The Strategic Goals of Spiritual Warfare
What is the mission?
That question is one of the most important ones we ask as we work on any challenge or project.
When we take up the challenge of Spiritual Warfare, we need to understand our mission, our strategic goals. Knowing our mission and goals helps us to define our tactics and to know if we are succeeding.
*ill.- James received an archery set for his birthday. His friend, John, came to visit and was amazed that each hole in the targets indicated that the arrow had struck dead center. John had no idea that James was so proficient with the bow, he watched his friend in action. The explanation was soon discovered. James took a blank sheet of paper and hung it on the bales of hay that served as his backstop. He fired arrows at the paper then he took out his marker and drew a target around each of the arrows!
Are you waging an effective war against evil?
How do you measure your efforts?
In our text, we are told that we have two strategic goals in our spiritual warfare. Let’s take a look. {READ}
Text: 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We 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. NIV
I. We are to tear down every argument that keeps people from knowing God!
In The Message, a contemporary translation of the New Testament, this verse is written:
“We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies,
tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God.”
Every era has its own philosophies that shape the lives of the people in those eras, often without much conscious thought. Few of us have explored the foundations on which our thoughts and reasoning stands. Thus, we are frequently locked into fortresses with strong, though invisible, walls.
We need to ask:
∙ Why do we choose to live the way that we live?
∙ What “truths” are guiding and shaping our culture?
∙ What arguments and pretensions have gripped our minds that must be torn down so that we can truly serve God?
The culture Western world and particularly the United States did not arrive at where it is in 2002 simply by chance. Over the past 3 centuries the Western mind has been completely reshaped, the roadways along which our thoughts travel have been rebuilt. We think completely differently than people did when America was born as a nation. Modern philosophies are woven into our minds, not only by formal education processes, but through cultural influences, movies, music, advertising, books, and television. We often adopt non-Christian thought patterns without making a conscious choice.
Certain basic assumptions about the meaning of life have become strongholds in the modern mind. As Christians we must demolish those strongholds that block people’s hearing and understanding the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that keep us from serving Christ effectively and faithfully.
One of those strongholds in modern thought is radical individualism.
We worship our individuality to the point that we believe we have a nearly unlimited rights to do what pleases us. The restraints of law, religion, or morality are resented and resisted. About 15 years there was a popular Christian book published with the title: “I Gotta Be Me.” In it, Tammy Faye Bakker, the wife of the televangelist argued for her right to self-expression. Despite her place of prominence as a Christian she insisted that she just had to do what her individuality demanded of her. Few challenged her. In fact, many Christians applauded her conclusions as bringing necessary liberation to the Church. Surely Tammy Faye made some valid points about the shallow and judgmental culture within organized religion, but she missed the bigger point that we are NOT free to be ourselves without concern for the effects of our choices and actions.
Most of us sitting right here today are imprisoned by this stronghold. We find it difficult to think of ourselves as being constrained by our responsibility to each other and to God. We are convinced that fulfillment and happiness will be found in doing what we want to do regardless of the will of God or the needs of friends, family, nation, or church.
The wisdom of the Scripture challenges radical individualism with this statement, Romans 15:1-3
We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. 2 Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3 For even Christ did not please himself . . .” (NIV)
Jesus said, Luke 9:23-24 "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. (NIV)
A second stronghold in the modern mind is secularism.
The opposite of secular is sacred.
Do you ever find yourself trying to carve your life into categories that matter to God and things that seem not to matter to God?
Do you consciously partition Sunday/church stuff from what you do on Monday at the office?
In many people’s minds, the “God world” and the “temporal world” are completely separate.
This divide began to be created in our thinking about 300 years ago. Now most of us are secularists without knowing it. We have taught ourselves to isolate our spirituality from our “real” lives. This stronghold obviously keeps people from knowing God in a powerful way. Here’s a quick way to know if you’re a closet secularist underneath your Christian words: are you trusting God to get you to heaven, but seldom ask Him about His will for any daily decisions in your life? If do not think to pray for daily bread, the resources needed in daily life; or for daily guidance, or make a daily commitment to God’s will, you’ve been co-opted by secularism.
The result is a Christian who lives a stressed, hurried, and pressured lives with no sense that of God as the caring Father who richly provides.
This stronghold needs to be demolished by the truth of the Bible. There is no division between sacred and secular. The Scripture teaches that our God is Lord of the present as well as eternity. What we do in this world, though it is a temporary and passing existence, is important to God and will be called into judgement by Him.
A third stronghold in modern minds is relativism.
