The battlefield of spiritual warfare has been a war zone since mankind's earliest days, and will continue until Christ returns. What does that mean for us today on Turning Point? Dr. David Jeremiah shares his answers as he continues his conversation with guest Sheila Walsh, all about his powerful new book and teaching series, "The Battle for Your Soul." With more of their interview, here's Sheila. One of the things that you teach on in this series, which I related to, and from interviews we've done in the past, I know you do too, and that is the battlefield of discouragement.
Talk to us about.
Well, somebody asked me one day, of all these things that Satan uses to get to you, which one does he use on you the most? And that's it, discouragement. Discouragement can be used to just take you out of the game completely. It can shut you down.
So let me ask you: You work so hard, we know that.
So you wake up and it's Sunday morning, and you know you have to preach, and you feel discouraged. What do you do?
Well, you know what? If you'd asked me that two or three years ago, I wouldn't give you the same answer I'm giving you right now. Because I've had some moments like that these last months, when I got myelitis on Labor Day in 23. I didn't preach for a couple of months. Then I tried to preach and ended up preaching from a chair, which just destroyed me.
I couldn't. My wife thought it was great, but I couldn't stand it. And then I got to be able to stand up and preach, but the disease that I have. Has a very unpredictable cycle.
Some days you're going to feel really good, but you might have some days you don't feel bad. It's incredible how Satan keeps track of that and makes as many of those days a Sunday as he can. Wow! And I've had a lot of Sundays when I would wake up and think there's just no way. But you know what?
When you step and you believe God and you trust Him. And you walk forward. It's one of the most amazing experiences. I actually told people there have been Sundays over the last two and a half years where I felt like I was standing in the pulpit, but I wasn't preaching. I was standing over watching me preach because I wasn't even aware sometimes of how I was doing it.
I knew there was no way to do it, but God helped me. And you know, some of the victories we've had. Sheila, I went to preach in Myrtle Beach when I was still in a chair. And in order for me to do this, they would bring a pulpit out here, and the pulpit would have to have an opening in it.
So when you sat at the pulpit, your knees could go under the pulpit, and you could get close enough so the pulpit could help you. And I went to Myrtle Beach, and they took me out on the platform. I looked, and the pulpit was solid in the back. There was no place for my knees. If I was going to use my notes, I was going to be doing this.
And I just said, "What do I do?" I didn't hear any voices, but I stood up, and I've been standing up ever since that happened. And you know what? I preach three sermons every weekend within a twenty-four hour period, and I preach between thirty-seven and forty-two minutes every time I preach.
So it isn't, you know, normal. What we do is not normal.
Now I don't eat dinner on Sunday until about three o'clock because I'm so tired. But the Lord gives me the strength to do that, and it's what I live for. I live for that. I live for because I love so much to do what God's called me to do.
So we've talked about some of the battles that we fight. Let's talk about who we fight. There is a very real devil. But he's not some cartoon character in a red costume with a pitchfork, is he? No.
Sheila, here is a good way to illustrate that. If somebody said to you, "Who is the opposite of God?" many of you would say Satan. But Satan isn't the opposite of God. He was created by God. He can't be his opposite.
He's not even on the table with God. He's not even in the world with God. He is subject to God, but he's powerful. And he's not anybody to take for granted. You have to understand that he has a strategy for your soul.
And if he was bold enough to tempt the Lord Jesus Christ in the wilderness, he's not going to worry about you or me. He will feel very confident coming after any of us. You know, it's interesting though because one of the things you write that I found very challenging is you say that most of us think we're no match for Satan, but that's not necessarily true, is it? You know, one of the reasons I think that's both true and not true is I hate it when I hear people stand up and make fun of Satan. Like, you know, I'm going to get you, Satan.
You're in trouble, Satan. You don't know who you're dealing with, Satan. You're dealing with, and I see that, and you do too. You've seen it. That is such a dangerous thing to do.
Don't do that. You are not able to do that. You can do that in the power of Christ and in the Holy Spirit, but you and Satan. Just you and Satan—that's a bad match. You don't want to do that.
