What Is Spiritual Warfare?
Spiritual warfare is the term used to describe the war, conflict and assaults that take place in the invisible realms of the spirit. You may ask yourself why would I intentionally wage war against Satan and his demons. The truth is whether you know it or not, you are engaged in spiritual warfare. Satan has had a strategic plan from the beginning of time to deceive and destroy all people. The first encounter of spiritual warfare between man and the serpent Satan began in the Garden of Eden.
Why Am I In Warfare?
Man’s struggle between good and evil has been going on every since the Garden of Eden experience. The Lord God warned man about the dangers of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Lord made it very clear to Adam that the consequences of disobedience would be death. Disobedience is a sin, and sin always leads to death. When God placed Adam in the garden to watch over it, He gave Adam instructions and a clear warning that he may eat from any of the trees in the garden except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God warned Adam that if he ate the fruit of this tree, he would die.
Satan, in the form of a serpent presented himself to Eve and deceived her into eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. After Eve ate from the tree, she then presented the fruit to her husband Adam to eat as well. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit their spiritual connection to God instantly died. Their spirit man died, they became aware of their flesh and they hid themselves from God.
The same thing that occurred in the Garden is the same thing that is going on today. We have become so aware and consumed with the flesh and our bodies that we give no attention to our spirit. It is only when we reconnect with our spirit man that we will reconnect with God. When we worship God and connect with God we can only do that through our spirit. We will never be able to connect with our Lord through our flesh or our minds. We must always worship God in spirit and in truth.
Our flesh and our spirits are constantly at war with one another. Unless we are walking in the Spirit of God, our flesh will never come under subjection to do what is good. In order to win the fight against Satan ruling our flesh we must learn how to walk in the Spirit of The Lord. When we begin to walk in the Spirit, we will not yield to our flesh. Our flesh fights against the Spirit of God, and the Spirit against our flesh. There is constant war that goes on daily in each of us between our flesh and the Spirit because they are against each other. This war causes us to do things that we know we should not do. Until our spirits are yielded and submitted to the Spirit of the Lord Christ we will lose the battle and our flesh will win every time.
War In Heaven
The Book of Revelation tells us that there was war in heaven between Michael the archangel and his angels against the dragon Satan and his fallen angels. The battle in heaven indicates to us that spiritual warfare takes place in the heavens. Whenever something happens in the spirit realm, the manifestation will always show up in the earth realm.
We read in the Book of Revelation that there was war in heaven and Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels. And the dragon lost the battle, and he and his angels were forced out of heaven. This great dragon-the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the world-was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.
How Do We Fight Against Satan?
As a Christian it is our responsibility to walk in our spiritual authority and exercise our right to live victoriously. We must be able to overcome evil with good and help set others free from sin and the mind hold of Satan. The Bible gives us instructions on how we should engage in spiritual warfare against the devil. God has provided us with His special Armor that guarantees us to win the battle.
Ephesians 6 tells us to be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. We are to put on all of God’s armor so that we will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. We are instructed to put on every piece of God’s armor so that we will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. When we put on the whole armor of God, after the battle we will be the ones standing firm.
When we fight we must always stand our ground on what God has spoken to us. Our armor includes the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. For shoes we put on the peace that comes from the Good News which is the gospel of Christ so that we will be fully prepared. In addition to these, we are to hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. The devil will send these sharp arrows of doubt and fear out against us, but our shield of faith will always block them so we can continue to advance. We are also given salvation as our helmet. When we wear the helmet of salvation, no matter what the devil tries to tell us in our minds or whisper in our ears, we know that Christ has died for our sins and there is no condemnation to us now because we live in Christ Jesus and He lives within us.
Our last piece of armor is the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. The word of God will always stop the enemy during spiritual warfare. The book of Hebrews tells us that God’s Word is living and powerful. It is sharper than a sword that cuts both ways. It cuts straight into where the soul and spirit meet and it divides them. It cuts into the joints and bones and it tells what the heart is thinking about and what it wants to do. The word is a powerful weapon and we must never try to enter warfare with Satan or his demonic army without it. It is our only defense we have in warfare, yet it is the only one that we need.
Keep Your Armor On At All Times
As soldiers for Christ, we are instructed to put on the armor of God. This armor of God is a supernatural set of weaponry that comes from unbroken fellowship with Him. Just as we draw our life source and our spiritual power from God, this spiritual armor must also come from our Lord. When you cease to walk in fellowship with the Lord, you are choosing to step away from the source from which this armor comes and you are left open for demonic attack.
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