Spiritual Warfare: The Battle for God's Glory

PREFACE

I'm not sure when I first became aware that the struggle to live a life worthy of my identity as a Christian was spiritual warfare. Becoming a Christian at the age of ten brought a consciousness of a relationship with God that was secure. I knew that trusting Jesus Christ as my personal Savior had resulted in my sins being forgiven. Nevertheless, there was a new sensitivity to wrongdoing and attitudes and behavior that were not appropriate for a Christian. I would like to think it was the conviction of the Holy Spirit, but at that age it was probably just as much the threat of a paddling or the displeasure of my parents that instilled a sense of guilt for frequent failure. I really did want to grow in my faith and live according to God's Word, but victory over my old sin nature continued to be elusive.

By the time I had finished high school and entered college, I was confident God was calling me into the ministry and possibly to missionary service. Someone gave me a book by C. S. Lewis called The Screwtape Letters. Reading that book made me aware there is an enemy who is determined to defeat us in our Christian walk. This enemy is intent on rendering us ineffective in our resolve to live for the Lord and serve Him. The book is a series of letters, as Lewis imagined they would be written, by Screwtape, the captain of one of Satan's demonic hosts, to one of his little demon agents, a nephew by the name of Wormwood. Wormwood had been assigned to a young man who had recently come to faith in Christ. I remember the book starting out with something of a reprimand of Wormwood. He had lost the battle for this individual's soul, a battle that could never be regained. But Screwtape proceeds to advise him that if he used appropriate strategies and clever tactics, he could be assured that this man's life would never count for anything as far as the kingdom of God is concerned.

The letters are advice on strategies to defeat a Christian in his daily life. One letter advises Wormwood to influence the young man to neglect his prayer time and devotional life, which would render him absolutely powerless. Another says to persuade him to doubt the truth and authority of God's Word. The result would be no foundation of faith on which to build an effective life in the power of God's Spirit. One of the tactics, with which I readily identified at that time in my vision of someday being a missionary, was particularly relevant. It was to let him have good intentions about serving the Lord and making plans about what he is going to do someday. But get him to procrastinate and keep putting it off, always seeing what he was going to do as something in the future. The letter suggests he'll never reach the point of realizing his only opportunity to have an impact on eternity comes in what he does in the present.

The book gave me valuable insights into the fact that subtly and cleverly Satan is trying to tempt us to sin and render us ineffective in serving God and living for Him. However, with maturity and additional challenges to my aspirations of attaining a Spirit-filled life, I came to realize that this adversary was not simply trying to trip me up by his occasional temptations but to deceive me into embracing a carnal, self-serving lifestyle. I found the struggle to interpret life and reality by my feelings and experiences, rather than the truth of God's Word, to be a continuing struggle. As a growing Christian I was disillusioned by the elusive victory and constant failure.

I understood the distinction between sin and righteousness and fairly successfully learned to appropriate God's grace rather than try to win that battle through my own efforts. As carnal values and immoral lifestyles lessened in their appeal, it was disconcerting to find that doubt and pride were devious ways the enemy continued to afflict me with his fiery darts. Awareness of ungodly attitudes hidden deep in my heart was evidence of a fallen nature not yet fully crucified. The external manifestations of Satan's power and dominion on the mission field through demon possession and the oppressive presence of evil in a world of spiritual darkness only served to enlighten my understanding that the real battle was within.

This book is an attempt to share the insights gained from my own pilgrimage. As a veteran missionary I shared my understanding with new colleagues arriving on the field. I hoped they could avoid my own years of struggle to lay hold to a higher dimension of victory not only in overcoming the cultural barriers used by the enemy but in spiritual equipping for the task. For several years this material has been shared in the orientation of new missionaries being sent out by the Southern Baptist International Mission Board. Many have written on the subject of spiritual warfare, and I have drawn insights from many of those resources, but basically the approach is to focus on what we are told in God's Word. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. It is our shield of faith that quenches all the fiery darts of the evil one. That faith is not just our faith in Jesus Christ and His death on the cross that procured the victory for us, but it is faith to believe God and all that He says about our enemy and how we are to fight the battle.

The reader will discover that every reference to our enemy and spiritual warfare in the Word of God is in the context of victory. That being the case, I pray that the insights shared in this volume will help the reader grow in faith and claim the victory that we have been given in Jesus Christ, and God will be glorified.

I am indebted to the influence of many friends and colleagues over the years who modeled a life that glorified God. They testified of God's truth and nurtured in me an insatiable desire to live the kind of life of obedience that glorified Him. I have been humbled by the response to my teaching on this subject and the constant encouragement to share these insights in book form. I want to acknowledge the support and assistance of my wife, Bobbye, who was a loving critic of my communication style and helped to shape my words to conform to what she understood I wanted to say. Close friends and colleagues, Chuck Lawless and Clyde and Elaine Meador, patiently and meticulously reviewed the manuscript and helped shape the content and wording. A special word of appreciation is due to Anita Bowden who edited the manuscript and Fonceil Blake, my executive assistant, who provided technical assistance, covered administrative matters, and protected my calendar to allow the personal time needed to complete this project.

