“The Theology of Spiritual Warfare” Chapter 13 of an eBook by Dave Bessey

Chapter Thirteen: Engage!

Titus Chapter 3 World English Bible

1 Remind them to be in subjection to rulers and to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, 2 to speak evil of no one, not to be contentious, to be gentle, showing all humility toward all men. 3 For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward mankind appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly, through Jesus Christ our Savior; 7 that, being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 8 This saying is faithful, and concerning these things I desire that you affirm confidently, so that those who have believed God may be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men; 9 but shun foolish questionings, genealogies, strife, and disputes about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain. 10 Avoid a factious man after a first and second warning; 11 knowing that such a one is perverted, and sins, being self-condemned.

12 When I send Artemas to you, or Tychicus, be diligent to come to me to Nicopolis, for I have determined to winter there. 13 Send Zenas, the lawyer, and Apollos on their journey speedily, that nothing may be lacking for them. 14 Let our people also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they may not be unfruitful.

15 All who are with me greet you. Greet those who love us in faith. Grace be with you all. Amen. WEB

Setting captives free from their chains is our primary task. We are in the salvation and reconciliation and restoration ministry. Sometimes there will be opposition. There are those who want to divide or hamper our ministry. These are the oppressed in the Church. We need to be vigilant. As mentioned earlier in a warning, we need to remove the spirits swiftly. In this chapter we will address the training up of apostles in spiritual warfare and how this is done.

Training up an Apostle is not easy. They need many things to bring them to maturity. Some of these are things which the mentor can not give. These come from the Holy Spirit only and are allowed to train up the warrior. Difficulty in trials is one of the best teachers. Paul was the 1st to identify these things when he talked about how these persecutions and trials matured his faith and kept him humble. Yet we still need to train apostles and help them integrate into the team. They need guidance from a mentor, but also they benefit from the other five-fold ministers.

In today's text we eventually get back to what we talked about in Chapter 11:

Titus‬ ‭1‬:‭10‬-‭14‬ ‭AMPC‬‬

“For there are many disorderly and unruly men who are idle (vain, empty) and misleading talkers and self-deceivers and deceivers of others. [This is true] especially of those of the circumcision party [who have come over from Judaism]. Their mouths must be stopped, for they are mentally distressing and subverting whole families by teaching what they ought not to teach, for the purpose of getting base advantage and disreputable gain. One of their [very] number, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, hurtful beasts, idle and lazy gluttons. And this account of them is [really] true. Because it is [true], rebuke them sharply [deal sternly, even severely with them], so that they may be sound in the faith and free from error, [And may show their soundness by] ceasing to give attention to Jewish myths and fables or to rules [laid down] by [mere] men who reject and turn their backs on the Truth.”

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There are those in the Church who want to divide it, even destroy it. They are unchained “dragons of hell”. Before we go there though, let us ask a few questions.

Why is Paul writing this to Titus? Does He know something that Titus doesn't know about what is going on in the Church?

Maybe Paul heard something from the Spirit or someone else gave him a report? The purpose of this whole letter to Titus is clearly to instruct a new apostle as he is planting a church in a region. Since apostles are pioneers, planters and builders they have the gifts in order to do this, as in to set order. There will be opposition from the enemy when an apostle begins to activate. They still need help in the spiritual battle...they are not a one man show. V1 Humility is the key, not just from the apostle, but everyone involved in the work. In VV4-7 Paul reminds Titus of who we were before and what Christ has washed us from. He is actually building a case for a serious warning. A strong prophetic word to Titus to be on the look out (APB) for those who will divide, “the factious man” or woman. He says that after the second warning we are to avoid them. He warns that these are perverted in their ways and thinking, i.e. sinful and self-condemned. What if Titus or we as warriors don't avoid them as Paul commands. What will happen to us as warriors and the Church we are building? The word factious can also mean divisive, they are always arguing and bringing a prideful attitude.

