What is spiritual warfare?
Ephesians 6:12, “For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.”
In this wicked and perverse generation there are curses and wickedness that abound. We live in technological age of computers fax machines, and all sorts of other gadgets. We live in an age where true biblical teaching is not accepted, nor cherished it is flat out looked at as if among the false. We live in an age, where adultery, pornography, greed, sloth and murder are no longer viewed as bad, but instead accepted culturally accepted realities of our everyday life. This has not always been the case; however, for America’s founders at least the majority of them including the writer of the Declaration of Independence was a believer, the Founding President even of the American Bible Society.
We live in a militaristic society. When a General goes to battle, he has hundreds of people on his staff. These people help assist the General in planning and organizing the war. Before the battle even begins plans are made and preparations are made for battle. A huge board full of where the tanks will go, where the foot soldiers will go, where the plans will bomb, and where the ships will be is drawn up and finalized. It is the same in the heavenly realms as well. Satan has generals and officers in his army people who deny Christ are among them but they are merely false teachers. False teachers have gone out into the world those who deny the existence of Christ being among them (1st John 4:1-3), but there is hope that 1st John 4: 4 But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won your fight with these false prophets, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. 5 These people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. 6 But we belong to God; that is why those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.”
The battle lines have already been drawn. These powers of darkness can be defined also as principalities. Principality finds its origins in ajrchv translated arche, meaning, beginning, origin , the person or thing that commences, the first person or thing in a series, the leader, that by which anything begins to be, the origin, the active cause, that by which anything begins to be, the origin, the active cause, the extremity of a thing, of a corners of a sail, the first place, principality, rule, magistracy, of angels and demons. Our fight is against the fallen demons who wished to rebel from God. Satan is a created angel and the author of sin. He incurred the judgment of God by rebelling against his Creator (Isaiah 14:12,17; Ezek 28:11-9), by taking numerous angels with him in his fall (Matthew 25:41; Revelation 12:1-14), and by introducing sin into the human race by his temptation of Eve (Genesis 3:1-15). Satan is the open and declared enemy of God and man (Isaiah 14:13-14; Matthew 4:1-11; Revelation 12:9-10, the prince of this world who has been defeated through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Romans 16:20), and that he shall be eternally punished in the lake of fire (Isaiah 14:12-17;Ezek 28:11-19; Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:10).
Now you see our fight is not against the flesh and blood, the human in and of itself. Often in Jesus ministry He would not let the demon itself speak but spoke directly to the demon and cast the demon out. Now why would Jesus our Lord and Savior have done this? The reason is that in God’s eyes demons have no authority. Paul stated that we are conquerors in Christ. Romans 8:37, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” The Greek word here Hupernikao meaning to be more than a conqueror, to gain a surpassing victory. This clearly gives us a military usage, much like the above used example between Generals and officers. Satan can prowl around like a lion trying to destroy us, but Satan is merely only a lion on a short leash. If we take a look into the beginning of the story of Job we can understand that Satan has to have permission from God to come after us. God permits this not because He Himself is evil, because God is not evil, He is holy and without spot. God in His wisdom chooses to allow Satan to test and try us, so that our faith will be perfected. James 1:2-3, “2 Dear brothers and sisters, F2 whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. 3 For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.” You see God is intensely interested in is changing us and molding us. In His sovernity He has foreseen the challenges that we will face us, and the choices that we will have to make. He also knows that in life we will more than often have to walk through the valley in order to experience the mountain top. In order to fully appreciate the mountain top though you must first walk through the valley, for it is in the valley of life where we most often and clearly experience and see God’s miracles in our life as we walk with Him in communion with His Spirit which gives us our joy and our peace.
There is a real fight brothers and sisters today; the flesh and the blood, the principalities and the forces of darkness are bent. The stragedy is to take out as many as they can by flat out taking them out. Satan hates believers and the Gospel of Christ. The fight today is greater than perhaps ever in church history, for as we march towards the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, ever one step closer everyday. The fight grows stronger because love for truth of God’s Word has gotten colder and colder with each passing day. Biblical values and ethics are facing more attack today from the demonic horde than anything. Pastors and people involved in ministry are hurting deeply some because the attacks are so fierce and they need prayer support and encouragement, not to be leaned upon, but to be uplifted and supported themselves. It is time instead of fighting against one another and thus achieving one of Satan’s primary agendas that we instead nullified not the dialogue of discussion, but increased the awareness of the necessity of working together rather than against each other as believers. None of us is evil in the first place, for if we have placed our trust in Christ, we are indwelt by the same Spirit, have the same baptism into the same Body, are of the same faith, for our foundation and our rock is still the same is it not? Is not the Messiah the Head of the Body? Why then fight against one another? This is primarily because we fail to understand that Jesus prayed for us in John 17:20-23, to be one, to work together. God’s intentions were to love not to fight. God came down reaching down in our humanity because He loved us with all of His passionate attributes, and He loved us enough to offer up Himself by living a holy and blameless life, so that we as sinful human beings could enjoy the same life that He does Himself in heaven, that is eternal blessedness, and holiness with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.
