WHAT IS SPIRITUAL WARFARE AND IS REALLY ABOUT??
‘Spiritual warfare’ is the struggle to have life in this material world reflect as much as possible God’s loving governance.
It is a ‘war’ because there are forces working vigorously to thwart God’s work. God is in charge, but there is an enemy that is in full-scale revolt, and it has powerful influence all around.
As with the unseen God, the forces behind the revolt are unseen, non-physical, and supernatural. They lust after power in the world of visible, material beings. Just because the battle is unseen doesn’t mean it isn’t going on. It is In every nook and cranny of our earthly existence.
In deciding to follow Christ, the believer accepts the rulership of Christ in his/her life (that’s what’s meant when Jesus is called ‘Lord’ — His authority and rule). This New You yields the throne of the self to Jesus, but the Old You doesn’t like it one bit.
The struggle against the Devil and all his empty promises is at its heart a ’second Person’ matter, a work of Christ Himself. The Holy Spirit leads us in our part of the struggle.
The Scriptures speak of spiritual warfare in several places, but most directly by Paul in Ephesians 6, where he speaks of the full armor of God. Most pointed is verse 12 :
Ephesians 6:12 (Revised Standard Version)
12For we are not
contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities,
against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness,
against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
The Devil has already lost.
But the Devil is trying to take as many with him as he can, apparently just to hurt God. And however much the Devil succeeds in doing this, God hurts –
like a parent does over losing a child. This sort of spite is very much in keeping with the Devil’s character. Satan is a leech; he is so lacking in life that the only life he has left is what he can suck out of the living.
What Spiritual Warfare Is Really About?
I have recently felt God telling me to study up on spiritual warfare.
i think it might be because He has that in His plan for me in my future ministries.
All I have on it myself is on the pages. I am just a learner, and I share what I learn.
Spiritual warfare is about loving God and other people, not about hating the Devil.
It is about doing right in your own life and doing right to the people around you before it is about anybody doing anything Satanic. It is about the simple and everyday decisions much more than it is about exorcisms and power confrontations (though be prepared….)
It is about reading the Bible more than it is about catching the latest hot ‘deliverance’ preacher, tape or book. And it is not something to engage in by yourself.
Just like all Christians are called to be evangelists by living their lives as Christ would have us do, all Christians are called to fight spiritual wars that same way. And, like with evangelism, a few are called for a more intense role in spiritual warfare. But those few must keep seeing things as they really are.
It is God who wins the war, not ourselves.
We just do what He gives us to do.
