As Christians, we know that spiritual battles are real. We face temptation, discouragement, fear, lies, distractions, and opposition that can pull us away from the Lord. Ephesians 6 reminds us that our struggle is ultimately spiritual and that we need to be prepared to stand.

But how do we actually prepare for spiritual battles?

Joshua 5 gives us a surprising answer. Israel had just crossed the Jordan River and entered the Promised Land. Jericho stood ahead of them, and battle was coming. Yet before God taught them how to fight, He taught them how to surrender.

That gives us an important principle for discipleship:

We prepare for spiritual battles not by becoming stronger in ourselves, but by surrendering to God, standing on His Word, and depending on His Spirit.

From a military perspective, what happens in Joshua 5 seems strange. Israel is surrounded by enemies, yet God commands Joshua to circumcise the men of Israel.

This temporarily left the army physically weakened at the very moment they seemed to need their strength the most. But God was teaching them that their victory wouldn't come through human strength. They needed to walk in covenant obedience and complete dependence upon Him.

We often approach our spiritual battles differently. We think, I need more willpower. I need to try harder. I need to get myself together.

But sometimes recognizing our weakness is exactly what brings us to the place of dependence God desires.

Paul learned this when the Lord told him:

Spiritual strength begins when we stop depending upon ourselves and surrender ourselves to God.

Zechariah 4:6 says:

There are spiritual battles you cannot win in the strength of your flesh. You cannot defeat the flesh with the flesh.

That is why Scripture continually calls believers to walk in the Spirit. Romans 8:13 tells us that it is “by the Spirit” that we put to death the deeds of the body, and Galatians 5:16 tells us to “walk in the Spirit” so that we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. This dependence upon the Spirit was a central emphasis of the teaching.

Preparing for spiritual battle means learning to pray, surrender, obey, and depend upon the Holy Spirit rather than trusting your own strength.

Ephesians 6 describes God's Word as “the sword of the Spirit.”

We don't simply need to own a Bible or occasionally hear Scripture taught. We need to become saturated in God's truth so that when lies, temptation, fear, or discouragement come, we know what God has said.

Jesus modeled this when Satan tempted Him in the wilderness. Again and again, Jesus answered:

“It is written…”

When the enemy lies, answer with truth.

When fear tells you God has abandoned you, remember what God has said.

When temptation promises satisfaction, remember what God has said.

When condemnation tells you there is no hope, remember the gospel.

Don't wait until the battle begins to start learning your Bible. Prepare now by filling your heart and mind with God's Word.

Before Israel fought Jericho, they also celebrated the Passover. They were reminded that their deliverance from Egypt had come through the blood of the lamb.

For us, Passover points forward to something greater: Jesus Christ, our Passover Lamb.

Our confidence in spiritual warfare isn't that we are powerful Christians. Our confidence is that Jesus died for our sins, shed His blood for our redemption, rose victoriously from the grave, and has given His Spirit to His people.

The enemy isn't intimidated by how impressive we are.

Our confidence is in Christ and what He has already accomplished.

Maybe you're facing a spiritual battle right now. Maybe you're fighting temptation, discouragement, fear, bitterness, or something that continually seems to pull you away from Christ.

Your first question may be, “How can I become strong enough to overcome this?”

Joshua 5 points us toward a better question:

“Am I surrendered to the Lord?”

Stay close to Jesus. Pray. Fill yourself with His Word. Obey what He has already shown you. Depend upon the Holy Spirit. And continually remember what Christ accomplished for you at the cross.

You don't prepare for spiritual battles by becoming strong enough to fight them alone.

You prepare by learning to depend upon the One who is strong enough.

If you have been following Jesus for any length of time, here is an important question to ask yourself:

Am I growing?

Not simply, Am I going to church? Am I reading my Bible? Do I know more Scripture than I used to? 

But is my relationship with Jesus actually changing me?

Are there sins that once controlled you that no longer have the same grip? Are you quicker to repent? Are you learning to trust God when life gets difficult? Is your prayer life becoming deeper? Are you becoming more patient, more loving, and more obedient to Christ?

Spiritual growth doesn't happen overnight, and none of us have arrived. But the Christian life was never meant to stand still.

That's why Jude gives believers this simple but important command:

There is something important in Jude’s words that we can easily overlook: we have a responsibility for our own spiritual growth.

God has graciously given us pastors, teachers, leaders, and other believers to encourage us, teach us, and help disciple us. We need the body of Christ, and God uses His church tremendously in our lives. But ultimately, no one else can walk with Jesus for you. A pastor cannot read your Bible for you. A teacher cannot have your prayer life for you. A church service cannot substitute for personally knowing, seeking, and walking with Christ.

Jude tells believers to be “building yourselves up on your most holy faith.” There is an intentionality to those words. Following Jesus isn't passive. We aren't called to simply believe in Christ and then remain spiritually where we started.

