Before entering battles, soldiers put on the appropriate gear to protect them from the attacks of the enemy. And in a similar way, God provides His children armor to put on, described within the pages of Ephesians for the spiritual battles of life. We thank you for joining listeners around the world for Leading the Way Audio with Dr. Michael Youssef. Now, in this episode and several following, you'll gain insight into the tools that God has given you to face the battles of the Christian faith with confidence and to experience victory. You'll also hear multiple challenges to don the full armor of God as you step into these unknown days of 2025.
Do remember that Leading the Way is listener-supported. Dr. Youssef relies on God's provision through God's people, and you can find ways to stand with Dr. Youssef at ltw.org. Or you can speak directly with a ministry representative.
Call 866-626-4356. More later. Right now, though, listen with me as Dr. Michael Youssef begins his life-changing teaching. Turn with me if you haven't already to Ephesians chapter 6, beginning at verse 10.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Why? Because this is the one thing my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, it's the one thing you cannot, you cannot, I cannot do on our own. Why? Because our battle is not with human beings who may or may not be equal to us physically in our strength or in our intellectual abilities, or could be equal with us in the brain power, or they can be equal with us in our strategic thinking.
No, no, no, no, no, no. This is not a battle between two equals. For we are no match to that old, cunning, supernatural, evil forces of Satan and his demons. If we are to walk worthy of our calling, worthy of the calling means that we walk in humility, not in pride. To walk in unity, not in squabbling over silly things. We walk in love, not in lust. To walk in light, not in darkness. To walk in the Spirit, not in drunkenness. To walk in mutual submission and not in self-serving independence. See, that's walking worthy of the calling. These are not the things that you can do on your own.
These are the things where you cannot use a do-it-yourself kit. In fact, you can take what I'm going to tell you to the bank. I don't know which bank, but you can take it to any bank you like, spiritual bank. The more you want to be effective for the Lord, the more Satan intensifies the attack. Satan will heat up his war machine for those who want to grow stronger in their faith. Can I get a witness?
Here's another thing that you can take to that same bank. If you are a Christian who is no longer struggling with the world, the flesh, and the devil, you are either mired in sin and you can't see it, or you have become complacent in your Christian walk. If you're a Christian who has no conflict with the devil, then you are a Christian who have opted for mediocrity. I know this is strong. I know that. I know that. But it's the truth. Listen to what the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, okay? He said this to the Corinthian believers, 1 Corinthians 16, 8, and 9. I'll tell you why I got this, where I got it.
I don't have anything for myself. I'm not that bright. A wide door for effective service has been opened. You say, oh, glory, hallelujah. Isn't that great? It's all going to be smooth sailing from now on.
No. Listen to the rest of the sentence. And there are many adversaries. Whenever there is a blessing, there is a blasting. Whenever God blesses you, Satan wants to blast you. Oh, beloved, listen to me. Only God in heaven. Only God in heaven knows the indescribable spiritual battles that I would go through every time I see God at work. Every time.
It never misses. Verse 10, Ephesians 6, finally, be strong in whom? The Lord. And in the strength of? His mighty power. Now, I can tell you, some of you might not know, I've not seen somebody sifting, you know, in the sieve, you sift.
I grew up seeing wheat being sifted and flour being sifted. But if you take the entire Ephesians epistle and you sift it and you get only one nugget of it all, it would be this. As believers, we are in Christ or one. We are one with Him. His life is our life. His power is our power. His truth is our truth. His way is our way.
And here it comes. His strength is our strength. You say, oh, Michael, how can I do that? How can I appropriate Jesus' victory?
How can I appropriate His strength? Well, I'm glad you asked because I really don't know the answer, but the Bible does. Verse 11, the word of God gives it to us. Ephesians 6 11, put on the whole or some translation said full, either way, armor of God. Why? So that you may be able to stand firm.
That's it. I know most of you have heard teaching on the armor of God, and that's fine. Please just don't go very far from me because I might not go your way.
I might do something that you have not understand before. The one thing that you must never miss, never miss about the armor of God, the full armor of God. It is not something that you put on and you take off. It is something that you put on and you keep it on. Now remind yourself that you've got it on. It is not like in a sport uniform, you put on the sport uniform and you play the game and then when the game is over, you take it off. No, no, no, no.
It's not like that at all. The armor of God is a permanent fixture. The armor of God is a lifelong companion. The armor of God is God's continuous provision of his power for us and to us. Listen to me. Far from you are on your own body. Far from sink or swim.
Far from do it yourself. Paul said that God in his mercy gave us all of the needed equipment to win the battle. God gave us all that we need to have victory.
