We are in a season now of the Lord exposing the deeds of darkness. He wants us to remove any demonic presence that is there. God wants to do this. A part of the season we are in right now is for the Lord to get rid of the demonic strongholds that have attacked your life and relationships. Some of these strongholds have rendered you personally inoperative.

Well, the way it should be is that we should be rendering the kingdom of darkness inoperative. How do we do that? First, you have to arm yourself. Ephesians 6 says, "Put on of the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies and tricks of the devil. Use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil so that after the battle you will still be standing firm." You see that is the key. When the battle is over, you still want to be standing. You do not want to be on your back. When all the dust settles, you still want to be standing your ground.

God has given you armor to do that. We are not going to examine it at this time. But review the book of Ephesians often. Read it carefully. Verses 14-18 talks about putting on the full armor of God. Have you been doing that? Did you put on your armor today? Did you put in on yesterday? Some people we are going to have to go back a while. When did you last put it on?

We have to put our armor on every day. If you read the Lord's prayer, it says, "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." In other words, "Lord, do not let temptation come my way and deliver me from the evil one. Deliver me from the strategies of the enemy." Get up in the morning and put the helmet of salvation on. It says that you are his child. The breastplate of righteousness is His righteousness. You live out His righteousness. Put on the belt of truth. Gird your feet with peace that comes from the gospel of righteousness. Take on the shield of faith. You are going to extinguish the darts of the enemy. Take on the sword of the Spirit which is your offensive weapon. Really prayer is there too. Pray for all the saints.

God gives you mighty armor and weaponry. Really, we ought to put it on every day. Are you putting it on? Not putting it on equals getting 'slimed' really good. Putting it on keeps me from getting slimed. Let's do the math. If we put it on, there is a lot of protection.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says, "We are human, but we do not wage war with human plans or methods. We use God's mighty weapons. Not mere worldly weapons to knock down the devil's strongholds. With these weapons we break down every proud argument that keeps people from knowing God. With these weapons, we conquer their rebellious ideas and we teach them to obey Christ."

We need to keep our focus on the Lord, not upon the attacks. In 2 Kings, we stopped at the end of verse 12. Let's move on to verse 13 with the story of Elijah, it says the king of Arm was really upset with Elijah. He wanted retribution. He wanted to get the man of God.

Verse 13 says, "'Go, find out where he is,' the king ordered, 'so I can send men and capture him.' The report came back. 'He is in Dothan.' Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city."

"When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. 'Oh, my lord, what shall we do?' the servant asked."

"'Don't be afraid,' the prophet answered. 'Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.'"

"And Elisha prayed, 'O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.' Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha."

There is always more on your side than there is the kingdom of darkness. The angels outnumber the demons at least two to one. There is more power. A lot of times we focus upon the problems rather than on Who is with us. We do not focus on God and that nothing is impossible for Him. We get taken out by the attack, rather than having our focus on Him. We must focus on God, Who is there with us.

As we rearrange our focus and get it on Him, we need to get aggressive and seize what belongs to God, using His counter-strategy. We need to get offensive and take and seize what God begins to reveal and expose.

As the story in 2 Kings goes on (verse 18), it says "As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, 'Strike these people with blindness.' So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked. Elisha told them. 'This is not the road and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are looking for.' And he led them to Samaria."

"After they entered the city, Elisha said, 'Lord, open the eyes of these men so they can see.' Then the Lord opened their eyes and they looked and there they were, inside Samaria. When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, 'Shall I kill them, my father? Shall I kill them?' 'Do not kill them,' he answered. 'Would you kill men you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink and then go back to their master.' So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. So the bands from Aram stopped raiding Israel's territory."

You know the enemy has a strategy set up for you, but it does not have to work. In fact, it can backfire on him. It can take out his army. The thing the enemy uses for bad, God can use for good. So when the enemy sets up a strategy, you can take the things that are involved in the strategy of the enemy and turn those things around it. You can trap him, and take him out.

What is going to have to happen for that to take place? You are going to have to be "in tune" to God. You are going to have to be listening to His voice.

If we are going to compare these two guys - Elijah and his servant - Elijah was the person who discerned accurately. He was the person who could see what was going on in this particular situation. The servant, on the other hand, was only looking on the external. He was not looking at the spiritual. He was only looking on the external. This is what we tend to do. Elijah saw what God was up to. He was not worried about it when all these armies were threatening. The servant saw what man was up to. Elijah sought a supernatural solution to this. The servant panicked and saw no solution.

Which characterizes you most of the time?