{"id":6516,"date":"2020-06-28T15:10:39","date_gmt":"2020-06-28T05:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6516"},"modified":"2020-06-28T15:10:42","modified_gmt":"2020-06-28T05:10:42","slug":"hidden-warfare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/hidden-warfare\/","title":{"rendered":"Hidden Warfare"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Hidden Warfare<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Jonathan Ishak<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Passage Matthew 12:22-37 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOr how can one enter a strong man\u2019s house\nand plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? <\/em>\u2013 Matthew 12:29<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This verse\non its own is a parable that the Lord eloquently presents to us. If a person\nwanted to enter the home of a strong man, they would first need to consider\nbinding the strong man so that they would be successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have\nsomething good concealed within our hearts. Satan would like to take this from\nus. In order to defeat us, he first finds ways to bind us so that we are\nrestrained from fighting back. If we are strong, we are untouchable to Satan,\nbut if we are weak, he can steal and destroy as he pleases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most\nvaluable thing we own is our faith and the devil wishes to plunder our faith\nand void our hope. He cunningly seeks out our destruction through a variety of\nmethods. We would be foolish to think that the devil would leave our faith to\nflourish undisturbed. His aim is to make us believe that we do not have a place\nin heaven. For every step of faith, the devil fight to pull us back to where we\nstarted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nquestion remains, if the devil wishes to plunder our houses and our goods, how\ncan we be strong? A certain youth once answered this question with three main\nattempts;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. I\ncan work on my physical strength <\/li>
  2. I\ncan grow in knowledge and respond in wisdom<\/li>
  3. I\ncan use weapons<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Spiritually,\nwe can do the same. We can be physically strong as Christians so that we fight\nagainst the attacks of Satan. Mother Teresa was once asked, \u201cwhy do you serve\nin the poorest and sickest of areas?\u201d To which she responded, \u201cBecause I love\nJesus.\u201d She didn\u2019t give a nice, worldly answer, that is she kind, or altruistic,\nor it\u2019s a service to Christ, but a simple answer that shows her spiritual\nstrength. Her motivation and goal is to love the Lord our God. Her motivation\nnever faltered, if you love the Lord, you will have strong faith that will\ncompel you to walk on the path of Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When speaking of his book, The Imitation of Christ,<\/a> Thomas Kempis says, \u201cthe most beautiful thing I found in this book is the title because it contains the name of Christ.<\/em>\u201d When we go to heaven, our Lord will give a summary of our lives on earth as an example of how much we love Him and how much effort we made to grow closer to Him. This is how to be a strong Christian. Satan cannot plunder a heart that loves God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When the\nLord came to Peter after His Resurrection, He only had one question for him; \u201cDo\nyou love Me?\u201d (John 21:15). He didn\u2019t ask him why he betrayed Him or why he\ndenied Him. Only after he said that he did love Him could he be a shepherd of\nChrist. In everything you do in the church, love the Lord. Measure your\nChristianity by the amount of love concealed within your heart. If you grow in\nloving the Lord Jesus Christ, your house is built on a firm foundation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Next, we\nmust have a strong mind. I can fight back if I can think and mentally prepare\nfor the battle. This preparation comes from the Bible and applying the teaching\nof the Lord. Read the Bible, know the teaching of the Lord and apply this to\nthe battle that befalls you. When Potiphar\u2019s wife tried to seduce Joseph, he\napplied the wisdom of the Lord. Even if it meant defying her authority, he knew\nthe words of God and remained pure. The word of the Lord was clear before his\neyes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In life, we\ntoo, must have the word of God at the forefront of our minds in all our actions\nand deeds. Those around us have their own thought processes but we remain\nstrong in the Lord. We do not follow the teaching of the world, but the\ncommandments of the Lord. Pope Kyrillos VI during the liturgy was sitting\ninside and fell asleep. A person was brought to him who was demon possessed.\nEven while asleep, the demon immediately fled from the man in the presence of\nPope Kyrillos. This reveals the power of the Word of Christ within him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Lord\nsaid, \u201cin vain they worship me, teaching the doctrine of men\u201d (Matthew 15:9). If\nyou would like to be strong, apply this teaching. Never follow the teaching of\nthe people for they lean on their own understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The final\nthing is to arm ourselves with weaponry. Our weapons are the sacraments of the\nchurch. Pope Shenouda III once said that you cannot stand strong against the\nattacks of Satan without the sacraments. These are Holy Communion, confession\nand a spiritual canon that you follow without fail. Ask your father of\nconfession to give you a spiritual canon that you can stick with. These are our\nweapons in the Body and Blood of Christ, in our repentance and confession.\nTogether, these make us strong against the adversity of the devil. This will\nmake the devil flea from you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When we\nlook at the secret place of our hearts, is it open to attack, or have we armed\nourselves with the strength of our faith, the knowledge of the Bible and\npartaking of the sacraments? At any point when we sway towards things of the\nworld, we let our guard down in the face of adversity. Continual nourishment of\nthese three elements helps us withstand the wiles of the devil. Let us make our\nhomes full of prayer, full of almsgiving, full of blessing, full of love for\nthe Lord and a welcome space for Christ to dwell. Be strong in the Lord so that\nthe devil cannot snatch your faith and claim your eternity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Hidden Warfare Adapted from a sermon by Fr Jonathan Ishak Passage Matthew 12:22-37 \u201cOr how can one enter a strong man\u2019s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? \u2013 Matthew 12:29 This verse on its own is a parable that the Lord eloquently presents to us. If a person wanted … Continue reading “Hidden Warfare”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6517,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[25,355,35,356,354,353],"class_list":["post-6516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-faith","tag-fight","tag-prayer","tag-sacraments","tag-spirtuality","tag-warfare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6516"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6518,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6516\/revisions\/6518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}