The question of the hour is, can you teach me to wrestle?
So wrestling has three core components.
Number one, most people don't realize the word name Naftali means to wrestle or twist.
The word wrestle means to rest.
W-R-E-S-T means to twist, contort, turn around, right?
Number two, Jesus was a wrestler 100%.
This is slightly funny, you're smiling already, but Jesus had five brothers, tell me he didn't wrestle them.
He probably wrestled.
He probably wrestled, because it's fun, it's delightful, it's positive, it's sinless, and you can't have five brothers unless you tussle.
And Jacob wrestled, too.
Every once in a while.
And then there's, we're going to skip that one, because that's true, that's proof Jesus was a wrestler, because most people think that wrestler Angel was an epiphany or a theophany, which is an appearance of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament in a physical form, because it says He wrestled with the Angel, but the Angel has a capital A. Right.
Which means it was a person probably deity maybe, and then Jacob said “I will not let Thee go unless Thou bless me,” and in other places the angel didn't do the blessing, he was just the messenger; so a lot of people think that Jacob wrestled with God … it's insinuated. He overcame because his name means you've wrestled with the Lord and been victorious
That's Israel, or some meaning to it. A prince with God.
That's why he gave him a new name.
All right, but we're skipping that one.
We're going right to wrestling the devil.
So you will not successfully be a Christian long without facing demonic opposition.
And in Ephesians, it says, “we wrestle.”
Long pause, back up, say it again.
“We wrestle.”
Who's the we?
You and me.
Believers.
Yes.
Yeah.
Those who believe on Jesus Christ, we wrestle.
Now, it doesn't say you wrestle if you know how.
It doesn't say you wrestle on your terms.
It doesn't say you wrestle when you're good at it.
It just says we wrestle.
So here's the question back.
Are you a wrestler?
Yes.
Spiritually you will be.
Whether you get defeated, taken down a hundred times, or attacked, you're going to be under oppressive attack from the darkness.
Now the wrestler that you're against, your opponent, has certain techniques.
We are not ignorant of his devices, or his approaches, or his methodology.
And in Ephesians, the essence of wrestling in Ephesians chapter 6 is simply to hold your ground.
It's to stand.
Having done all to stand.
The word stand is five times.
Stand therefore.
Stand, stand, stand.
After it says we wrestle, it says stand.
So this is not ground and pound.
This is not on the mat.
This is not escaping.
This is you holding the position firm.
Having an awesome defense.
And our defense, most of the weapons of, so the
Illustration merges from a wrestler, which is a combat sport in the Olympics.
So when Paul was writing, or the Holy Spirit was guiding Paul's pen to write, and he mentioned an Olympic sport, the first Olympic sport, along with running, you know, you can run and you can wrestle.
Anything kids would do in a backyard, you know, throw a javelin, throw a ball, whatever.
So wrestling was one of the original
Intro To Spiritual Wrestling to the World
that improves position, where I'm proving I can turn you, right?
When you turn them, you get two points.
Or in high school and collegiate style, it's when you gain control, you get two points, you get a reward for gaining an advantage, right?
So the Bible, we don't want Satan lest Satan should have an advantage on you, or over you, right?
So that means he's like, he gained the ground.
All right.
Therefore,
Probably the first lesson in wrestling is be untwistable.
Untwistable.
Like don't be easily twisted.
And do you know what makes a person twist in combat sports?
it's getting a reaction so you've seen a like reactionary boxers where they're trying to draw out a punch because they're the comeback whap around right they're they're trying to draw out a hit so that they can do a rewrap a re-hit so in wrestling what you're essentially doing with a newbie now as it gets up in levels there's more nuance to it but on the basic third grade level two guys go out there they
Put their hands out towards each other.
One of them is going to try to pull this way.
And when you react and resist going that way, they take you the other way.
So it's action, reaction.
Just two levels.
Very simple.
So the devil has a trick to get you to twist.
He'll present option one.
Oh, that was a sucker drag.
Foom, foom, over here to option two.
And so he's got, it's called a setup.
So a very basic setup is you tap somebody's hands down and what are they going to do?
They're going to pop their hands in the air and you go right underneath them.
Yeah, super simple, right?
You do an action, they do the opposite, and then you do the action you wanted to do.
That's twisting, that's perverting, that's contorting, that's gaining an advantage.
So Satan knows our tendencies, and he'll kind of push us towards something, and then as we push away from that, then he'll take us hard and fast the other direction.
Kind of like you would guess in Sambo or Judo, where you just roll with it.
You roll with it.
You thought you were going that way, but then you went the other way.
Do you see it?
Do you smell it?
Do you believe it?
All right, let's wrap it all down on the Bible.
“Whom resist
Steadfast.”
Now to resist means to hold your ground and not allow someone to conquer you, right?
It can mean that.
I'm resisting your pressure.
The assumption is that you're providing the pressure, right?
Resist steadfast.
What does the word steadfast mean to your spirit?
Continually.
Yeah, steadfast.
Does it mean to like fall over or to quit?
No.
Is it kind of the opposite?
Yes, steadfast.
To stand steadfast.
Now how?
First, this Whom is our enemy.
It says here in 1 Peter 5, Whom resist steadfast in the faith.
“In” is a preposition.
It denotes location in relation to other things.
How do we resist Him?
How do we resist this?
We resist Him steadfast.
That's an adverb describing the verb.
And then “in the faith” is an adverbial clause or a prepositional phrase.
“In the faith” means like imagine you're in a circle, like a wrestling mat has a circle.
You've got to resist him inside the circle and the circle is called faith.
Faith.
Faith in God.
Not self.
Yes, God.
So we need faith in God.
When you have faith in God, then you have the strength to
resist and in exactly we can resist steadfast you can resist temporarily in your own strength but you will not resist steadfast unless you have strong faith and you stay in the circle so there's called hold the center like if you hold the center of the circle you're far away from the edge in some styles of wrestling on the olympic level if they push you out of the circle there's a point.
So you need to stay in the faith to resist steadfast.
This goes back to being untwistable, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, right?
Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
Here we go.
So let's back up.
The verse right before that about whom resist steadfast in the faith says be sober.
That can mean to be alert or the exact opposite of inebriated.
Don't let your nerves and your decision making be dull, but be on high alert.
Be vigilant.
That has to do with your vision, being aware of your surroundings, right?
Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, this is in a combat sports scenario, right?
Your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, lions like to tell their prey,
I'm taking you out.
They might surprise him, might run up, but it's usually brute first.
Brute force overrun, right?
As a roaring lion trying to cause shock and awe right in their face, like a dog getting up in your face, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.
Oh, that guy looks like a pansy.
Oh, that guy looks kind of wimpy.
That guy's not in the faith.
That guy has no solid belief system.
I'm going to push him out of the circle.
So don't be twistable, stand stable, stay in the center, stay in the faith, and don't let the devil beat you up.
Understood.
Intro To Spiritual Wrestling