God has called us to keep growing.

Think of your faith like a building. Before anything can be built, there must be a foundation.

Thankfully, we aren't responsible for creating that foundation. It has already been laid for us in Jesus Christ. Our faith rests upon the truth of the gospel: God sent His Son, Jesus lived the sinless life we could never live, died in our place to pay the penalty for our sins, and rose victoriously from the grave.

Jesus is the foundation.

Our responsibility is to build upon Him.

Peter gives us a similar picture:

Notice the word “add.”

There should be progress in the Christian life. We keep learning God's Word. We obey what He shows us. We grow in self-control. We persevere through difficulty. We learn to love others more faithfully. As we walk with Jesus, our lives should increasingly look like His.

The Christian life isn't meant to remain where it began.

Peter uses another simple picture in 1 Peter 2:2. He tells believers to desire the pure milk of God's Word like newborn babies so that they may “grow thereby.”

There is nothing wrong with a baby drinking milk. A baby needs milk! In the same way, a new believer needs the foundational truths of Scripture. But imagine if years passed and that baby never grew. We would immediately know something was wrong.

The same should be true spiritually.

God doesn't expect us to know everything overnight, and spiritual maturity doesn't happen instantly. But over time, there should be growth.

Sometimes that growth is dramatic. Often, however, it happens little by little.

Something that once caused you to stumble doesn't have the same power over you anymore. You're beginning to trust God through trials instead of immediately giving in to fear. You're learning to forgive more quickly. Your prayer life is becoming deeper. You're recognizing temptation sooner. You're becoming more patient, loving, and willing to serve others.

You may not notice the growth from one day to the next, but when you look back, you should be able to see evidence that God has been changing you.

The Bible calls this process sanctification—God changing us and making us more like Jesus.

But sanctification doesn't mean we sit back and do nothing while we wait for God to change us. As God speaks through His Word, we obey. When the Holy Spirit convicts us, we respond. When God reveals an area of sin, we repent. When He shows us something that needs to change, we surrender it to Him.

Paul describes this beautifully in Philippians 2:12–13:

Notice the balance.

We don't work for our salvation. Jesus accomplished that work for us on the cross.

We work out what God is already working within us.

God is changing us, strengthening us, convicting us, teaching us, and empowering us through His Spirit. Our response is to walk with Him in obedience.

It's easy to measure our Christian life by church attendance, how long we've been saved, how much Bible knowledge we have, or how involved we are in ministry. Those things can be good, but there is a more personal question we need to ask:

Am I growing?

• Am I closer to Jesus than I was before?
• Is God's Word changing the way I live?
• Am I becoming quicker to obey and quicker to repent?
• Am I growing in prayer?
• Do I love people more faithfully?
• Are there areas of my life where I can clearly see God making me more like Jesus?

We shouldn't become discouraged because we haven't arrived yet. None of us have. But neither should we become comfortable remaining spiritually where we have always been.

Jude's encouragement is simple: keep building.

• Keep opening God's Word.
• Keep praying.
• Keep obeying.
• Keep repenting.
• Keep pursuing Jesus.

The foundation has already been laid. Jesus Christ has accomplished the work of salvation.

Now, beloved, keep building upon Him.

Beloved,

There’s a question I want you to really wrestle with—not just intellectually, but personally:

How do you know that you truly know God?

• Not how long you’ve been in church.
• Not how much Scripture you can quote.
• Not how involved you are in ministry.

But how do you know that you know Him?

In a world filled with confusion, deception, and competing voices, this question rises to the
surface for many believers. It’s not just about doctrine in the mind, but transformation in the
heart.

In 1 John 4:7–11, we are brought face-to-face with a simple yet profound truth: the clearest
evidence that we know God is not what we say, but how we love.

Not perfectly. Not flawlessly. But genuinely—supernaturally—you love.

The apostle John writes:

This is not a suggestion—it is a defining mark of genuine Christianity. Love is not presented as an optional characteristic for especially mature believers. It is the evidence of new birth.

Before you came to Christ, the Bible says you were dead in your trespasses and sins. That means spiritually dead—separated from God, unable to respond to Him, and unable to love the way He loves.

You may have cared about people. You may have even sacrificed at times. But the kind of love that comes from God—the kind that is selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional—that wasn’t natural to you.

It wasn’t natural to me either.

But when you were born again—when you placed your faith in Jesus Christ—God didn’t just
forgive your sins. He gave you His Spirit.

And something changed.

Now there’s this tension inside of you. The flesh is still there, still selfish, still wanting its way— but now there’s something deeper. There’s a new desire.

• A desire to love people.
• A desire to serve.
• A desire to put others before yourself—even when it’s hard.

That doesn’t come from you. That comes from Him.

Love is not something you manufacture—it’s something that reveals that you’ve been made new.

With His Spirit comes a new capacity: the ability to love others in a way that reflects Him.