But the other side of that is the Scripture also says, "Greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world." So, if you have the Holy Spirit in you, you know that that's going to be okay. In that Ephesians six passage, it talks about the battle we're in, but it also talks about not just Satan, but the rulers of darkness. Who are the rulers of darkness? The rulers of darkness. I believe, Sheila, that's Satan's network.
You know, he took some of the angels with him when he fell from heaven, and he has a network of angels, evil angels, that help him. In some ways, it seems as if the Scripture teaches he has geographical angels, because the Prince of Persia in the Book of Daniel was an angel, and he was very much involved in that particular part of the country.
So. I don't know all of the organizational structure of Satan's domain, but it's not just Satan. It's Satan and his angels, Satan and his demons, and they are well organized and profoundly educated, and know everything there is to know about us.
So let's move on to the weapons of our warfare.
Okay, the armor of God that was talked about in Ephesians six. How often do we need to put this on?
Well, I had a teacher in seminary named Ray Stedman. He put it on every morning. He got up every morning and literally put on the armor of God. Amen. And actually.
I found I found the little prayer where he did that, and I put it in the book.
So if you get the book, you'll find his prayer to put on the whole armor. But I think we can take that in a literal way as putting on the armor. More than anything else, we should understand what the armor is and what it does for us, and go through those. and There's a chapter in this book on every piece of armor. Interestingly enough, of all the pieces of armor that God has given us.
Only one is an offensive piece, and that's the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of Truth, the Word of God. All the rest of them are defensive. Interesting, because we're not told to advance; we're told to stand, to stand our ground. Why is that? Because Jesus has already taken all the territory, and we're not fighting for victory; we're fighting from victory.
Yes. And so we can stand and fight the victory. And all of those, all those implements, are there to help us do that.
So let's talk about the belt of truth. You know, outside of just the armor of the believer, truth is central to everything, isn't it? Isn't it true that if you know the truth, you know what to do? I mean, we run an organization here that has about five hundred employees between Turning Point and Shadow Mountain, and it might surprise you that in such a godly group of folks, once in a while we have issues. We have been sued a few times, and we don't always know what to do.
So you're sitting here with two people. He says this. She says that. If you knew the truth, you'd know what to do. Right.
So the truth is so important. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." He's the truth, and then the Bible is referred to several times as the Word of Truth.
So when you fight against the enemy, if you know what's true. And you know how to stand in the truth, and you've spent your life learning about the truth and discovering the truth, being students of the Word of God. The reason I'm a teacher is because I believe that the truth is everything. If you teach people the truth, they have the power and the strength to know what to do, and so. The belt which holds all the other pieces of armament together is the truth.
Yeah, it's the word of God. It's God's truth. One of the phrases that you hear a lot in our culture now is "my truth." Yeah, and I think there's no such thing. There's truth, and then there's a lie. Yeah, that's right.
Let's move on to the next piece: the breastplate of righteousness. What does the breastplate protect? It protects your heart, your soul. It protects the part of you, the immaterial part of you, and it refers. To several things, but the two main things.
First, first of all, to the righteousness of Christ, you're protected not because you're a good person. You're protected because you are righteous in Jesus Christ. The most amazing thing that ever happened in the world is when Jesus took your sin and gave you His righteousness. The best deal that's ever been done by anybody anywhere. You got His righteousness.
He got your sin. Wow. And that righteousness covers you; it protects you, keeps you from being victimized by the enemy.
So it's first of all Christ' righteousness—that's positional righteousness. Then there's personal righteousness: how you live. You're you're to be righteous too.
Someone has said that sanctification, which is personal righteousness, is only and simply becoming in practice what you already are in position. Wow! You are righteous in Christ.
Now go live a righteous life, and when you live that righteous life, it's a tremendous warfare against the enemy. Amen. Goes on to talk about the gospel of peace. Why is the gospel in there as a piece of armor? You know that may be the hardest piece of the armor to really grab hold of, and there are more than a few understandings of that.
