The War Christians Forgot

Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world AND against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Christians are at war with the powers of darkness AND evil in the heavenly realms. This war is going on whether christians realize it or not.  Notice here that Paul defines the struggle as being in two places.  One on this world and secondly in the heavens.  We are the front lines for God here in this world and the Lord’s Angels are the front line in the heavens, although we work together through our prayers to Jesus.

We can ignore the war at our own peril or like most professing Christians we simply live in ignorance about the war.  In either case, the war goes on without us.  The devil’s army walks around like a roaring lion looking to devour Christians and kill, steal and destroy the relationship with Jesus our Lord.  If we choose the side of the enemy by our wilful practice of sin and resulting rebellion against God — we will be destroyed by the Jesus the Judge.  But even if we live in ignorance to the war and as a result do not get into the fight, we will still be destroyed as we will not be able to endure to the end to be saved.  That is what the Lord has told us in His Word.

Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge.

Of course we are plainly told that fear of God is the beginning of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord is shown throughout the New Testament as central to knowledge of true doctrine.  But that was the subject for a prior post and the absence of Fear of the Lord is an obvious root of the great falling away of the modern era church. God gave me the confidence that I was finally ready to write this post and others that will follow.  I want to address head on in the best way I know how; with bluntness and boldness, the subject of demons and evil spirits; also called by the Apostle Paul – the powers of darkness.

This message is delivered out of Love for the brethren and it is given by someone who does not know it all and continues to seek knowledge and maturity in Christ.   The truth I am trying to convey is essential to overcoming sin and enduring life’s trials to the end.  The Bible predicts the falling away of many from the faith in the end times and this has been going on for many years and is now accelerating as the return of the Lord nears.  I believe in my heart that what I am telling you lines up with Scripture properly divided.  I can virtually guarantee that my writing will not line up with “Church” doctrine but it is the Word of God that saves not the precepts or traditions of men.  If we are unaware of the wiles of the devil, we can easily be deceived and unwittingly be led into captivity.  Let’s learn from Adam and Eve’s mistakes and gain understanding from God on these eternal life saving matters.

This post builds upon a prior post that provided a basic understanding of the enemy that you can access by clicking HERE.

We Wage Spiritual War

2 Cor 10:3-6 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. ⁴The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. ⁵We 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. ⁶And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.

We will not win ever skirmish but can be confident the final victory is already secure as we are promised in the Word.  But to claim that victory, we must fight and we must overcome.  If we do not do this, we will be overtaken and devoured.  The good news is that if we walk with the Lord, with a pure heart, we are filled with the grace to be a warrior for God.  As the above verse tells us, we will possess divine power to demolish enemy strongholds.  The battle with the powers of darkness is primarily a battle of words and the battle for truth.  We must expose and tear down the lies and deception brought into our lives and the lives of our brothers and sisters.  The devil is a liar and the father of lies and is out to destroy us.

Second Timothy is largely about enduring and overcoming these battles against the powers of darkness.  Paul used military language to encourage Timothy who like us was a soldier for Christ.

2 Timothy 2:3-5 Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. ⁴No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

Good soldiers obey their commander. That is the Lord Jesus who by the Holy Spirit leads us into all truth.  We cannot entangle ourselves into the world or the things of the world otherwise we make our faith and fighting ability for God of no effect.  We either destroy or we are destroyed.  But God is good and has fully equipped us to do His bidding against the powers of darkness.

We have many spiritual weapons, the offensive weapon which is the Word of God planted deep into our heart.  This is the Sword of the Spirit as Paul mentioned several times in Scripture most notably in Ephesians.