Also it has been a joy to work with the staff of B&H Publishing. Writing on such a topic has been a matter of spiritual warfare in itself, but George Williams and David Shepherd patiently and persistently continued to encourage me in the project year after year, as did John Kramp of LifeWay Christian Resources. Brad Waggoner, Thomas Walters, Kim Stanford, and Jean Eckenrode have made this book a true partnership. Their apparent vision for its impact on the kingdom went beyond just publishing and marketing another book. It has been a blessing and joy to work with them.

—Jerry Rankin

CHAPTER 1

THE REALITY OF SPIRITUAL WARFARE

For our battle is not against flesh and blood,

but against the rulers, against the authorities, against

the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual

forces of evil in the heavens.

—Ephesians 6:12

We had just arrived for our missionary assignment in Indonesia and were a few months into language study. Enjoying the tropical climate, adjusting to new culinary delights, and feeling welcome among the gracious, hospitable people of our host country, we were beginning to think we would evade the expected cultural shock in our smooth adjustment. One Monday morning our Sundanese household helper arrived for work emotionally distraught. She always went home to her village on weekends, and upon her return on this particular occasion, something was obviously troubling her.

What's wrong? What happened? we asked with concern. She explained that her daughter had become demon possessed. Not fully comprehending the situation she described, we were unprepared for her appeal that we go with her to her village and pray for her daughter. We had bonded closely with her; and although she was a Muslim, she respected us as missionaries and recognized that I was kind of like a priest or some kind of spiritual leader. It didn't matter whether we were Muslim or Christian; she just wanted someone with some spiritual authority and power to help her daughter.

We agreed to adjust our schedule to go with her to her village and pray for her daughter later in the week. I wasn't sure what we were going to encounter, so I spent the next couple of days praying and fasting. The serenity of the village, shaded by waving palm trees and surrounded by endless fields of golden rice ready for harvest, was broken only by barking dogs and children playing noisily. Thatched bamboo houses, each with an overhanging grass roof, built closely together, reflected community neighborliness. Friendly greetings belied the serious concern and understanding of why we had come.

As we entered the house and our eyes quickly adjusted from the bright sunlight to the darkened room, we found a beautiful teenager tied to the bamboo bed where she was sitting. Her clothes were torn, her hair disheveled, and she was snarling like an animal. When we walked into the room, she glared at us and said in clear and perfect English, Jesus Christ is not God; Mohammed is the servant of the most high god. Well, OK; that's an expected Muslim perspective. I didn't think anything about it until her mother told us on the way home that her daughter had lived in this remote village all her life, was uneducated, and didn't speak English!

We prayed for her in the name of Jesus, and there was no visible response or results. I didn't know anything else to do. But it was an alarming experience. I began to think, Is this what we're going to encounter here in Indonesia? Are we equipped for this? It wasn't long until we began to learn that where the gospel has not been proclaimed and Jesus is not known, Satan has considerable dominion and power. Demon possession is not uncommon in such places; and we had, indeed, ventured into Satan's territory.

A few months later, when we were becoming involved in our assignment of starting house churches, I was leading a group that was ready to confess Christ as Lord and Savior. I could tell in their personal conversation that they were responding to the Bible studies and the witness I had been presenting. Dark-skinned Javanese were crowded into the dirt-floored house, the light from a dim, flickering lantern reflecting off white pairs of eyes. Each window was filled with the silhouettes of curious neighbors. I felt the moment had come when I could ask them individually, but simultaneously and collectively, to pray and become followers of Christ. Leading them to take this step and make this decision was an auspicious, holy moment.

As we were moving toward that point of invitation and decision, one of the women started screaming and cackling. She had been a part of the group week after week, had always seemed normal and attentive, but suddenly became disruptive. Everyone was clearly embarrassed and tried to hush her, but she just kept screaming. Spontaneously, without any forethought, I said, In the name of Jesus, be quiet! She suddenly slumped in her chair as if in a trance. We continued with the service, and in a moment she sat up, appeared to be normal, and, in fact, was one of those who received Christ as Savior that night. It was apparent that Satan was making a last-ditch effort to disrupt the loss of souls in his dominion and prevent these people from becoming followers of Christ.

My sensitivity to the reality of spiritual warfare has grown over the years. I'm not sure what I truly believed about the presence and activity of Satan prior to going to the mission field. My understanding of the struggle with sin, even as expressed in my preaching, had more to do with personal resolve and human effort than a battle that was going on in the spiritual realm of life. However, it did not take me long following my arrival in Indonesia as a missionary to lose all skepticism regarding the reality of the power of Satan as manifested in cultures and places where Christ is not known.

