Warfare portals

Dear beloved: Now that we have looked at the spiritual armor we are to put on, we will look at the portals of entry, or the pathways by which satan and his demonic kingdom gain entry into our lives. In knowing the common paths of entry, we can be on the alert and therefore better defend ourselves against the flaming missles of the evil one.

There are two broad general categories through which demonic presence may come or attempt to come into our life. First, generation curses that we are born with and we had no part in choosing or bringing upon ourself, and second, sins that we choose through either commission or omission and that we are responsible for. There are also seven basic areas of manifestation where these demonic powers then manifest and make their presence known in our life and in our behavior. The seven areas are: 1. Emotional problems, such as anger, fear, hatred, self pity, rejection, jealousy, depression, worry, and insecurity. 2. Mental problems, such as mental torment, procrastination, indecision, confusion, doubt, rationalization, loss of memory. 3. Speech problems, such as uncontolled use of the tongue, lying, cursing, blasphemy, criticism, mockery, railing, and gossip. 4. Sexual problems, such as fantasy sex, masturbation, lust, homosexuality, perversion, fornication, adultery, incest, provocativeness, and harlotry. 5. Addictions, such as tobacco, alcohol, drugs, medicines, caffeine, and food. 6. Physical infirmities, many diseases, whether of an acute or chronic nature, are due to spirits of infirmity. Other diseases may be the result of sin in our life, such as hepatitis as a result of drug addiction. 7. Religious error and occult practice. This can be further broken down into four basic categories, 1. false religions, such as Hindu, Islam, Buddhism, pagan religions, Scientology, mind sciences. 2. Christian cults, such as Mormonism, Jehovah's Witness, Christian Science, Rosacrucian, Theosophy, Unity, Freemasonry and other lodge secret societies, and many more, all of which deny or confuse the atonement of Christ's blood as the way to salvation and healing. 3.Occult and spiritism, including witchcraft, magic, ouija boards, astrology, hypnosis, palm reading, divination, necromancy, spiritists and mediums and many others. 4. False doctrine, doctrines within the Christian faith that are heresy and dilute, add to, or divide the word of God in a way that brings division and heresy into the body. All of these categories are discussed in more detail in a book called " Pigs in the Parlor, a Practical Guide to Deliverance" by Frank and Ida Mae Hammond.

Beloved, it is important that we cover ourself each and every day with all the gospel armor. Many Christians are taken out prematurely (die before their time), are rendered sick, helpless, ineffective, stripped of their gifts and callings, and some even walk away from their faith due to the demonic presence in their life. It is vital that we learn to recognize it and deal with it. John says in 1 John 3:8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil. v9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. v10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious; anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

I'm going to close with a story from the 1 Kings 22:34 that is a good illustration of how holes or gaps in the armor can be fatal to us. v34 Now a certain man drew his bow at random and struck the king (King Ahab) of Israel in a joint of the armor. So he said to the driver of the chariot, "Turn around, and take me out of the fight, for I am severly wounded."v35 and the battle raged that day, and the king was propped up in his chariot in front of the Arameans, and died at evening, and the blood from the wound ran into the bottom of the chariot. v36 Then a cry passed throughout the army close to sunset, saying, "Every man to his city and every man to his country."...They were defeated and scattered. That is a picture of many Christians, many families, many churches. We are wounded in battle due to holes in the armor, we get propped up in our chariots so we can make it appear we are still in the fight, but in reality we are defeated and do not walk in the victory that God has declared for us. The next teaching we will start to take a closer look at each of the entry pathways and how we can seal them up. God bless you this day as you go into battle, in Christ, Jim