Spiritual Warfare

Spiritual warfare is about the battle for the soul. Satan has a strategy to destroy an individual, as well as the entire human race. The invisible things of God are clearly seen from the creation and all men are without excuse. Satan's first step is always to draw men away from the proper view of God. When God is not enough to satisfy your mind, your feelings, and to answer your questions you are losing the battle and Satan has you where he wants you.

To provoke others to anger has consequences. God tells us not to do it, and as Christians we should be very sensitive and careful not to provoke others to anger unnecessarily or carelessly. Likewise, we are to not be easily provoked ourselves. This is what is tearing our country apart right now.

Understanding is the receiving of knowledge and information. Wisdom is the right use of that knowledge and information. There is wisdom of this world and there is the wisdom that God gives. Until we are born again we understand only with a carnal mind.

"Soul" means "life" here, which has the same meaning as "spirit." We are not really born again until our whole being is submitted to God in love. Many submit their heart (emotions and feelings) and their mind, but not their life, which is their soul. They live their lives in this world and these will hear in that day, "Depart from me....I never knew you."

We are always thinking, and that is where the trouble always starts. The mind is the battlefield of spiritual warfare. All sin begins there and so does any drawing nigh to God. We fail badly in guarding and training our minds or those of our children.

Spiritual death is not mentioned in the Bible. It is a phrase invented by men to try to explain the great gulf that sin has caused between man and his God. Spirits do not die, so your spirit is not dead, but it is alienated from God and walks in darkness, until the new birth restores your fellowship with God.

Being "born again" means more than a sentimental religious cliché. It is to be delivered from this prison whose walls let us see only the physical, carnal world around us. Our blinded eyes are opened to the spiritual kingdom of God and we can see what is really going on. From that point on we are engaged in the spiritual war between good and evil.

Our charge from God is not to believe every spirit, but to try the spirits whether they are of God. We are not to let our curiosity take us any further than that. To seek more knowledge of them is to enter into the occult and to be deceived by Satan.

You can be subject to evil spirits or you can resist them and they will flee. You rule your own spirit or it is overrun by spiritual evil. It is really that simple. It is here that what we call "victory" is won or all is lost. It is here that we either "overcome" and inherit all things, or our soul is vanquished, and our life is destroyed.

Jesus said to "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." What are we supposed to watch? We are to watch what kinds of spirits we are being approached by in our minds. This is spiritual warfare and this is the battle the Bible talks about.