Spiritual Warfare: A Practical Guide - Part 1
Spiritual Warfare: A Practical Guide - Part 1
We've heard about Spiritual warfare in church and in the religious circles, but what exactly does it mean? Who are we fighting? What is the battleground? How do we fight?
Keep reading to learn more.
What is Spiritual Warfare?
Spiritual warfare is the Christian concept of fighting against the work of *preternatural evil forces.
*Preternatural means something existing outside of or beside the natural.
So why are we fighting in the first place?
We all know that in this world there is a constant struggle between the forces of good and the forces of evil. Even those who do not believe in God or the devil still believe that there is good and evil in this world and they are constantly at odds.
As Christians, we know good to be God, and we know evil to be Satan.
The devil is constantly trying to corrupt and ruin God's creation and God's purposes. Out of pure hatred, he has committed himself to a never-ending battle to discourage humans from getting close to God and to keep us from doing good on behalf of God's kingdom. Once we profess our faith in Jesus Christ and are spiritually born again, we are automatically thrown into this battle with the enemy of our God and so we fight against Satan and his forces because of his opposition to God’s purposes.
What are God’s purposes?
To advance the gospel, save all men, and be glorified throughout the earth.
The devil’s goal is to stop, hinder, twist the gospel, to defy God, and to destroy God’s works.
Another definition I found that I like is:
*Spiritual warfare is the leveraging of everything that God promises against everything that opposes God’s purposes.
Layman’s terms: Spiritual warfare is using God’s promises to fight off and resist the devil’s lies and the destruction those lies try to bring.
God's Purposes:
God is a god of purposes and promises. Purposes to redeem the world and promises to judge wickedness. Purposes to save us and glorify his name, and promises about our lives and about His holy character.
Satan’s purposes:
Satan and his spiritual forces act in total opposition to that. They oppose all of God’s purposes for salvation and redemption, as well as His every promise for accomplishing it.
How does the devil oppose God?
In non-Christians the enemy and his forces will attempt to thwart salvation (Luke 8:11- 12 “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.”).
Satan also encourages us to sin. Ephesians 2:1-3 'And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.'
In Christians, the enemy will attempt to sever our connection with God, prey on our natural inclination to sin, and deceive us into believing untruths that might hinder our discipleship or cause us to lose our effectiveness for God’s kingdom.
How Does the Enemy Do This?
Their primary tools for this opposition are lies, temptations, and fear.
I. Lies: The devil continuously attacks our minds with lies that we aren’t good enough, we can’t make a difference, we are not strong enough or smart enough, God doesn’t love us, God’s not listening to us, etc. You know I find it so ironic that a world that doesn’t believe in God will still believe His word. Everyone is obsessed with positive thinking and self-love and where do they think that idea came from? Philippians 4:8. “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think on these things”.
But we forget about this verse. We allow the lies of the enemy into our minds and there we allow the lies to fester. We roll those lies around in our minds, we dwell on those lies until we convince ourselves they are true. The devil’s first battleground is the mind.“he was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies” John 8:44.
We need to think good things. We need to counter the lies of the enemy with God’s truths.
II. Temptations: The devil is so good at tempting us. Knowing our weaknesses and attacking over and over like a crashing wave until we finally give in and sin. The devil tempts us with convincing us of what will make us happy; money, sex, alcohol, work...
My favorite and what I have to keep my guard up against is the “destination happiness”. Meaning, “when this happens, then I’ll be happy” or “when I get this, I’ll be happy”, “when I get a new job, when I move here, when I reach this goal weight”. The devil tempts us to look to other things that will make us happy when we know from the Word that Jesus is the only thing that satisfies completely.
III. Fear: The devil enlists the spirit of fear to come against us through so many areas. Fear of rejection, fear of abandonment, fear of failure, or just plain old bump-in-the-night fear.
Giving into fear is in fact a sin because it belittles who God is and usurps His authority. We forget that NOTHING can happen without God’s permission. God is bigger and mightier than the devil and the spirit of fear and us giving in to fear is dethroning God in our hearts. It’s revealing our distrust in God and ultimately we are saying that we don’t believe God can help us.
These are just a few ways the enemy works to come against us and God and keep us from being effective for God's kingdom.
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