SPIRITUAL WARFARE
ILLUSTRATION
Facebook can be an excellent way for family members, especially extended family members, to maintain a daily communication link. People with a warm sharing personality can find a great deal of support and comfort in having a family member, or a friend, who has a sharing personality to talk to. Sometime, when a bunch of people get involved in a topic, it is almost like setting around the patio having a barbeque and talking.
There are times, however, when a posting can be downright humorous or painfully melodramatic. For example, the following was posted on Facebook.
I have been fighting a major battle with demons this week. Satan’s evil hoard has launched a full scale attack, and some of their forward units have actually penetrated the perimeter. I rushed in reserves and successfully drove the demons back outside the perimeter but the fighting has been fierce. Sad truth is, however, I have suffered more causalities from the suppressing fire, which supported the demon ground attack, than from the actual attack itself. Right now, I am very tired and somewhat apprehensive as I await the next attack. I long for the day my savior returns! I just pray that I am in the front line when Jesus’ army kicks demon butt. Perhaps it is wrong to think this way, but I want to ride into battle with Jesus and drench my sword in demon blood.
Now, you got to admit that this was a bit melodramatic, but you cannot deny the individuals truthfulness … we are in a spiritual war.
MELODRAMATIC TRUTH
In the book of Job it is recorded that the LORD asked Satan: “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.” (Job 1:8) Now, in some ways God was throwing Job in Satan’s face. In essence, God was telling Satan that he is not as powerful as he thinks he is, and Job is proof that Satan cannot influence all of God’s creation. Of course Satan comes right back with an excuse for his failure. Satan whined: “you have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property.” (Job 1:8) As a result, poor Job went through hell-on-earth just so God could prove to Satan that Job was indeed a righteous human.
I would like to think that the author of Job set a precedent for waxing a bit on the dramatic side; and thus, our Facebook writer is really not all that weird. In fact, there is another person, of great significance, who writes a bit on the dramatic side: the Apostle Peter. Peter wrote: “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are. In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. All power to him forever! Amen.” (1 Peter 5:8-11) It would seem that Peter wants us to believe that Satan is our enemy and that he is constantly looking for an opportunity to attack us. It would also appear that we have no chance of out running or hiding from the attacks of Satan; and therefore, we must stand and face his attacks by relying on the power of God. Peter tells us that we will suffer from the attacks of Satan but Satan cannot destroy us because God will restore, support, and strengthen us.
Here is another fact: the idea that it is melodramatic to preach about spiritual warfare generally comes from pabulum spewing religious libertine preachers. They deny the work of Satan and teach that bad things never happen to people with the right faith: they are preaching a lie. Yes they are correct in claiming that God will put a protective wall around Christians; but, the strength of that wall is totally dependent on our walk as a Christian. God had placed an impenetrable wall around Job, but then Job was blameless: a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil. Most of us are not in the same league as Job. When Peter wrote his letter he was not addressing it to a bunch of Jobs; Peter was writing to a bunch of Christians just like us. Brothers and Sisters, let’s face it; most of us do not have much of a wall between us and Satan, and I do not care what the feel-good preacher say.
Peter is not the only Apostle who warned us about Satan and spiritual warfare. Paul also recognized that a Christian cannot rely on their own power to survive the attacks from Satan. Paul warns us that we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. That is why we must live in the power of the Lord. We must put on all of God’s armor so that we will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. Paul knew firsthand the strength of our enemy: Satan. Paul spent his entire Christian life in a brutal battle with Satan, but Paul stood firm in the armor of God and never stopped speaking boldly for Jesus. (Ephesians 6:10-20) The author of Job, Peter and Paul all spoke the truth and if they seemed overly dramatic it was because spiritual warfare is a life and death struggle.
THOSE UNAWARE OF SPIRITUAL WARFARE
I declare to you now, if you have seldom felt the blows of Satan on your shield it is because you have seldom stood up for Jesus. Those who are lost and dying already belong to Satan and he plays with them at his leisure. Immature Christians who seldom read scripture, take little interest in fellowship and never proclaim the Lordship of Jesus hardly interest Satan at all. But, those who study the word of God, and boldly live a Christian lifestyle, bring bitter bile up from Satan’s gut; and it nearly strangles him. Satan hates, with the furry of hell, every Christian who is building on the foundation of Christ with gold silver and precious stones. He seems to generally ignore those who are no threat to his kingdom. That is probably why pulpit-hugging, pabulum-spewing, spiritual-idiots do not see Satan as an active threat.