V1. They do not subject themselves to leadership, they are not obedient. We used to use the saying, “They are always making waves or going against the flow.” Rebels without a Holy Spirit directed cause. Their own selfish agenda is the only thing that matters. They are always reporting the bad things, but never come up with solutions for the common good unless it is for their vain glory. They are the religious spirits, the legalists who try to manipulate the leadership and control them. Their new program is the answer for the problems, but the program is not a discipling or equippiing area, and usually costs money.The works are human and not Holy Spirit formed or driven. These are the jezebels or pythons who suck the life out of the ministers of the church, all for the own vain glory, personal agenda and not God's. Paul wrote in Galatians this warning to them, divination type spirits attempting to hinder the leadership:

Galatians Chapter 3 World English Bible

1 Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly set forth among you as crucified? 2 I just want to learn this from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain, if it is indeed in vain? 5 He therefore that supplies the Spirit to you, and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith? WEB

The end result will be a divided Church due to this bewitching by the divination or witchcraft and religious spirits. Locked in heavy chains of oppression and the bondage will be devastating to all. Faith would replaced by works of the flesh and have no power to change anyone. The signs and wonders will cease, though the enemy might try to counterfeit them for a time, the end result is a destroyed Church. We need to cancel these assignments of the enemy against our leadership.

How do we avoid this end result?

We need to cancel these assignments of the enemy against our leadership. Sounds easy, but first the apostles and others in the five-fold ministry to discern the evil and then “engage” the enemy. As mentioned early on our enemy is spiritual, thus our weapons are spiritual. It is Jesus the mighty warrior that actually brings the victory as He fights through. Though we are the vessel, Jesus is “El Gibbor” the Hebrew word for “God the Mighty Warrior.” It is His weapons. The Apostles Paul gives us an apostolic lesson here:

2 Corinthians Chapter 10 World English Bible

1 Now I, Paul, plead with you. I plead with the gentleness and kindness that Christ himself would use, even though some of you say I am bold in my letters but timid in person. 2 I hope it won't be necessary, but when I come I may have to be very bold with those who think we act from purely human motives. 3 We are human, but we don't wage war with human plans and methods. 4 We use God's mighty weapons, not mere worldly weapons, to knock down the Devil's strongholds. 5 With these weapons we break down every proud argument that keeps people from knowing God. With these weapons we conquer their rebellious ideas, and we teach them to obey Christ. 6 And we will punish those who remained disobedient after the rest of you became loyal and obedient. 7 The trouble with you is that you make your decisions on the basis of appearance. You must recognize that we belong to Christ just as much as those who proudly declare that they belong to Christ. 8 I may seem to be boasting too much about the authority given to us by the Lord. But this authority is to build you up, not to tear you down. And I will not be put to shame by having my work among you destroyed. 9 Now this is not just an attempt to frighten you by my letters. 10 For some say, "Don't worry about Paul. His letters are demanding and forceful, but in person he is weak, and his speeches are really bad!" 11 The ones who say this must realize that we will be just as demanding and forceful in person as we are in our letters. 12 Oh, don't worry; I wouldn't dare say that I am as wonderful as these other men who tell you how important they are! But they are only comparing themselves with each other, and measuring themselves by themselves. What foolishness! 13 But we will not boast of authority we do not have. Our goal is to stay within the boundaries of God's plan for us, and this plan includes our working there with you. 14 We are not going too far when we claim authority over you, for we were the first to travel all the way to you with the Good News of Christ. 15 Nor do we claim credit for the work someone else has done. Instead, we hope that your faith will grow and that our work among you will be greatly enlarged. 16 Then we will be able to go and preach the Good News in other places that are far beyond you, where no one else is working. Then there will be no question about being in someone else's territory. 17 As the Scriptures say, "The person who wishes to boast should boast only of what the Lord has done." 18 When people boast about themselves, it doesn't count for much. But when the Lord commends someone, that's different! WEB

Be wary of those who continue to commend themselves and they never help others. It is okay to share humbly what God has been doing in your life, but we must be careful of our purposes or motives. We should commend or honor others. This is the bottom line. We will know the enemy by their fruits. Are people growing in their ministry under their leadership or are they strictly doing things that never build faith. Usually these spirit infested people place people in bondage to the fleshly efforts. Their ministry does not equate to saved souls only as stated early it cost money, it is cosmetic and it is just for show. This not the Church Jesus wants us to build. His Church is supposed to be an effective spiritual army not a game show with prizes going to the best dressed or whatever. This is religious spirit hell...stop, bind the enemy and loose the afflicted and oppressed in the name and authority of Jesus Christ!