This means love is not merely learned behavior. It is regeneration on display.

We must not define God by our human understanding of love—we must define love by
God’s nature.

One of the biggest mistakes we can make is trying to define God by our version of love.

We live in a world that talks a lot about love, but very little of it actually reflects God. In today’s culture, “love” is often reduced to feelings, tolerance, or personal preference. But biblical love is not shaped by culture—it is revealed by God Himself.

The Bible doesn’t say, “Love is God.”

John tells us plainly,

That means He defines it.

This does not mean that everything we call “love” is from God. Instead, it means that all true
love originates from Him and reflects His character.

If we want to understand what love truly is, we don’t look inward—we look upward.

And where do we see His love most clearly?

At the cross.

So how has God defined love?

John answers that in one of the most powerful theological statements in Scripture:

Love is not an abstract idea. It is not a vague feeling. It is a historical reality—God sent His Son. This is the heart of the gospel.

Even more striking is verse 10:

Here we see the doctrine of propitiation—that Jesus satisfied the righteous wrath of God on our behalf. This is not sentimental love. This is costly, sacrificial, substitutionary love.

Let that settle in for a moment.

• God didn’t wait for you to get your life together.
• He didn’t love you because you were lovable.
• He loved you when you were at your worst, while you were a sinner—rebellious, broken, and undeserving.

And He didn’t just say it—He proved it.

He sent His Son.

Jesus Christ came into this world, lived the life you couldn’t live, and died the death you
deserved to die. And on that cross, He became the propitiation for your sins—He satisfied the righteous wrath of God on your behalf.

That’s love. Not words. Not feelings.

Sacrifice.

This is the kind of love that defines Christianity.

Now here’s where it becomes practical.

A lot of us try to love better by trying harder. But the truth is, you will never sustain real, godly love by effort alone.

The key to loving others is this: you must first receive the love of God deeply and personally.

We learn to love not by trying harder, but by receiving more deeply.

If we try to produce love in our own strength, we will quickly run dry. Our natural tendency is selfishness. We protect ourselves. We prioritize our comfort. We love when it’s easy—and
withdraw when it’s costly.

But when we meditate on the love God has shown us in Christ, something begins to change.

• When we remember that we were forgiven, we become more forgiving.
• When we remember that we were pursued, we become more willing to pursue others.
• When we remember that we were loved at our worst, we become more patient with others at theirs.

Love flows best from a heart that is continually overwhelmed by the gospel.

Let me be honest with you—love is easy when everything is going well.

• It’s easy to love people who treat you right.
• It’s easy to love people you get along with.
• It’s easy to love when it costs you nothing.

But that’s not where love is proven.

Biblical love is most clearly revealed in difficulty.

The true test of your love is not how you respond when people treat you well—but how you
respond when they don’t.

• When someone speaks harshly—do you respond with grace?
• When someone overlooks us—do you still serve them?
• When someone frustrates us—do you remain patient?

These are the moments where the Spirit of God produces something supernatural in us. Because loving difficult people is not natural—it is evidence of divine life within us.

Jesus said something powerful:

Notice what He did not say.

He didn’t say people will know we are His disciples by our knowledge, our programs, or even our passion. Those things matter—but they are not the defining mark.

The defining mark is love.

This means that our theology must lead to transformation. Sound doctrine should not make us cold or prideful—it should make us more like Christ.

If our understanding of God does not produce love, then we have misunderstood God.

John brings it all together with a clear application:

This is not optional. It is our calling.

But this kind of love does not happen accidentally. It requires intentionality.

It means:

• Slowing down enough to truly see people
• Being sensitive to the Spirit in conversations
• Choosing to engage, even when it’s inconvenient
• Serving others, even when it costs us something

It may even mean stepping outside of our comfort zones—talking to people we wouldn’t
naturally gravitate toward, investing in relationships that require effort, and choosing presence over preference.

Because love is not about what is easy—it is about what reflects Christ.

Perhaps the most powerful takeaway is not just what we learn—but how we respond.

The disciples once asked Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

Maybe your prayer today should be:


Teach me to love:

• When I don’t want to do it
• When I’m tired
• When I’m frustrated
• When I’m overlooked
• When it’s inconvenient
• When it costs me something

Because this is where discipleship becomes real. This is where theology becomes life. This is where the world begins to see Jesus in us.

If you feel like you struggle with love—you’re not alone. Every believer does. But that struggle is not a sign of failure—it’s an invitation.

An invitation to draw closer to Christ.

Because the more you abide in Him, the more His love is formed in you. And as His love is perfected in you, you begin to reflect Him more clearly to the world around you.

So today, don’t just aim to know about God.

Ask Him to transform you so that your life becomes living evidence that you truly know Him.

And the evidence that you truly know Him… is that you love.

And when you love like Jesus, you show the world who Jesus is.