The theme of Spiritual Warfare is all over in the New Testament. Even the word “Gospel” means to bring news of victory. Gospel is a proclamation of victory over the enemy. Most people do not realize that there is a war happening, so they are not aware of the skirmishes around them. The Great Commission that Jesus gives his followers is to go and “make disciples of all nations.” To be commissioned is a military action. How is this to be accomplished? By telling the story of Jesus, the man without sin who was unjustly condemned, crucified, and rose again from the dead before ascending into heaven. This message is not to be brought by the sword or the gun, but by awakening people to the truth about how they can be set free from the slavery of the powers that whisper in their ears, crouch at their doors, and rule the nations.

To be unshackled from these bad spirits it to stomp out the fire of competition in your heart and kindle the fire of the Holy Spirit in its place. Stop looking at other people as the enemy, and start seeing them as POWs. They are prisoners in the greatest war of all, a war that makes all human war look like a game of patty-cake.

There is a way to set people free, and it’s not by strong-arming, mocking, selling, tricking, or bribery. We cannot “compel them to come in” because Jesus said that “no man can come to me except the Father draw him.” That means God is working on people in his time. We who have found Christ and are fighting the demons must also resist the urge to play God. If we try to force people, we instantly revert to the language of Babel, which is competition, envy, pride and wrath.

The strange solution that we must use to fight the spirits that seek to dominate our lives and our nations is this: we opt out. We reject them. We stop fighting. We stop taking offense at every little thing. In order to gain control, you must give up control. In order to go up, you have to go down. The great paradox here is that in order to gain control over the spirits, you must give up control to God.

Surrender to win.

The Tower of Babel story is about control. It’s about winning. It’s about playing God and making God surrender to us, which is impossible. The building of the Tower is man’s attempt to control God, which always fails.

The miracle, however, is that our failure to pull God down leads to him coming to meet us. Through Abraham, through Mary, we get Jesus. God reverses the ask of the Tower builders, and he comes to us when he is ready, no gate needed, no bricks and mortar. We don’t control God, we just live in his world. He comes to us when he is ready, and however he sees fit.

In the man named Jesus, he comes down. Under terrific spiritual attack, God is then raised up on the Cross, and by surrendering, God wins. The same works in our lives.

He defeats death. He allows fallen humans to think they have overpowered God once and for all on the Cross. Then Jesus rises again on the third day, proving them wrong, stunning the world, the flesh, and the devil. In our own daily battle, we surrender, giving up control, and only then can we fight the Spiritual Combat. We must let go of our self and put our entire confidence in God, because if we try to go halfway, we are still allowing spirits to guide us. Going only halfway allows the whispers to still be heard and sin is still crouching at the door.

If we only go halfway, we haven’t left the competition. We are still speaking Babel. If we do not fully hand over our hearts to Jesus, we cannot fight the spirits, because they will always find a way to chase us once again away from the herd. The shepherd comes for those who seek him, and for whatever reason, he chooses who he draws and chooses when he draws them to him. On God’s time, people are drawn, but in our daily spiritual battle, we can pray for those souls who we know, and even don’t know.

This is a mystery.

Accepting that not all are drawn right now, today, should give no cause for anger or alarm, because God’s ways are not ours to understand, and the moment we get angry at another person, then we have lost our way. We’re playing at God, into the hands of the spirits. Never forget that sin is crouching at your door.

We are commissioned in the service of the Lord to “Go and make disciples of all nations.” That means that while God will draw people on his own time, we can pray and teach and speak and spell the story of Christ and the Cross. We are God’s instruments, and his weapons, but we are weapons of kindness, not those of fear.

So why are the nations still at war? Jesus has ascended, but the story is not finished. His victory over the nations is complete, and we merely await his return now. In the meantime, we are his arms and legs, his voice, so we need to tell the story of Christ today, with full charity, to those who don’t know of his death and resurrection. We can imitate Christ while God works out his plan of salvation. Billions are unaware of this combat that encompasses them. They are locked into ways of life that enslave them, and they do not yet know that there is a way out.

This naturally raises the question of “Why all the drama?” Why doesn’t God simply snap his fingers and fix the nations? Why is there a need for Mary and Jesus and this drawn-out solution to the problem? Doesn’t it seem like God allowed this to happen at Babel by letting the demonic powers rule the nations in the first place?

We are in the Messianic age, the last age, and God will again make himself known, on his time, when he wishes. Do not try to be the potter at the wheel, just be the pot. Let God shape you, do not try to shape God. This is a great time to be patient and pray, especially when it may seem like the whole world is caving in to the temptation of pride and wrath around you.

Some notes from the Catechism can guide you here on how to swim and, better yet, how to float peacefully when the waters rage and the storm hits:

670 …We are already at "the last hour". "Already the final age of the world is with us, and the renewal of the world is irrevocably under way…

671 Though already present in his Church, Christ's reign is nevertheless yet to be fulfilled "with power and great glory" by the King's return to earth. This reign is still under attack by the evil powers, even though they have been defeated definitively by Christ's Passover. Until everything is subject to him, "until there be realized new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells, the pilgrim Church, in her sacraments and institutions, which belong to this present age, carries the mark of this world which will pass, and she herself takes her place among the creatures which groan and travail yet and await the revelation of the sons of God." That is why Christians pray, above all in the Eucharist, to hasten Christ's return by saying to him: Marana tha! "Our Lord, come!"

672 Before his Ascension Christ affirmed that the hour had not yet come for the glorious establishment of the messianic kingdom awaited by Israel which, according to the prophets, was to bring all men the definitive order of justice, love and peace. According to the Lord, the present time is the time of the Spirit and of witness, but also a time still marked by "distress" and the trial of evil which does not spare the Church and ushers in the struggles of the last days. It is a time of waiting and watching.

673 Since the Ascension Christ's coming in glory has been imminent, even though "it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority." This eschatological coming could be accomplished at any moment, even if both it and the final trial that will precede it are "delayed". (CCC 670-673)

Be prepared then. Love God, and love your neighbor by knowing they are suffering prisoners in this great spiritual war. See Christ in them and pray for the whispering and the crouching sin to leave them alone. Stay with the Church, stay with the faith. Stay with Christ. Fight the urge to strike back, the need to win, and surrender your will and intellect to God, and you will have victory. Hold fast to the ship in the storm. The weather is about to get bumpy. We can pray not to be brought to the test, but the final test is yet promised for the Church.

Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth…

Then will the conduct of each one and the secrets of hearts be brought to light. Then will the culpable unbelief that counted the offer of God's grace as nothing be condemned. Our attitude to our neighbor will disclose acceptance or refusal of grace and divine love. On the Last Day Jesus will say: "Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me."…By rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself, receives according to one's works, and can even condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the Spirit of love. (CCC 675-679)

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