesus to Jerusalem and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God throw yourself down from here for it is written ‘he will command his angels concerning you, to protect you and on their hands they will bear you up so you will not dash your feet against the stone.’ But Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, do not put the Lord your God to test. When the devil had finished every test he departed from him until a more opportune time.’

Three times Jesus hit back at the devil with His one offensive weapon, the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God. But leave the sword in its scabbard; leave the sword in the scabbard at home in the storeroom and it won’t do you any good. We need to get it out, to read it, to let God speak to us through it, to listen to what He has to say about us and this world rather than the perversions that the devil will whisper in our ears.

Let me be perfectly blunt, you cannot, you simply cannot live in spiritual victory without regularly reading your Bible, it just isn’t possible, get it? You and I don’t have the power to defeat the devil, we don’t have the power to overcome the obstacles in life but God’s Word is so incredibly powerful. Why do we miss that? Why do we trifle with the Word of God?

One of the most frightening things that I see in the Kingdom of God today is people who call themselves Christians and yet they trifle with God’s Word. They have a Bible to be sure but it collects dust on the shelf or it’s tucked away in a drawer somewhere. They listen to sermons most Sundays, well sort of but by the time they’re having that post Church service cup of coffee their heart and their mind has already wandered off somewhere else.

In the very first chapter of the Bible, Genesis chapter 1, we hear how God created the universe but let me ask you a question, exactly how did God create the universe? Answer, He spoke it into existence, Genesis chapter 1.

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was formless and void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light and God saw the light and it was good and God separated the light from the darkness.

God spoke the whole universe into existence. As the Apostle Paul said later in Romans chapter 4 verse 17:

God calls into existence the things that do not yet exist.

That’s the power of God’s Word. I wonder what things, what blessings God wants to call into existence in your life through His Word. And His Word is the place where you’ll discover the spiritual victory that you’ve been looking for all this time. The sword of the spirit which is the Word of God – your one offensive weapon. Don’t leave home without it.