Freedom comes from knowing who God is and what He wants from you. It means you are no longer bound by sin, death, or what the world may deem as right or wrong. Your freedom propels you do enjoy life and life more abundantly. It also empowers you to do great works for God through the gospel. This episode aims to go more in depth about all this!

The path to salvation took work. It took perfection. It took complete submission, surrender, and obedience to every law of God. That was non-negotiable. Only one being could carry that out and that was Jesus. He did it because we could not. It had to be His suffering and His death and resurrection that defeated sin and death and then finally united us to the Father to share in His glory. He restored us as humanity by working for it every moment He spent here on this earth.

God is a really big God. His nature is vast and overwhelming but truly understanding each of His parts draws us closer and closer to Him and who He wants us to be. We are able to walk more in freedom and confidence when we can fully grasp who our Lord is. Obviously we can never know all there is to know about Him- yet, but for now we can learn about how His character can and will transform us into His image which is ultimately His will: fully knowing and being fully known by God.

Wisdom in is simplest form is like and instruction manual. What better manual is there to use than God’s. His wisdom will show you the exact way to live without fear and consequences. Trusting in yourself will lead to mistakes but trusting in God will lead to life and life more abundantly. God knows you better than you know you. Leave your idea of how you think your life should go and seek God for His way because it will protect you from harm. 

As we close this series we surmise that all our defenses are revealed to us through God's wisdom. Leaning on our own understanding will not lead us through warfare safely. We must first put off our own understanding and seek God’s understanding. God will reveal to us that this is not a carnal battle- it is spiritual. Fighting in this type of battle has to be the opposite of how society wants to fight it in a way where self wins. We are winning for God so the way we fight: resisting the enemy, killing the flesh, remaining holy, and staying in constant communion with the Father- has to reflect His purposes and values. This is the wisdom found in our warfare.

God is the ultimate plug. From Him is where we get the energy to keep moving. He empowers us with wisdom, strength, and peace to face what He needs us to face and with the right tools to combat our flesh and the enemy in warfare. No one in scripture made it through the dangers and persecution in their lives without constantly communing with the Father. God was their source of direction and in Him lied their victory. Which prophet can you name succeeded without spending time with God? None. We need God to be built up when we go through warfare.

Holiness is God's invitation to Himself. God is Holy. He can only be holy. If we must encounter and experience Him, we must also be holy– that is why He has made us so. We are holy in position because He has declared us so by His sacrifice through His grace. What do we do now? Do we neglect our position and do unholy things? NO! We do not want to weaken ourselves and be more vulnerable to spiritual warfare. We must grow in our journey of being more like Christ to not be susceptible to attacks of our flesh and the enemy. This is freedom.

On our journey to understanding how to identify spiritual warfare, today we dive into killing the flesh. The flesh is like an unwanted guest or negative influence in the life of a Christian that leads them to rebelling God until they eventually die. If it sounds drastic it is. But take heart! There is a way to overcome! Jesus has given His Spirit to all who believe and are willing to not only resist the urges that come from the flesh through sin, but find enjoyment in a life with Him. Don’t be deceived by the flesh– it’s not going with you into your new life with Christ. It stays and dies on this side of eternity. That is why its so reckless in pursuing what it wants. The Holy Spirit rules over those in Christ, who now pursue what God wants.

Spiritual warfare is inevitable in the life of a Christian. It is important to understand what it is and what it looks like so you know what you need to do to endure it. Spiritual warfare is not something we look to “win” because we have already won in Christ. We are enduring it. We are RESISTING. Resisting the enemies overarching goal of shaking our faith and trust in God– that is the main focus of this episode. The next few episodes will shed light on practically enduring warfare through walking in faith and obedience in staying holy, being connected to God, killing our flesh, and using wisdom. All of these should give you more hope and clarity that you have the victory and you can get through it.

We live in a world where wrong is pretty much right and right is wrong. The enemy is working to pervert all things good and turn around and call us the crazy ones. Thankfully, we have word on good authority that we are not. God is truth. His word is truth. THAT is the standard. He has sent each and every one of us to go forth in our own ways to spread that truth. As long as we continue to look to Him and remember those promises we can be rest assured we are in the right and gain victory.