The Battlefield of Spiritual Warfare
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction:
Introduction:
Why are Gettysburg, The Alamo, Pearl Harbor famous? They are places where the US engaged in significant battles.
Battlefields are dangerous places. It’s wise to avoid them unless you have been ordered by your superior officer to engage in the battle.
When historians write about wars, they often tell the stories by describing the key battles.
Today we’re going to examine the battlefield for spiritual warfare.
What is our intent? To understand our minds are the battlefield for spiritual warfare.
What is the obstacle to understanding this? We need to learn about the spiritual realm and how it influences the spiritual part of us.
What is the result of understanding our minds are the battlefield of spiritual warfare?
Spiritual warfare begins with understanding
1. There are two realms of existence.
1. There are two realms of existence.
A. Unseen
A. Unseen
Place: Heaven John 3:12-13; 1 Corinthians 15:40, 2 Corinthians 12:2, Ephesians 6:12
Persons: God, the sons of God Job 1:6, cherubim Ezekiel 10:1, seraphim Isaiah 6:2, and angels Psalm 148:2
B. Visible
B. Visible
Place: the universe Genesis 1:1
The universe (Latin: universus) is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe
Persons: Humanity, male and female Genesis 1:27
C. People have unseen and visible aspects. 1 Thess. 5:23, Hebrews 4:12
C. People have unseen and visible aspects. 1 Thess. 5:23, Hebrews 4:12
We have body, soul and spirit.
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
There are theologians who equate the soul and spirit. Rather than get into a debate about that, let’s agree that God made us with a material part, our bodies, and an immaterial part, our souls and spirits.
Our material part includes our bodies and five senses, sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch.
Our immaterial part is our soul, imagination, conscience, memory, reason and affections, and our spirit the part of us that communes with God and includes the qualities of faith, hope, reverence, prayer and worship.
Spiritual warfare exists because there are evil beings in the unseen realm who oppose God and His plan.
2. Our spiritual warfare adversaries are spirit beings.
2. Our spiritual warfare adversaries are spirit beings.
Let’s see how the Bible describes them.
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
A. Rulers, authorities, powers, spiritual forces Ephesians 6:12, Col 1:16
A. Rulers, authorities, powers, spiritual forces Ephesians 6:12, Col 1:16
These are titles that seem to relate to locations. Spirit beings have areas they control.
Paul gives us some insight into these adversaries.
1 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
B. Deceiving spirits 1 Tim 4:1
B. Deceiving spirits 1 Tim 4:1
This is a description of their activity. Spirits have the ability to deceive people and they have the ability to teach people. You put these together and we see they teach lies.
There are many world religions based upon the teaching of demons. We’ll be considering this later in our study. Do you think the people who subscribe to the teaching of demons think their religions are false and based upon lies? Of course not! They would be offended if you tell them that. No one intentionally lives their life based upon things they know are lies. Why do they do this? They are deceived and don’t know what they are doing is false.
Contrast this with good angels. Hebrews 1:6-7
What is the plan for overcoming the obstacles?
I Timothy tells us one thing our spiritual enemies want to do to us. There are many other things to consider. What do you think our enemies want to do us? Many people think Satan wants to make us sick, give us a flat tire or cause a tree to fall on our house. That isn’t what we discover in the Bible. Instead, we learn that
3. Our adversary’s ambition is spiritual harm.
3. Our adversary’s ambition is spiritual harm.
Let’s look at the most famous satanic attack in the Bible.
11 But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
A. Satan’s goal was that Job curse God. Job 1:11
A. Satan’s goal was that Job curse God. Job 1:11
It wasn’t to destroy Job’s family, possession or his health. If that had been Satan’s goal, he would have won. He didn’t. Those were all a way to get to Satan’s mind.
Jesus gives us additional insight into Satan’s ambition.
44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
B. Satan wants us to do his evil desires. John 8:44
B. Satan wants us to do his evil desires. John 8:44
Satan can’t make us do anything. Satan didn’t cause Adam and Eve to sin. He gave them an evil desire, which they embraced, they made the evil desire their own, and they sinned.
