Three Types Of Spiritual Firewall

A firewall is a device that stops malicious internet traffic from entering a computer network. Almost every computer has a firewall. I want to compare this to a different type of firewall that we all need in our lives.

A computer uses a firewall to keep itself free from viruses. There are about 65,000 ports in a computer that different programs use to connect to the internet. A firewall closes off all the ones which are not being used so that nothing can sneak through an open port in the system. There are three different types of firewalls. These are reflected in spiritual warfare too.

A Hardware Firewall

This is an actual device which connects in between your internet router and the computer, where it stops malicious traffic before it can enter the system. It is a physical piece of equipment that you can touch and move but the enemy it stops is not something you can see. For Christians, the Word of God, the Holy Bible is our hardware firewall. However, just like a firewall, it can sit at home but if it is not properly installed, it will not be able to serve its purpose.

The Word of God is many things – a lamp to our path, the sword in the Spirit, which guides and leads us into the will of God. The Word of God is an instruction manual to the heart of God. It is an instruction manual to walk in authority, have a prosperous life, a successful career and whatever you are looking for today. The most important instruction in this manual that you need to implement is just one. The Bible verse you need to properly install a hardware firewall is found in James 1:22, “But be doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves”.

Many of us have the Word of God in our homes, we read it occasionally but we don’t actually do what it says. If you want the promises which God has given in His Word, if you want the Word of God to protect you from the attacks of the enemy, you need to do what it says. Some people think they can install things without reading the instruction manual.

The only way you can install a hardware firewall in your spiritual life to protect you and your family from the enemy is to follow the instruction manual step-by-step, doing exactly what it says. Click To Tweet

A Software Firewall

In computers, the hardware and software firewalls normally work in tandem. However, some people do not have software firewalls, relying on the hardware firewall alone to do the job. The issue is that occasionally, some things will get through the hardware firewall. This is why you need a software firewall installed on your system as well. What is our software firewall as a Christian? It is our mind. The mind is where the spiritual software firewall needs to be installed. How does it get installed? Whatever you want to build in your mind comes through building habits.

I believe as a Christian that good habits are literally our spiritual immune system. Good Bible inspired habits are our spiritual immune system. Develop good habits. If a software firewall is not configured properly, it won’t work. You have to reconfigure your mind so that the software firewall of your mind can protect against the attacks of the enemy.

If you don’t develop good habits in advance, they will not come easily later. You need to have a system in place. When attacks come, how will you defend yourself? You are supposed to put on a life-vest before you fall into stormy water, so that if you do, you will stay afloat. Habits have to be developed during good times and be strictly followed during hard times. You set the standard for the life that you want to have. I encourage you to raise your standards today.

Examine yourself – what are the habits you have in place which mark your life? Develop good habits. They will be your software firewall when attacks come your way, when temptation penetrates, when things come to cause you to falter, what is in your mind determines the outcome of your temptations.

When attacks come your way, when temptation penetrates, when things come to cause you to falter, what is in your mind determines the outcome of your temptations. Click To Tweet

High And Low Seasons

It is common for us to focus on when we are at our highest level, when all is well, when you hear the voice of God clearly in a season and everything is going well. However, when it is a bad time, our standards drop so far. Don’t be known only for your high seasons. Work on your life when you are at your lowest seasons, when its tough for you and things seem not to work out. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Don’t let your standards drop when hard times set in. Equip and train yourself for these times.

In times of temptation and hardship, we don’t rise to the occasion, we fall to the level of our training. It is easy to think when that temptation comes, I will resist it but when the devil’s schemes spring into action, we more often fall to the lowest level which we allow ourselves to. Work on your lowest level. Equip yourself with good habits so that when the need arises, you will stay strong. Memorise Bible verses so that when the occasion arises, you have a quiver full of arrows ready for use.

A Cloud-based Firewall

That means someone else takes care of your protection. You don’t even need to work for it, someone else is doing it. You don’t even need to know when attacks are coming because they are taking care of your defense. Even when you sleep, you are protected when you have a cloud-based firewall. That person is Jesus Christ.

The best way to protect yourself as a Christian, is a threefold firewall. How do you get the cloud-based firewall setup in your life? All it costs you is your time. Spend time in the presence of God. Have the hardware firewall close to your heart; desire it, hunger for it and go deeper in it. If your life depended on knowing the Holy Bible, how long would you survive. If for every Bible verse you knew, you got another breath, how long would you keep breathing? Build yourself up. Read the Bible, memorize it and let it be part of your life. Install good habits so that when temptation comes, you are already armed and ready for it. Don’t wait until you are in a wilderness season; do it now.

The Christian City

Our lives are like cities. Some cities worship Jesus; some cities worship idols. Some are growing, others are shrinking. There is a high crime rate in some cities. The firewall protects us from foreign invaders, thieves that come to kill, steal and destroy but that is not all. God wants us to grow, multiply and increase.

Zechariah 2:1, “Then I raised my eyes and looked, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. So I said, “Where are you going?” and he said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.” And there was the angel who talked with me, going out; and another angel was coming out to meet him, who said to him, “Run, speak to this young man, saying: ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it. For I,’ says the Lord, ‘will be a wall of fire all around her, and I will be the glory in her midst’”.

God almighty doesn’t want you to just live in the city and have a firewall. It is not enough to just live a life of defensive Christianity. It is time for you to step out and join the war by being a Christian on the offensive. Your enemy does not take breaks or pauses in attacking you. God has called you to break down the old walls and let the wall of God’s fire surround you wherever you go.

A firewall protects and defends what is inside of it from what is happening on the outside. But God’s wall of fire will burn anything that tries to get close to you. Stop thinking that you are a victim as a Christian. Stop focusing on how much the enemy is attacking you today or this week. It is time for you to attack him with the full force of the name of Jesus Christ. God’s wall of fire is all around you. Grow, mature and get into the promise that Jesus has for you, in Jesus’ mighty name.

Prayer

If you are a Christian with no firewall or you have a firewall but need to switch it to a wall of fire, say this prayer from your heart: Lord Jesus, take control of my defense system. Make my firewall a wall of fire. Consume every dirt in my life and every demonic attack, in Jesus’ mighty name.

Sermon By Rikhard Hartikainen; Blog By Edward Gardiner

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