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Hot Topic -THE HIDDEN WAR
Inspiration
For Victorious
Living
What Is Spiritual Warfare ?
“Your enemy the devil prowls around like
a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”-Ephesians 6:12
Spiritual warfare is a topic that is almost
unspoken in many Christian circles and yet
every Christian no matter where they are
will or have at some point been involved
with spiritual warfare.
Understanding
what
spiritual warfare is and
why it
exists
is essential in being prepared
when
war is
declared in your life.
Let me
start
by quoting a notable person
and truly
the best
explanation that I've
ever
heard
of what spiritual warfare is was
actually
given
by Pastor Tony Evens. He explained
in an
interview
with CBN that there is a
spiritual
realm
and a physical realm. "The
spiritual
realm
precedes, influences and,
to many
degrees,
determines the physical
realm."
Ok, don't
get scared
off I'm not going to
start
chanting
or ask you if the moon is
aligned
with
the stars are anything. And
I recognize
that
if this is the first time
you've
ever
been introduced to the term spiritual
warfare
or if
your knowledge is limited it
can seem
a bit
scary and somewhat unreal.
So let's
make
this real.
Pastor
Evens
explained the spiritual realm.
I like
to explain
it as those things that
affect
our spirit
prayer, praise, worship,
meditation,
etc.
He also explained that there
is a
physical
realm- I like to explain this
as relationships,
finances,
the workplace,
health,
family
friends, etc.
Now,
here
is how the war works. If your enemy
Satan
can keep
you completely immersed in
the physical
realm
(bills, family problems,
work
problems,
church problems) you don't
have
time
to maintain your nurture your spirit
(grow
closer
to God.
You see
Satan
and his workers listen, observe,
and notate
anything
in our lives that they
can use
against
us to draw us away from God.
This
means
that if you find yourself getting
along
with
your spouse the worse that you've
ever
gotten
along and it just so happens
that
you also
have decided to get closer
to God
you could
very well be under attack.
Let me
give
you an example:
You've
decided
after much prayer that you
are going
to start
to do more in your local
church…You
are going
to do Wednesday night
bible
studies.
Well my friend all of a sudden
anything
that
can go wrong goes wrong on
Wednesday
nights.
Now if
you don't
know that you are now in
the fight
of your
life and you must not let
anything
no matter
how crazy keep you from
Wednesday
night
bible study the fight for
your
spirit
is won.
You see
while
you were dealing with the problems
and distractions
of the
day your enemy was
listening,
observing,
and notating everyone
in the
bible
study class and he knows that
Jane
Doe is
just at the break of making a
decision
for Christ.
And he also knows that
Jane
Doe thinks
the world of you so what
does
this
mean. Your enemy has to keep you
from
making
the connection with Jane Doe
anyway
he can.
We'll stop there and pick
this
up again
in a minute.
Let's
briefly
discuss the Non-Christian and
spiritual
warfare.
If you are a Non-Christian
you already
belong
to Satan. This is a hard
thing
to hear
but you do. The other hard
truth
to swallow
is that Satan is not your
enemy
yet because
believe it or not as long
as you
are outside
of the body of Christ
your
enemy
is actually God.
Ok, ok,
don't
close the window it does get
better
and this
does have something to do
with
Spiritual
warfare. Spiritual Warfare
occurs
for the
unbeliever when they are at
the brink
of accepting
Christ as their personal
Savior.
Let's
give
another example:
Have
you ever
been in a church when the pastor
is really
making
a point that hits home and
all of
a sudden
out of the quietness babies
cry,
people
cough, you start realizing how
hungry
you are
etc.
As you
can see
spiritual warfare is real!
And we
must
start to recognize when we are
in the
midst
of it. Think of it this way
everyone
is saying
that we are winning the
war in
Iraq
but to the person that has given
their
life
to the war it really doesn't matter
whose
winning
because they've lost.
Simply
saying
that we are living a victorious
life
in Christ
is not enough we've got to
when
the wars
waged against us.
Next
lesson
we will examine ways to go into
battle
in the
midst of spiritual warfare.
Your
Challenge
for this month:
Be observant!
Look
for ways that the enemy
is trying
to wage
war against you and/or
your
house
hold. Write it down.
Click
here
to share your input on spiritual
warfare.
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