Ignited Bible School
Effective Ministry- Understanding the Devil’s Strategies
If you meet someone very good at chess, you will discover that they study the strategies of chess and key counter strategies to successfully address the enemies’ attacks. One major key is to stay on the offense and doesn’t allow the enemy to force you into the defensive.
Through the Word and the mighty Holy Spirit, we have been given mighty weapons to ensure we always overcome.
“Lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.”
2 Corinthians 2: 11
The devil has a handbook of strategies that he uses to defeat believers and destroy ministries. Paul warns us that we are not to be ignorant of the enemy’s strategies and to have counter strategies.
Remember what Paul further said:
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.”
2 Corinthians 10: 3, 4
So, what are some the tools that we have in our spiritual toolkit? Well, let’s look at some:
The Weapon of the Prophetic Word
One of the enemy’s strategies is to stop believers actually going forth and fulfilling the high call of Heaven. He loves to get believers busy doing things, even what appears as good things, as long as you don’t fulfill the call. He wants you distracted, confused or convinced you are disqualified from the call.
But the calls are without repentance.
We serve the Lord God who declares the end from the beginning. So, while the devil believes he will win, he is already defeated, and the Lord has already declared how things will end. The Lord doesn’t just bring inspirational words to encourage troops filled with fear to advance boldly. Even in the world, they know that if the troops become fearful, it has an impact on them and can cause them to fail. There is something about having a positive attitude because it impacts your mind and how you act and react. But that is not what we are talking about.
Let’s look at Abraham and how the Lord gives him a prophetic promise of a son. In Genesis chapter fifteen, the Lord declares He is his shield and exceedingly great reward. Abraham’s response was:
But Abram said, ‘Lord God what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. Then Abram said, ‘Look, You have given no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!’ And behold, the Word of the Lord came to him, saying, ‘This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.’
Genesis 15: 2-3
The Lord tells Abraham, who at this time was called Abram, that he will have a son who will be his heir. The Lord then added:
“Then He brought Him outside and said, ‘Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them,’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.” And he believed in the Lord and he counted on it to him for righteousness.
Genesis 15: 4-5
The Lord then strengthened this in Genesis chapter seventeen.
“When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared t Abram and said to him, ‘I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly. Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him..”
Genesis 17: 1-3
Here the Lord has another divine appointment with Abraham. As we look at the account of Abraham, the Lord has only a few divine appointments throughout his life. He has been believing for a long time regarding a son and now, not alone is his wife unable to have a child; he can’t either. So, the Lord reveals Himself as the Almighty God. We then see the relationship between the Lord and Abraham goes deeper. The journey between receiving the promise and obtaining the promise should be one of growing spiritually and developing a deeper communion with the Lord.
In this real communion between Abraham and the Lord, the Lord says:
“As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.”
Genesis 17: 4- 6
The Lord then gave him another tool to strengthen his prophetic promise of a son, and that was a name change. So, he was reminded of the promise when he looked up at night and saw the stars. During the day, as he saw the sand on the ground, he was reminded of the promise. Then when someone called his name, or he spoke it, he heard the prophetic promise. The change in the name brought Abraham to the place where he was constantly speaking the promise. Not surprisingly, the promise manifested within a year. One important thing to understand is that the Lord is even more committed to the promise He can give you than you are to it. He calls us to do our part and knows if we will do our part, He will fulfill His. Also, the promises He gives us are always beyond us and our ability, so only He can do it. As He brings the promise to the past it should forever scar the memory that He loves you and He is faithful.
Now listen to t Paul speaking to his spiritual son, Timothy.
“This I charge you, Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare.”
1 Timothy 1: 18
Paul has a lot of experience in ministry and as a father, he seeks to impart such knowledge and what is has learned to his spiritual son. So, he tells him to engage in spiritual warfare by using the promise of prophecies given to him regarding the call.
The enemy always attacks the call and seeks to get you to quit the call or follow a different path. He then says:
“Having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck.”
1 Timothy 1: 19
We must walk by faith and always stand clean before the Lord. Never allow your agenda to corrupt your vision and cause you to build your kingdom instead of His. The word for “having” or “holding” is the Greek word, ‘Echo.’ It means what you have in your hands possesses your mind or holds you. We are to echo His Word and always walk with holiness, purity, and integrity.
Let’s look at how the Lord God works:
“(as it is written, ‘I have made you a father if many nations’) in the Presence of Him whom he believed- God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.”
Romans 4: 17
Going back to the account of Abraham, the Lord declares to Abraham, “he shall be” and then declares in the name change, “I have made you.” The prophetic declaration over Abraham in changing the name meant that the temporal world would have to bow to what He had already done in the spiritual.
Paul explained:
“While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
2 Corinthians 5: 18
In other words, the temporal things are subject to change. Now, if we go to the model prayer given by Jesus, the “Our Father,’ we see:
“Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”
Matthew 6: 9, 10
Firstly, everything we do must be done for His glory and to expand His kingdom and not ours. Secondly, we have a responsibility to pray forth on the earth His purpose. Turn quickly to Ezekiel chapter thirty-seven and the account of the Valley of Dry Bones. The Lord asked Ezekiel a question:
“And He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ So I answered, ‘O Lord God, ‘You know.”
Ezekiel 37: 3
The term Son of Man, of course, typically refers to Jesus. So, we can see that the Lord God was speaking prophetically and pointing to Jesus. Now, Ezekiel is asked whether or not the impossible could happen, and the dry bones live again. Ezekiel turns the question back on the Lord.
The Lod then answers:
“Again He said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord God to these bones: ‘Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.”
Ezekiel 37: 4, 5
The Lord God, instead of just speaking Himself to the dry bones, honors His delegated authority and tells Ezekiel to prophesy exactly what He says. Or he was to take the prophetic promise and declaration from the mouth of the Lord God, get it into his spirit, and then he was to use his mouth to declare it on the earth. Do you see the parallel with the “Our Father”?
God operates according to His rules and laws, which include working through His delegated authorities on the earth. In your life, you have an authority given by God. You have free will and can choose to do what the Lord desires and is right or do the wrong thing. You also have the right to hear what Heaven says, receive it, and declare it so in your life.
The Lord God declares so what He desires in His heart. He does not just speak words and then stand amazed on what those words produced. But rather speaks forth of the hope in Him.
The promise has to build in you a hope that grows and is strengthened through your fellowship with the Lord. Listen to Abraham:
“Who, contrary to hope, in hope, believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, ‘so shall your descendants be.”
Romans 4: 18
There are two types of hope: natural hope based on circumstances and spiritual hope based on the Word. Abraham realized that his natural hope was over and put his trust in the spiritual hope built upon hearing and receiving what the Lord said.
When the enemy seeks to persuade you that this won’t happen or you ate going to fail in this or that, if you have a word from the Lord, use it. Prophetic promises and words given by the Lord are powerful. Not brain tissue words, but words that come from the heart of the Father, and as you spend time with Him in His Presence, the promise is talked about and grows. So, like Abraham, you stand fully persuaded. Now, you can attack the enemy using those promises as a mighty sword in your hand.
