Every month, a brief summary of a Bible Study session by Pastor Johnson will be featured. To learn and enjoy an entire session, please come to our Bible Study sessions held every Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. You’ll be glad you did!
“Warfare!” – James 4:1-4
Dr. Brodie I. Johnson, Pastor, Cornerstone Institutional Baptist Church
There are different types of warfare: warfare of the world, warfare of the flesh, conflict that the devil causes, warfare of handling some invisible foes and demons, and the warfare of handling the enemy inside of you. The average person who has demons on the inside can see the demons in others, but not those that are within. Every time you think you have everything just right, got every situation down pat, then here comes ole Slew Foot, Satan! Sometimes one of the worst demons in the world is a “mental demon”. You know you don’t always think straight.
1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? There’s also a tussle that goes on within your own body. It’s just like having a good dog and a bad dog. You have to be careful of which one you feed! One of the most dangerous things is when you have a “malnutritioned good dog” because you don’t feed it enough. When you’re fighting with things on the inside and you have enough hell in you to explode – then you are “spiritually overweight”. That’s dangerous because you don’t know how to go on a “spiritual diet”.
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Many people think that just because they park themselves on a pew in a church, that good stuff should just happen, “…yet ye have not, because ye ask not.” Tell God now what you want to make next year. God knows how to put you in the right place at the right time. Learn how to write down everything that you want God to do for you. Too many times, we ask God for the wrong things. Be specific. Ask him to handle those devilish folk in your life. The problem is we don’t have the patience to wait on God to handle it. Be patient because he wants to see how serious you are about what you want and he will bless you according to what’s in your heart.
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Be very careful! God does not answer prayers that do not line up with his word. You also have to be a good steward of what he has already blessed you with.
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Want to survive warfare? At some point in your life, you will have to make a choice. You can’t hold on to the world and also hold on to God!
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. I Thessalonians 5:18