Spiritual Warfare is perhaps the most dangerous subject in the church. The danger comes from overemphasis and lack of emphasis on the war. Commonly what happens is people who learn about demonology, and the spiritual war is a hypersensitive to devils; "they begin to see a demon under every bush." Suddenly ever problem, sin, selfish desire, and serious struggle become a cosmic battle with a spirit representing everything from the demon that made your dog pee on the rug to the spirit of sleep, when actually you are sleepy because you are not getting enough rest. Then the other pendulum swings, and people start to believe the lie that the devil is "an allegory of evil, not an angel that has fallen and seeks to fell man." The Bible is filled with spiritual warfare verses, "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world," (1 John 4:1), "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds," (2 Corinthians 10:4), "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places," (Ephesians 6:12, ESV), "Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes," (Ephesians 6:11), "Submit therefore to God, and resist the devil, and he shall flee," (James 4:7), "Be quiet!" Jesus said sternly. "Come out of him!" Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him," (Luke 4;35), "And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well." (Mark 16:17-18), and "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings." (1 Peter 5:8-9).
The evidence in Scripture for spiritual warfare is overwhelming. But it is not the emphasis, rather evangelizing (Matthew 29:19), and having a relationship with Emmanuel, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.." (Matthew 23:37). The problem about exorcism and contending with evil spirits is that it can lead believer into constantly talking about demons and the devil; and thus create what I call negative worship. My theory is the devils and demons want worship, and since they know no Christian will worship them outright, they seek attention, and what you to go into deep study of which spirit causes infirmity, rebellion, and irresponsibility. Suddenly, prayer groups and bible studies sound like Satan and spirit charts, where people are trying to discover what demon is behind this and that; to the point that you want to ask, is not God greater, "Greater is He that is in you, than he that is In world," (1 John 4:4), and "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work." (1 John 3:8).
Quickly Zoroastrian beliefs start entering the assembly of believers, and false ideology that the devil is equal in power to God grows, until actually churchmen and women can start thinking the serpent of old has more power! This is the danger in spiritual warfare, that saints start seeing manifestation of malevolent spirits, and seeing displays of demonic power, and suddenly everyone is afraid. The truth is what Scripture says, "For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves," (Colossians 1:13), "In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross," (Colossians 2:15, NLT), "They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death," (Revelation 12:11), "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you," (Romans 16:20), and "And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever." (Revelation 20:10). Satan and his demonic forces are defeated. We wage war with the evil one because it helps us grow spiritually, and because he is not yet destroyed (Revelation 20:10). The difficult balance is realizing we have authority of angels and demons, "Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!" (1 Corinthians 6:3) and at same time remembering to be, "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings." (1 Peter 5:8-9).
The best answer to balance in spiritual warfare I have ever heard is Chip Ingram own words, "Be aware, but do not be preoccupied with the evil spirits." (The Invisible War). Ingram wisely teaches that we are in a spiritual war, and we need to be aware and armed with weapons of warfare (Ephesians 6:12-8) but at same time our lives do not need to be consumed with thoughts of spirits. The Apostle Paul talks about people obsessed with seeing angels and devils, "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority." (Colossians 2:8-10), and "Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind (unspiritual mind).." (Colossians 2:18). It is possible for someone to become preoccupied with pernicious spirits, and no longer abiding in Prince of Peace's Rest (Matthew 11:28-30). As a result people get paranoid, and start sensing a demon behind every door, and spirit in ever stranger. This mares the mind of people, who really need to be exercising the discerning or distinguishing between spirits (1 Corinthians 12:10) when instead they have become superstitious and overly sensitive.
The reason some many leaders discourage "testing the spirits," is that they fear congregants will become unstable in their minds and start making a major deal out of every moment as if puppet mastered by the Malevolent One himself. They are unable to discern what is demonic, flesh nature (our programed bad behaviors from original sin), fallen world (because is fallen bad things happen), and consequences for bad choices. Everything gets lumped into the devil or demonic category, rather than spreading it out into the proper spheres of spirits, situations, sins, and sowing (what you reaped, Galatians 6:7).
Spiritual Warfare is real, but we need to understand that it is not suppose to consume our spiritual walk. There will be times to do battle wearing the armor of God (Ephesians 6:12) and other times when you need to ignore the spirits trying to get you distracted by thoughts, feelings, and manifestations. There are times when people in prayer, worship, or even having an important conversation have spirit manifest, and the whole purpose is to get the person focused on the spirit, what is its name, and so forth. We must beware of the bait of Bezeelbub. Sometimes it really is serious sword fight, with Satan trying to sift you (Luke 22:31, 2 Timothy 2:26), other times it is saber rattling and serpent rattling to distract you. Only discernment from Holy Spirit will give you the proper understanding if you need to gear up and fight, or let "Satan and his demon's assaults roll of you like water off a duck." The point we need to remember is Satan and fallen angels and demons are defeated, and we serve the King of Kings (Revelation 19:16) who is above every name and power, "For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Phillippians 2:9-11).
Comments
Post a Comment