Ah, but that's if you prevail yourself on it. Verse 11 again. Put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm. Stand firm against whom? Against the government.
Against your political opponent. Against the devil's scheme. You see, most of you agree that we see evil in politics, right? We see evil in school curriculum. Sometimes when I read about these things, I literally weep.
It is so disgusting. We see evil among some school administrators and teachers union and what they want to do to our children. We see evil in corporations. And yes, sometimes we even see evil in some so-called churches.
When you see all of this, I want you to remember. These are all Satan's methodia. That's the Greek word here that he uses.
Methodia. That's the Greek word from which we get the word – his scheme – which tells us that he's crafty, he's cunning, he's deceptive. No wonder many of the false teachers and preachers today have bought into the biggest deception of all and that is that Satan does not exist.
They're bought into it. Don't ever forget. Don't ever forget that Satan was once the chief angel, the anointed cherub, the morning star who sparkled with beauty and power reflecting the beauty of God until he tried to usurp the power of God and the throne of God and got kicked out of heaven and out of the presence of God with him third of the angelic being who followed him into that deception. But here's the sad part. Here's the sad part about this deception that he doesn't exist. Jesus did not only speak about Satan, he spoke to Satan. You see it in the wilderness when Satan tried to tempt him. You see it every time Jesus tried to cast out demons out of demon-possessed people.
What have we got to do? Jesus is son of God and he talks to them throughout the Scripture. Throughout the Scripture, you see Satan first in the Garden of Eden appearing as a serpent which is known as a wise creature until they deceived Adam and Eve. Throughout the Scripture, you see him. I'm going to rattle some verses but you can download it and get them down later. In Zechariah 3.1, you see him opposing God's Word. In Matthew 4.6, you see him perverting God's Word. In 1 Thessalonians 2.18, you see him hindering God's servants. In 2 Corinthians 4.4, you see him hindering the Gospel. In 1 Timothy 3.7, you see him setting up traps for the believers. And in 2 Corinthians 11.14, he appears as an angel of light. And in the Epistle of Jude, which is only one chapter, verse 9, you see him fighting with the archangel Michael. And in 1 John 5.19, he brought sin into the world and now the whole world lies in the grip of his power. The Bible also has so many names to describe Satan.
Listen carefully. Only a spiritually blind person would have missed the descriptions and the names of Satan in the Scripture. In Ezekiel 28, he was the anointed cherub. In Luke 11.15, he's the ruler of demons. In John 16.11, he is the ruler of this world system. In 2 Corinthians 4.4, he is the god of this world. In Ephesians 2.2, he is the prince of the power of the air.
Just to mention for you, I did not give you more references. He's also identified as the great dragon, the roaring lion, the accuser of the brethren, the spirit that is working in the sons of disobedience. Fifty-two times in the Scripture, he's called Satan, which means an adversary. The devil several times mentioned as the devil, which means slanderer.
His demons have been tempting and corrupting mankind ever since the fall. They are powerful supernatural creatures and yet they are defeated foes. They are defeated foes.
They are defeated foes. And I'm giving you all this truth is not to scare you because I want to encourage you to understand the power that you have, that God has given you as we look through the whole series to overcome every time, every time. Nonetheless, we are not on our own. On our own, we are no match for him. I know I got clobbered a few times when I thought that I was clever enough to do it.
I get clobbered. And that is why we're going to spend the next three messages looking in details at this equipment, why each of these equipments that God has given us is very vital. It's important to not just protect us, but give us victory. Verse 12, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, powers, sometimes called authority either way, against the world forces of darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Paul calls it for what it is. And I know some Christian people don't like that word. I remember debating with a dear brother and he said, oh, don't use that word. Don't use that word. But Paul calls it for what it is. He calls it struggle. I didn't call it that. He said, no, no, no.
We just claimed the victory and the victory will be ours. You don't do this. And it's the power is in your tongue. Whatever your tongue says, you're going to have the power. I said, imagine God in heaven, that every time I say something foolish with my tongue, God says, okay, you got it. I don't understand.
I really don't. I'm confessing to you. Imagine poor Elijah, one of my favorite people. After a great victory, he runs into Gaza and sits there in the desert and puts his head between his knees and said, take my life. I'm done. God says, okay, you're done.
No. God is not in heaven listening, obeying what we say with our tongue. Oh my goodness, I've said so many foolish things with my tongue. I'm so glad God doesn't do that. He calls it for what it is. It is a struggle. And the word struggle here conveys, particularly in the Greek, is that hand to hand combat, especially in wrestling. But the difference is this. You are dealing with a deceptive opponent.
