Our Struggle is Not Against Flesh and Blood – Part 2
What are the weapons we have been given to struggle against the powers and principalities of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms? As I wrote in Part 1, our weapons are not weapons of this world; they are Kingdom weapons, rooted in the power of the Holy Spirit and flowing from Jesus Christ in us. “The Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power” (1 Corinthians 4: 20 NIV).
But, more specifically, how do Christians ‘fight’ this battle? We fight with the spiritual weapons given to us by Jesus Christ to demolish spiritual strongholds and defeat the power of evil in the heavenly realms. Here is my, admittedly not complete, list:
The Power of Worship
No matter what happens, we worship. Worship is the catalyst that brings heaven down to earth. More than ever, in the face of building darkness, we must worship individually, in our families, our small groups, and, of course, our church. It is time to throw off the stifling mantle of Covid-19 and return to true worship. But Jesus tells us where 2 or 3 are gathered He is with us. Maybe that is the future of worship and the Church in America – small groups worshiping outside of huge, expensive buildings. Wherever, in what might be a dystopian future, worship will be the catalyst for advancing the Kingdom of God.
The Power of God’s Word
God’s word is more powerful than a double-edged sword. When we read or proclaim God’s word, we release power into our own lives and the world around us. God’s word brings light and life to all who hear. It can change hearts and set captives free.
The Power of Prayer
Prayer is a weapon; it is one of the best ways to release power and change the war in the heavenlies and the world. It is like a huge flood when a dam breaks. It can demolish everything in its way standing against God on earth and in the heavenly realms. Today we need heartfelt, passionate prayer. We can cry out, like Habakkuk, “How long, O Lord”. Intercessory warfare prayer, for those who are called, is imperative. But we need all types of prayers: give all your fears and anxieties to Him, praise Him, consecrate yourself to Him in prayer. Paul advises us to pray continuously. A Christian who does not pray is like an astronomer who studies the heavens without a telescope.
As I was praying the other day, I had a vision. I saw prayer holding up the arms of an angel engaged in a heavenly battle in the same way that Aaron and Hur held up Moses’ arms so Israel would prevail (Exodus 17: 8 - 16).
The Power of Faith
We must walk in faith with increasing measure. My faith in Jesus in good, but what I want is the faith of Jesus in me. Faith encompasses trust – trust Jesus is on the throne and whatever happens God is working out all things for good. Faith and trust are the antidotes to fear and anxiety. Fear and anxiety allow demons to enter our heart to “steal, kill, and destroy”. When we succumb to fear and anxiety, the enemy is closer to a victory.
If our battles are fought in the heavenlies, then it is there our victories (and defeats) will first occur. A victory there might look like a defeat in this world. Or a victory there might have no expression in this world at all, a least not at that time.
I think this is one of the most important definitions of faith. Just because we cannot ‘see’ what is happening, does not mean nothing is happening. We need to trust, by faith, that our obedience, prayer, worship, etc. are having an impact in the heavenly realms, and here, on earth.
The Power of Jesus’ Promise
“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given you” (John 15: 7 NIV).
We remain in Jesus when we worship, stay in His word, obey and depend upon Him, and pray. If I remain in Jesus and He in me, I can ask for whatever I want and it will be given me? OK. Great promise. But what can I ask for? The list is almost endless! But generally, anything that: draws me deeper into the heart and mind of Jesus, helps me to become more like Him, releases and advances the Kingdom of God, and fulfills His purposes and reveals His glory. Here are some ideas:
I can ask God for a heart of worship, because worship is 24/7.
I can ask God for a heart of gratitude and dependence.
I can ask God for His faith. My faith in Jesus is good, but the faith of Jesus in me is better.
I can ask God for a compassionate heart. Many of my neighbors are living in fear, in some cases, for their lives. “God, give me a heart of compassion so that I can come alongside my neighbor to be a listening ear and a strong tower”.
I can ask God for truth and justice to reign in my world.
I can ask God for an unoffendable heart.
I can ask God for peace, because He is our peace.
I can ask God for joy, because His joy is my strength.