I'm making a guess that greater than 90 percent of the readers of this work never have been in physical chains, stocks or have been held against their will. I leave the 10 percent because persecution is on the rise and the Church is under attack right now. You may have worn handcuffs, if you have been arrested for crime, but very quickly after going to the jail the cuffs are removed. Once in the jail and you are sentenced through a trial, you will be incarcerated there for the designated sentence time behind bars and you are released after the sentence is served, unless of course you were a POW or a prisoner of conscience relating to your faith in Christ. This is where the comparison with spiritual chains and human captivity ends.

No person will have a shortened sentence in the Kingdom of God without the grace of Jesus Christ and his propitiation or washing of their sins by His shed blood. The inputted righteousness is what starts the release process. But let us be clear the actual spiritual chains and releases from captivity must occur by direct act of the Holy Spirit not just by coming into the heart, but also the body and the mind. This freedom comes in the name of Jesus by humbling ourselves under His mighty hand, His anointing. Let me say that again in different words. You must humble yourself to be set free and stay free. You make someone a prisoner of religious spirits if you teach anything else and you then make them your prisoner and thus blind leading the blind to captivity of the enemy. They are free only in heart, but they become a tortured slave of sin the rest of their life. Humility is not the kind of thing that comes easily. If it is easy to say it is probably false, but without humility we can't please God.

We will study these biblical references which relate to this subject of humbling yourself or living a humble life – humility.

First I want to say this. How we receive a rebuke is critical. Sometimes we have a false image of ourselves and we are desperate to protect our reputation. We may think we are doing great, but this is a lie, no one is perfect. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will identify something within in us in a way that really hurts. The spiritual surgery to remove it is painful because we must mortify the flesh (die to ourselves and our will). Maybe the Holy Spirit has been bringing conviction on a certain sin or bondage subtly through scripture or through the Gentle voice of the Lord in our heart to our mind, yet we continue to rebel. “What me?” you say. “I'm not an angry person.” “Oh no I never really lust after other people.” “I'm not rebellious, these people are just targeting me, they are being unfair.” Sometimes the Holy Spirit is dealing with a bigger thing than just one person and their rebellion. It may be an invasion in the local Church that needs to be purged. It is nothing personal just to us, but if not removed it could become very personal to everyone as the Church divides or even worse, is completely destroyed by the gates of hell. We need to listen to the voice of the Lord and be examining our motives constantly. We are to consistently be humbling ourselves and subjecting ourselves to the Jesus, His word and each other. This is what love is about. When we consider others more highly than ourselves we are releasing ourselves to healing and forgiveness too.

We are commanded to “forgive” or we will not be forgiven. Read that sentence again. That is the words of God. Why would Jesus say this to His disciples, us? To forgive when someone has wronged you is about humbling yourself. To expect to be forgiven by others when you have wronged them is insanity, and extremely prideful. Humility is the only way to be changed and transformed. No warrior walks around like a Rambo. Life is not a one person show. We are a team. The five-folds ministers work together, along with the rest of the Church to bring victory worldwide. Even one local Church is not more important than another, It is possible for a whole congregation to be prideful. To not work with other Churches in the City. To think they have the best programs is prideful at its worst. These Churches have lost their way and will be purged eventually by Christ. These artificial divisions in the Church are for human convenience, but were never intended to bring exclusiveness. This kind of prejudice in a spiritual sense is of hell and not heaven. Jesus called us to be one in John Chapter 17 and we read a few chapters back in the book:

15 I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth. Psalm 119:142 18 As you sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world. 19 For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. 20 Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me. WEB

No where did Jesus say we should have sanctified or separate Churches that have an exclusivity in truth or that they are better than another. We are to set apart from the world system by our unity and love so “that the world may believe” in Jesus, it says in verse 21. We are not perfect and this institutional pride is a religious spirit just like the Pharisees. This is not humble! Let's break some chains in the name of Jesus and read the method that Jesus used to deal with these prideful and demon infested religious leaders who acted this way, written in the Apostle Matthew's account:

