Spiritual Warfare

Spiritual Warfare Video Transcript
What comes to your mind when you see the term “Spiritual Warfare”? Perhaps the first is “warfare”, and hopefully, the next is “spiritual”. And you would be right. Dig a little deeper with some questions. What do you know about warfare? At least two persons or entities are always involved. Even when you are fighting your desires, it is you the person, fighting against your desires, an entity.
You also know that in a war, both opposing sides want to defeat each other, and win the war. Warriors know that if they only wound an opponent, the opponent may return to kill them. So, both opponents want to permanently get rid of the other.
You know that the rules for a boxing match or a wrestling match are governed by general Sports rules. However, in a street fight, or battlefield, there are very few rules if any. You either destroy the enemy, or the enemy destroys you.
 
 
It is helpful to know that we are predominantly spirit, housed in a physical body that constantly changes, and that will one day die. Great general information is that spirits cannot be killed, and they do not die. This will help you understand why God’s love cannot prevent a sinner from suffering in hell forever. God has no choice. He cannot kill the spirit component of the sinner, just as He cannot kill the Devil and his demonic angels.
The two major Spiritual forces are God, the Almighty Creator, and the Devil, a very powerful  impersonator. They both want our allegiance and obedience. And this is what spiritual warfare is all about.
To be clear, we are not a helpless bystander. We are in the thick of the battle, and we have an ongoing role to play. We get to choose, every second, every minute and every hour of each day, who we will obey, and who we will disobey.
This is how the Apostle Paul put it in Romans 6:16, “Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?”
Now that we have come this far, I am going to list a few fundamentals that you must bear in mind at all times. And then, let us continue the discussion in the forum or during meetings in future.
  1. Thanks to Adam and Eve’s original disobedience, we are all born sinners, and under the Devil’s influence (Psalm 51:5). This essentially gives the Devil a head-start on our likes, dislikes, practices and habits.
  2. Unless someone is Born Again, as stated by Jesus in John 3:1-8), not only will we not be saved and enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but we are already condemned for hell, because we were born in sin (John 3:17-19).
  3. The Devil’s job is to try to prevent us from getting saved, and no trick or strategy is off-limits.
  4. When he loses to God, and you get saved, the Devil’s job is to try to reclaim you at best, or make you disgrace and disrespect God and yourself at the very least. Again, no strategy is off-limits. His modus operandi is to try to steal, kill and destroy, literally and figuratively – and that applies to your happiness, your joy, your health, your money, and ultimately your life.
I started off with the Devil because we do not hear much about him, although he is the only real problem that we have. We by ourselves are no match for the Devil. Not even the Archangel Michael dared to bring a railing accusation against the Devil. Instead, he said, “Satan, the Lord rebuke you.” (Jude 1:9)
The Devil has been playing and perfecting his game for thousands of years. We cannot defeat him in our own strength. But our God can. And He will empower us to win every single spiritual battle we face, but only if we are always very close to Him.
Now let us talk about God as one of the two powerful Spiritual Forces who are competing for our allegiance.
  1. Unlike the Devil, God is a “gentleman”. He is not going to overpower you against your will. In Revelation 3:20 He says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”

2.    After you are Born Again and have become a Child of God, God’s Holy Spirit takes up residence in you. This residence is permanent. But although God cannot be replaced positionally in your life, He can be replaced functionally or operationally. To do this, all you have to do is obey the Devil and disobey Him. He will be grieved, and you will have to pay the consequences that come with obeying the Devil. And in calculating the price you will have to pay for obeying the Devil, always remember that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). But God is always there ready and willing to restore the joy of your salvation when you repent (1 John 1:9)

3.   The presence of God’s occupancy in your life does not mean the absence of the Devil’s influence in your life. The Devil continues to work through your old habits, your old memories, your old weaknesses to cause you to continue doing the things that God saved you from. He will use the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life to tempt you. Unfortunately, we allow him to succeed more often than we should.

4.     In case the war seems balanced in terms of the strengths of the combatants for your allegiance, that is not the case. For we are reminded in 1 John 4:4 that greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. The problem is never God’s lack of ability to keep us from falling. It is always our unwillingness to always hold His hand.

5.     Not only does God give us His full-time residency in our lives, he also gives us His written Word – the Holy Bible. Let us defer the discussion about translations for another time. I grew up on the King James Version. I now use the New King James version. For scholarly work, I use the Holman Christian Standard Bible, the English Standard Bible, and of course, the Original Greek and Hebrew. In Our Daily Bread Ministries which is a staple in our Ministry, the NIV is used. Are any of these translations perfect? No. Which one did God inspire? None. However, the same God who inspired the authors of the original manuscripts, none of which can be found today, is the same God who continues to supervise and oversee the translations that are not designed to represent a specific Church Denomination. Denomination-specific translations are very likely to be skewed to support the doctrines of that denomination.    With His word plus His Holy Spirit to interpret His Word, we are set up to overcome every temptation the Devil throws at us and to be more than conquerors. Like the Apostle Paul, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.” (Philippians 4:13)

6.     God takes the lead in communicating with us by His Holy Spirit and by His Word. But then He provides us with two weapons that we must use. One is our Praises and the other is our Prayers. In praying, we speak to God. But remember, we cannot tell God anything that He does not already know, including what we need. Prayer is an attitude building exercise that keeps our minds focused on the relationship between ourselves and the God of the Universe. We ask, and He provides, when we ask according to His will. You will be hearing much more about prayer at LCGL

7.   The next weapon is Praise, and this one is definitely a weapon. This one emanates from a grateful heart and an attitude of appreciation of who God is and what He has done for us. It is an outgrowth of worship. And the Devil is scared of it like he is scared of hell. One of my classic verses is in 2 Chronicles 20:22 – “The moment they began their shouts and praises, the Lord set an ambush against the Ammonites, Moabites, and the inhabitants of Mount Seir who came to fight against Judah, and they were defeated” And there are more from where that came.

8.     There is a third weapon that we seldom classify as a weapon, and that is prescribed by God for us to use to be victorious against the attacks of the Devil. That weapon is Christian Community. God encourages us to live in community with each other. Ephesians 5:19-20 says, “speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music from your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,”

We are also cautioned in Hebrews 10:24-25, “And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, 25 not staying away from our worship meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”

I have given you more than a mouthful to introduce the subject of Spiritual Warfare. Spiritual warfare is therefore not a specialized part-time occupation for the Christian Elite, sometimes referred to as “Prayer Warriors”. It is a daily reality for every Believer in Jesus Christ. For whether or not we choose to fight, we are being attacked.

I highlighted some of the advantages that we have in our war against the Devil’s current and embedded influence.  In Ephesians 6, Paul admonishes us to put on the whole armor of God so that we might be able to withstand the Devil.  But did I mention to you that the Devil is a coward. Not only does he go about pretending to be a roaring lion or as an Angel of light, but when we resist him, he will run away (James 4:7).

But just as he did with Jesus, he will run away when resisted, but he will return… again, and again and again. But it does not matter how many times he returns, every time our resident Holy Spirit is waiting to do battle with Him at our request.

Keep a close watch on this section of our website. There will always be much on which to meditate on the subject of Spiritual warfare.