Articles on Spiritual Warfare
Articles on Prayer
Articles on Discipleship
Articles on Our Identity in Christ
Articles on the Heroes of the Bible
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How Do We Fight?
Last month, we discussed the idea that followers of Christ will find themselves. The war, however, is not with flesh and blood but rather with spiritual forces in the heavenly realms. This month, I would like to continue this discussion and move to the next level. The biggest obstacle a believer has to face is the realization that there is a problem. I believe one of the reasons that many people do not grow but become stagnant in their Christian walk is that they do not know that there is more to be obtained. As mentioned last month, the biggest arsenal that the enemy has against believers is deception. I can imagine the pure delight he finds as believers throw in the towel believing that the Christian life is one of frustration and work. I would like to first discuss the battleground in more detail and spend some time understanding the difference between the flesh, the world, and Satan. I then will spend the rest of the time discussing how God has equipped us to fight and what our weapons are.
What is the flesh? As stated last month, it is part of our creatureliness and it is a part of us until the day we die. According to Ephesians 2:1-3, the battle of our humanness says, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among who also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others” (NKJV). The flesh and the Spirit are in a continual battle within us. Our flesh is just like the Holy Spirit, who has a life of His own with a mind, emotions, and a will. The goal of the flesh is to have control over the believer while the Spirit is trying to nullify the controlling power of evil in the believer. The world is the unhealthy social environment in which we live. There are ungodly aspects of our culture all around influencing us with “what is in,” and “what is uncool.” We are bombarded with issues of peer pressure, cultural traditions, and personal attitudes.
After we as Christians have found the saving grace of Jesus Christ, we then embark on a lifetime journey of deciding which of these unhealthy influences are still operating in our lives and learning how to root them out. The enemy, or the devil, is an intelligent, powerful spirit-being that is thoroughly evil and is directly involved in perpetrating evil in our lives. We need to hold onto the truth that we are not hopeless victims of a tug-of-war between two nearly equal heavenly superpowers. Compared to Satan’s limited power, God is completely off the charts in His omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience – and we are in Him. The importance of this is that the devil cannot know what is going on in our minds. The influence he has in our lives is from the outside throwing suggestions our way of things he has seen us struggle with in the past. The only way that Satan or any demonic activity could be going on in the inside is if we have let him have access to our hearts in some way. We will discuss this in more detail next month as we discuss strongholds and demonic possession. His goal or aim is to frustrate believers not only inciting us to sin but also keeping us from responding to the message of mercy and grace in Christ. The important thing to remember about these three influences (the flesh, the world, and Satan) is that they do not work separately but are in concert with one another. It is very difficult for us to make sharp distinctions among the three in trying to understand our personal struggles. As it says in Galatians 5:16-17, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish.”
The next question that will obviously be floating around most of our minds at this point is, “What is the use?” If there is that kind of battle going on inside of us why don’t we just throw in the towel now while we are ahead? But wait! Remember the promises that we have! “Greater is he who is in me than He who is the world!” (1 John 4:4). “In all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). The exciting thing about all the references in the Bible is that we who believe in Christ Jesus have unlimited access to His divine power, and with that kind of power, there is nothing that can defeat us. I hope that there is a sense of excitement and exhilaration in knowing this. I know myself there are times I feel defeated and I struggle with finding any strength to stand, but it is usually because I am trying to stand on my own strength and I forget about the one who is so near. Throughout Ephesians, there are many references to the power that is readily available to us if we would only ask. For example, Ephesians 1:19, “His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when He raised him from the dead.” Also in Ephesians 3:20, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his powers that is at work within us.” Then in Ephesians 6:10, “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.”
The next questions that need to be asked, then, are what our responsibility is and how we tap into this tremendous amount of power. Again, we need to refer to Ephesians 6 to discover the answer to this. The one important aspect of this also is that God knows that the battle we are fighting is a strong one and that Satan is willing to do whatever he can to defeat us even though he already lost the battle. God not only supplies believers with the power to fight against the enemy, but he also provides for us the armor to be able to stand against him. As believers, our most important job is to simply “stand firm.” “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand” (6:13). Watchman Nee has a wonderful quote about this truth:
How are we to acquit ourselves in the presence of the adversary – his adversary and ours? God’s word is “Stand!” The Greek verb “stand” means, “hold your ground.” There is a precious truth hidden in that command of God. It is not a command to invade a foreign territory. The word “stand” implies that the ground disputed by the enemy is really God’s, and therefore ours. We need not struggle to gain a foothold on it. Our weapons are defensive. The difference between defensive and offensive warfare is that in the former I have got the ground and only seek to keep it, whereas in the latter I have not got the ground and am fighting in order to get it. And that is precisely the difference between warfare waged by the Lord Jesus and the warfare waged by us. His was offensive; ours is, in essence, defensive. He warred against Satan in order to gain the victory. Today we war against Satan only to maintain and consolidate the victory, which Christ has already gained.
As we read through the rest of Ephesians 6, it describes each piece of armor that is supplied for us. The first peace of armor is the “belt of truth buckled around your waist.” We need to know the truth of who we are in Christ. The powers of darkness will try to deceive us, but if we know what our identity is, then we have no reason to fear. Also, we need to practice honesty and to live with moral integrity. The next piece of armor is the “breastplate of righteousness.” We need to realize that before God, we have been acquitted of all guilt. Our aim and goal should be to acquire personal holiness and to develop a good Christian character. Another piece of armor is the “feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace,” which is basically saying that we should always be ready to share the gospel wherever God calls us. Next, it says, “Take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” The importance of this is that we should not doubt that God can protect us and that He alone has the power to overcome. Then we need the “helmet of salvation,” which is to be secure in our identity in Christ. As long as we remain faithful in Him, we can be confident that we have been saved, united with Christ, made alive, and we can look forward to our future forever with Him. Finally, we need “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” This is our only offensive weapon. We need to know Scripture and be able to apply it to difficult situations.
The most important tool that we have to stand against the enemy is prayer. “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints” (6:18). Prayer is the heart of spiritual warfare, the total context in which warfare is engaged and won. Prayer is so vital because it is the means of intimacy and communion with the almighty God. Another important aspect of prayer is that it helps us to recognize that we are not able to fight this battle on our own strength but only by the help of God fighting on our behalf.
I hope that we can find strength and hope in the fact that though the battle in our hearts and minds is a battle, we can easily have victory if we only call out to Him who is anxiously waiting for our call. Another quote from Watchman Nee will help clarify the importance of why God is waiting for us to come to Him instead of His coming to our rescue:
Have you ever tried to save a drowning man? The trouble is that his fear prevents him from trusting himself to you. When that is so, there are just two ways of going about it. Either you must knock him unconscious and then drag him to shore, or else you must leave him to struggle and shout until his strength gives way before you go to his rescue. If you try to save him while he has any strength left, he will clutch at you in his terror and drag you under, and both he and you will be lost. God is waiting for our strength to be utterly exhausted before he can deliver us. Once we have ceased to struggle, he will do everything. God is waiting of us to despair.
In my own life, being in a position of despair is very difficult. Even when I think I am finally willing to totally surrender, I find I am usually hiding one more trump card in my back pocket. The frustrating aspect of this is that God is not waiting to get us to a position to hurt or punish us but rather he is trying to get us to a place where He can bless us, but He cannot as long as we are wrestling and trying to manage on our own strength. The promise I try to hold on to on a daily basis is found in John 10:10. “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” So in closing, let me challenge all of us to lay all our cards on the table and admit defeat and cry out to the only one who can save us.
Materials used:
Watchman Nee
3 Questions about Spiritual Warfare
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