Spiritual Warfare

We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against powers, against the rulers of darkness...Eph 6:12


Introduction to Spiritual Warfare

Eph 6:11-12 (11) Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (12) For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

The Spiritual Dimension of our Struggle

There is a spiritual dimension we must recognize. The above scripture tells us to stand against the “wiles of the devil”. If we assume our troubles on earth are fate, coincidence, or simply human weakness then we will probably not be able to contend with spiritual darkness. We are informed that our struggle on earth is primarily a struggle with demon spirits. This does not mean that we are in need of an exorcism but it means we must understand the nature and methods of our enemy. Our enemy avoids exposure, but the scriptures describe both their existence and their nature. We never want to think that our lives have no involvement with the demonic for the scripture tells us our struggle is with spiritual evil.

The Language of Scripture

I’m going to use language that is uncomfortable but it is the language that Scripture uses to describe the spiritual enemies who oppose God and oppose His people, The Redeemed. Our enemy is called devils, Satan, Darkness, evil spirit, unclean spirit, a spirit, dumb and deaf spirit, dumb spirit, foul spirit, hateful and foul bird, spirit of antichrist, seducing spirit, doctrines of devils, prince of the power of the air, spirit of the world, spirit of divination, spirit of infirmity, and, that Wicked.

The Nature of Spiritual Darkness

The nature and energy of spiritual darkness is opposition to Christ. They oppose His Lordship, they oppose the cross, they oppose those who accept Christ as Lord, and they oppose the Word of God. The primary objective of Darkness is to prevent the redeemed from possessing the victories of the cross. The devil does not want you, the born-again Christian, to put on the New Man and be a living example of the wisdom and power of God in sending Christ to redeem a people from sin, death, and hell.

The Warfare Prayer

The Warfare Prayer is meant to assist those who are having difficulty controlling their behavior, their thoughts, or their emotions. We can be involved in a lifestyle we know to be wrong but seem powerless to stop. Effective praying is a great source of spiritual power.

The Warfare Prayer is prayer based on the Word of God and is a first step in the process of renewing our mind. Our goal is to bring our mind (emotions, thoughts, imagination) into agreement with the Word of God. As we speak scriptural truths we re-set our perceptions and begin to see life with God's eyes. By saying what God says, our mind and our thinking are changed by the inherent power of God’s Word. His Word is the Sword of the Spirit and becomes mighty within us. We are enabled  to pull down spiritual and emotional strongholds, that otherwise, resist our efforts.

The Weapons of Darkness

The weapons of darkness are lies, half-truths, distortions, and manipulations. Devils have the capacity to influence our lives through any medium that has access to our thoughts and emotions. Anything that appeals to us emotionally has the potential to open our inner person to the wiles of the Devil. This is why TV and movies are so dangerous. Our eyes have a powerful affect on our emotions, and it is the emotional stimulation of what we see, that opens the door of our heart. Emotions search for pleasure and if we are willing to find pleasure in uncleanness, then a spirit of uncleanness will have input to our heart.If we find pleasure in the unclean then our pleasure in the unclean will become a source of spiritual bondage. Unclean spirits can cause one to be hopelessly enslaved to pornography. Those who find pleasure in pornographic images also find themselves emotionally and spiritually bound to their unclean pleasures. We can and will be affected spiritually by the pleasures we allow ourselves. A wise Christian will guard their eyes and a wise parent will protect the eyes of their children. Some men and women were exposed to pornographic images as children, and as adults, continue to suffer from the spiritual stronghold of pornography. Jesus Christ through the power of the Blood sets the Christian free from spiritual giants, but the Christian must learn how to enforce and possess the the victories purchased for them.

We Need Spiritual Sensitivity

We must not be ignorant of how people can affect us. We are told our battle is with spiritual darkness and reality is, the demonic is closely associated with human sinfulness. We need to understand that we can be spiritually affected through people who give themselves to sinful lifestyles. We see this principle in Proverbs 22:24-25, "Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man thou shalt not go; Lest thou learn his ways and get a snare to thy soul." It is the potential to be "snared" through our associations that we need to be aware. We have all known people who have a peculiar effect on us, they seem to be a source of temptation. When this happens we should resist with prayer and the Word of God. Beware of people with chronic drug or alcohol abuse, chronic anger, chronic rebellion, or persistent personality problems. We have the potential to allow ourselves to feel what they feel! Remember, what they feel drives them deeper and deeper into sin and if we come into emotional agreement with them, then darkness has gained an emotional foothold in our life. Beware of Eastern and New Age philosophies, they are subtle deceptions of deceiving spirits. There are spirits connected with these sins and the nature of a spirit is to distort and then seduce. They will affect children as well as adults; there is no age limit with seducing spirits. The devil wants only a foothold, and if that foothold is allowed, Darkness will begin his seductions in the very young. We need to cover ourselves and our children with prayers of protection and a good understanding of the Word of God.