But the gospel of peace is a picture of evangelism, in my estimation, of going forth with the gospel and sharing the truth of the peace that God gives us. And we need to be equipped with shoes to be able to do that. And also, those shoes were not like the Adidas that we wear, but they were boots with cleats in them that enables you to stand the ground and not be. Moved and have a strong position in your faith. What about the shield of faith?
How do we use the shield of faith?
Well, the shield of faith is given to us so that we can withstand the darts of the enemy, the fiery darts of the enemy. Anybody ever have any of those come after you? Yeah, and and the shield of faith is a picture of building your knowledge of of the word of God and your faith in God, and being able to withstand the darts when they come. They don't always have to hit home if you build a shield that will enable you to withstand them. Then Paul mentions a piece that protects our head, which is the helmet of salvation.
I think that's the last defensive part of the armor. It's a reflection of the importance of your mind. Protect your mind. Wow! Make sure you protect your mind.
Everything that happens to you starts first of all with what you think. It comes through the mind, and if you allow your mind to be an open door to whatever, you discover it's very hard to be successful in your battle with the soul. Let me ask you an additional question about that. In these days of social media. Which has absolutely permeated our society.
How do we protect our mind when we are bombarded every day by all sorts of messages?
Well, I'm sure I'm not the only one in this room who's thought about just turning it off completely. Yeah. I mean, after a while, you just wonder: is there any way to protect yourself? Even in some of the best shows, whoops! Where did that come from?
You know.
So, I think we have to be vigilant. There seems to be a little bit more of a concern about that now, even from people who aren't believers, because of what it's proven to do to our children, how it's changing the nature of children across the board.
Some schools, as you know, have taken cell phones away from their kids during the school day, but now there's a backlash against that in in the news and. I don't know the total answer to that, but you have to be vigilant. Yeah. When it comes to pornography, there's a scripture in the Old Testament that talks about making a covenant with your eyes, that you will not see that. The filth and and the stuff that's happening, and the people that are getting into it, and how it's permeating the church, is is a great concern today.
I remember back in Sunday school in Scotland, one of my favorite things on a Sunday morning was sword drill, where we sheath our swords and then draw our swords. Talk to us about the sword of the spirit.
Well, the little word, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, is really special because. I used to think it was the Bible. I had those sword drills too. You know, you hold your Bible up, and and they would say, First John three two. And when they would say charge, you'd open your Bible.
Whoever got the First John three two would stand up and read it. And if you did that enough, you got some award. And but the Bible is not the sword. The sword are the sayings of the Bible, the sayings of Christ from the Bible.
So that means. The Bible is more like the armory, and the swords are the sayings that come from the armory. And the illustration of that is Jesus when he was tempted by Satan. And what did he do when he was tempted by Satan? What did he say?
It is written, didn't he? And where did he quote? All three quotations from Book of Deuteronomy. Not my latest devotional thoughts from Deuteronomy, but Jesus showed us that even an Old Testament book like Deuteronomy is fair game, and if you use it rightly, Satan has nothing to say about it. And in fact, the Bible also says, Sheila, that if we resist the devil, he will flee from us.
And when Jesus got done with Satan, what does it say about him? And the devil left him. Amen. He left him.
So. The sword of the spirit is taking those things you know the Bible says, the verses that you've learned, and using them against the things that Satan tries to do to you. I had a friend when I first came here who was an NBA basketball player. His name was Swin Nader. He played for the Lakers, and he went to my church.
He was six eleven. The first time I ever saw him, he was driving a Volvo from the back seat of the Volvo. I'll never forget. And we became great friends. One day, we were talking about this particular subject, and we decided that we would take a notebook, and in that notebook, at the top of the page, we would put the things that Satan was bothering us about, whatever it was, and then we would research the Bible and try to find the verses that are in the Bible that deal with that subject.
And if there is one that's really bugging you, if Satan's really getting you with maybe discouragement. Put discouragement up there, and then you find Psalm forty-two, Psalm forty-three, and other scriptures that deal with that. Then memorize those, or memorize the content of them, and those become the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And you use those swords against the enemy when he comes and tries to destroy you with his things. I love that example that the Son of God used the word of God against the enemy of God.