I can ask God for power to release His Kingdom, because the Kingdom of God is not about talking, but about power. And If I seek His Kingdom and His righteousness, everything else will be given to me.
I can ask God for hope because without hope life is not worth living.
But here is a caveat: I can ask for peace, joy, power, and hope. But if Jesus is living in my spirit, I already have all the peace, joy, power, and hope He can give me. So, what I really need to ask God for is to remove whatever is blocking my heart from receiving and appropriating all of the peace, joy, and hope already living in my spirit.
I can ask God to know His will, and to help me release His will into the world through my prayers. “If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of Him” (1 John 5: 14, 15 NIV).
I can ask God for humility because until I “give up the right to myself”, I am walking in the kingdom of the world and not the Kingdom of God. Apart from the Kingdom life in Christ and Christ in us, we can do nothing.
I can ask God for a spirit of forgiveness – forgiving others and myself.
I can ask God to open my eyes to see myself as He sees me – beautiful, sacred, and deeply loved; always becoming more like Jesus, a son of great value to my Father.
I can ask the Holy Spirit to demolish the lies “I am not good enough”, and “I can make myself good enough”.
I can ask God for freedom – freedom from addictions, depression, fear and anxiety, suicidal thoughts, anger, and hatred.
I can ask God to reveal my Spiritual gifts and to show me how to use them.
I can ask God for revival – in my heart, my family, my church, my community, my nation, and the world.
I can ask God to reveal His true bride in my heart and the hearts of God’s people.
I can ask God to draw me deeper into His heart; to give me the mind of Christ, to make me more like Jesus.
I can ask God to heal me emotionally or physically and to deliver me spiritually.
I can ask God for wisdom and discernment, to give me eyes to see and ears to hear.
This promise of Jesus (and at least 4 more in John 14 through 17) is a powerful weapon; and the promise is iron-clad. Jesus, help my unbelief.
The Power of Repentance and Holiness
Repentance is a gift. I cannot grow in Christ-likeness without a repentant heart. Often, the struggle is within my own heart. If so, I can do what Hezekiah did (2 Chronicles 29 – 31): he called the priests to consecrate themselves, he directed them to remove all the defilement from the temple, the “priests purified the entire temple”; then “the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people”. This is a model of repentance. If there are attitudes, perspectives, idols, thoughts, and prejudices living in my heart that defile God’s tabernacle, they must be removed to make room for God to reoccupy that space He created to be Holy to Him. We do this through confession, circumcision of our heart, repentance, consecration, and, of course, healing and deliverance, gradually becoming like Jesus. This is the journey of holiness — sanctification or holiness. There can be no revival without holiness, and there is no holiness with repentance. But this is not just an internal work. We must also seek forgiveness, reconciliation (not separation), and accountability.
The Power of Healing and Spiritual Deliverance
If you have been reading my posts, you know I believe emotional healing and deliverance are essential to our relationship with Jesus. God is our healer. More than anything else in His ministry, Jesus healed and cast out demons. The same power is available to God’s people today. Many (most?) Christians have a veil around their hearts caused by unrepentant, and often unacknowledged, negative emotions, fears, sins, abuse, and occult practices built up over a lifetime. This veil separates them from God’s love, grace, peace, joy, hope, and power that is already living in their spirits. Healing and deliverance (what I call, “Healing and Repentance Prayer”, HARP) remove the veil, one thread at at time, allowing us to receive and appropriate what God has already given us. We can ask God for emotional and physical healing from illness and disease for me or for others. I can ask God to deliver me from demonic oppression or infestation. Jesus heals, but we have a role to play in the healing of ourselves and others — healing and deliverance are two of God’s greatest weapons against the darkness.
The Power of Love and Grace
My struggle can be personal – between me and another person or group. We all have enemies. (If you’re a Christian, you have at least one enemy – satan). Suppose my enemy calls me a racist, burns down my house or business, or sends me to a ‘re-education camp’ (called a Gulag in the former Soviet Union) where I am ‘taught’ to condemn my ‘whiteness’ (I have been to one of these). Or more dramatically (and hopefully not in America) I am tortured for Christ, or put against a wall and executed. What if I am literally exiled for Christ? The world says they defeated me; I lost the battle. And in the world’s frame of reference, they would be correct.
