Which way to the battle? Which way to the battle?

Written by Tim MacGowan

Spiritual Warfare (Part Deux)

"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."

John 10:10 (NKJV)

So if we have gotten over the first hurdle and are willing to grant that spiritual warfare exists, we must begin to define what a battle looks like. If our enemy's purpose is to steal God's abundance from our lives and destroy the work God want to do in us, then be alert to circumstances that are having that effect. For instance, I can say with assurance that it would be good for your life to set aside some time each day for some personal time with God- perhaps just talking to Him (prayer), praising Him (worship), meditating on His word (Bible Study), etc. Now if a Christian does not attempt to do any of these things then, if I were the enemy, I wouldn't do anything to change the pattern. But if a Christian did make the attempt, then I would send every distraction, temptation, and argument that I knew to undermine the effort. Remember, there is warfare.

So let's say you decide to dedicate 20 minutes tomorrow morning to spending some time with God. You're going to get up at 6:30 am (a few minutes early for you), while it's still quiet in order to read the Bible and pray. Simple enough, right? Let the battle begin...

At 6:29 your dog pees on the carpet which creates early morning chaos, at 6:34 your child wakes up (the one who never wakes up until 7:30) in a bad mood and needs help, at 6:38 you suddenly remember that you have an appointment today that you had forgotten about and you mentally rearrange your day, at 6:41, you wonder about that conversation you had with your mother yesterday and if her comments were intended as the slam against you that you felt, at 6:47 you feel guilty that you haven't actually thought about God yet and decide to just try again another time because you've got to get the day started.

Now each of these events (and, in fact, the whole scenario) is quite ordinary and doesn't seem very spiritual at all. No demonic activity of The Exorcist sort, right? But if we understand that the abundance of spending time with the Lord has been stolen from us by "natural" occurrences, we may well perceive correctly that a spiritual skirmish has actually happened. So what do we do? Let the urine soak and the child cry? That's not very practical. Once you recognize that this isn't merely a coincidence but a possible battleground, then several things happen. First, you will learn to employ the weapons that you have been given. Second, you will learn to structure your life to receive victory. Third, you will learn to take "every thought captive" so that the major battlefield between your ears stays firmly under God's control.

"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 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 Cor. 10:3-5