2 Corinthians 10:3-6 “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.”
Continuing Pastor Kyle’s message on spiritual warfare, he points out two extremes to avoid when thinking about spiritual battles. (1) Do not explain every problem away naturalistically. One of the downsides of modern medicine and information is that it is so easy to look them up online with a computer or other electronic device to find a naturalistic explanation for anything immediately, causing us to self-diagnose and label complex issues that we are not experts at. We need facts, but we need the Lord’s eyes behind our eyes so that we can see what is going on from a spiritual perspective and not just from an earthly perspective. We need to pray for the indwelling Holy Spirit to open our eye so that we can see what He sees in order to clearly understand and process. There are spiritual ramifications in the naturalistic physical world which God created that we need to understand.
(2) Do not explain every problem lie there is a demon under every rock. “The devil did it” is not the answer to everything that happens. Our poor habits and unwise decisions, bad timing or rotten luck of the draw may be involved. Unprepared people get caught in crisis-cycles. Common sense knows that things happen in life, wear out, run out, break and we have it budget and bank for the expected and unexpected to the best of our ability – not blame the devil for everything gone wrong in life. God protects us, but it does mean that we should lean on that fact and ignore common sense. Touch the hot oven and you are going to get burned. The Bible tells us so much about wisdom and balanced living in the hand of God. Don’t blame satanic attacks when they are not; we live in a fallen world. Recognize that not all evil and sin is from Satan and demons, but some definitely is.
James 1:13-15 “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own [flesh] desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
There is the holy Trinity (God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit), and there is the unholy trinity (the fallen flesh, the God-rejecting world, and the devil). All of us have those three influences in our lives constantly. Before assuming we are under a spiritual attack, we need to ask ourselves “Am I doing anything in my own life that is allowing worldly or demonic influences to come in?” Or “Is my flesh desires drawn to something that it shouldn’t be right now?” Because sometimes own sinful flesh desires or the godless secular world influence can be doing all the tempting. If it is not an issue of the world or the flesh, then it could very well be a satanic attack or demonic oppression, because their end goal is the weakening spiritual growth and hinder Gospel advancement. We need to be able to recognize it when it happens and defend ourselves with the full armor of God once the attack starts.
Jesus tells us in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
Satan is a terrorist. The devil is not going to wait until you or I are ready to battle. He is going to come at you when you least expect it, using deceptions, lies, temptation, trickery to accuse and disable us. Every soldier is trained and ready for an attack at all times; so should Christian soldiers for spiritual warfare. Pastor Kyle gave us four occasions when individual Believers or entire churches (collectively) might be more susceptible to spiritual attack. (A) Seekers of the Christian faith – whenever they are seriously considering believing in God or returning to church. In Matthew 13:3-4, Jesus told the great crowd gathered around Him many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. In Matthew 13:18-19 Jesus tells His disciples, “Hear then the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. We want to be the Christian that cultivates the soil of our heart so we can be that fertile soil where the God planted Word of Holy Scripture grows, thrives and produces spiritual fruit abundantly. The Lord explains in Matthew 13:23, As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” Pray for those “seekers” that you know.
(B) Believers may be more susceptible to spiritual attacks when making decisions to obey God in areas of struggles or sin. Every area of sin in our lives, we need to partner with the Holy Spirit to overcome them, for the Word of God to take roots deep in fertile soil (walking in the Spirit – Galatians 5:16,25) and grow. Jesus said in Matthew 13:5-6, “Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. And explained in Matthew 13:20-21 “As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately
he falls away.” During this ‘rocky” time of “flesh vs. Spirit” struggle and decision, Satan knows to the sin desires of the flesh can be put asunder and our hearts reclaimed for Christ and spiritual attacks will crop up. Clear the land, remove the rocks, and cultivate the soil of your heart with deep and rich the Word of God; don’t let godless politically correct world intimidate and deter your faith and steal your joy.
Let's continue Pastor Kyle lesson on "spiritual warfare" in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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