Spiritual Warfare

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.

Demonic spirits do not manifest themselves in ways that scare and thrill superstitious people like Hollywood portrays. They are those voices in your mind arguing and debating with you about established and known moral issues. Devils are scratching at your soul's door when you hear in your mind their arguments against what is right. Beware! Lest you end up like this poor boy in Mark 9!

The story of the poor centurion's son who was vexed with a deaf and dumb spirit is very much like what we often see now. There is no need to try to fix blame or analyze what caused this. Help for the hopeless can only be found in Jesus Christ himself, and not in men - not matter how knowledgeable or spiritual they are.

Superstition is the devil's counterfeit to true faith. It focuses on the physical looking for confirmation of the supernatural. It is based in fear. Modern religion is full of superstition that is presented as faith. Saving faith is only found in truth, which is the Word of God.