Ephesians 6:13-18 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ¹⁸And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Paul describes our other weapons in this passage as well, comparing it to the armor of a Roman Soldier.  The darts or arrows of the enemy are going to come.  These are the trials we are PROMISED would come to test our faith.  We must stand firm and endure to the end to be saved and we do that by engaging in this war not by sticking our head into the sand.  Praise and prayer are central to our battle plan and brings the presence of God into the battle for which the devil is no match. A thorough understanding of the powers of darkness and how we fight them will take much more than this post to cover.  So I am not going to try, as this post is long enough already.  In the remaining space I want to cover some of the immutable facts about the powers of darkness and the spiritual realm of who we are fighting and why the war was established by our Creator.

The Devil is Prince of this World

God only reveals to us what we can bear.  No man can in all fullness explain the mystery of God and why our Lord set things up the way He did.  All we can go by is His Word, both what is written in the Scriptures and what He tells us via the Holy Spirit.  He never tells anyone anything that is not confirmed in His written Word in our Bibles.  A fundamental truth we must possess to have understanding of God is that this world belongs to Satan.  God created it but in the mystery of His great plan it is now Satan’s domain.

Consider the second “temptation” (test) of Jesus by Satan in the wilderness.

Luke 4:5-7 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. ⁶And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. ⁷So if you worship me, it will all be yours.”

Here we have Satan telling Jesus that he, the devil, has all the authority over the kingdoms and splendor of the world, and it was his power to give it to Jesus.  The Scriptures reference the devil as the ruler of this world and how the ruler works to keep us in bondage to him.

Ephesians 2:2 Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the (evil) spirit that now works IN the children of disobedience.

While you are alive in this body and walking the earth you are going to be at war. We are indeed aliens in a foreign and hostile land.  John wrote that Christians are in the world but not of the world.  I could write a whole post on this topic alone but just consider just a few more Scriptures on the world and how we the true brethren fit in.

1 Peter 2:11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. We are aliens because everything the world teaches goes against the commandments of God.  We must overcome the world as those who make friends with the world becomes enemies of God.  If we go to sleep and ignore the war, we will be the foolish virgins spoken of in Matthew 25.  They were not ready for the coming of the bridegroom.

James 4:4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Carnal logic and the wisdom of the world tells us this Scripture is poppy-cock.  We can choose to live like the world does and seek the approval of men or we can believe in God and live as He told us to live.  It is the hypocrisy of the vast majority of professing Christians that has brought the truth of God’s Word into disrepute.  People look at us Christians, looking, walking, acting just like the pagans of the world and conclude that our religion and our God are not real.

Jesus is on record telling us that the world was not His kingdom.  Consider how the Lord answered Pilate’s question if Jesus was a King.

John 18:36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.”

THE DEVIL OWNS THE EARTH and what we consider the world.  It is Satan’s domain.

Demonization & Deliverance

The very first recorded instance of Jesus operating under the power of the Holy Spirit ended with Him casting out a demon from a man.  Just prior to this incident as recorded in the gospels, Jesus opened a scroll and announced what His ministry was all about.

Luke 4:17-19 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor

Jesus came to set us free from the power of sin and destroy the works of the devil.  This victory that Christ won on the cross is ours for the taking, we claim it by turning to God and surrendering and being led by the Holy Spirit.  It is no longer us living but Christ living in us.  This is not just a Christian cliché, it is the power of God working inside of us and that is how we are saved.  That is true grace.  Confronting and overcoming demons is very much a part of that walk both for our own walk of holiness but also for the salvation of our brothers and sisters.

I grew up in the Catholic church and have since attended mostly Methodist churches for the past twenty years.  I never heard about demons and the devil and certainly not the schemes and wiles illustrated to us in the Scriptures.  I was without understanding, living in ignorance to the truth and as a result I was being led by evil Spirits who lied to me at every turn and enticed me into sin and pursuit of the lusts of the flesh.  Praise to be to God for the sister in Christ who gave me a book entitled “Shadow Boxing” that began to open my eyes to the truth about the war.  If we read the gospels carefully one can readily see how pervasive demons were and how the Spirit of God stirred up the pot when Jesus walked in the flesh.  As we saw above, the world is indeed Satan’s domain.

