Spiritual Warfare Part 1

Many Christians have accepted good and bad; success and failure; disease and health; good luck and misfortune as life. They call it normal life. When things are not working, when difficulty befalls us we blame the government; we blame parents; we blame our spouses; we blame schools; we blame the system. What we know; what we have experienced; what we have been taught are limited to explain why certain things happen the way they do. We seem not to know the root causes of the challenges in life.

God did not create life to be interpreted externally. God hid reality in the things we cannot see with our eyes or discern with our senses. Many people believe that the things we see, feel, touch, taste, and smell are the truly real things. However, they are not real. They are temporary and often deceptive.

The invisible and spiritual things are the real things. The spiritual world is more real than the physical world. Things that are visible were all made from things invisible. The foundation and root of the visible is the invisible.

The challenges we go through in life such as poverty, divorce, conflicts, sickness, robbery, murder, and wars, are effects of the war that is going on in the spiritual world. In seeking solutions to these problems we don’t have to fight the effects or fellow humans because they are not the source of the problems. The Bible says in Ephesians 6:12 that, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

This war that we fight is a matter of life or death, and it affects every human being. What makes the war worse is the fact that many believers are not aware of it or even concerned about it. As a result, they perish by the billions. To wake up to the reality of this war we have not to limit ourselves to the visible things. We have to receive revelations about the spiritual things.

Who are the enemies?

The enemies are NOT persons with flesh and blood, but they are spiritual beings and they have personalities. They are identified with labels such as angels, and demons. Their leader is the devil, who is an arc angel. The devil and these spiritual agents of his make up very powerful and highly organized enemies. We should never take them for granted. The Bible reveals Satan in Ezekiel 28:12 and 17.

12 “Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre and say to him: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “‘You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.’

17 ‘Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.’

We learn that the devil was full of wisdom, glorious, and beautiful. He was an angel in charge of covering the presence of God. He was also an arc angel, one who rules other angels under him. He still has the wisdom and power but now it is corrupted.

The war we fight is a continuation of the rebellion, which Lucifer started in heaven, and it got him thrown out of heaven. Isiah 14:12-15 talks about it. ‘How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! 13 You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.[b] 14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” 15 But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit.’

It is a fight between the kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan. Satan from the start of his rebellion wanted to be equal to God, and receive worship of the human race and also dominate the human race. Up to today this is his purpose. His mission is to rebel against God’s purposes, will, and promises. He also urges all his followers to do the same. He tries his best to blind people from the will and purposes of God.

When Satan was kicked out of heaven he has occupied the heavenly place between the heaven where God dwells and the earth. He also occupies the air above the earth. That is why the Bible calls him prince of the kingdom of the air.

What strategies does the enemy use?

His main strategy is to rule by ignorance. That is why his Kingdom is called the kingdom of darkness. He rules us to the degree that we do not know.

Other sub strategies include:

He enters human bodies to conduct business on earth. Example are demons that possesses people and make them do evil acts.

He speaks through people. E.g Simon Peter and Jesus, where Jesus said devil get behind me. Mathew 16:23— Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

The devil has a shadow of all key leaders of the earth in his kingdom. These shadows are evil angels that he put in charge of influencing the earthly leaders. E.g kings, witch doctors. In the Bible this is seen in Ezekiel 28:12-17. The prince of Tyre was a human being, the king of tire was not human. He was spiritual ruler in the unseen world that was behind the human prince of Tyre.

When he is near he seems far, and when he is far he seems near. He operates a lot in the Church but the Church thinks he is far. He gets people to do good things not the right things. He also intimidates people to offer him sacrifices.

He attacks indirectly. E.g he used Eve to attack Adam.

He attacks weak points. He attacks areas undefended. He causes people to focus on minor things and abandon major things. In the art of war, it is said that, For should the enemy strengthen his left, he will weaken his right; should he strengthen his right, he will weaken his left.

He attacks at the point when we are about to give up.

He conceals his plans and truth about himself. He also conceals truth about us and God’s will.

By Felix J. Opio