SPIRITUAL WARFARE
T. L. Lowery
SPIRITUAL WARFARE
You and I are in a war. It is a war that rages all around us. It is not a war with conventional weapons that we can see exploding around us, but it is a war nonetheless. And even though we cannot see this war, we can definitely feel it. It is a war for our families, our prosperity, our peace of mind, our health, our church . . . it is a war for our very souls. I know you have felt it even though you may not be able to describe it.
This war is waged by our arch nemesis, Satan himself and he uses a host of demonic forces to wage this war against us. This enemy hates us and wants to attack all believers, in one way or another.
He is called in the Bible by many names and we are going to look at these.
Jesus called Satan “the prince of this world” three times (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11).
Paul called Satan “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4).
Satan is the great “adversary” of both God and man. (1 Peter 5:8)
Jesus often called him “the devil,” a word that means “slanderer.”
Jesus called this slanderer “a murderer” and “a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44).
The Bible calls Satan “the angel of the bottomless pit” and “Apollyon,” or destroyer (Revelation 9: 11).
The Bible calls Satan a “serpent” (2 Corinthians 11: 3) who, using trickery, seduced Eve in the Garden of Eden.
He is called “the prince of the power of the air
Therefore it is important that we know who he is and how to defeat him
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith” (1 Peter 5: 8– 9).
Amplified Bible.
8 Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring [in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour.
9 Withstand him; be firm in faith [against his onset—rooted, established, strong, immovable, and determined], knowing that the same (identical) sufferings are appointed to your brotherhood (the whole body of Christians) throughout the world. (Amplified Bible, 1 Peter 5: 8– 9).
He tries to prevent us from living the abundant life that our heavenly Father desires for us through Jesus Christ.
“The thief [Satan] does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I [Jesus] have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10: 10).
This scripture tells us that God wants us to have an abundant life and that we can stand firm against Satan to protect our Spirit health and to support the development of our faith. We can loosen the devil’s chains and cast down demonic strongholds through the weapons of Spirit warfare God has given us.
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the Spirit forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
13 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.
14 Stand firm then, with the Belt of Truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,
15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 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 Lord’s people.
19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel,
This scripture tells us that we must BECOME EQUIPPED FOR SPIRIT WARFARE.
Mary K. Baxter says in Chapter 1 of her book, Divine Revelation of Spirit Warfare, “This Spirit battle is taking place yet most people do not even believe in the reality of what is happening. Many in the church do not fully understand how to appropriate the protection and Spirit weapons that are rightfully theirs in Jesus Christ. They may have been told about victory in Jesus and even sung about it, yet, for the most part, they have not been shown how to walk in that victory. In other words, many Christians do not know how to claim and use Christ’s victory for themselves. Because so many believers are unequipped spiritually, they are susceptible to the attacks of the devil. And if these Christians are easy prey for the enemy, consider how vulnerable nonbelievers are to him! We must wake up to the truth of God’s Word about the Spirit struggle we are engaged in.”
All of us who have received Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord need to know that we are in this war and we need to know how to wage warfare against our Spirit enemy. As we learn to do so, we can protect ourselves from his inevitable attacks and fulfill what God, our heavenly Father, has called us to do through Christ.
We must come to the full realization that Jesus has already won the ultimate victory over Satan! This is not some battled we must face alone, yet people do face their battles alone because they do not fully understand all that has been made available to them through Christ.
Colossians 2:13-15 says…
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,
14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.
5 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
The picture here is of a military commanding officer being stripped of all of his rank and authority. Today we would call it a court martial. God made a public spectacle of Satan as all of the angelic hosts watched while he stripped him of any authority over the believer. The only authority he has is what we give him. We must not give him any authority but walk in the truth that God has created us for great things.
Ephesians 2:10 says…
“For we are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2: 10).
You are God’s workmanship, I am God’s workmanship and we were created to do good works, but there is one who does not want us to fulfill our destiny. There is one who wants us to fail but God made it clear that he wants us to succeed. He wants us live in victory. He is tired of us living below our potential and God is tired of us being manipulated by Satan and he wasn’t us rise up an army to defeat this foe.
However, the days of your being defeated, down, depressed, sick, broke, lonely, and discouraged are coming to an end.
We are going to learn how to take authority over all of these Spirit forces and rise up and become all that God created us to become. The scripture declares that “we are more than conquerors.”
Romans 8:26-39 (New International Version)
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.
34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I need you to know that Spirit warfare is not just for preachers or other Spirit leaders. I believe every follower of Christ should know about the war we are engaged in and know how to fight in this war if they expect to live in victory.
God wants us to experience Spirit freedom. We are going to learn how to do that. You can experience Spirit freedom and effectively wage Spirit warfare as you understand and act upon these truths:
I am confident that by the time we come to the end of this study you will be well equipped to live a victorious life.
ARE YOU READY TO BEGIN?