Unclean spirits, if allowed, can so re-arrange our thinking and our perceptions that we are chronically depressed, anxious, and fearful. Darkness is intelligent and it is predatory; it is actively searching for entry and will use any opportunity, including ongoing emotional pain, we give them. Our best protection is to avoid every sin at all costs and renew our mind daily with prayer and the Word.

Sexual Pre-occupaion

The powerlessness to confront and break the power of sexual bondage or sexual preoccupation is one sure sign of a demonic stronghold. We are to have a sanctified mind, not a sexualized mind. The nature of Darkness is to manipulate and then dominate. Sexual thinking comes to all and if our mind and emotions are not renewed, strengthened, and submitted to the Word of God, then we will not be able to stop habitual lustful thinking. Sexual preoccupation is especially dangerous because it tends to overwhelm us through chronic emotional arousal. Our memory, our imagination, and our ability to fantasize, if not under the control of the Word of God, can be an open door to the powers of Darkness. We must recognize the strategies and techniques of darkness when they come.

The Unprepared Mind

It is the unprepared mind that opens the door of opportunity to spiritual uncleanness. If our heart is in an unprepared state, then we can find ourselves chronically bound by emotions and behavior that have been co-opted by darkness. Rather than allowing the Word to define who we are, we find ourselves being controlled by spiritual and emotional giants, who define us, and then exercise their agenda in us. It is the Holy Spirit through the Word of God that removes the head of these giants and restores our life back to Spirit led living. If we are going to live our lives as new creations in Christ Jesus then we must make a decision that no giant, regardless of how powerful, is going to rule our life. Whatever the cost, we are going to be free. Jesus Christ gives us victory and we are going to take his head (the giant) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the Word of God.

We Keep our Mind

The Warfare Prayer is speaking the truths of Christ over our life to take back our mind, our thoughts, our emotions, our imagination, and our new nature. We root ourselves in the Word of God and build an effective defense, an impenetrable wall, to unclean spirits. We deny their entrance to our mind by speaking the promises of God. As we speak the Word of God, the forces of Darkness must obey. Darkness has no inherent power or right to control or manipulate our lives; we are purchased by blood and we belong to Jesus Christ. The only power they have over us is the power we give them. They cannot overcome Jesus Christ, for by His resurrection, He openly defeated the kingdom of darkness and all their power.

The Warfare Prayer helps us gather our mind by giving structure and direction to our thinking. We cannot allow our thoughts to wander, we cannot allow our heart to be fixated on ungodly pleasure, and we cannot submit to emotions that resist the sanctifying work of Christ. We must be disciplined intellectually, spiritually, and emotionally. The Warfare Prayer helps us to put on the new man by learning to think in a disciplined and biblical manner. As we learn to understand our identity and authority in Jesus Christ we can then resist and overcome spiritual attack when it comes.

The Word of God

The Word of God is the intellectual and emotional ground upon which we stand; it is the soil from which our new life grows. As we speak His Word over our lives, we are planting His word within our heart and mind, and it (the Word) produces fruit that strengthens, heals, and delivers. By faith, we come into agreement with God by saying what He says about our new life in Christ.

Darkness Must Bow

Darkness must submit to the redemptive truths of the Gospel, they have no choice, for the gospel has defeated them; when we speak the redemptive truths of Christ over our lives, we openly defeat, once again, the kingdom of Darkness. Jesus Christ is King and our victory is secured. Every demon and every devil must honor and submit to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His atoning, justifying work in us. We have defeated the Devil and He must obey. Christ has translated the believer from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of God and Darkness can only watch. Spiritual Darkness cannot stop the Christian from being joined to and sanctified by Christ; Darkness cannot stop the Christian from putting on the New Man who, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Jesus is Greater Than Satan and the Blood Greater Than Sin

Jesus Christ personally secures the necessary power and victory for His justifying and sanctifying work in every born-again Christian. We, by the indwelling Holy Spirit, prove to all creation, the gospel to be true. As we walk out the redemptive victories of Jesus Christ over the world, over our fleshly nature, and over the devil we prove Jesus to be greater than Satan, the blood to be more powerful than sin, and, our sanctification proves that salvation is to be lived out in the real world. The Warfare Prayer is a summary of scriptural truths, and a daily reminder of what God says.

Phil 1:2-6 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, 5 For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; 6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

2Tim 1:7-8 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;

Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Eph 4:17-24 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: 19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 20 But ye have not so learned Christ; 21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

2Pe 1:2-11 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, 3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. 10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: 11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

2Pe 3:3-14 3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. 7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.

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