Spiritual Warfare: An Introduction
This next group of blog posts comes from the third book in the Basic Training! series: Stage 3 Spiritual Warfare. By this time in the Pureheart process, you’ve locked down your devices, identified your triggers, you’re getting your acting out cycle under control, established accountability with your B.O.B group, and “Severed Spiritual Chains”. Because it is vital to your healing and maturity, we’ve devoted all of Stage 3 to teaching you about Spiritual Warfare. Have you ever met the devil? Demons? Do you know how to stand your ground against the cosmic forces of evil? Do you know how to fight against demons? Or how to equip yourself with the life-saving armor of God? “Stage 3: Spiritual Warfare” offers you a specific strategy for winning the invisible war that rages about you, starting with the fundamentals as laid out in this introductory chapter.
Brace yourself—it’s time for battle!
Welcome To The War!
Wake up and smell the brimstone, Agent Hunt, and welcome to your personal WWII! Satan came before God seeking permission to break Job’s heart and destroy his life (Job 1 and 2). The devil demanded that Jesus give him Peter so he could sift him like wheat (Luke 22:31, ESV). We forget that Peter was as much a traitor as Judas before the Cross—and of the two, I’m sure Peter’s betrayal hurt Jesus the most. That’s Judas, by the way, a personal companion of Jesus, and a man filled with the devil himself. And no, the devil didn’t stop with Job, Judas, and Peter. Satan today is still visiting God’s courts, asking for your head and mine delivered on a platter.
No longer can you afford to ignore the personal nature of Satan’s “demands” and his sick and twisted need to lie, steal, destroy, and murder you and everyone and everything you hold dear. As we learn from Job, Judas, and Peter, Satan’s plan for your life is to make you deathly sick, reduce you to utter poverty, isolate you from family and friends, and literally murder your children. Oh, by the way, he also seeks to turn you from a Spirit-filled, Bible-believing Christian into a God-cursing, God-betraying, devil-filled suicidal traitor like the Judas Priest himself. Yeah, read that whole paragraph again…
If you think I exaggerate, consider for a moment that Satan didn’t just murder Jesus on the Cross, but he likely arranged the gruesome murder of every single Apostle. Judas, the devil’s lone convert, murdered himself via suicidal hanging. Peter was likely crucified upside down. Paul was beheaded. Thomas was stabbed to death by a spear. And James was beheaded with a sword. Other Apostles were beaten, stoned, flayed, crucified, and possibly sawn in half. The various traditions that report the deaths of the Apostles do not always agree, and some may be legendary, but it seems obvious that most if not all of the Apostles were brutally murdered for their faith (Judas excepted).
The devil doesn’t just murder Apostles; he wants to torture, destroy, and kill everyone. You see, the devil hates you and has a plan for your life. He even hates your children (or future children). If the devil can’t get to you, he and his demons will come after your children. I learned this the hard way. While my parents were out visiting churches to raise support to become missionaries, my siblings and I were left to the demonic mercies of my pedophile grandfather!
Consider the Biblical example of the boy demonized by the kind of demon the disciples could not cast out—despite their having cast out possibly thousands of demons up to this point (Matthew 17:14-20, Mark 9:14-29, Luke 9:37-43).
First, note the child’s terrible suffering—demons love to torture humans, regardless of age. Unable to speak, foaming at the mouth, convulsions, rigidity, screaming in pain, gnashing of teeth…it scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him (Luke 9:39). And this suffering greatly had been going on for years. Imagine watching your child live in this kind of hell. Which is worse—suffering yourself, or watching helplessly as those you love suffer? Note, however, the demon’s ultimate goal was murder: It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him (Mark 9:22). Imagine the character of a being who for years has single-mindedly and repeatedly tried to drown and burn an innocent child to death! And demons are just extensions of their father, the devil.
Bear with me if I sound extreme to you. The fact that the devil was a murderer from the beginning is no spiritual metaphor; it was and is the literal truth. I know this from experience, having personally seen (in hundreds of nightmares) how Satan’s followers sacrificially torture and murder people, children included. Indeed, Satan himself visited me in a memorable nightmare on my 50th birthday. I will spare you the obscene details other than to share that in the dream, I was utterly without fear. Indeed, in the dream, I didn’t lift a finger to defend myself; he was completely without power over me. When the day of evil comes (Ephesians 6)—or in my case, when the devil himself personally visits you—sometimes all we need to do is stand our ground, because greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. I know this from personal experience!
Have you ever met the devil? Demons? Do you know how to stand your ground against the cosmic forces of evil? Do you know how to fight against demons? Or how to equip yourself with the life-saving armor of God? “Stage 3: Spiritual Warfare” offers you a specific strategy for winning the invisible war that rages about you, starting with the fundamentals as laid out in this next series of posts.
We begin by considering the personal nature of the devil’s murderous mission against every Christian, illustrated by a skeptical pastor’s recent encounter with demons. The standard Warfare Worldview section highlights the fact that our enemies are cunning, dangerous, and utterly evil. We then take a topical tour through Scripture to learn about Satan’s origins, names, and character—he truly is a liar, thief, and murderer. We consider Satan’s primary goals—to keep the lost lost, and to keep the saved acting unsaved—and then the means and methods used to achieve his goals. Specifically, he uses demons, the World system, and carnal Christians to attack believers via Strongholds (mind), Heartholds (heart), and Footholds (life). We then conclude with basic tips for winning your personal spiritual WWII.
Brace yourself—it’s time for battle!
Your Brother in the Battle,
Timothy
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Excerpt taken from Pureheart Ministry’s Basic Training! Stage 3: Spiritual Warfare
Copyright ©2023 Timothy Davis