Mark 1:32-33 That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. ³³The whole town gathered at the door, ³⁴and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons

Matthew 8:16-17 When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed ALL who were sick, ¹⁷ that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “ He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.”

I wish to go on record right here that demonization (having a demon) is Biblical and yes even professing Christians can have demons.  Demons and evil spirits work IN us, they are not just sitting on our shoulders like our modern culture has popularized on TV.  If we wilfully practice sin, we can be sure we have at least one spirit at work in us that is not the Holy Spirit.  Many Christians and churches disagree on this issue and there is much error on both sides of the issue.  I am mad at the success the devil has had in putting Christians in bondage and I am sad that the church has ignored or forgotten about the war that must be fought. I see so many Christians battling depression, bitterness, jealousy, fear, greed, anger and other trials that are founded on lies.  These in bondage do not see the truth and are not discerning the lies.  They are unaware of the wiles of the powers of darkness.  Jesus came to set the captives free as the passage from Luke 4 above showed.  I want to see people free, the same freedom I personally have obtained through the grace of God.

Before I am called a nut case let me say this.  We must know about the powers of darkness but not be focused on them.  Instead of being focused on demons, I encourage you to focus first and foremost on God.  James gave us a promise from God.  If we submit to Him with our whole heart, resist the devil and overcome the trials that the devil will flee from us.  This is the simplest way of being freed.  He who calls on the name of the Lord shall be delivered.  This is deliverance 101, you do this first and keep on pressing on and that is how you get free.  But you must know how the enemy fights and pick up your mighty weapons in God.  At times though, God will call us to help our brothers and sisters.  God does call His workers to assist Him in giving a boost and kicking out a demonic spirit.   In the great commission, Jesus told us some of the things His disciples would be doing.

Mark 16:17-18 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; ¹⁸they 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.”

I speak in tongues at times and I have had the blessing of actually seeing demons cast out in the name of Jesus.  That is indeed a blessing as even Jesus told the Disciples who had just returned from casting out many demons.

Luke 10:23-24 Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see; ²⁴ for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it.”

I have also seen fake deliverances that were of the flesh and had nothing to do with the Spirit of God.  The devil does counterfeit the things of God and we are warned to be on guard for false signs and wonders.  So we must indeed be very wise in this area and in my spiritual pride, I initially was very unwise.  But God has brought me around and has shown me more light in this highly controversial area of our Christian walk.  Christians can have demons and quite honestly that is where most demons make their dwelling as non believers are already lost and not a threat to Satan’s earthly kingdom.  The devil has been very clever in propagating the lie about their existence and creating beliefs that Christians do not need to worry about them.  We are at war and if we do not realize we will readily be overcome and deceived.

The Enemy Causes Blindness

When we walk in darkness we are blind.  We only see if we have the Light.

John 8:12 I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  Jesus removes the blindness if we give Him our whole heart.  Go reread the parable of the blind man in John 9, the story was so much more than just a miracle, it went to the heart of dealing with our blindness brought on by the powers of darkness.

The opposite of truth is deception.  The powers of darkness come to kill us, steal the truth from us and ultimately destroy us by keeping us from seeing the truth about God.  The Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13 and Luke 8)speaks to how the enemy steals or perverts the Word of God to keep us from bearing fruit unto righteousness.  The devil has succeeded in getting most Christians and churches to not even believe they exists or that their interaction in the world is so rare we never personally deal with them.  The lie even has a backup plan which says if we do run into them, we are supposed to be scared and in awe of their power.  Hollywood has created a monster when it comes to popularizing demons and exorcism’s yet the truth could not be further from Hollywood’s fiction.

When God’s truth is twisted, the seed that gets planted in our hearts is impure.  It is the seed of a tare that can look like real wheat but is exposed in the end for what it is, a plant not bearing fruit for God that lasts.  If we cannot see the truth in the Word, we cannot be washed and purified and we will not abide in the vine of Christ.  Out of these other roots grow all kinds of bad fruit; thorns and thistles which are things like  selfishness, greed, pride and bitterness.

