Spiritual warfare is a reality in the life of the believer

I want to touch on the last request that Jabes makes to God in this wonderful prayer where Jabes says to him: "If you will free me from evil", that's the last thing that Jabes asks the Lord, right? "if you save me from evil".

Evil always persecutes the children of God. The Bible advises us to be sober and watch out because our adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. In the Lord's Prayer Jesus says: "And deliver us from evil" or deliver us from the evil one that is Satan, and there is continually this idea that we are in spiritual warfare against powers that want to harm our lives and that want to hinder our path. and impede our progress, and rob us of the blessings that God has for us.

The devil's wiles of which the Apostle Paul speaks are also directed precisely towards causing us to stumble and then hinder that life of prosperity and blessing that Jabez asks for. I think that is why Jabes says: "And if you save me from evil" as if to close the series of requests that he has presented to the Lord because it is like He wants to close the back door also so that the devil cannot come and harm him in some way and may he retain the blessings that God will give him.

Spiritual warfare is a reality in the life of the believer, we have to learn to do spiritual warfare to protect the spiritual life that God has given us, His blessings and protect the lives of our loved ones, our ministries, our work, our health, evil wants to steal our blessings and destroy us.

That is why the Bible also says that our fight is not against flesh or blood but against principalities and powers, against those hosts of evil that move in heavenly places, for which we must put on the whole armor of God. That war dimension of the Christian life is so important and many Christians unfortunately don't pay enough attention to the dark dimension of existence, and sometimes they even believe that this is superstition and that we don't need to talk about it.

Let me tell you that in my experience dealing with demonized people and with the deliverance ministry I have learned that evil is a reality and that we have to cover ourselves with the blood of Christ, and learn to counter the attacks of the devil through prayers. of power, and learn to rebuke the enemy, and take the authority that God gives us.

So it is important right? That dimension of spiritual warfare is a key area of life, that war that we have to exercise every day in a very natural way, not in an obsessive or compulsive, or anxious, but natural way is what allows us to save and protect our children, our property, our health, our finances.

It is interesting that Jabes says "so that evil does not harm me." The word damage in the original Hebrew refers to pain, that is to say "so that it does not cause me pain" and it is interesting that Jabes is referring to his own name, that is to say to his painful past and is saying "Lord, if You will keep me of evil so that the negative nature that my name suggests in my life is not fulfilled. " It's like he wants a contradiction of his name.

I would title this series of messages like this: "A contradiction of his name" because what Jabes is asking God is for God to contradict and neutralize what his name implies in his life. And that's why at the end of his sentence, and we can understand then why it is so important that the name of Jabes condemned him to a life of pain, and then his whole sentence is explicitly designed.

Here we are not told so many words but it is a war against pain, failure, negativity, evil, and at the end of his sentence Jabes says: so that he does not cause me pain or damage my life. Glory to God that this prayer ends with a very positive Word, God granted what he asked because God honors requests like Jabes'.

How would I have been, I wonder, from then on the life of Jabes? We can imagine it in detail. Certainly it will have been the opposite of what he will have experienced up to that moment with all the elements of prosperity, protection, encompassing blessing that he had asked the Lord, I hope that this is how our life will be.

If you are a child of God, if you are walking under the approval of God through Jesus Christ, you have every right to ask the Lord for the same requests that Jabez asked him and receive the positive response. May God bless you and until our next series of messages, I say goodbye to all of you in the love of Jesus Christ, his friend and Pastor Roberto Miranda, God bless you.