Tag: spiritual warfare

On Recognizing What We Already Have

Ephesians 6:10-18 PHILLIPS. In conclusion be strong—not in yourselves but in the Lord, in the power of his boundless resource. Put on God’s complete armour so that you can successfully resist all the devil’s methods of attack. For our fight is not against any physical enemy: it is against organisations and powers that are spiritual. We are up against the unseen power that controls this dark world, and spiritual agents from the very headquarters of evil.  Therefore, you must wear the whole armour of God that you may be able to resist evil in its day of power, and that even when you have fought to a standstill you may still stand your ground. Take your stand then with truth as your belt, righteousness your breastplate, the Gospel of peace firmly on your feet, salvation as your helmet and in your hand the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Above all be sure you take faith as your shield, for it can quench every burning missile the enemy hurls at you. Pray at all times with every kind of spiritual prayer, keeping alert and persistent as you pray for all Christ’s men and women.

Ephesians 6:10-18 MSG. 10-12 And that about wraps it up. God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. 13-18 Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.”

Observation

Webster’s defines armor as a (1) defensive covering for the body; (2) a quality or circumstance that affords protection; (3) a protective outer layer; or (4) armored forces and vehicles (as tanks).  It defines weapon as (1) something (as a club, knife, or gun) used to injure, defeat, or destroy or (2) a means of contending against another (using a special/unique talent or skill).  We may think of medieval knights, bulletproof vests or Ironman’s indestructible suit when we see the word “armor”. Weapon may conjure up mind pictures of swords, guns, laser beams, light sabers, missiles or battle vehicles. All of these are only effective against tangible, visible enemies in the only warfare we humans understand.

Paul is telling us that our conventional armor, weapons and methods of warfare won’t cut it on the spiritual battlefield.  God’s adversary and our invisible Enemy:

  • is too wily and strong for us to defeat on our own,
  • fights by different rules/methods than our physical battles,
  • uses entirely different weapons, such as fear, hate, resentment, doubt et al. (that have historically been highly effective in defeating us), and
  • battles on an entirely different (spiritual & internal) battlefield.

We are up against and the target of “the unseen power that controls this dark world, and spiritual agents from the very headquarters of evil.”  BUT, God has provided us not only with protective armor, not only His “well-made weapons of the best materials”, but also His presence which commands victory (“In conclusion be strong—not in yourselves but in the Lord, in the power of his boundless resource.”). All we must do is follow Him while putting on the armor and using the weapons He has provided – “Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare.” 

These seem strange “weapons” to us because they are not destructive in the normal physical sense; they are protective/defensive for us because they provide an impenetrable armor against the weapons of our Enemy – deception, temptation, sin, chaos, fear, greed, doubt/unbelief, corruption, and every other evil work. How can the Enemy overcome or defeat or destroy us if we stand firm on truth, righteousness, peace, faith and salvation?  What defense does he have against the Word of God and prayer?  How can we even fathom the devastating damage to evil we do by allowing the exercise in and through us of such weapons of warfare as love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, meekness, faithfulness and self-control?  Paul is asking us to exchange the natural – what we touch, what we can see, what we can do in our own strength, and our limited understanding of what really matters – for the supernatural – God’s eternal and indomitable power, insight, wisdom, knowledge, and understanding made available to us in Christ.

Impact on Me

Early on in my Christian walk as I was praying down the list of what I had determined were my needs and how – in my vast and perfect wisdom – God should fix the world, it occurred to me to ask if I had missed anything that should be on the list. I did not hear an audible voice, but the response was as clear and loud as if it had been. “The only thing you really need is to learn what I really did for you on the cross and apply it in your life.”  I began to read the Word looking for what was already mine in Christ and pray for the courage and faith to live in a way that reflects Whose I am and Whom I serve.

Not too long after this incident, I read an excerpt from a prayer warrior’s journal that truly arrested my attention by its simple powerful truth in the light of Jesus’ victory on the Cross – “We do not have to hold out against the Devil; he has to hold out against us.”  So, this passage in 2 Corinthians is key for me. It is one of the truly strategic instructions in spiritual warfare.

  • First, submit to and be strong in the One Who has already secured the victory. 
  • Second, wear the protective armor He provides – truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, His Word and prayer. 
  • Lastly, use often and liberally the weapons against which the Enemy has no defense – love, mercy, grace, forgiveness and all the other graces provided through the Holy Spirit Who lives in us. 

Prayer

Lord, Eternal, Invisible, All-Powerful, Wise God, may I always seek to find my place in Your plan and be faithful to stand therefore in it regardless of the cost to me.  May I be simple, courageous, bold and obedient enough to faithfully submit, put on Your armor and use only Your weapons as I learn to live the victorious life in Christ.

On Chasing the Lion

 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 NKJV 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. 
 
