War Rooms, Praying Scripture, and Spiritual Warfare (repost)

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I strongly believe that there are angels and demons.  That prayer matters.  That there is a spiritual battle going on around us all the time ... and that we need to get involved in it, actively and consciously.  (Something I haven't been doing lately.)  

Regardless of if we want it or not, we are constantly facing spiritual battles.  But if we don't acknowledge it - if we stick our heads in the sand, refuse to get involved, fail to put on our spiritual armor or to use the spiritual weapons available to us - we open ourselves up to deceptions, to defeat, to being very vulnerable to the strategies and attacks of the evil one.  You can't win a battle you don't even know you're in.  You can't defeat an enemy you pretend isn't there.

What I have done here is compile a list of posts on spiritual warfare, on praying Scripture, and on creating a War Room (or War Journal).


Have you ever seen War Room?

You should.  It's a great movie.  And it is so relevant to life, the spiritual life.

I've read through all these links, but I haven't checked out everything on each site, so you'll have to be discerning.  But I did try to make sure there are no Calvinist ones (at least overtly Calvinist ones).  I think Calvinism can't offer true biblical advice about spiritual warfare and prayer because it believes God preplans/controls/causes everything that happens, even every evil and every sin and every thought you have.  This makes the spiritual battle an illusion, a dramatic pre-scripted play.  And if this is so, then how can you engage in spiritual warfare as God intended?  And what even is spiritual warfare then, if God controls both sides?  What is prayer?  Why does it matter?  What effect does it have if it's all pre-scripted and caused by God?  Calvinism leaves you thinking that none of it really matters because you can't make any choices anyway about not sinning, about praying, or about fighting evil (just like Satan wants you to think).  

And I've tried to be careful to choose only posts and sites that seemed trustworthy and accurate.  Not overly sensationalized or biblically off-track or anything like that.  But practical and down to earth and biblically-sound.  Check a few out and be inspired to take the spiritual battle more seriously.


[And if you are dealing with anxiety, discouragement, and sinful strongholds in your life, may I recommend some really good books from Neil T. Anderson (some have a coauthor): Victory Over The Darkness, Freedom From Fear, and The Bondage Breaker.  They are loaded with Scripture and biblical truth.  Just a couple weeks ago, I was beginning to feel anxiety rise up inside of me again.  And so I checked these out from our church library.  Reading the Scriptural truths in these books calmed my mind and filled me with hope.  I ordered my own copies online shortly after so that I could go back to them again and again.]
 


On Creating a War Room:

Prayer Closet: How to Create One and Why You Should (embracingasimplerlife.com)

How to Create a Prayer Closet - Your War Room (womenlivingwell.org)





a long post from my Bible Study on Prayer



On Spiritual Warfare:



Tony Evans Sermons Related to the Spiritual Battle

Some basics:
The Nature of the Battle part 1 (audio, 25 minutes long)







Overcoming Satan Series:



Grab Your Sword (audio, 44 min.)

Well-dressed for Warfare (audio, 49 min.)


Armor of God:
The Belt of Truth (video, 31 min.)


The Shoes of Peace (video, 32 min.)

The Shield of Faith (audio, 25 min.)

Helmet of Salvation, part 1 (audio, 25 min.)

Helmet of Salvation, part 2 (audio, 25 min.)

Sword of Spirit, part 1 (audio, 25 min.)

Sword of Spirit, part 2 (audio, 25 min.)


Igniting Kingdom Prayer Series (all are video, 28 minutes long each):













Another Prayer series (may be out of order, video, 28 minutes long each):






Random:



The Protection of Prayer (audio, 25 min.)



Prayer that wins the war (audio, 28 min.)

The Power of Truth (video, 27 min.)




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This series is based on this 14-minute video from Alana L.:   5 Signs Your Loved One is Becoming a Calvinist    Point #2:   E.  Alana then pointed out how Calvinists say that Jesus's work on the cross was "sufficient for all of humanity, but it's not efficient [for all]."   It's only "efficient" for some, for the elect. I love it when she said this about "sufficient and efficient": "Okay, huh, new words, not in Scripture."  Priceless!   I think these bogus terms - which are  not  in the Bible - are merely a way for Calvinists to sound like they're saying one thing when they really mean another, to sound like they're saying Jesus died for all when they're really not.  They know that  if they outright said Jesus didn't die for all, it would contradict certain verses and set off people's alarm bells - and so they speak on multiple levels to obscure what they're teaching, to buy them time to slowly, strategically m...
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I  found a lot more names to add to my list of known Calvinists (found in my various  "How to Tell if a Church, Pastor, or Website is Calvinist"  posts).  But instead of adding this huge list to all those posts, I am going to put it here, and I'll just provide a link on those posts to this one.  [FYI: I added a note at the bottom of this post on May 5, 2021.] So here it is, a "master list" of known Calvinists to help you be careful and discerning about who you listen to and where you get your theology from.  There are plenty more Calvinists out there, but these are just the names that I ran across the most.   These are either definite, self-professed Calvinists or "most likely Calvinist," in my estimation.  (I haven't heard of most of them, but it's good to know their theology before I do.)   After finding these names in various places online, I looked up each person to see if they are Calvinist.  If they did not self-identify ...
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