It does not play according to the rules. These enemies will lie and cheat and deceive and destroy their foes, especially the church of Jesus Christ. And that is why Jesus specifically said that the gates of hell will not overcome it. Paul makes sure that we understand that our struggle is not only against Satan, but it's also against his subordinates, demons, rulers, powers, forces of darkness. These are different ranks in the army of Satan, different ranks.
Each of these ranks represents a particular category of demons and their activities and their authorities. Don't ever forget that while we as Christians fight among each other, squabble among each other, Satan army is united. They're not squabble among themselves. These enemies' forces are highly disciplined. They are highly motivated. They are highly organized. And they are extremely obedient to the chain of command.
Look at these ranks very quickly. Rulers, they're linked to powers and authorities. They're the high ranking order of demons.
These are the colonels, the lieutenant colonels, and maybe one or two star generals. They are the ones who infiltrate various political systems and not just operating in these dark authoritarian systems like the ones I escaped from, but now they are operating in so-called Western democracies. Then there's spiritual forces of wickedness. Those who are involved in the most vile immoralities and sexual perversions, the occult, satanic worship, et cetera. The apostle Paul warns us as to how sophisticated, how sophisticated and powerful our enemy is.
And that is why we should never trivialize, never trivialize him or trifle with him. But rather what we need to do is run to our commanding officer. We run to the only one who could clobber Satan. We run to the only one who can shut him up and shut him down for us. We run to the only one who has given us the complete armor for us to defeat them and to have victory. Run to the only one who is trustworthy source of protection and victory, even Jesus.
The great news is this. Listen carefully. These armors, as we're going to be looking at them in details, these equipments for victory, they're not given to pastors or church hierarchy or to well-known preacher. No, no, no, no, no, no. They're given to every single believer, young or old, whether you're six or 60. You have the same equipment. You have the same armor in order to defeat your enemy every time. Please hear me right.
I'm getting ready to come to the end. No Christian, no Christian believer who could say, I am hopelessly under the attack and under the subjected to demonic forces. It is impossible. You cannot say that. You cannot say that. But if you are a continuously confessing, continuously repenting, continuously ungrieving the Holy Spirit, because we grieve him when we deliberately sin. But when we ungrieve him, you can always avail yourself again and again to the power of God.
So you cannot say, well, I am under. No, no, no, no, no. Your commanding general will not allow this to happen. If you come to him. Oh, beloved, let me emphasize. When Satan attacks you, do not engage in the battle by yourself.
Did I make that clear? Run to your commanding officer. Report your commanding officer.
Let your commanding officer take over. Verse 13. Therefore, take up the full armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand.
Having traveled the world over, seeing the church in a variety of conditions, I see particularly in the West that there are so many members of the churches who are defecting, who are defecting. Or at least they are draft dodgers. You know what I mean? Remember the days of Vietnam? The draft dodgers. And there's a certain piece comes out from draft dodging. I remember reading about those who went to Canada.
Get away from the draft during the Vietnam War. But listen to me, please. I know this is not you. Because these defectors who refuse to fight, they're not interested in the armor. They're really not. Why? Because they're not engaged in the battle.
They're not engaged in the war. But for the true soldier of Christ's army, they know the thrill of victory that comes from putting on the full armor of God. Oh, beloved, you have only one responsibility. One responsibility.
See, that's why I tell you all the truth about the enemy. We only have one responsibility. And that is to put on the uniform.
To put on the whole armor of God. What a deal. I know a good deal when I see one.
This is a great deal. This is to say nothing of the rewards that are prepared for us in heaven when we see Jesus face to face. I can testify to you, to the glory of God, that the greatest joy comes in the greatest victory. And the greatest victory comes from the greatest battle. And I've been through several of them. But they cannot be won without the full armor of God.
Can I get a witness? So I'm going to leave you with this. The greater the battle, the greater the victory.
The greater the victory, the greater the joy. Thank you for taking time today for Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. Let him know how you connect when you call us at 866-626-4356 and online at ltw.org. Discover redemption woven through the pages of the Bible and experience spiritual renewal as you go beyond just reading the Bible to seeking the Kingdom of God as you dig into the truth of its pages. That the Word of God itself is the only food that will sustain you spiritually, that will nourish you spiritually, that will encourage you every day. How to Read the Bible by Dr. Michael Youssef is available from ltw.org. ltw.org. Get your copy on the way today. Visit ltw.org to learn more about this life-changing book by Dr. Youssef.
ltw.org. Or call us. Speak with a ministry representative at 866-626-4356. And you can write to us, too. We love getting your cards and letters. You can send us your prayer request, tell us how this ministry has affected your walk with Christ, or send a gift to the ministry. We're at Leading the Way, Post Office, Box 20100, Atlanta, Georgia, 30325.
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