Here’s how Paul describes this.
3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
C. Satan wants to lead our thoughts astray. 2 Cor. 11:3
C. Satan wants to lead our thoughts astray. 2 Cor. 11:3
Paul’s concern was that the Corinthians not be deceived like Eve as. He can mislead us.
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains 31.12 ἀπατάω; ἐξαπατάω; φρεναπατάω; ἀπάτη, ης
31.12 ἀπατάω; ἐξαπατάω; φρεναπατάω; ἀπάτη, ης f: to cause someone to have misleading or erroneous views concerning the truth—‘to mislead, to deceive, deception.’
ἀπατάω: μηδεὶς ὑμᾶς ἀπατάτω κενοῖς λόγοις ‘let no one mislead you with foolish words’ Eph 5:6.
The focus of satanic attacks is thoughts, our minds!
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains 26.14 νοῦς, νοός, νοΐ, νοῦν; νόημα, τος; διάνοια, ας
26.14 νοῦςa, νοός, νοί̈, νοῦν m; νόημαa, τος n; διάνοιαa, ας f: the psychological faculty of understanding, reasoning, thinking, and deciding—‘mind.’
Romans 5:12 tells us that Satan didn’t make Adam and Eve sin.
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—
The result of accepting Satan’s evil desires and acting upon them is sin. That is Satan’s ambition. The method Satan uses is spiritual attacks.
4. Our adversary’s attacks are spiritual.
4. Our adversary’s attacks are spiritual.
We see a clear example of this in the early church with Ananias and Sapphira.
3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?
The word “fill” is the same used of the filling of the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18
A. Satan can fill our hearts with evil thoughts. Acts 5:3
A. Satan can fill our hearts with evil thoughts. Acts 5:3
Satan is just one of our three spiritual enemies. The other enemies also attack us spiritually.
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.
7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
B. The flesh can fill our minds with hostility to God. Romans 8:5-8
B. The flesh can fill our minds with hostility to God. Romans 8:5-8
We see the same principle with the world.
4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
C. The world can create hostility between us and God. James 4:4
C. The world can create hostility between us and God. James 4:4
What is the result of understanding our minds are the battlefield of spiritual warfare?
This understanding leads us to a critical conclusion. Since our adversaries are spiritual and their attacks are spiritual,
5. Our armor is spiritual.
5. Our armor is spiritual.
If we are being attacked with bullets, we need a bullet-proof vest to protect us. If we are attacked with chemical weapons, we need armor including protective clothing for all our skin, a mask to prevent us from ingesting the chemical weapons.
For spiritual battle we need spiritual armor.
3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.
4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
A. Our weapons have divine power. 2 Cor. 10:3-4
A. Our weapons have divine power. 2 Cor. 10:3-4
14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,
15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
B. Our weapons are truth, righteousness, readiness, faith, salvation, rhema Ephesians 6:14-17
B. Our weapons are truth, righteousness, readiness, faith, salvation, rhema Ephesians 6:14-17
Implications:
Our concern in spiritual warfare is not what happens to us. It is what we think about what happens to us.
We can’t change what happens to us. We can change how we think about what happens to us.
Identifying the mind as the spiritual warfare battlefield doesn’t mean there is always a battle going on.
One challenge of spiritual warfare is that even though our minds are the battlefield, it may not seem like that. Right now, I hope your mind is at peace and you don’t have a spiritual battle going on.
On the other hand, if you feel like there is always a battle raging in your mind, there are two possibilities. One is that you are mis-diagnosing what the spiritual warfare battle is. It may be that you are experiencing difficulty and hardship, even pain, that isn’t spiritual warfare. In the weeks ahead we are going to learn about things that we go through that are often misunderstood as spiritual warfare.
The other possibility is that you are going through an intense time of spiritual warfare. It happens. However, as we will learn, God has given us everything we need to defeat any aspect of spiritual warfare so that we don’t have to experience it continually. If you think you have been in an extended period of spiritual warfare, please let me know as I am happy to give you help in defeating it.