My wakeup call to the truth about the powers of darkness started several years ago.   The truth was always there, I just never saw it as my heart was not yet given unto God.  When we love sin and do not submit ourselves to the Lord, the powers of darkness are there to veil the truth and keep us blind to the light of God that could heal us.

2 Cor 4:3-4 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, ⁴ whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. It is utterly amazing the success Satan has had in blinding man to the operations of his army of darkness.  We will let the Scriptures be our guide and will follow no man in that regard.

God’s word is truth and it tells us plain as the nose on our face that we will be blind when we are walking in covenant with the devil.  If we are not walking in covenant with God, meaning we love Him with ALL our heart, we are exposed to the blindness spoken of in the Scriptures.

1 Cor 2:14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.  The sons of God are led by the Spirit of God.  Said said another way, if we are not led by the Spirit of God we are blind to the truth.  All revelation comes to us from God, we don’t figure it out because we are so smart.

Jesus rebuked the religious Jews for the impure hearts and vain worship of God with their lips.  He told them in no uncertain terms they belonged to the devil.  The true sheep of God hear His voice and they follow Him.  If we cannot hear we certainly cannot see the kingdom of God.  Hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit is the only way to be led by the Spirit.  If we listen to other voices, the voices of demons we will be led astray and will be deceived.

John 8:43-45 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. ⁴⁴You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

When we follow a different spirit than the Holy Spirit we will be blind and deaf.  The enemy the devil is the one causing this as keeping us in deception is essential for evil to work in our lives.  Jesus said His sheep would hear His voice and follow Him.  Remember that God is in control and is the one that allows the enemy to operate within the boundaries God has established.   Here is just one verse where Paul tells us that God sent a spirit of blindness upon the Jews who rejected their Messiah.  Without supernatural intervention by God, Jews will not on their own power be able to see the truth about Jesus.   The are in a stupor put on them by God himself.

Romans 11:8 GOD GAVE THEM A SPIRIT OF STUPOR, EYES TO SEE NOT AND EARS TO HEAR NOT, DOWN TO THIS VERY DAY.”

If we see someone who lacks understanding of God’s Word, even those that study Scripture, it is a good bet there is an enemy stronghold or demon at work blinding them to the truth.  I judge not their heart but I believe the Word of God tells us that repentance is the key that unlocks the mystery of God and enables the rivers of living water to flow into ones heart.  It is this transformation by God that the scales fall off our eyes and the ear plugs come out.   Then and only then does the revelation of God’s truth flood into our hearts and our minds.

A Flood of “Words” is Coming

1 Timothy 4:1 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

As I mentioned earlier, the weapons of Satan are words, they are lies. They are spoken by evil spirits through people and into our minds.  We must take every thought that exalts itself against the Word of God captive to the obedience of Jesus.  The devil will shoot his lies at us and it is by believing those lies that people are destroyed.  The flood is already being unleashed in the end times.  It is here today and people are being destroyed for lack of knowledge.   The delusion sent by God, spoken of in 2 Thess is already here and it is coming from inside the church.  I wrote about this delusion HERE.

Revelation 12:5 And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood.

The Apostle John wrote about the end times in Revelation.  The church which is the woman is being swept away as we speak.  False teachers and bad doctrine have completely overtaken the simplicity and purity of our walk with God.  This river is sweeping most Christians away from the real Jesus and the true gospel.  Mystery Babylon the mother of harlots is the Catholic Church and the Protestant spinoffs that have come forth from Luther’s reformation.  They teach doctrine that does not conform us to godliness and the Lord they present is the image of the beast.  It is a different Jesus and a different gospel.  I wrote about that HERE which I am confident you will find very insightful if you seek the truth and are not looking to have your ears tickled.

We are told that Satan counterfeits the things of God and the metaphor of the flood and or river are just such a scheme.  The devil’s river is a flood that destroys us while God’s river of life is what nourishes us.