Matthew Chapter 23 World English Bible

1 Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples, 2 saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sat on Moses’ seat. 3 All things therefore whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do, but don’t do their works; for they say, and don’t do. 4 For they bind heavy burdens that are grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not lift a finger to help them. 5 But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad, enlarge the fringes on the garments, 6 and love the place of honor at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, 7 the salutations in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi, Rabbi’ by men. 8 But don’t you be called ‘Rabbi,’ for one is your teacher, the Christ, and all of you are brothers. 9 Call no man on the earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven. 10 Neither be called masters, for one is your master, the Christ. 11 But he who is greatest among you will be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

13 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.

14 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for you don’t enter in yourselves, neither do you allow those who are entering in to enter.

15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and land to make a ‡ proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much of a son of Gehenna§as yourselves.

16 “Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.’ 17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold? 18 ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obligated?’ 19 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift? 20 He therefore who swears by the altar, swears by it, and by everything on it. 21 He who swears by the temple, swears by it, and by him who was living**in it. 22 He who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him who sits on it.

23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin,††and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone. 24 You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!

25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and unrighteousness.‡‡ 26 You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that its outside may become clean also.

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous, 30 and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn’t have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ 31 Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. 33 You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna§§? 34 Therefore behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city; 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar. 36 Most certainly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.

37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not! 38 Behold, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me from now on, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

*23:5: phylacteries (tefillin in Hebrew) are small leather pouches that some Jewish men wear on their forehead and arm in prayer. They are used to carry a small scroll with some Scripture in it. See Deuteronomy 6:8.

†23:5: or, tassels

‡23:14: Some Greek manuscripts reverse the order of verses 13 and 14, and some omit verse 13, numbering verse 14 as 13.

§23:15: or, Hell

**23:21: NU reads “lives”

††23:23: cumin is an aromatic seed from Cuminum cyminum, resembling caraway in flavor and appearance. It is used as a spice.

‡‡23:25: TR reads “self-indulgence” instead of “unrighteousness”

§§23:33: or, Hell

23:39: Psalm 118:26

Folks that is a lot of verses, but if Jesus uses the word “woe” eight times, it is a serious warning about pride and hypocrisy. This level of institutional iniquity is attributed to evil in high places of leadership and not just with the ground pounders, jar heads and wing nuts, or swabbies as they say in the military for the lower ranking troops. These are the people who are truly fighting the day to day warfare in the Church.

If problems in a congregation become big enough to split a Church, then I believe it means there is poor communication skills involved due to busyness or pride, thus a lack of subjection or humility going on, The Apostle James deals with pride and the kinds of quarrels like this:

James Chapter 4 New American Standard

1 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members ? 2 You lust and do not have ; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain ; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God ? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose : "He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us"? 6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE." 7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners ; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep ; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you. 11 Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law ; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy ; but who are you who judge your neighbor ? 13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15 Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that." 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance ; all such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin. NAS

We read in Revelation Chapter 2, that those who embrace or tolerate the jezebel are adulteresses and now here James calls these folks who cause the quarrels adulteresses. V6 “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” V7.We are called to submit to God, resist the devil... and V10 to “humble yourselves in the presence of God and then He will exalt you.” James identifies it is the devil in the details here. There is a spirit involved trying to bring the quarrels and divisions through pride.

Going back to Matthew 23, we get a clearer view of why Jesus added VV29-36. Do you have any questions in your mind that Jesus could see the physical and spirit realm simultaneously? He was constantly dealing with these demons. Here starting in Verse 29 we get a glimpse into the spiritual battle He was fighting with these religious spirits. I believe there are actually 6 significant effects of the religious spirits listed in Chapter 23. The key though is what He said in V33, “You offspring of serpents.” This serpent spirit or divination like spirit is the same one that was holding the Hebrews in Egypt and caused them to kill the prophets. Earlier Jesus called them a brood of vipers. The generational curse came from the continued rebellion after release from Egypt and continued even under the many kings later as they slept with their enemies and embraced their false gods. The reason why only Caleb and Joshua entered the promised land from that generation was this rebellion. Yet here we are 1300 years later and Jesus is dealing with the same religious spirits. Then again here we go again, another 2000 years later in our generation, we having to rebuke them again.

