It seems to me (and I include myself in this) that Spiritual warfare seems only to appear in the life of the church (and of the Christian) at certain seasons and for a limited time. I can only comment with authenticity on this, in relation to my own experience of church here in the UK. What we seem to seek most of the time is peace; peace in our lives, equilibrium and happiness in the lives of our children and material comfort to buffer us against those unexpected events. Who wants to be at war? Thrill seekers and psychopaths, that's who! (this description could possibly apply to those who live for Spiritual warfare too). Many of us have come to this Christian life with the very notion of attaining peace at the heart of our faith. In our search for contentment we have come to find deep meaning and fulfilment in relation to the Father of creation through the love expressed to us in his Son, Jesus Christ. And of course, we discover that this God, who so loved us, is also WITH us; he speaks to us, encourages us, corrects and challenges us.
And so we settle down for this perfect life that will be so much more content now that it has this meaning and new depth, happy to discover new joys of faith and love as we journey on through life with open eyes.
And if we think for ONE moment that this is going to be a happy ever after story, and we are going to sail off into the horizon, all experienced Christians know that (if we get that far without a major storm) on that horizon is a waterfall!
I am not saying that the Christian life is not full of many, many happiness's and that those happiness's are not deeper than anything we had previously thought possible. I am saying that it is a journey through this world....and Jesus, in and amongst all the lovely promises he gave us, gave us this promise "In this world you shall have troubles". (John 16:33) Of course all human beings have troubles and most of our troubles are common to all, a part of living in an imperfect fallen world. But also we are selected out for specific troubles too. The day we spring to life spiritually we become a threat to the enemy of our souls. We are at war whether we like it or not, we changed sides....like Liverpool fans in the stands at Anfield suddenly taking off their tops and switching to Manchester Utd shirts. We are in danger. We can not simply stand there thinking everything can carry on as normal.
There's a good picture of this in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, whenever Frodo puts on the ring he can see an alternative world all around him and his enemies can see him. I feel this is a little of what it is like when we awaken spiritually. We have alerted their attention.
What use is a civilian in wartime? They are liabilities, commodities and hostages. As soon as we become alive in Christ we need to get ourselves to boot camp. To "train our hands to war", to get to grips with our weaponry, to learn all the intelligence we can on our enemy and their tactics, to toughen up and lose some flab, (I speak metaphorically) in short to become soldiers.
I wanted to depart from this idea that spiritual warfare is only for the elite, charismatic, chosen few. Strong, loud people who have special insights and gifts which you and I can never hope to attain to. These people exist. Their gifts exist. But the thing is sometimes their presence makes us feel like we have no part in this warfare, nothing to offer. Rubbish! We are all soldiers. We are not all special forces, we are not all pilots or gunners, but we are ALL in this battle.
I also wanted to demystify the idea that "the enemy" is demons hiding behind lamp posts or in biscuit tins. Its quite simple really. We are here to bring the Kingdom of God. The enemy is anything that opposes Gods rule, be that institutions, laws, people, injustices, lies, hollow and deceptive philosophies. We are duty bound to come against these things were ever we can.
There's a good picture of this in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, whenever Frodo puts on the ring he can see an alternative world all around him and his enemies can see him. I feel this is a little of what it is like when we awaken spiritually. We have alerted their attention.
What use is a civilian in wartime? They are liabilities, commodities and hostages. As soon as we become alive in Christ we need to get ourselves to boot camp. To "train our hands to war", to get to grips with our weaponry, to learn all the intelligence we can on our enemy and their tactics, to toughen up and lose some flab, (I speak metaphorically) in short to become soldiers.
I wanted to depart from this idea that spiritual warfare is only for the elite, charismatic, chosen few. Strong, loud people who have special insights and gifts which you and I can never hope to attain to. These people exist. Their gifts exist. But the thing is sometimes their presence makes us feel like we have no part in this warfare, nothing to offer. Rubbish! We are all soldiers. We are not all special forces, we are not all pilots or gunners, but we are ALL in this battle.
I also wanted to demystify the idea that "the enemy" is demons hiding behind lamp posts or in biscuit tins. Its quite simple really. We are here to bring the Kingdom of God. The enemy is anything that opposes Gods rule, be that institutions, laws, people, injustices, lies, hollow and deceptive philosophies. We are duty bound to come against these things were ever we can.
The battle is a spiritual one. Not a physical one. Sometimes it has physical manifestations but essentially it is fought and won in spiritual realms and out worked in the physical world. This is why it is perfectly possible to be content and at peace whilst in the middle of this holy war. To be at peace is actually an act of spiritual warfare! Jesus promised us troubles, sure, but he also promised in the same breath that he had overcome the world. How peaceful can we be, who know him who knows the beginning from the end and has promised to be with us until the end of the age.
In the next few blogs I am going to be looking at these weapons, what they are and how do we use them.
Tell us some experiences of your own, Matt, in this area. In other words, your testimony. That's how faith is spread from you to me. And, apparently, how the spiritual warfare is most effectively fought: "The overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony" (Revelation 12:11).
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