John 7:38 “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

If we are led by the Holy Spirit we are filled with living streams of water, life giving nourishment from the Spirit.  Satan’s water if it flows within us will bring in poison, make our hearts impure and eventually destroy us if not cleaned out.  We must be on guard to only listen to the voice of the Shepard and not follow doctrines of demons and voices and whispers (THE LIES) that entice us to break God’s law.

The people of God are supposed to be at rest, walking in the peace that Jesus left us that transcends all carnal understanding.  This is how we possess the spiritual  land the Lord has given us.  But many Christians are not at rest, they are stressed and many are being challenged at every turn.  These brothers are standing on foundations which are not 100% the Lord —  a  foundation of sand.  If we are standing on any sand, the demons are right there to come knock our spiritual houses down.  That is exactly what Jesus referred to in this passage and its counterpart in the gospel of Matthew.

Luke 6:47-50 I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. ⁴⁸He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came (i.e. the demons), the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. ⁴⁹But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck (i.e the demons) that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

The flood is here and is increasing.  We are clearly in the end times and one of the signs Jesus said would be manifest is that it would be just as it was in the days of Noah.  I believe this prophecy referred to the lawlessness that abounded in Noah’s day that abounds today but also referred to the flood.   The flood is sweeping good people away.  They are being deceived by the serpent and our churches sit by and are not preaching the gospel, the one that spoke about demons and how to defeat them.  We cannot forget about the war. We cannot close our eyes and ignore them, we will be destroyed for lack of knowledge and lack of action.  God has given us everything we need to overcome and endure to the end.

Mt. 24:37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be

Be alert, the devil is like a roaring lion walking around looking for Christians to devour.  He uses deceptive words to lead us astray.  Do not be swept away by this flood, make sure your spiritual house is standing on the rock of salvation, the only thing that cannot be shaken.  God will shake the nations and test every heart and we are entering some very tough times.  This is no time to foolishly be sleeping.  It is when men sleep that tares get planted as the Matthew 13 parable clearly says.  Foolish virgins are really no virgins at all and do not enter the kingdom of God.  I say this in boldness to save people out of love not out of judgment.

Power & Authority for Victory

John 14:27 Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid

The good news of the gospel is full of what can be viewed by the carnal mind as bad news.  The judgment of God is real as are the powers of darkness, which God has placed before us to use to accomplish His purposes.  God wants our whole heart and will keep on testing us to bring us thru the refiners fire and purify our heart.  There is no escaping the furnace, we must come thru it just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego as told in Daniel.    The good news is that true faith is very powerful.  We have nothing to fear if we fear God. The Lord will be standing with us in the furnace just as He stood with these ancient men of God who resisted evil and did not bow down to the Beast.  So long as we operate in the Spirit, trusting in God, we cannot be harmed, not even a single hair will be singed on our head!

Isaiah 54:17 No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their vindication is from Me,” declares the LORD.  If what the prophet Isaiah said wasn’t enough, Jesus Himself gave us strong words of confidence saying this to the Disciples.

Luke 10:19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.

If God has our heart and we are trusting in Him alone we should be supremely confident in our authority and power over the powers of darkness.  It is not our power, it is the power of God working IN us.  The devil is no match for a man of God standing firm in this faith that knows the Word of God and uses this sword to cut the devil to pieces.  God does the work if we let Him do it.

2 Thess 3:3 But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one

So I hope this post has given you greater understanding.  I encourage you all to read the Scriptures in context and pray for wisdom.  The more you understand of God’s Word, the more equipped you will be to engage in the war that must be fought.  We can no longer allow our brethren to live in ignorance about the war.  The torrent of lies is coming against us and is going to knock many off their false foundations and keep us from coming to knowledge of the truth.  We need to pick up our shields, carry and use our swords and make sure we put on the helmet of salvation and all the armor of God.

May God Bless You Richly!