As he did. One of the things you write about that I love, and there's actually a song about it at the moment. You talk about worship as a weapon. Talk to us about that.
Well, that's. That's an Old Testament story, where the enemy was coming, and they sent the choir out to stand against the enemy, and they worshipped. And the Bible says when they worshipped, the enemy was defeated. I wanted to put that in there. That was kind of an extra thing.
I love it though. We weren't going to put it in there, and I told everybody, no, we got to put that in there because it is true that when we lift our voices in worship to the Lord. One of my favorite writers said, "When you worship the Lord, the devil runs." Yeah, yeah. And when you worship the Lord, you can sense the power in that. When you are really worshiping God, I cannot tell you how vital that is, even for somebody like me.
I told our people not long ago that. Because of all of the challenges that I've had, some folks have said to me, "Well, why don't you just stay in the green room and when it's time to preach, they can come and get you, and you come out, and you won't have to be out there so long." I said, "I couldn't do that. I have to be in the worship. If I'm not in the worship, I haven't got any a strength. The the worship of the service gives you the strength and the power." To stand up and preach, and that's why when I see people not paying attention in worship, I'm thinking, you guys are really losing a great advantage here.
You you've been given this tool to worship the Lord. At Shadow Mountain, when we really get into worship, we don't lift our hands so much. We stand up. There's hardly a Sunday anymore where we're not singing, and something happens in the song, and I look and I'll poke down and say, look, everybody's up. Yeah.
And before you know it, everybody in the church is standing and they're worshiping the Lord. Beautiful. There is such power in that. Why would I stay in the green room and miss that? I mean, I can't understand anybody doing that.
Absolutely, absolutely.
So we've talked about the war zone. We've talked about the war and the weapons of warfare. Let's talk about the fact that we are warriors. Sheila, that's true. We we are the warriors.
All of us. And I wanted to finish this book off with some encouragement for us as warriors. How do we go forth into battle? And one of the thoughts that came to me were the words. Of Joshua in the book of Joshua, where we're told, "Be strong, be courageous, do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." And we took all of those individual statements and created chapters out of them.
I love the one about courage, where he says, "Be courageous" three times, and the last time he says, "Have not I said, be courageous?" You know, like, are you guys listening?
So. I think of all the things you can find in the Bible in one place. You won't find a more succinct group of qualities that are necessary if you're going to be a spiritual warrior. You've got to be courageous. This is not for wimps.
This is not for people who don't really care. If you want to be just casual and convenient about your faith, you're going to lose your battles. You'll get to heaven, but that won't be a very happy experience for you. And you got to be courageous, and you got to be strong, and you have to be willing to understand that the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. You're not in this battle by yourself.
So, that passage in Joshua where he's being encouraged before the conquest that's before him is a great passage for us. And we have a chapter in the end, the warrior section, on every one of those qualities. Yeah, I love it. You talk about be aware, be strong, be courageous, but then you go on to say we are not to be dismayed. That's in the passage too.
Yeah, that means don't let it overwhelm you. Don't get discouraged. Joshua was told when you go into battle, and they were going against some pretty strong enemies, don't get discouraged. How many of you know it's possible to get discouraged in the battle to get overwhelmed sometimes when you know that God is in the picture. The one thing you know is God is good and He loves you, and He will help you if you let Him do it.
Do the battles ever go away? As long as we're on the side of eternity, will there still be battles?
Well, someone was asked that one time, "How old you have to be before the battle goes away?" And they said, "Well, we don't know for sure. I'm 85. It's sometime after that, you know." Yeah, yeah, it's sometime after it. And I'll tell you the truth, I'm 85. It's sometime after that.
He changes his structure. He changes his strategy.
Somebody said it's. Candy for kids, sensuality for youth, success for middle-aged people, retirement for others. I mean, whatever it is, he knows what to do. He knows how to ring the bell in every one of our lives. And if you think that you've come to a plateau and you can take a breath and say that's over, it's not over.
