The nature of the war that we are in is spiritual, meaning we are fighting against spirits. So what is a spirit? There are many (as I have learned from some preliminary research) ways of thinking about spirits but here is my simplest of simple definitions: Think of a spirit as a person with no physical body. So a spirit can talk to you and exert influence over you in the same way that a person can. As you may well know, God is a spirit. What you may not know is that the devil and all his evil buddies that we battle against are also spirits (evil ones). So think of the spirits we fight against as the most wicked people you know or have heard of (pedophiles, serial killers, arsonist, sadomasochist), now subtract all of their physical weaknesses and you will have an idea of what you are at war with.
Now you may be thinking to yourself how could a serial killer, for example, operate without a body? Well glad you asked. The evil spirits I am referring to in this post (because there are various types) operate by the power of influence. This means, the spirits don't need a physical body because they persuade us to use our bodies to do their work. So how does it work? Let's say that you are being attacked by a spirit of fear (because we know that fear does not come from God and is thus evil). The spirit will continuously tell you that you are not safe, that someone is going to get you, that every noise is footsteps coming after you, and so on. Don't laugh, it happens. The really un-funny part is that the spirits are SUPER slick so even though they talk to you, you don't feel like someone is talking to you. It just seems like thoughts in your own head. There are spirits of hoeishness (I just made that word up) that operate quite effectively through music. These spirits objective is to make you think that sex is great and if you could just get some, all things would be right with the world (untrue if you are not married and frankly untrue even if you are). There are party spirits (which I let push me around for thee longest) which suggest to you that life is all about FUN!!!! All you need is a cute outfit, a drink and a two-step and it will be on and poppin (Yaaaaaay, this is so fuuuun, it almost made me want to kill myself, fun....). There are spirits of "success" that will tell you that all that matters in life is being on top, good education, good job, nice house, nice car etc. etc. Lies all lies but the less in tune you are with God, the less you will be able to distinguish a spiritual attack from your own thoughts or from the actions of the people around you.
Look around at the actions people take and you will find the evidence of how successful these spirits are. People really believe almost any and everything that contradicts God's word. As a result we are attempting to keep and spread the faith in the most hostile of environments. You want an example, here is a good one. Just try telling a young person that they can wait until they get married to have sex. Heck, for that matter try telling a older single person that. They get this look on their face like it just is not possible. Honestly, I didn't think it was possible when I was younger (or as I got older). But that is because I allowed myself to be influenced by spirits that said there was no way I could wait, nobody waited, it would be weird to wait. In fact the spirits are so so slick, they had me believing that my waiting was just a sign that nobody wanted me so I had to have sex right, just to prove guys wanted me.... *blank stare* What is wrong with us????
The bible describes it like this: We don't fight against flesh and blood (other people or ourselves) instead we fight against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Eph 6:12). So for the people out there who are trying to use your intelligence, money, good looks etc. to win this war, you literally brought a knife to a gun fight. NONE of that stuff works here. When you are fighting spirits, you must learn to fight in the spirit. This means that if you really want to win out here, you are going to have to allow God to fight in and through you. These spirits are serious but please don't get it twisted, they are no match for the spirit of God which lives inside of us. The spirit that is within us is far greater than all the spirits out there (1 John 4:4).
Now you know that nature of this warfare, next we need to talk about our battle strategy. If you don't have one, tomorrow, we are going to get you one. Now go back and read this whole post again. This stuff is heavy, you have to really let it sink in.
No comments:
Post a Comment