On the Couch With God - Daily Devotional

We will not be releasing our devotionals for two weeks beginning Monday, May 23, 2022, and ending Wednesday, June 15, 2022. Thank you so much for your understanding.

For the first three years of World War II, America tried its best to remain neutral and stay out of the world conflict. Only after the attack on their home soil at Pearl Harbor did America enter the war. That decision forever changed the course of our nation as we more than rose to the occasion. We took our place as a world superpower. For far too long the enemy has been attacking you, your family, your church, those you love. Through lies and deception he has tried to convince you that there is no war, and if there is you’re too weak or too broken or too sinful to fight back. My hope and prayer is that these past thirty days have helped you realize your powerful potential in Jesus, and more than that, that you’ve learned and developed the spiritual weapons needed to fight back and protect those you love. At the end of the day, remember the timeless truth from James 4:7, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” When we choose to fight back, we’re not the ones that flee. Sat

Thus far we’ve looked at the ten steps to spiritual warfare and how they can be used defensively to protect those you love. Spiritual warfare can also be leveraged to push back the darkness and make a difference for the Kingdom! Here is how you can intentionally wage war in the spiritual to make a difference in your world: 1.See the Supernatural Behind the Natural - When you see the supernatural, you can do something about it. It’s hard to fight a battle that you cannot see. 2.Fight From a Position of Victory - You’ll be amazed at how many spiritual battles you will win when you realize just how victorious you already are in Jesus. 3.Saturate Yourself with Truth - When you’re saturated with truth it will come out of your pores. Your conversations will be filled with truth and love, and people will see Jesus. 4.Live Right - Seek justice and stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. Live right and help others do the same. It will change their world, and yours. 5.

Stand . . . Take . . . Pray. Ephesians 6:10, 14, 18 When God created the earth, everything He created was good, because God is good and perfect. But God Himself declared something not good in creation, when Adam was created and alone, The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). We are created for community, we are hardwired for relationships, first and foremost with God but also for each other. The problem is technology has created a world where we can do everything in isolation. We can shop online, we can interact with others online through social media, we can even go to church online. When the enemy isolates us, he wins, every time. When you engage in spiritual warfare, if you’re faithful to leverage steps one through nine but you fail in step ten (fight together), you will be defeated. You are not designed to fight alone. You are not intended to be a solitary bulwark against the forces of darkness attacking those you love. You need allies, you

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Ephesians 6:18 Pray. Pray. And pray some more. Prayer is one of the most potent weapons in our arsenal to protect those we love and fight back the forces of the enemy. That’s why Paul urged the Christians in Ephesus not just to pray, but to pray in the Spirit (step five). Let’s use an example of one spouse praying for another. Instead of praying bland generalized prayers like “help him have a good day” or “help her to be happy,” walking in the Spirit will give you insight into the specific attacks coming after them (step one). The Spirit (step five) might tell you that your husband is wrestling with a deep hurt or wound from his childhood or that your wife may be crippled by fear and anxiety. So when you pray warfare prayers (step nine), you begin to utilize the specific word of God (step eight) to fight alongside them in

Take . . . the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6:17 The enemy will always attack you and your loved ones through deception. It may be an addiction that you don’t believe can be left behind, a marriage that seems beyond repair, a child or friend that seems beyond redemption. All of those are lies straight from the pit of hell. As you begin to saturate yourself with truth (step three) and walk in the Spirit (step five), you’ll begin to recognize the lies of the enemy as an unwelcome intruder in your home. The way you fight back is with the specific word of God over your life. You need to learn, memorize and wield these words of God as a weapon. Here are some fighter verses to get you started: • 2 Timothy 1:7 – For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. • Psalm 118:17 – I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done. • Psalm 91:10 – No harm will overtake you, no disaster will come n

Take the helmet of salvation. Ephesians 6:17 When Jesus starts the most famous sermon he ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), he started it with a list of attitudes and actions that would lead to the blessing of God, known as the Beatitudes. Where does he start? With surrender: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). What does “poor in spirit” mean? It’s a posture of humility, of surrender. Another way to say “poor in spirit” would be “blessed are the spiritually bankrupt” or “blessed are those who overwhelmed by their inability to save themselves.” How does being aware of your own depravity lead to blessing? Because it leads to surrender; because it leads to God. From the beginning, the sin of mankind has been the sin of rebellion, attempting to live life on our own, apart from God. Even once we become Christians, we have to fight the daily temptation to live life on our own. Too many Christians treat Jesus as their “

