Spiritual Warfare 101
Hosts
The Monstrous Crew
Description
The devil walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, as the Bible says. But what does this mean for Christians today, and more to the point, what (if anything) can we do about it? Cover some of the basics of spiritual warfare with Suzannah Rowntree in today's episode!
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Transcript
Intro
The devil walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, as the Bible says. But what does this mean for Christians today, and more to the point, what (if anything) can we do about it? Welcome to the Monstrous Regiment podcast. Today I’d love to spend some time discussing the subject of spiritual warfare.
Now, by spiritual warfare, I mean specifically the practices of intercessory prayer and verbal rebuke of demonic powers, together with some theological groundwork, since those are the specific areas I’m qualified to comment on. On the more extreme end of demonic activity, topics such as possession and exorcisdim are beyond the scope of this episode. However, I do want to start today’s scussion with an important disclaimer. Spiritual warfare is not simply about confronting demons. Long before we get to that, spiritual warfare is about walking in the Holy Spirit and not giving any ground to the devil in the first place. This is a practical matter of our daily walk in the Lord. It means refusing to tolerate sin in our own lives. It means loving mercy and doing justice. It means having the law of God written on our hearts. It means shining a light on injustice and protecting the vulnerable. Long before we ever get to the point of rebuking demons, we need to be sure we’re walking in the light. Otherwise none of the things I’m about to say in this episode will help you.
My interest in the area of spiritual warfare is not merely academic. As an author of historical fantasy fiction, I often find myself writing about the spiritual aspects of things that happened in real world history. I don’t pretend that my stories are strictly truthful, but when I retell history, I’m always trying to say something about what the deeper spiritual realities might have been. Along the way, I’ve learned some things about what the Bible says about spiritual warfare, and come to believe that large parts of the church by and large come to this subject with an attitude of unbiblical fear.
For instance, CS Lewis in The Screwtape Letters warns us off paying too little attention to the devil, and in the next sentence warns us about paying too much. With all respect to Lewis, It’s sort of a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t scenario, and I’ve never found this take to be tremendously helpful. I’ve also had people express their concern about my making the topic of spiritual warfare a study at all. Multiple people have told me cautionary tales about Christians whose interest in the spiritual world resulted in their living in constant fear...afraid of demons, subject to demonic attack,
