How Spiritual Warfare Impacts You!

In my last blog, we discussed that the battle we are fighting is spiritual in nature… yet, it has very unmistakable effects in the physical realm. When you are in a physical battle you can see the wounds that are incurred. In spiritual battles wounds can be inflicted in at least four areas of our lives.

Personal Wounds

Many Christians are experiencing the wounds of spiritual warfare in their personal lives. You need to realize that this does not mean that those people are doing something really bad. It could be a problem with uncontrolled anger.

Our emotions can allow a doorway for the devil to enter into our lives. Ephesians 4:25-27 refers to the relationship between your emotions and spiritual warfare: “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.”

You need to notice that neglecting to manage anger gives to the devil an opening to gain a foothold in your life. He can then use it a base of operations to launch more spiritual attacks against you.

Many believers are suffering because of anger that has been left unresolved… and anger is just one of the many human emotions. If Satan can influence our emotions… he can cripple us emotionally thus destroying our ability to function or lead us into all types of addictive and destructive behavior.

Family Wounds

Many Christians are also seeing the effects of spiritual warfare in their families. Satan corrupted the first family in the Garden of Eden… and ever since then we have been dealing with the impact of Adam and Eve’s sin.

Let’s take a look at 1 Corinthians 7:5, it is an example of family relationships and spiritual warfare: “Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.”

Paul is talking about the sexual relationship between a husband and wife… if it is not a fulfilling relationship for both of them then the devil sees it as an opportunity to come in and bring about moral destruction in the family.

Church Wounds

Spiritual warfare also has an impact on church life. In 1 Timothy 4:1 Paul told Timothy, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils”. He was warning him to beware of “doctrines of demons” that will infiltrate the church. In today’s church, there are many teachers who claim to teach the Bible… but are actually teaching doctrines from hell.

Anyone can quote the Bible. Acts 17:11 talks about the Bereans and how they tested what Paul and Silas were teaching them by seeing whether those teaching lined up with the Word of God: “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” Some people will agree with things that aren’t in the Bible… just because the person making those statements is using the Bible. The devil will use or misuse the Scriptures when it is profitable for him to do so.

Cultural Wounds

Spiritual warfare affects the world… the culture in which we live. Entire nations are influenced by the unseen battle in the spiritual realm, as seen in Daniel 10. Ephesians 2:2 labels Satan as “ the prince of the power of the air” for good reason.

To put it clearly, you and I are breathing this stuff. It’s in every area of life. There is no place that we can go to evade the effect of spiritual warfare. We must learn how to fight in and deal with the spiritual realm! Doing so will determine whether we win or lose in the physical realm.

Satan’s goal is to get us to disregard the spiritual realm or give it low importance or view it improperly and worship spiritual beings other than God. If he can steer us away from the spiritual realm… he can keep us from finding spiritual solutions.

In my next blog, I will be sharing about where spiritual warfare is fought… the spiritual battlefield.

War Declared!

No, I am not the president… but I do have a declaration to issue. You and I are at war! This war is not comparable to any other war in history. It is the war of all wars. As a Christian… this war can either be the cause of your deepest pain or your greatest joy.

You enlisted into this war the day that you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. It is spiritual warfare and it is very real.

There is no way that you can avoid this war… it affects every area of your life. No matter where you go or try to hide… you will always be exposed to the effects of this battle between the forcs of God and the forces of Satan.

Many Christians have no idea that they are in a war. Some can see the results of the battle in their lives… they have become casualties of spiritual warfare. There are Christians that are emotional casualties… they are discouraged, depressed, downtrodden, and defeated. Others are marital and family casualties… divorce, conflict, and abuse are some of their battle wounds.

Then there are those that cannot control their passions, or else they make poor moral choices… these are the morally wounded believers. The wounds have been inflicted on the finances of some Christians. How they manage their money or use their credit cards is not the only issue. They are losing the financial battle because they are losing the spiritual battle.

These are just some of the casualties from spiritual warfare. Every single one of us is in this battle… so we need to find out what spiritual warfare is about and how to fight to win!

