Warfare - the spiritual battle

Chris Kent

Summary
The Bible is clear that regardless of whether you know it or not, whether you’re a follower of Jesus or not, your life is engaged in a very real battle. It’s an unseen battle but its effects are very real and can be felt and seen all around us as we see casualties of war all around.
So who is our enemy and how do we fight?

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. —John 10:10 ( NIV)

Jesus’ heart, vision, invitation and intention for us is life. Life that is super-abundant and beyond the norm.

Per-is-sos (full) - more, greater, excessive, abundant, exceedingly, vehemently, passionate, intense life

Things never discovered or heard of before, things beyond our ability to imagine — these are the many things God has in store for all His lovers. —1 Corinthians 2:9 (TPT)

Are we living in the abundant life Jesus has won for us? Are we experiencing the freedom, joy and peace?
Are we living in freedom? Are we free? Staying free?

Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. —1 Peter 5:8 (NIV)

The devil comes with the exact opposite mission and vision for our lives.

Jesus comes to give - our enemy comes to steal
Jesus comes with life - our enemy comes to kill
Jesus comes with ‘fullness’ - our enemy comes to bring destruction

We face a very real enemy with a mission and vision of death and destruction for our lives but we need to realize the devil is not the same as God. He’s not all-powerful. He doesn’t have any authority in our lives except the authority we allow him to have.

18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” —Matthew 28:18-20

Jesus has ALL authority. That leaves 0% left over for the devil. Jesus has delegated His authority to us and commissioned us to go.

Who is our real enemy?

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. —Romans 6:1-7 (NIV)

Romans 6 makes it clear that our flesh, our old sinful nature died with Christ on the cross. Our enemy is within. We are not trying to kill off our old sinful nature, it died on the cross with Jesus.

‘I have found that hordes of believers have fallen prey to the same demonic charade my friends experienced. They were told at baptism that their old selves had drowned in the sea of crucifixion. They can quote Galatians 2:20 and say they have been “crucified with Christ.” They have all read the book of Romans, which tells them over thirty times that they are dead, they died, their old self was crucified, they should consider themselves dead … dead, dead, dead, dead, dead! (As I like to say, we are the original Grateful Dead.) And yet, they find that they keep being “haunted” by what appears to be their old man. Some of these folks end up spending their entire lives kicking a corpse, wrestling a carcass and otherwise wasting their energy on an enemy that has already died, while the real foe laughs sarcastically through the prison bars of their lives. —‘Spirit Wars’ by Kris Vallotton

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6).
Spiritual warfare is against an enemy and you are not your own enemy!
The front line of the war we are all engage in, is not with our flesh, but is with our minds.

I can’t afford to have thoughts in my head about me that God doesn’t have in His. —Bill Johnson

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. —2 Corinthians 10:3-5

Our thoughts are powerful. Our thoughts can either be godly, full of biblical truth and inspire hope and freedom or they can full of fear and despair. They can be like big unruly dogs dragging us around into ungodly imaginations.
BUT the Bible says we can take our thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ.

How do we fight?

Not every thought that comes into our mind is from us. The demonic realm will often tempt us with us a thought and if we don’t partner with it, the next attack will be to accuse of having such a terrible thought. We need to know that we don’t need to own or partner with these thoughts.

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity or cowardice or fear, but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of sound judgment and personal discipline [abilities that result in a calm, well-balanced mind and self-control]. —2 Timothy 1:7 (AMP)

Our thoughts are not reality, but what God say’s about us and our lives is the truth.
Ask yourself is this thought from God? Does it encourage hope or does it bring despair?

Other ways to fight -
Worship, speak in tongues, meditate and read scripture, remain in community and seek support and prayer.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. —Romans 12:2 (NIV)

Partner with Holy Spirit to pursue and mind renewed by God’s word. A renewed mind brings tranformation to our lives.

Further Reading:
Spirit Wars - by Kris Vallotton
Kris Vallotton blog on Renewed Mind