It is rumored that less than ten percent of the people, who call themselves a Christian, are actually in an active battle with Satan. In fact, I would imagine Satan views most Christians in the United States as nothing more than a field mouse he can play with and eventually destroy at his leisure. Right now, Satan has his hands full trying to stop the spread of Christianity in places like Africa and the Middle East. We Americans are no real irritation to him!
Perhaps we should caveat our previous statement with: Christians building on the foundation of Jesus Christ with wood, hay and stubble are a minor irritation to Satan. Christians, on the other hand, who are building with gold, silver and precious stone, are another story. They are a constant reminder of what he has lost. When Jesus Christ arose from the dead His kingdom was established and Satan knew the time he had left was short. He had to know because a loud voice shouted across the heavens: “It has come at last— salvation and power and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth— the one who accuses them before our God day and night. And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens! And you who live in the heavens, rejoice! But terror will come on the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you in great anger, knowing that he has little time.” (Revelation 12:10-12) Satan knows that it is over for him; but in the time that he has left, he will do everything he can to destroy as much of God’s creation as he can: especially humans who actively serve Jesus Christ.
SATAN’S WORK
We need to remember that, prior to the resurrection of Jesus; Satan was free to point out to God all the failures of humans populating the earth. For example, Satan stood before God accusing Jeshua the high priest. We know this because an angel showed Zechariah Jeshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD. The Accuser, Satan, was there at the angel’s right hand, making accusations against Jeshua. And the LORD said to Satan, “I, the LORD, reject your accusations, Satan. Yes, the LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you. This man is like a burning stick that has been snatched from the fire.” (Zechariah 3) Once again, God slammed Satan with the righteousness of Man. It is no wonder Satan hates all of mankind but he goes into a fit of rage over a Christian who lives the lifestyle of a minister of the message of reconciliation.
Most people, even Christians, do not believe in spiritual warfare. Perhaps it is because they fear Satan and think that he will ignore them if they ignore him; but this is poor logic. Scripture tells us that we are in a spiritual war and we must stand firm in resisting Satan. We cannot stand firm if we are ignoring Satan. Let us wake up; let us actively look for Satan’s handy work in our life and the life of those around us. We must be a;ert to the fact that Satan constantly tries to :
• Blind human minds – “Satan hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” (2 Corinthians 4:4)
• Deceive – “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” (Revelation 12:9).
• Influence –Satan has been able to influence some people so extensively that God cannot take them to heaven. (Matthew 7:21-23)
• Bring illness – Paul had a physical infirmity, and he tells us where this infirmity came from. “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.” (2 Corinthians 12:7)
• Send demons to possess humans –“And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. … And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” … (Luke 13:10-17)
• Appear as an angel of light – “And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” (2 Corinthians 11:14)
• Have his demons appear as angels of light – “So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.” (2 Corinthians 11:15)
• Have his demons teach false doctrine – “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1)
The evil in this world originates with Satan; and, we can attribute most of our failures to Satan working in our life. Look at Judas Iscariot. Satan entered into Judas and caused him to betray Jesus, John 13:27. Jesus said it best when He told the Jews that they did not understand what He said because they could not bear to hear His words. He went on to tell them that they were like their father the devil, and that their will was to do the devil’s work. (John 8:39-47) Our enemy is Satan and we are locked into a life and death struggle with him. We are in a spiritual war and those who have not truly embraced the belief that Jesus is both their Lord and their Savior have already lost the battle.
FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT
If we do not want to be spiritually killed, in this battle, we need to seek out Jesus as both our Lord and our Savior. Then, we must follow Paul’s instructions to put on the armor of God! The only way to do this is to study the word of God for ourselves and not believe every preacher who claims to be a servant of God. Be assured, there are false preachers out there who will tell you there is no spiritual war or that the spiritual war is over. Ignore them! The warm and fuzzy prosperity-pimps are selling us a lie. We do not need to listen to them. We are born again and we have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within us, so we don’t need anyone to teach us what is true. For the Spirit teaches us everything we need to know, and what he teaches is the truth. (1 John 2:18-27) All we have to do is to go to the word of God in prayer, with a heart that is diligently seeking the truth, and the Holy Spirit will guide the Born Again Christian into all truth.