Spiritual warfare is not physical warfare… to be successful in fighting the battles depends on how much we are prepared to understand and fight battle on a spiritual level.

Spiritual warfare is the conflict being waged in the unseen, spiritual realm that is manifested in the seen, physical realm. To put it simply… spiritual warfare is a battle between  invisible angelic and demonic forces that affects you and me.

Going to battle with an enemy that you can see is tough enough. So, it makes sense that it is more difficult to fight an enemy that you can’t see. In Ephesians 6:12, Paul wrote: “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 tells us that our battle is not with human cultists, false religionists, atheists, agnostics, and pseudo-Christians… but with the demonic forces working through them. The point here is that we are making a monumental mistake if we think that people are the real enemy.

Yes, people can be bad. Regardless of how bad they can be… they are only channels through which the true enemy conducts warfare. Unfortunately, Satan has had much success in getting us to fight people instead of fighting the real adversary.

Have you ever attempted to change someone that was not doing right? We must understand that what happens through people… including you and me… has its roots in something much larger. This does not excuse the wrongs that people do… they are still responsible. It does help us focus on the true enemy. Your fives sense are not the limit of reality. Everything that we see in the physical realm is caused, provoked or at least influenced by something unseen in the spiritual realm.

Let’s look at Daniel 4:26-32:  And whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots; thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee, after that thou shalt have known that the heavens do rule. Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity. All this came upon the King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty? While the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.

This shows us clearly that heaven rules over all the affairs of earth. Until we deal with the spiritual reasons of a problem… we can never fix the physical effects of the problem.

Our physical senses can be very limited and of little help in spiritual warfare. If you are going to engage in a spiritual battle successfully, you need a “sixth sense”… a sharp awareness of the spiritual realm. This awareness starts with your perspective.

There are basically only two types of perspectives. One is a natural or materialistic perspective… today it would be called scientific. This perspective believes that man can figure out how the world works by using reason. Those that think this way seek life’s answers in the natural realm. They believe that is you can examine it under a microscope, put it in a test tube, or explain it through natural processes… that’s all you need.

The naturalistic perspective is limited only to the physical realm. It doesn’t answer the critical questions:

• Who am I?
• Where did I come from?
• Why am I here?
• How did this universe get started?

This perspective also doesn’t explain why the moral standards of mankind are being eroded. It does not address the soul and spirit of human beings. It has led to agnosticism and atheism… by believing that you don’t need God as long as you have science.

Unfortunately, many Christians live as though they hold this perspective… although they would not admit it. You have to look at how people think and act… not what they say. Anyone can make the statement, “I believe in God!” Yet, if they don’t live as if they believe in God… they can be justifiably challenged on if they really do. Just because someone knows scripture… does not mean they truly believe it or believe in God. You’ve heard the adage: “Your walk must match your talk”… that’s how your perspective should be.

The second type of perspectives is spiritual… which states that there is a realm outside of the physical. Before we go further, let me say that there are contrasting spiritual perspectives, just as there are many variations of the naturalistic perspective.

There is a spiritual perspective that is very popular… but it is not a biblically based, theistic view that believes in one true God. Instead, it is a man-centered perspective that believes in any form of spirituality that seems to “pay off.” This is the world of horoscopes, tarot cards, palm readers, Ouija boards and all forms of New Age teaching. When people look at their horoscope… they are looking for answers outside of this world that will guide their lives and decision making.

It is obvious that this not the perspective of the Bible. It is possible to have a spiritual perspective that is connected to the wrong spirit. Your perspective affects your approach to spiritual warfare because it affects the way you see the nonphysical world… it determines whether you even believe in a spiritual realm.

In order to comprehend spiritual warfare… we have to address it through our spirit… with the help of the Holy Spirit. The perspective of this ministry is a spiritual one that assumes the power of the Holy Spirit and the rest of the Godhead.

In my next blog, we will be talking about how spiritual warfare impacts our lives in four areas: personal, family, church and cultural.