Are you engaged in a spiritual war?

Years ago, I learned this: if I didn't feel I was under demonic attack, I would ask the Father, "What's wrong, don't you trust me?? Has my training ended?"

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't looking for trouble. Point is, I was coming to understand the necessity of spiritual warfare. The "light resistance" (as Paul referred to it) that I received from whatever devil had been assigned to me actually serves to make me a more powerful Christian. But I had just emerged from years of relational problems and had overcome business and personal bankruptcies as well as an “incurable” spinal disease. I KNEW what it was like to find myself engaged in spiritual battles. Truth is, even though I continued walking into demonic crossfires, their impact on my life didn't have quite the effect thay had in my earlier days, especially once I learned to focus on the Problem-Solver (Jesus) rather than the problem at hand.

Ephesian 6:12-14 reminds us who we are at war with: “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”

Translation? That coworker who is driving you nuts is NOT your enemy. That kid on drugs is NOT your enemy. Those people in that other political party are NOT your enemies. That group of Church folks who are in disagreement with YOUR group of Church folks are NOT your enemies. The noisy neighbor upstairs is NOT your enemy.

People are NEVER our problem; the problem is our problem, NOT flesh-and-blood. The issues are spiritual and we who are spiritual should recalibrate our guns and take aim at the REAL enemy.

I ministered to an ex-con a few weeks ago. The more he described his mental anguish since being released from prison, the more glaringly obvious it became that he was engaged in a spiritual war. Why wouldn't he be? He'd been serving Satan well for so long, any gang leader would put a price on this traitor's head. We talked about spiritual warfare and the fact he gets to fight dirty and use the Name of Jesus and the Word of God. He was encouraged and is doing well, a month later.

Are YOU engaged in a spiritual war? Probably. The biggest problem I see in the Body of Christ is (A) Most Christians are clueless regarding this kind of warfare, (B) Very few Church Leaders are adequately trained in how to fight this spiritual battle, so how can they equip their congregations? and (C) An amazingly small number of Christians even acknowledge the existence of an actual devil (one long-time church-goer wrinkled her nose and said, “maybe Satan tempts me to eat another slice of pie, things like that, but I just can't believe he's that terrible.”) C.S. Lewis wrote, “one of Satan's most deceptive tactics is to convince people that he doesn't exist.”

ALL Christians are under a spiritual attack on some level. The bombardment of the human mind alone is unceasing. Speaking of C.S. Lewis, as I recall, he said something like this: “Satan would allow even a minister to prepare a sermon so long as he spends little time preparing himself.” As I see it, far too few Christians are investing time in getting equipped. Like anything else preparation begins with a willful decision to do so.

Remember who your REAL enemy is, folks! Truth is, even the person you may have pegged as an adversary is actually under attack by the very devil who's attacking YOU! It would make much more sense to pursue an alliance with a perceived human enemy against the devil than to quarrel and bicker among yourselves.

If the Bible is true, “greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world,” (1 Jn 4:4).

If the Bible is true, Jesus declared, “I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy...,” (Lk 10:19).

C'mon, folks! There's a Kingdom to build. God's waiting on multitudes to get in the game right where they've been planted. In other words, to the Army of God, the bivouac is over!

Every blessing,

Michael Tummillo

Founder, The Church @ Work