Everywhere I go, and our audience will understand this, whether it's from the west coast to the east coast, people say to me, "Will you please tell Dr. Jeremiah how much he has helped us in our journey?" What would you say to somebody who feels defeated?
Well, you know what? God never gives up on any of us. I not long ago preached through the book of Jonah, and my favorite passage in Jonah is, "And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time." You know, Jonah messed it up the first time, big time, but God wasn't through with him. The word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, and the Nineveh revival was the result. And you know, I think.
Satan has three things he does. First of all, he says it can't happen to you. Then, when it happens to you, he tells you that you're done, and then he tells you you'll never be able to recover. All three of those are lies. Yes, they're lies from the pit of hell.
You ought to know it can't happen to you. It can happen to any of us, but that doesn't mean you can't recover. The Bible says if we confess our sin, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Let me tell you this: God is more anxious to forgive you than you are to be forgiven. But you have to be willing to say, "I sinned.
I'm wrong. Please, Lord, help me get back on the track." I don't know anybody that's ever done that who hasn't found that to be true. He will always receive you to Himself. You know, sometimes people say, "Well, yeah, but you don't get to go back to where you were." There's a big difference between forgiveness and restoration. You know, I think it might be a little foolish for you to think if you made a big mess out of everything that you're going to go back and just pick up where you left off.
But that doesn't mean you're going to go back and pick up. And God will take you where He wants you to go and give you ministry. And if you're Discouraged, I think the most important thing from all of this is just to realize we're not in this alone. Even with temptation, the Bible says there's no temptation taking you, but such is as common to man. Everybody has temptation.
That doesn't make it easier for to be tempted. It just is an encouragement to us that God isn't picking on us. We're all in this together.
Somebody said to me one time, "Why did you get cancer? Why did you have this disease?" And the answer to that is because I am human. You know, human people get sick, and you can't make something overly spiritual over that. Maybe something going on, I don't know, but human people get sick. It's not about what happens to you when you get sick.
What do you do about it when it happens? You know, I'll be honest with this. This is kind of an interesting play on this. You probably noticed when I came in here, I'm I'm walking better and doing a lot better, but in the early stages of this myelitis disease, I was falling down a lot, and I'm really stubborn. I I know that.
I so if you fall down a lot, what do you do?
Well, you go sit down. No, you keep walking, and I finally figured it out. It's not important that you fall down. It's important that you know how to get up. I just concentrated on learning how to get up.
And if you don't have any strength in your legs, it's a strategy. You got to know how to do it.
Sometimes you got to crawl out on the floor till you find a chair that you can pull yourself up on. I would say that you know we're going to fall down sometimes. You're going to fall down. Be careful that you don't walk into traps. But learn more how to get back up, because getting back up is how you keep going.
Amen. Brothers and sisters, will you help me thank Dr. David Jeremiah?
So much truth packaged in this new book, "The Battle for Your Soul." It talks about the war zone. It talks about the war. Talks about the weapons you have from God, and it speaks of a warrior and what you can be. I want you to get this book because I know it'll change your life. Here's how you do it: you get a copy of this book from a bookstore.
The bookstores carry this book, and you'll be able to get it on the sixth of October coming up, just a few days from now. And you can order your copy from Turning Point for a gift of any size and asking for your copy. Please don't go away from the opportunity of building your soul. A tremendous opportunity for all of us. We'll see you next time right here on this good station.
Our message today originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Senior Pastor Dr. David Jeremiah. Turning Point is also on radio and TV this weekend. To learn where you can find it, visit our website davidjeremiah.org/radio. That's davidjeremiah.org/radio, or call 800-947-1993.
Ask for your copy of David's helpful new book, *The Battle for Your Soul*. It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the New International and New King James versions, complete with notes and articles from Dr. Jeremiah's decades of study. If you have an encouraging word for us, we invite you to share it by writing to Turning Point, P.O.
Box 3838, San Diego, California 92163. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us Monday as we begin the battle for your soul on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.
