Think Update #14 - Spiritual Warfare
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Thanks for subscribing. I'm Joel Settecase, the founder and lead teacher of the Think Institute.
My goal here is to help equip you for your spiritual journey. And speaking of spiritual things, we need to talk about spiritual warfare, but first...
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Taking down the toughest arguments against Christianity is more than an ideological battle. It's a spiritual one. So then...
Now, Let's Talk About Spiritual Warfare.
This is a subject that, sadly, often gets either mangled through excessive imagination, or completely ignored. So I want to lay out a brief introduction to the topic, with the intention of covering this more in depth in the future.
Here are 4 Things You Need to Know About Spiritual Warfare.
Our main fight is not physical or political, but spiritual. Our enemies are spiritual, and they attack us spiritually. This has been true since the serpent attacked Eve (by way of cunning arguments) in the Garden of Eden (Ge 3:1). In case you're wondering, that "ancient serpent" was none other than our arch-nemesis, Satan (Rv 12:9). He and his minions—the "rulers," "authorities," dark "cosmic powers" and "evil, spiritual forces" in the spiritual dimension—are our foes (Ep 6:10-12).
Do these demonic forces sometimes manifest themselves through horror movie-style demonization? Yes.(I believe I've even seen this myself). However, they often work behind the scenes, as it were, influencing us by lying about God, the world, and ourselves.
They also apparently seek to direct the world's elites and thought leaders through distortions of truth, seeking to shape society and pull it farther from God. So when we are faced with outrageous examples of tyranny, hypocrisy, or other political and cultural evil, we need to remember (and this can be hard) that Satan and his demons—and not our human neighbors—are our primary enemies.
Does all this sound unbelievable? There's a good reason many have a hard time believing it.We may neglect or downplay the spiritual battle, because we fear being thought silly. Look, I enjoy being considered smart and respectable as much as the next guy. I don't want to come off as a lunatic, raving about demons and spirits. But then again, God's word tells me demons and spirits are real (see above), so talking about them, in a biblical way, isn't insane. It's actually quite sane.
And guess what: many of our neighbors will not understand, and they will think we're crazy. Look at these verses and see why.
Paul warns us that spiritual matters are only able to be understood by spiritual people (1 Co 2:14). And many of the world's power- and status-brokering elites don't believe in spiritual realities, just like the Sadducees—the powerful elites of Paul's day—didn't (Ac 23:8).
We need to take an honest look at ourselves, and see whether our desire for respectability is hindering our ability to believe God's word. If so, then we need to repent.Jesus acknowledged the spiritual war; he also fought it, won it, and empowered us to do the same. The Gospels are filled with accounts of Jesus casting demonic spirits out of people. One thing God wants to make sure we understand is that when it comes to spiritual warfare Jesus wins. In fact, when Jesus died on the cross for our sins, was buried and rose from the dead, what seemed like his greatest humiliation turned out to be the very thing that humiliated his demonic enemies:
He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him (Cl 2:14-15).
Jesus wins.Jesus empowers us to win spiritual battles. By his shed blood, and our faith therein, we his people also overcome our spiritual enemies (Rv 12:11). As the Apostle John says, "This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith" (1 Jn 5:4b).
This battle requires two things: prayer (Mk 9:29; Ep 6:18) and the full armor of God (Ep 6:14-17).
Prayer draws on God's strength for the battle, and God's armor gives us (a) protection against Satan's "false news" and (b) unbeatable, Scriptural arguments to use against him.
One practical note:
The only offensive weapon mentioned in that "armor of God" passage is the "sword of the spirit, which is the word of God." This implies that the way we combat spiritual attacks, whether accusations against us as believers, or false claims about God, or divisive messaging aimed at pitting believers against each other, is not through human reasoning but through sound arguments rooted on biblical foundations.
We need to know the Bible and how it applies in every situation (which is just what Jesus did when he was tempted in Mt 4:1-11), so we can fight the spiritual battle in every situation it crops up.
Why I didn't talk about demonic possession:
I mentioned above that demons do sometimes crop up in horror movie-style manifestations. However, I did not really discuss that here. I wanted to focus more on battling the deceitful spiritual attacks of the enemy, because they are arguably more common, and they are what typically leads to the more pronounced forms of demonization (believing Satan can be a first step to giving him a foothold in your life—look what happened to Eve!).
I also need to research this more, so I can give you more than my half-formed thoughts on the subject. After I have done more work on this, I plan to delve more into the dangers of the occult, etc., in the future.
Meantime, I have heard good things about Deeper Walk International. Check out their work on spiritual warfare, and feel free to let me know what you find!
Want to know more about demons?
Listen to my interview with Dr. Michael Heiser, author of the very informative book, Demons.
'Til Next Time...
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I'm glad you're joining us on this journey. As I always say to close out the Think Podcast, I hope it made you think.
Your brother in Christ,
Joel Settecase
Founder | The Think Institute
thethink.institute@gmail.com
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