But if I decide to love them, forgive and bless them, pray for them, and consecrate to Jesus the pain, humiliation, and hurt they caused me – then I have won the battle and God’s Kingdom is advanced. Perhaps I have won a victory in the heavenlies just as real and significant as Waterloo or Gettysburg with all of the same repercussions and implications. Because one day the victories won in the heavenlies will be manifested here, on earth, in the ‘real’ world.
The Power of Peace and Joy (and all the Fruit of the Spirit)
Peace and joy are signs of victory; they are powerful weapons against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. When our heart is filled with peace and joy, satan has no leverage over us. Peace and joy issuing from Jesus Christ in our heart are contagious; like a virus (a good virus) they infect all around us, pushing back the darkness and reclaiming territory. Instead of making us sick, Christ’s peace and joy can make us healthy.
The Power of Christian Service
When we serve the world in the power of these weapons, they explode into the lives of the people we minister to. As we serve, we (and the Holy Spirit) open doors into their hearts for Jesus to enter and “begin a good work”, which will carry on to completion. This is how the darkness is pushed back, how we take back the territory – because while the struggle is first fought in the heavenlies, the real victory is in the hearts of humans.
Final Thoughts
We have been given the right to use these Kingdom ‘weapons’ – from worship to service – flowing from the heart of Jesus Christ in us. They are powerful to demolish strongholds in the heavenly realms, advancing the Kingdom of God. In some mysterious way, they augment the power of the angel armies God is directing in the heavenlies and play a vital role in winning the war in that realm. What happens in the heavenlies is ultimately manifested on earth. As Jesus taught us, and many of us have prayed 100s of times, “On Earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6: 9 — 13).
When we use our weapons in this Kingdom war, we participate in preparing our world to receive the King when the time is fulfilled – even if we are living in exile!
But while the struggle is first fought in the heavenlies, what happens there is manifested here in the hearts of humans. For God’s victory to be complete, human hearts need to be changed. Our weapons are made to pull down strongholds in the hearts of the people God brings into our lives and our own.
When we operate in our weapons, no action, thought, or word is wasted. God uses all of them for His glory and our good.
The world thinks these weapons are weak. “Really, worship?”, the world asks. “How is worship more powerful than bombs and bullets?” But God knows and, by faith, we believe and we know. Love is more powerful than hate, peace is more powerful than war, and worshiping God is more powerful than worshiping self.
But sadly, sometimes war must be waged in this world using weapons that are very carnal. War is always ‘hell’, as General Sherman said. Though he knew war, he had no idea what the horror of war in the 21st century could look like. But even while carnal war is being fought, the heavenly battles continue, whether we participate or not – and I believe heavenly battles determine the outcome of earthly ones.
Today Christians are in a unique struggle against evil (at least in my lifetime) in the heavenly realms, manifesting in the world around us. It will come to our front door sooner than later. The Church must take a side; She cannot be neutral. Nor can we. Let’s wage war against satan, remembering that our struggle is not against flesh and blood and our weapons are (mostly) not of this world – but the struggle is real, it is serious, and God is calling ‘all-hands-on-deck’. God’s people — Rise Up! Use your weapons! Lets pray for a great tearing down of high places, a great outpouring of God’s Spirit on the world, and a great awakening of God’s people, leading the world into an unsurpassed life with Jesus Christ.
Preparing for battle,
John
PS. Since the fall in the Garden of Eden, satan has warred against God. While this war is as old as humanity (maybe older), it breaks out in history repeatedly in discrete, large-scale events or cycles. In just the 20th century we see evil battling good in events like WW 1, Armenian genocide, WW 2, the Holocaust, the Cold War, genocide in the Balkans, Rwanda, and Cambodia; and in Marxists states like the Soviet Union, Cuba, and China. In the 20th century more than 100 million have lost their lives in these struggles fueled by the spirit of Marxism and its cousin Fascism. When someone asked Ellie Wiesel what he learned from the Holocaust, he replied: “When someone says they will kill you, believe them”.