Take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Ephesians 6:16 The most powerful aspect of your life is an aspect too few Christians regularly employ. Jesus gives us a picture of it when he says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). Some of us are driven by our animal instincts and physical needs (strength) while others of us are controlled by our emotions (heart). Many of us think that our minds are the most powerful part of our bodies. We believe what our minds tell us. We are what our minds tell us we are. The danger in that is that our minds are fallen and open to deception from the enemy. The most powerful part of our bodies, stronger than our bodies, stronger than our emotions, even stronger than our minds, is our soul. It’s where our will dwells. Actively choosing to believe God, exercising true faith, is exercising your will and

Stand firm then . . . with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. Ephesians 6:15 “Think fast!” That’s typically the words you heard as a kid a split second before a ball came flying at your face. In most of those situations, we’re too distracted to see the ball coming and it falls to the ground after leaving an imprint on our cheek. When it comes to spiritual warfare, the stakes are much higher than a ball coming at your face. The enemy is attempting to establish a beachhead in your family, the relationships of those you love and want to protect. One thing you can never overlook is the enemy’s tenacity. He is relentless in his quest to destroy everything good in your life and the life of your family. My prayer is that over the past three weeks you’ve been able to begin to sense the attacks of the enemy in a way that you never have before. Walking in the Spirit is developing a sensitivity to the Spirit’s direction on a daily and even hourly basis.

Stand firm then . . . with the breastplate of righteousness in place. Ephesians 6:14 It’s amazing how much protection is offered simply by living right and how much our actions can protect the lives of those we love from spiritual attack. Here’s what Job wrote: I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy; I took up the case of the stranger. I broke the fangs of the wicked and snatched the victims from their teeth. Job 29:14-17 It’s application, not intention that leads to transformation. Many times we’ll want to do right for those we love, we’ll pray about doing right and we’ll even intend to do it, but we’ll never follow through. When Jesus talked about the man who built his house on the rock (Matthew 7), the rock was the man who put the words of Jesus into action. Simply put, your right actions will have a spiritually protective effect not just on yourself but on those ar

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. Ephesians 6:14 What lies are infecting your family? What lies have gotten a hold of the minds of your loved ones and those you’re trying to defend? For kids it may be the lie that they are not pretty or handsome or that they have to act a certain way to fit in. For friends and loved ones the lie might be the promise of momentary satisfaction that comes from an addiction. For a spouse it might be a lie about your relationship or a lie from their past that is keeping them a prisoner. The enemy’s strategy has always been to weave a web of lies so tightly around you and those you love that you can’t see your way out and you remain captive to his lies. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Ephesians 6:13 One of the biggest keys to successfully fighting spiritual warfare is to fully understand that you’ve already won. Because life can sometimes feel overwhelming and because attacks on your family and those you love can seem relentless, it’s easy to believe the lie that the enemy is too strong and overpowering, leaving us to fight an uphill, losing battle against the enemy. But as you’ll be reminded again tomorrow, lies are the first line of attack by the devil. The truth is, you’re not fighting a losing battle, the enemy is. Paul writes to first century believers about Jesus, “Having disarmed the powers and authorities, Jesus made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:15). “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). Bec

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12 Cancer is an unseen killer, eating you from the inside out whether you realize it or not. Anyone familiar with cancer knows that the earlier you detect it, the better chance you have of defeating it. Stage one and stage four cancer are two completely different worlds. But to fight cancer you have to know it’s there. If you want to fight for your family, you have to know what’s attacking it. You have to see the battle before you can start fighting. Know from the beginning that a healthy, vibrant, God-honoring family is an affront to the enemy and he will do everything he can to tear it apart. The love and commitment within your family honors God, making your family a target. But as you hopefully understand by now, that should not cause you to fear. It should cause you

