Spiritual Warfare - Emptiness The devil tries to gain advantage in our lives by manipulating our emptiness. The answer to our emptiness problem is God's Love

1. Spiritual Warfare 12Spiritual Warfare 12
The enemy wants to make us look elsewhereThe enemy wants to make us look elsewhere

2. Unmet Desires
Confusion
Hopelessness
Fear
Anger
Shame/Guilt
It is during our creative phase that we
need to know God’s word, the wrong
understanding of God’s word will
make it easier to fail as we wait on
God

3. Emptiness
Jeremiah 2:13
Emotional Pain
Ephesians 4:26-27
Bitterness
Hebrews
12:15
Shipwreck your
faith 1 Timothy
1:18-19
Gives Satan
a foothold
Eph 4:26-27

4. Emptiness
When you feel sad & feel like
you lost everything.
An emotion that isn't a great
feeling. it's the opposite of
happy and "life is good“
A sense that life has lost its
meaning and purpose

5. Why is this Spiritual Warfare?
Emptiness motivates us
God knows this
Satan knows this
We don’t know it so much

6. I feel empty because:
My partner is not giving me enough
love and attention.
I don’t have a partner.
My work is unsatisfying.
I’m not successful enough.
I don’t have enough money.

7. I feel empty because:
I have no one to play with on
weekends.
Nothing excites me. Life is boring.
I don’t get enough love, attention and
approval from friends and relatives.
I’m trapped, I’m in a rut, No one
likes me, Life is hard

8. In each of these cases the
comments reveal that
many people believe
purpose and happiness
depend on something
outside of our control

9. So what is the answer?
Substances, such as
food, sugar, alcohol,
drugs or cigarettes?

10. So what is the answer?
Processes and activities,
such as TV, Internet, work,
computer games, shopping,
spending, gambling,
telephone or email?

11. So what is the answer?
Attempting to get others’
attention or approval with
niceness, caretaking, over-
talking, story-telling, anger or
blame?

12. So what is the answer?
The answer is love
Experiencing God’s Love

13. Why we don’t experience
God’s Love?
1.We judge ourselves
2.We ignore our emotions and feelings
3.Numb ourselves through drugs
4.Become too busy
5.We make others responsible for our
feelings and emotions

14. Why we don’t experience
God’s Love?
WE STOP OURSELVES
FROM EXPERIENCING
GOD’S LOVE…

15. Emptiness Feeds Emptiness
Jeremiah 2:5 Thus says
the LORD, “What injustice
or unrighteousness did your
fathers find in Me, That they have
wandered far from Me And
[habitually] walked after emptiness
and futility and became empty?

16. Emptiness Feeds Emptiness
Job 15:23 Let him not
trust in emptiness,
deceiving himself;
for emptiness will be
his recompense.

17. Jeremiah says we do 2
things
1)We leave God
2)We find a substitute for God

18. What to do?
1)Stop putting yourself down

19. What to do?
2) Start fulfilling your purpose
Your purpose in life is not some
lost plan floating around somewhere

20. What to do?
3) Stop letting people and
circumstances control you
In Spiritual Warfare – GOD MUST
BE IN CONTROL -

21. What to do?
4) Understand the purpose of
emptiness
Psalm 63 O God, thou art my God, I
seek thee, my soul thirsts for thee;
my flesh faints for thee,
as in a dry and weary land where no
water is.

22. What to do?
5) Give up on the broken cisterns
Stop lying to yourself, the only thing that
will bring lasting happiness and joy in
your life is a life changing relationship
with God….not money, not pleasure, not
people, not family…Only God Himself