Absolute right and wrong is unthinkable. Several generations ago, Christian people accepted universal principles of morality. Certain actions and choices were simply unthinkable and if made, were judged without apology as being wrong. That way of thinking is long lost.
Modern morality is determined by Gallup Poll. Whatever the majority says is right is judged to be right. The idea that we are accountable to a Divine Person who has established for all time and for all people a standard is generally scoffed at.
What a stronghold. If a person is unable to think in terms of right and wrong, how can they accept their need of a Savior?
Why would need a Savior if we are not sinners, but simply people who make poor choices?
For a relativist, sin doesn’t exist. Mistakes are made. Indeed, some live in a way that inflicts pain and suffering on others and their actions should be curbed, but the thought that such a person needs a Savior is fairly foreign to the mind of the relativist. Additionally, the relativist cannot or will not accept the exclusive truth claim of Christianity. He insists that all paths lead to God, whomever or whatever the divine may be.
Tear down this stronghold! Realize that the Scripture proclaims Jesus Christ to be the revelation of God to man, the only Way to Heaven. Furthermore, understand that the Scripture is clear that we all face a judge who will hold us to the standards that He declared by His Word and that He continues to write by His Spirit in our consciences.
The second strategic goal found in our text is this:
II. Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ!
In The Message, it is written thus: “We use our powerful God-tools for . . . fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ . . . building lives of obedience into maturity.”
Not only must we tear down the strongholds of wrong thinking in our culture and in our own minds, we must also learn to order our thoughts after a godly pattern.
What thoughts invade your mind?
Do you find that you are overwhelmed with fear?
Are you constantly negative, tearing others down, unable to affirm them?
Do you struggle with x-rated fantasies that leave you felling shame?
Do you find yourself unable to pray in faith because of doubting God’s goodness?
These are examples of thoughts that need to be taken captive and ejected from your mind! In our text, we find strong language... 2 Corinthians 10:5 “we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (NIV) This is a picture of a military operation where there are prisoners of war taken so that they no longer can be effective. Their freedom is stripped away along with their weapons.
If we would live an effective, Christ-honoring life the same thing must happen in our mind. We must strip those invading fantasies, imaginations, patterns of unbelief, lies, and temptations of their freedom to come at will and strip them of their power to control us.
How? Can we do by sheer force of will? Partially, but what strength it takes.
That is why some Christians are fairly worthless for the Lord. All of their strength is sapped by their own internal battle. They are so consumed with controlling their own anger, lust, greed, fear, etc. that they cannot do anything else.
Neil Anderson writes
“A believer may lead a fairly normal Christian life on the outside while wrestling with a steady barrage of sinful thoughts on the inside... This person has virtually no devotional life. Prayer is a frustrating experience and he usually struggles with relationships with other Christians. He has no idea he is in the middle of a spiritual conflict... Instead of recognizing that their minds are being peppered by darts of demons, they think the problem is their own fault.”
There is victory to be had. It is in the realization that, at least in part, the warfare is not with yourself but with evil forces that must be taken captive and thrown out. How?
# 1- Surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
When we give ourselves completely to Christ and invite Him to be our Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to live in us and establishes a beachhead from which we can advance to take control. There is no victory without this first step.
# 2- We must learn to take authority in Christ over accusing spirits that afflict our thought life.
Pray that Christ will give you strength and courage, then speak out loud directly to afflicting demons. When you’re overwhelmed by doubt, say something like, “Demon of doubt, go from me. Jesus Christ is my Savior and because of that I know that God loves me. You must leave because of His power. Go!” You might feel stupid, because we aren’t trained to think of unseen spirits, but I assure you the spirit realm is real! When you find the grip of demons being loosed, you’ll get over feeling stupid quickly. You will appreciate the freedom.
# 3- Re-train your thought processes with truth from the Scripture.
Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect will. (NIV)
The Scripture renews our mind with truth. It is your responsibility to learn the Scripture so that when tempting, testing, or accusing thoughts come, whether they come from your own mind or from a lying spirit, you can counter the thought with Truth. When you believe, declare, and act upon the truth of the Bible, you will thwart the conspiracy of evil in your mind and begin to know real freedom.
So what is the strategic goals for our spiritual warfare?
I. We are to tear down every argument that keeps people from knowing God!
Begin to resist radical individualism with its insistence on selfishness.
Tear away the lie of secularism that separates God from the mainstream of life.
Blast away the deception of relativism by understanding the moral absolutes of the God of the Scripture.
II. Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ!
In The Message, it is written thus: “We use our powerful God-tools for . . . fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ . . . building lives of obedience into maturity.”
Amen
