It's War!

It's been said by some Christians that if we participate in Spiritual Warfare we don't trust Jesus, that we are trying to usurp Him and to do His job. However I counter that argument by saying that by not engaging the enemy we are not doing our job. We enlisted in this fight the moment we placed our undying faith in Jesus and accepted him as our savior. We train for battle every time we read our bible, attend worship service and fellowship with our Christian brethren. We enter into combat every moment we can draw breath on this planet whether we want to or not, because we are under attack beloved. 

What is Spiritual Warfare? Spiritual Warfare is the constant battle between good versus evil; the battle between God and Satan, between the Christian Church and the secular world that would tear us down, and lastly the war within ourselves between the Holy Spirit and the lusts of the carnal flesh. Spiritual Warfare is not simply demonic possession or demonic oppression, it's so much more. In his book Angels Billy Graham said:

We live in a perpetual battlefield …The wars among the nations on earth are mere popgun affairs compared to the fierceness of battle in the spiritual unseen world. This invisible spiritual conflict is waged around us incessantly and unremittingly. Where the Lord works, Satan’s forces hinder; where angel beings carry out divine directives, the devils rage. All this comes about because the powers of darkness press their counterattack to recapture the ground held for the glory of God…

Spiritual Wafare is NOT a holy war or religious war like Islamic Jihad. The Islamic Jihad is is conducted against people in a convert or die (or convert AND die) scenario. In Spiritual Warfare no one is beheaded, no airliners full of screaming terrified passengers are flown into buildings full of innocent people, no one is buried up to their shoulders and stoned to death. Nor is Spiritual Warfare a militarization of the church. There's no uniforms, no marching in formation, no weapons other than prayer, truth, light and love. Spiritual Warfare is "fighting the good fight" as we are commanded;

¹⁸ This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, ¹⁹ keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith (1 Timothy 1:18-19)

And

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)

Ever have one of those days when you open the bible to read and you just can't concentrate? You're trying to deal with Romans but the news or family issues or the neighbors dog's barking keeps pulling your attention away from His word? You may be under attack. Not all attacks are overt, in fact I'm willing to bet that overt attacks are incredibly rare, which is probably why Deliverance Ministry is such a rare thing that most pastors don't even believe in it. Personally I find it incredibly difficult to study the bible when there are distractions around: TV, newspapers, books, radio, internet, all of these can be used to pull my attention away. Sometimes prayer works to re-focus me on the bible, but other times I have to relocate and start over. 

Our studying the bible is going to be the center of many attacks from Satan's forces, because that's how we learn about our Lord and Savior, and driving a wedge between us and the bible drives a wedge between us and Jesus. The bible is truth, and denying us the bible denies us one of our primary weapons in this war. Prayer, the Bible, and spreading the Good News is the right way to fight this battle.

Of course if there's a right way to fight the battle, there's also a wrong way. 

¹³ But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, “I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.” ¹⁴ Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. ¹⁵ And the evil spirit answered and said to them, “I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” ¹⁶ And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. (Acts 19:13-16)

The seven sons of Sceva were trying to exorcise demons in Jesus name, but they didn't know Jesus, they didn't have a relationship with him so the Holy Spirit didn't dwell in them. They might as well have been shouting the sports pages at the demons, it would have angered the demons less and they wouldn't have received such a beating. 

Keep in mind, we're not up against invisible clowns wearing red satin capes and carrying red plastic pitch forks and fake glittery horns, we're up against seasoned veterans whose knowledge of scripture far surpasses our own. They're here to Divide the Church, Deceive the World, Destroy Creation, and Dethrone God. They know our weaknesses and our strengths, and they want to kill us. We will win over evil (I peeked at the last chapter of the Bible, our side wins) but first we must find our strength in Our King, we must rally around Our King, we must serve our King 

We must love our King with all of our heart and all of our souls and never let go.

Now go serve your King.