This sermon delves into the concept of spiritual warfare as outlined in Ephesians 6:12, emphasizing the unseen battle against spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly realms. It challenges believers to shift their focus from fighting with human beings to engaging in spiritual warfare against the enemy. The importance of setting our minds on heavenly things, ceasing earthly conflicts, and having authority over Satan through complete surrender to God's will is highlighted.

Now I'll explain to you why you don't know anything about spiritual warfare. Turn to Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 12. This is something the Lord showed me many years ago. I never read it anywhere, but in my own pursuit of the Lord, He showed me something from this verse which is so obvious. But sometimes things which are written so obvious in scripture, you don't even see it until God gives you revelation. Here it is, Ephesians 6.12. I hope you'll get a revelation today that will change your life from this verse. You've heard me say it before, I want to repeat it. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Now first of all, I want to say this battle is in the heavenlies. Now if there's a war going on in Iraq and you live in Bangalore and say, hey I don't feel any war around here. That's right, because you're not living in Iraq. But you go and ask the people living in Iraq right now and they'll be, every day there's war. They hear sounds of gunfire, not once in a while, every day. Most of us have never heard the sound of gunfire even once. Why? Because we're not living in that area. So if you're not living in the heavenlies, obviously you'll never hear any warfare, will you? Your warfare, you don't hear it because this battle is in the heavenly places, it says. So if you're not living there, you won't hear anything about this warfare and you won't know anything about it in your life. That's one thing. The second thing I want you to see here is that the only folks who can fight against Satan are the folks who have stopped fighting with human beings. It says here, our struggle is not against human beings, but against demons. And I want to say to every single one of you, if you still fight with your wife, obviously you don't know, you don't have a clue about fighting with demons. If you still fight with your husband, or your mother-in-law, or brother-in-law, or neighbor, or auto rickshaw driver, or railway porter, what in the world are you going to know about spiritual warfare? You've got enough to do fighting here with people on earth. Keep fighting, brother and sister. Why do I say that? Because the Bible says, he who is filthy, let him be filthy still. It's in the last page of Revelation. After all that we hear, if you still want to fight with human beings, you know what God says, go ahead, keep fighting. You'll wake up in eternity and if you ever make it into the kingdom of heaven, if you ever make it, you'll live there with the regret. I believe Christians don't take their warfare seriously. First of all, because they haven't taken the kingdom of heaven seriously. They haven't understood anything about the new covenant. When we are in the new covenant, it involves spiritual warfare every day. If there are problems at your home, it may have been caused by the devil. Why fight with your husband or wife? You remember that story in the Old Testament where it says David, when he was a young man, was looking after the sheep and it says a lion, you read that in 1 Samuel in chapter 17, a lion came and caught the sheep, caught one of those little lambs and grabbed it and lamb was hanging in the mouth of the lion, he hadn't eaten it yet. And David, this is before he was anointed, amazing. I mean Samson did it after he was anointed, David did it before he was anointed. Have you noticed that? He went there, I mean he had such faith in God that he went and tackled the lion and delivered the sheep from the mouth of the lion. Wasn't that sensible? Instead of standing there and giving a lecture to the sheep and saying, why in the world were you not careful? Didn't I warn you so many times not to go astray, etc, etc. By the time the lion would have eaten the sheep. And that's what happens when the lion, the devil grabs your wife or your husband or one of your children and is about to eat them up and you get angry, not with the lion, but like a fool, you get angry with your wife, the sheep or the husband or your child. And you begin to give a lecture and a lecture and the lion is just enjoying the lecture because he knows that gives him time to swallow up the whole sheep. This is exactly what happens. I mean it happens in unbelievers homes all the time, I can understand that. It happens in Christians homes and it happens in believers homes and it happens in the homes of people who speak in tongues, who claim to be spirit filled. That's not Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit always leads to spiritual warfare. That's what I said, meant when I said I hope God will give you a revelation on this. We do not wrestle with flesh and blood. Many years ago the Lord said to me, if you want to fight Satan, stop fighting with human beings. And when you completely stop fighting with human beings, you'll have such authority over Satan that one word of yours, he will tremble. It's true. It's absolutely true. We can have authority over Satan when we cease to be interested in earthly things, when our mind is set on the things above and when we stop fighting with any human being. Anybody who's made of flesh and blood, stop fighting with that. We're just not interested. So you see, this is the reason why the church is not being built the way the Lord wanted it to. Because he finds so few who are his co-workers who, number one, have their minds set on heavenly things and keep the... It's not that they don't use earthly things. They use earthly things. Jesus used earthly things. Jesus earned money through doing business. Do you think he sold his tables and chairs at cost price, cost of material? How could he live then? He charged for his labor. There's nothing wrong in that. The laborer is worthy of his hire. There's nothing wrong in doing business for a profit. Do it honestly. And you can charge whatever commission you like. It's up to the other person whether he wants to buy it from you or not. He doesn't want it from you. He'll buy it from somebody else. You can charge 50% extra if you like. That's not the question. Jesus did it. The question is, are you honest? Are you upright? Are you cheating anybody of material, etc? Jesus did it. He used earthly things, but his mind was not set on becoming the richest carpenter in Nazareth. No. He wanted... His mind was set on earthly things. What do you think Jesus was dreaming about at night? How to make more money? What do you think he was sitting at home and thinking about after he came back from the carpenter shop? How can I expand my business and make more money? No. How can I have more time for my Father? A lot of people say they are following Jesus solely in words. If you look at their private life, they are not following Christ at all. And do you think Jesus could do his Father's will if he came back home and fought with his mother and his brothers and sisters? No. Jesus wasn't that type of Israelite who just went once a week to the church and sang wonderful songs and came home and fought with others at home. No. Unfortunately, he's got a lot of children like that. He's got a lot of people who say they follow him, but don't have a clue what it means to follow him. See, the church is built on the foundation of Jesus Christ. That's the rock. Peter said, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And Jesus said, Peter, that's the rock on which I'm going to build the church. Everything has to be on this foundation. I mean, think of this building. They first laid a foundation. And all the walls and pillars were on that foundation. Supposing they laid the foundation and then put the pillar somewhere else. This building would have collapsed long ago. But it hasn't collapsed because the pillars are on the foundation they lay. And that's how any sensible builder builds a house. So it's not enough to say, Well, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm saved. That's the foundation. And then everything else in the church, they follow the methods of the world, particularly in the area of money and music. Why do I mention these two? Because these are the two things that have replaced the power of the Holy Spirit in the church today, money and music.