Over the last two weeks we’ve discussed the ten steps to successful spiritual warfare. We’ve defined each step and given practical ways for each step to be lived out in your life. But this is a thirty day guide, so what’s left to discuss? A lot! Now that we’ve spent time defining each of the ten steps, the rest of this book is going to be spent helping you learn how to implement this armor both defensively and offensively. The next ten days will look at utilizing the armor of God to protect your family, your friends and your loved ones. Because it’s not just you under attack. The enemy is coming after everything you hold dear, and remember the principle of step ten: fight together. So can you extend your armor to those around you? Can your actions have an impact on those you love? Absolutely. Remember, a lie from the enemy is that spiritual warfare is every person for themselves. In Matthew 9 Jesus heals a paralyzed man, but it wasn’t because of this man’s faith. It was because of

Let’s review the ten practical steps to successful spiritual warfare: 1. See the spiritual behind the natural, 2. Fight from a position of victory, 3. Saturate yourself with truth, 4. Live right, 5. Walk in the Spirit, 6. Actively choose to believe God, 7. Surrender daily, 8. Wield the Word of God, 9. Pray continually, 10. Fight together. All of these steps are important, and many of them overlap with each other, stacking on top of each other to form an impenetrable force of armor around you. If you saturate yourself with the truth (step 3) by spending time in the Word of God (step 8), you’re going to be much more likely to actively believe God (step 6) because you know His promises. When you live right (step 4) and intentionally lean into biblical community (step 10), you’re going to discover the power of together and it will be natural to fight from a position of victory (step 2). As you develop a continual prayer conversation with God (step 9), that will lead you to begin to not

Stand . . . Take . . . Pray. Ephesians 6:10, 14, 18 The final step in successful spiritual warfare is one that is as critical as the others but it is far too easily missed. The last step isn’t a specific verse or a piece of armor mentioned, but rather a verb tense. When most Americans read the armor of God passage in Ephesians 6, we read it through the lens of our individualistic, self-focused mindset. We worry about ourselves first and foremost. As harsh as it sounds, everyone else can fend for themselves. But that’s not the intention at all behind Paul’s instructions on spiritual warfare. When Paul tells us to stand firm, to take the pieces of armor, to pray, the verb is not in the singular form, it’s in the plural. To use Southern language, it’s as if he’s saying, “Y’all stand, y’all take, y’all pray.” Why is this important? Because too often our defeat in spiritual warfare comes from the fact that we try and engage in it on our own. And please understand this: if the enemy ha

"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people" (Ephesians 6:18) Most assume that the armour of God finishes with the sword of the Spirit, but in the original Greek, Paul grammatically ties prayer to the rest of the pieces, as if prayer is the last on the list of attributes and behaviors needed for successful spiritual warfare. We simply fail to make the connection because prayer doesn’t have a specific piece of armor attached to it, but Paul makes the connection clear that prayer is vital to spiritual warfare. Think of it this way: if the word of God is the gun, then prayers are the bullets. In modern warfare, can you ever have too much ammunition? Never! Prayer is our ongoing conversation that we have with God. Can you ever have too much prayer? Never! In a similar way, I have a constant an ongoing conversation with my wife throughout the day. Sometimes i

"Take . . . the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Ephesians 6:17) Each of the steps to spiritual warfare stack and build on one another. Wielding the word of God builds off of step three: saturate yourself with truth. Because the enemy is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44), the truth will always be the strongest weapon to fight back with. And there is nothing truer (and because of that) more powerful than the word of God. But what’s interesting here is the word used for “word.” In the original Greek, there are two words primarily used for “word,” one being a general sense and one being more specific. The word Paul uses is the specific sense of “word.” It’s like the difference between saying “the Bible” versus saying “John 3:16.” One is general, the other is very specific. Paul here uses the specific word, meaning that it’s not just enough to own a Bible or have the Bible app on your phone. You have to know it. In the same way it makes no sense for a

"Take the helmet of salvation" (Ephesians 6:17) One of the misconceptions about spiritual warfare is that it is something that you do one time. When we see the word “salvation” in the New Testament, our minds immediately go to the moment when we surrender our lives to Jesus and receive his forgiveness for our sins. But we see a different shade of meaning in this verse. Paul was writing to Christians who were already saved to take the helmet of salvation. That doesn’t mean he was telling them to get saved again. It means that the posture that we adopt when we give our lives to Jesus, the posture of surrender, is one we need to continually maintain for sustained spiritual victory. Too may times Christians attempt to live life under their own power and their own strength, as if we don’t need God’s protection or His power in our lives. But Jesus himself said that “apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Taking the helmet of salvation is maintaining a mindset of humbl