2 Corinthians 10:3-6 MSG. The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity. 

Observation

I started a 7-day devotional available on the YouVersion app. It is titled, “Chase the Lion – If your dream doesn’t scare you, it is too small.”  These are the verses for Day 2.  The author proposes “…if we focus on the negative implications while ignoring the positive possibilities, it becomes a half-truth. It’s also about capturing creative thoughts and keeping them in our minds. Simply put, it’s about stewarding every idea inspired by the Holy Spirit.”  He speaks about dreams which are thoughts imagined before they ever come to pass physically and says these positive, creative thoughts are brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ through “blood, sweat and tears” – in other words, by execution which requires faith, risk, sacrifice, effort, time, talent and other investment on our parts.  Thinkers may inspire us, but doers make things happen.

As James 1:22-25 MSG says, “Put the word into action. If you think hearing is what matters most, you are going to find you have been deceived. If some fail to do what God requires, it’s as if they forget the word as soon as they hear it. One minute they look in the mirror, and the next they forget who they are and what they look like. However, it is possible to open your eyes and take in the beautiful, perfect truth found in God’s law of liberty and live by it. If you pursue that path and actually do what God has commanded, then you will avoid the many distractions that lead to an amnesia of all true things and you will be blessed.” 
 
So, according to today’s verses, we are called to live in this war zone by God’s rules and using His strategies and weaponry. This includes disciplined trading to develop automatic, obedient responses to the tactics the enemy uses – “building lives of obedience into maturity”.  In this sense, God is not playing fair with Satan because our enemy has no defense against our absolute obedient submission to God’s will and the weapons and strategies He has laid out for us. What defense can Satan raise against love, mercy, grace, forgiveness, joy, peace, faith, goodness, kindness, meekness and all the other virtues we have in Christ?  The most he can do is deceive us into surrendering them, but, if we refuse to surrender these, he remains subject to the defeat Our Savior won over him through the sacrifice of the Cross.   
 
Therefore, our warfare is two fold on many levels:  
      * both defensive (protecting against the enemy’s strategies/tactics of deception) and offensive (taking the land; pressing the battle to enforce the victory won by Christ);  
      * both internal (allowing the Holy Spirit to mold, shape and change us into what God dreams for us to be) and external (choosing to live what God dreams for us to be regardless of the consequences so others will embrace salvation and enter into the dreams God has for each of them); 
     * both saying “yes” to God and following through as evidenced by our visible living response to His Word;  
     * both destructive (tearing down strongholds and taking captives) and creative (developing strategies, preparing through discipline and unity of purpose).  

Ultimately, we become skilled warriors for God by disciplining ourselves to trust in His methods and His weapons, recognizing that we are fighting a war that is not of this world, is not conducted by the rules of this world and will not be won by the world’s weapons. 

Impact on Me

 I recognize that I allowed myself to limit “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” to only the negative, sinful and defeating thoughts because of the defensive aspect of the warfare association.  True obedience and submission to God requires that I cannot accept the Word on a shallow face value, letting its message be frozen in my initial understanding or limited by my inexperience with God. I want to embrace the Word so that I am actively enriched, enlightened, encouraged, equipped and enabled to be one who is a skilled warrior in God’s special forces, willing to give my all in His service.

I have found that reading in other translations, as well as reading or listening to the Holy Spirit speaking through others can get me up out of my current perspective seat to walk around the familiar verses, find another aspect so the Holy Spirit can reveal more depth, more insight, into the nature, plan, tactics, and strategies of God in conducting this warfare (both within me and in the world around me).  The enemy is very skilled at deception and understands how effective he can be in eroding my obedience, my submission to God.  If I am not diligent in seeking and submitting to God, I can allow the enemy to deceive me inch by inch until I find myself miles away from where I need and want to be.  Satan is the great marketer and manipulator and, if he can’t get me to sin by commission (doing something to displease God), he will settle for omission (doing nothing to stay in God’s presence).   
 
So, back to the passage for today, if I neglect to embrace, pursue, invest the “blood, sweat and tears” required by God to fulfill His dreams for me, I have allowed the enemy to deceive me into accepting his defeatist propaganda, failing in my duty, and eroding my trust in my adoption in Christ’s ultimate authority and power to do what He says He will do..  Forgive me, Lord, for every inch I have ever given!  .   

Prayer

 Father God, in the name of Jesus I come before You and pray that by Your Spirit You will make Your Word alive to me and active in me, constantly molding, shaping and making me into what You dream for me to be. I want to engage anew even the most familiar passages so I will continue to find new depths of understanding of Your nature, Your power, Your love, Your plans for me. I want to boldly “Chase the Lion” – taking captive every dream You have for me and pursuing its fulfillment with all I have in me – and war only according to Your ways and plans, using only Your weapons. Help me to stand firm and fixed in You so I will not move even one inch out of Your truth, will and purpose for me. May others come to know You because they meet You in me. Make it so.