Spiritual warfare has become synonymous with ’strategic’ intercessory ministry and the binding of demonic strongholds. I can’t help but think that this focus has caused us to ’take our eyes of the ball’. Itself, a cleaver tactic of the enemy to distract us from the main battlefront, where we can take the most ground for the Kingdom of God: our own soul!
The apostle Peter writes: “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” 1Peter 2:11
Tony Reinke, over at ‘The Shepherd’s Scrapbook’, has posted some amazing audio sermon clips from 10:31 Sermon Jams. This first one, War, comes from John Piper’s sermon on Romans 8:10-17. I urge you to listen to Piper describing the war we must wage against our own lusts by the grace of God.
Piper sayes: “I hear so many Christians murmuring about their imperfections and their failures and their addictions and their short-comings, And I see so little war! ‘Murmur, murmur, murmur… Why am I this way?’ MAKE WAR!”
You can here the whole ‘jam’ here. If you dare!
Ed Welch: “There is a mean streak to authentic self-control. Self-control is not for the timid. When we want to grow in it, not only do we nurture an exuberance for Jesus Christ, we also demand of ourselves a hatred for sin. The only possible attitude toward out-of-control desire is a declaration of all-out war. There is something about war that sharpens the senses. You hear a twig snap or the rustling of leaves and you are in attack mode. Someone coughs and you are ready to pull the trigger. Even after days of little or no sleep, war keeps us vigilant.”
Filed under: Church, Discipleship, Evangelical, God's Glory, Grace, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, John Piper, Reformed, Salvation, Sanctification, Sovereignty of God, The Bible, The Christian Life, The Cross, The Gospel, The glory of Christ, The word of God
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