Spiritual Warfare: Recognizing it and fighting back!

Ephesians 6:12 ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

The first step to recognizing and fighting spiritual warfare is believing the Bible when it says that spiritual warfare takes place! There really is more going on in this world than what you and I can see. See the blog post just before this one titled, "Are Satan and demons active in our day?" Most Christ followers are simply unaware that anything other than what they can see is going on. This is exactly Satan's plan.

Once we are willing to acknowledge the fact that the forces of all Hell are waged against Christ followers then we need to learn how to recognize Satan's schemes. We need to actually live as people at war. We need to do more than just say, "Okay Satan and demons exist". We need to realize that all Hell is gunning for us, our families, our friends, and those who are yet to be converted and changed by the power of Jesus.

Recognizing the schemes of Satan

Three different enemies attack us in our journey to follow Christ. The Bible identifies the three enemies as: The flesh, the world, and the devil. It is important to understand that these 3 enemies are working together against us in our attempt to be Christ followers. Although the enemies are working together they have different ways in which they work.

The Flesh

The flesh is called the old man and sinful nature in the Bible. These terms describe the old thoughts, habits, feelings, and desires that defined you before you became a Christ follower. These old ways do not leave when we become Christ followers. They are at war with the new thoughts, habits, feelings, and desires that the Spirit of God brings when He sets up residence in our life.

The World

The world refers to the world system that is set in direct opposition to the calling of God. If you simply float along in life the world system will take you directly through the gates of Hell. It takes a conscious decision followed by the power of Jesus to walk in the completely opposite direction than everyone else in culture. It is not just this culture that is walking the other direction. Every culture on earth is walking in the opposite direction from the Lord. If we are to follow Christ we must recognize we will be walking the wrong way to everyone else.

The Devil

The devil is a real person. He is incredibly powerful. He is not a beast with a pitch fork. He is probably quite beautiful in appearance if we were able to see him. He is also completely evil and his purpose is to kill, steal and destroy. He is served by an unknown number of fallen angels called demons. They are also incredibly powerful. There are different ranks of power and authority within his army just like any army. He uses these officers of evil as well as any skilled general who has ever fought a war to accomplish his will on this earth of killing, stealing, and destroying.

Identifying an attack

In general I know that I am being attacked by the enemy when I find that the nature of my problem is much larger than it should be. In other words, when I begin to have feelings of despair and depression that feel like a cloud being pressed down on me by an unseen hand. When those feelings are so powerful that I don't have the will to pray or even get up I begin to question, "Why these incredibly powerful feelings?" When my feelings seem out of my control and too big for me ...... they usually are!

Likewise when I find that I am having intrusive thoughts that seem out of my control. I think things that seem so evil. I can not seem to stop the thoughts of worry, lust, or violence. If my thoughts seem to big and powerful for me .... they may just be.

If my circumstances seem to pile up on me; if they are too big for me. If it is a flat tire, a sick baby, conflict at work, financial difficulty, the car breaks down, etc. If all this starts happening at once then maybe ....

When I begin to confront situations in my life that are overwhelming, seem too powerful for me, and are stealing my peace; I know that it is war! If you are a Christ follower; Satan can no longer steal your soul. He can steal the fruit of the Spirit from you though! So he wadges war on love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and all the rest. I have noticed in particular that he will go after my peace. These fruits of the Spirit are much like domino's; if he can steal one of them the rest are usually quick to follow. It is difficult to have joy and not have peace!

Satan hates a Christ follower who is like a fruit tree to the world displaying these fruits of the Spirit. Within every piece of fruit you have ever had, unless it was altered, you have had to work around something ..... the seed. Fruit is made not for itself; it carries with it the fruits seed. The fruit of the Spirit carries with it the seed of the Holy Spirit. The most powerful witness to the world is a Christian full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and the rest when life is throwing all it has at them.

The weapons of the new war

Paul identifies the armor of God for us in Ephesians 6, which is to be prayed on, but I have also found it helpful to see how Jesus fought the war. Jesus life was driven by the purpose of God and not His own purpose. There is no strategy or substitute for being Spirit driven and not self driven. However, there are two bread and butter practices that we see Jesus use at the moment of attack. We should use these as well.

We see Jesus use the Scripture when He is tempted by Satan in the wilderness. Later, the night of His betrayal, we see Him praying with earnestness as He is attacked. His simple statement in prayer, "not my will but yours" is the most powerful act of the will that a Christ follower can employ. Not what I want God, but what you want is a weapon like no other against the attacks of the enemy. Trusting Gods love even when the circumstances seem horrible and telling Him so is powerful!

Sorry I have no new ideas on this, but it really is powerful to pray and read the Bible. Digesting the Bible in all its various ways: Study, reading, memorizing, meditating, and obeying. Praying in faith, persistently, out loud, with others, writing it out, asking others to pray. These are the basic weapons for warfare. These should be employed at the moment of attack, as well as, in preparation for the attack.

It is one thing to have the knowledge that this is what should be done and it is another to recognize the attack and go to the Word, or go to God in prayer, or go to other Christ followers who will pray for you. There is no substitute for actually fighting rather than just knowing about fighting!

II Corinthians 10:3-5 ³For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. ⁴The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. ⁵We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

In Jesus Name

Jarrett Jamieson