It is imperative that we test every preacher to see if the spirit they have comes from God, because there are many false preachers in the world. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person, who claims to be a preacher, will acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is from God. (1 John 4:1-6) Such a person will readily acknowledge:
1. Authority of Scripture – the Holy Bible is the final, complete and accurate revelation of God’s will for mankind; thus, the Bible is our only true source for knowing about the teachings of Jesus.
2. Jesus Existed, As Part of The Godhead, Before He Came To Earth – this is why Jesus was God Incarnate and it is a fundamental requirement for the deity of Christ.
3. Substitutionary Atonement – forgiveness of our sins was only possible through the perfect sacrifice (Jesus, God Incarnate).
4. Virgin Birth – the only means of achieving the perfect sacrifice was through a virgin birth of the incarnation.
5. Deity of Jesus – Jesus was the incarnation of the Godhead and in Him rested the essence, power, perfection and authority of the Godhead.
6. Mankind Must Submit To The Authority Of Jesus – we must believe in who Christ is, and we must demonstrate this belief by our totally accepting the teachings of Jesus.
7. Jesus’ Bodily Resurrection – Jesus died on the cross as the perfect sacrifice and He bodily arose from the dead having put on the imperishable spiritual body, which every born again Christen will one day inherit.
8. Second Coming – Jesus will return one day to judge all of mankind and to rule a new heaven & earth.
Any preacher or teacher who cannot profess a belief in all eight fundamental truths is not a true servant of Jesus Christ. You cannot pick and choose what portions of scripture you want to believe: all of scripture is true and relevant. Jesus Christ is exactly who He said he was and who the apostles taught He was: if not, then Jesus was just another teacher. Jesus was not just a great teacher; Jesus was God incarnate.
CONCLUSION
Dear friends, I suppose it is accurate to say that the author of the Facebook posting was being melodramatic. Yet, what he wrote is basically accurate: we are in a spiritual war. This is our war! Some say that God and Satan are at war, but their war is over and Satan lost. Some even say we are like puppets on a string; we are either manipulated by God or by Satan. This is a lie. Satan and his followers rebelled against God and God’s army defeated them. Satan and his followers have been cast to earth for a short time and then they will be cast into the lake of fire. That is why Satan now roams the earth looking for Christians he can destroy: Satan is at war with born again Christians, not God.
This does not mean that every mishap or failure in our life is the result of Satan’s actions. Actually, events in our life can come about in three basic ways: 1) events may just be the natural way things happen; 2) events may be the result of our own actions; and 3) events in our life may be the result of spiritual influence over us and/or spiritual influence over the natural course of worldly things. Look at it this way. On one hand, the natural course of events will impact everyone in the area where they happen: it rains on the just and the unjust. On the other hand, an individual has freedom to do as they desire. If we do what is smart and good we can expect positive things to happen; I plant and tend a garden there is a good chance I will reap the fruit of my labor. If we do what is dumb and bad we can expect negative results; I steal from someone else’s garden I can expect to get shot. Now, above both our hands is the spiritual realm, and over this we humans have no control. Both Satan and God can influence the natural course of events here on earth. Both Satan and God can influence the spirit of those who will yield to them. The wise Christian will draw close to God so that we can experience His influence more than Satan’s. (James 4:7-8)
Facts are facts; we are in a spiritual war! No matter how fierce the battle gets we will always endure the suffering because we know that we belong to God. We have already won a victory over the evil in this world, because the Spirit who lives in us is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. Demon-inspired, pulpit-hugging, pabulum-spewing, religious-libertine preachers belong to this world and are influenced by the prince of this world. They speak from the world’s viewpoint and worldly people listen to them. But we belong to God, and those who know God only listen to the word of God, as it exists in scripture: undefiled by the manipulation of men’s minds. (1 John 4:1-6) The true Christian does not try to ignore the reality of Satan and his demons … the true Christian stands firmly rooted upon the rock of Jesus. We will be victorious and our battle scars will be a badge of honor throughout all of eternity.