You see the battle rages on past the affections and realities of our life, beyond the philosophies that we have accepted. Faith is no fluke, although it is all around us in everything we do from driving to going to the store. Human beings are creatures of belief, of habit, for the whole human condition could be summed up in one word, choice. We can either choose, or not choose for that is also up to us, to choose to either live for Christ or be an agent of Satan. As believers the temple of the living God resides within us, indwelt by the Holy Spirit and as believers we must rely on that Spirit to give us strength when times come that are hard, in the valleys of life challenges will come and hit us head on but we can walk with strength and courage to face them because greater is He who is within us than is in the world. We have a God who was not yesterday, He has always been before the foundations and formation of the world, God was and still is today the same and everlasting.
The reality though for believers is that we have lost sight of the reality of our warfare. The picture painted earlier of Satan, his generals and officers is more than true, it is a reality, but it is also a reality with God. God has all of the plans set in motion prophetically speaking and the outcome will not change. God wins and Satan loses. Believers are conquerors and winners, but Satan and his cohorts are the losers and captives. Satan, Antichrist, and the False Prophet will be thrown into the lake of fire at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The release of Satan after the thousand year reign of Christ (Revelation 20:7), Satan will deceive the nations of the earth and gather them to battle against the saints and the beloved city at which time Satan and hi army will be devoured by the fire from heaven (Revelation 20:9). Following this, Satan will be thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone (Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:10) whereupon Christ, who is the judge of all men (John 5:22), will resurrect and judge the great and small at the Great White Throne judgment. This resurrection of the unsaved dead to judgment will be a physical resurrection whereupon receiving their judgment (John 5:28-29) they will be committed to an eternal conscious punishment in the lake of fire (Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:11-15). After the closing of the Millennium, the temporary release of Satan, and the judgment of unbelievers (2nd Thess 1:9; Revelation 20:7-15), the saved will enter the eternal state of glory with God after which the elements of this earth are to be dissolved (2nd Peter 3:10 and replaced with a new earth wherein only righteousness dwells (Ephesians 5:5; Revelation 20:15.21-22). Following this, the heavenly city will come down out of heaven (Revelation 21:2) and will be the dwelling place of the saints, where they will enjoy forever fellowship with God and one another (John 17:3; Revelation 21:,22). Our Lord Jesus Christ, having fulfilled His redemptive mission, will them deliver up the kingdom to God the Father (1st Corinthians 15:23-28) that in all sphered the triune God may reign forever and ever (1st Corinthians 15:28) .
After the tribulation period, Christ will come to earth to occupy the throne of David (Matthew 25:31; Luke 1:32-33; Acts 1:10-11; 2:29-30) and establish His messianic kingdom for a thousand years on earth (Revelation 20:1-7). During this time the resurrected saints will reign with Him over Israel and all the nations of the earth( Ezek 37:21-28; Daniel 7:17-22; Revelation 19:11-16). This reign will be preceded by the overthrow of the Antichrist and the False Prophet, and by the removal of Satan from the world (Daniel 7:17-27; Revelation 20:1-6) We believe that the kingdom itself will be the fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel (Isaiah 65:17-25; Ezek 37:21-28; Zech 8:1-17) to restore them to the land which they forfeited through their disobedience (Deut 28:15-68). The result of their disobedience was that Israel was temporarily set aside (Matthew 21:43; Romans 11:1-26) but will again be awakened through repentance to enter into the land of blessing (Jeremiah 31:31-35; Ezek 36:22-32; Romans 11:25-29).
I pray that all would see that this battle for souls is very serious. Our calling is the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:18-29, Acts 1:8 and Mark 16:15, the call to love one another (John 13:35), the call to unite (John 17:20-23), but more than anything our focus and our attention should always be upon giving God the glory, and the praise for His Work in our lives presenting our lives as an altar of sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2). May our attention be focused upon the Savior, and daily may we put ourselves in His Word, mediating upon who He is.
While our warfare is very real, our God is also very real. He has everything under control. This is the foundation of what is spiritual warfare? Trust in and relying upon the grace of our Lord. We must depend upon Him and give Him the praise, allowing Him to merely use us as His vessels. May the Lord bless you and keep you in the palm of His everlasting hand.
Pastor Jenkins