Pride and lying are two characteristics of these religious spirits. They puff up leaders and workers in the Church too. No one is immune from this demonic infection, if we don't stay humble in the battle. Our victory comes from Christ alone and His word through faith. The Apostle Paul battled against pride in his own life as all five-fold ministers should be today. We should never read our own press reports. We are to be humble servants of Christ, not prideful dictators or religious wackos. We should be examples of Christ's love. Pride keeps us from admitting we are wrong and asking for forgiveness. Fear of losing respect to our person or ministry can keep a leader from humbling themselves and confessing, but the scriptures tell us to humble our selves and confess our sins to one another. The enemy is always looking for a foot hold to come in a drive a wedge between a leader and those who he “serves” in the ministry. A leader is not always going to be the same set man. Jesus can change this overnight. We must be ready to humble ourselves, when in a situation another can do a better job in the battle because of their gifting. When leaders are not delegating there is a problem with pride or fear.

Many years ago I was on the special teams in the Air Force we were always trying new things and pushing the envelop to increase support to our joint service customers, the navy, marines or the army. We would deploy for world operations and at times those who were junior in rank were better at a certain skill set than the higher ranking officers. The best officers knew that in the fox hole, rank was only based on experience and staying alive longer than your enemy. Many times the junior enlisted troops were the ones tasked to lead us into the fray. They had better point man navigation skills than some of us on the team who were more the technical experts, when it came to intelligence gathering, medical skills, communication skills (radios) or even weapon skills. The team functioned well because pride was left back on the plane. There was no room for a selfish son of a gun on a team and there is no room for prideful people in God's teams either. Whatever the difference we have we must work together and reach the lost. Our focus should be on Jesus and not our own feelings of insecurity or hurt because someone said something or some isn't listening or respecting me and I am the leader. Respect is earned through many years of serving and loving. Marriage is a great example of this and Paul's exhortation to men and women in marriage shows that love goes both ways. How we show or feel that love may be different for a man or women, but the relationship will not stay together if we don't submit or humble ourselves one to another:

Ephesians Chapter 5 New American Standard

15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, 16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil. 17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord ; 20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father ; 21 and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

Marriage Like Christ and the Church

22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing ; but that she would be holy and blameless. 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself ; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body. 31 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. 32 This mystery is great ; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband. NAS

Verse 21 says “subject or humble yourselves to one another.” There is no classification that the workers subject themselves only while the leader walks around like some potentate. That subjection of yourselves if universal to all and our humble ourselves to God first, is how this is done. Pray about it! Don't you think that most of our trouble in the worldwide Church extends from this lack of humility? Break the chain of pride and false humility today in the name of Jesus, and confess your sins to one another and forgive! db

Quote: Apostle Jonas Clark

“Many people fail to recognize that the Word of God exposes the wolves (Acts 20:29, 30), the dogs (Philippians 3:2), the deceitful workers (2 Corinthians 11:13) and, in the Gospel according to St. Matthew, the religious spirits. The woes themselves give us clear insight into the major characteristics of the religious spirit. The eight woes teach us that religious spirits…

1. Shut up the Kingdom of heaven.

2. Put on a show.

3. Raise false sons.

4. Are blind guides and fools.

5. Are legalistic hypocrites.

6. Are full of extortion and excess.

7. Are pretty tombs.

8. Possess a murdering spirit.

As we undergo a deep examination of the eight woes of Jesus we will learn more about the woeful traits of the religious leaders that opposed the Gospel. We will also see the gentle Jesus using the most severe language in Scripture as He addresses the religious spirit.

The word “woe” is the Greek word ouai, which is a deep felt expression of grief. The word is also used to refer to those religious spirits that cause...

• great sorrow

• grief

• misery

• affliction

• trouble

• frustration.”

Copyrights (c) Jonas Clark Ministries - Permission Only