Some years later we were visiting one of our colleagues in Indonesia. While we were in their home, two university students dropped in for a visit. They had been studying English with this missionary couple and were gregarious and fluent. They were always excited about meeting Americans and practicing their English. As we were talking, my wife, Bobbye, moved the conversation to a spiritual focus. Confident that these students had heard a witness from this missionary family, she asked one of the young men about his understanding and impression of the Christian faith. The young man started perspiring and blushing, and it was apparent that he was uncomfortable. Suddenly he jumped up and darted out the door. His friend apologized for his abrupt behavior and, politely asking permission, also left. Our missionary friends explained to us that they had been witnessing to this young man, and according to their understanding he had made a pact with a dukun, which is a kind of witch doctor that has power to cast spells, in order to get relief from an abusive father. He had had the dukun cast this spell, and as a result he was in spiritual bondage, as we would think of one selling his soul to the devil.

The last time the young man was in the missionary's home, he asked a lot of questions that reflected a spiritual inquisitiveness. The missionary got the Bible for him to read as they did not want their witness to appear to be just their words; they wanted him to read it as the authority of God's Word. They opened the Bible and pointed out the Scripture for him to read, and he said, But there are no words there. The pages are blank. The print was there on paper, but he kept saying, The pages are blank. There are no words in this book. The Scripture says the god of this world has blinded their eyes lest they see, hear, and understand (2 Cor. 4:3-4). There are many whose hearts are hardened and are spiritually blind, but it is disturbing to think that Satan could literally blind a person from seeing the Word of God.

A missionary in West Africa related the experience of a man telling him of his son's demon possession.

For some time now he has had terrible visions at night and has fallen ill. After consulting my Muslim teacher and our village spirit doctor, we decided that we must give Adamou, my son, to the evil spirit that has been tormenting him before the spirit kills him. We purchased the black goat and the three white chickens needed for sacrifices to be made on the day of the ceremony. We took gifts, the sacrifices, and payment to the spirit doctor the day before the ceremony and received all the instructions for the coming day.

My son was visited by the spirits that last night before his ceremony. One could hear his cries all over the village. We all agreed it was the will of Allah that he would become one with the spirit the following day. At one point during the ceremony, the chickens were beheaded, and the blood was allowed to flow over my son's body. At that point a powerful spirit by the name of Fonda Beri took control of my son. He began to talk to us and tell us who he was. He told us that he would give us wisdom and guidance when we travel. Each time someone in the village wants to go on a trip, we must speak to him and find out the day we should leave and when we should return.

He threw my son about and rolled him in the sand before he left. At the end of the ceremony, the spirit doctor gave my son an amulet to wear around his neck, identifying him with his spirit. The next day we took my son to our Muslim teacher so we could buy another amulet for him to wear around his arm. This amulet has verses from the Koran in it and will protect my son each time he is possessed. I am now greatly respected in my village because my son is possessed by such a powerful spirit. Our family will receive many gifts in the future as people from my village come to gain wisdom from my son's spirit before they travel.

Well, how do you explain things like this? Are they just coincidences or natural phenomena? Or are they manifestations of a spiritual power? The Bible talks about demons and the spirits, and they clearly recognize Jesus. He conversed with them and attributed cause and effects to demons and their spiritual powers. Was the Bible just conforming to a primitive worldview because this is how people of that day understood it? Was aberrant behavior attributed to demons because they didn't really understand mental illnesses, epileptic seizures, and other psychological phenomena? Or could it be that we're the ones who are naive in our Western rationalism and have discounted the reality of what goes on in the spiritual world?

Missionaries are aware of manifestations of Satan and demonic activity. Believers in the West also encounter Satan's activity in their lives and society every day. But we seldom recognize it because it is cleverly disguised and is discounted by our rational worldview. That is what this book is about. While there are those who see spiritual warfare in terms of demon possession, territorial spirits, generational bondage, or perceived outward manifestations of Satan's power and dominion in the world, the primary focus is what we encounter within our own lives. We need to recognize Satan's lies and deception and the attacks to which we are subjected daily. We need to understand how Satan defeats us and robs us of the victory and power we've been given. That's where the real battle lies. And only when we resist and walk in victory personally are we equipped to deal with some of the outward manifestations so prevalent in our world.

We are going to attempt to understand the reality of spiritual warfare, the nature and character of our enemy, some of his primary strategies that readily defeat us, and, finally, how we can walk in victory on a daily basis. As we study the truths of God's Word, Satan's lies will be exposed, and we will understand why faith, believing what God says, is the victory.

Spiritual warfare is not so much about demon possession, territorial spirits, or generational bondage as it is overcoming Satan's lies and deceits in our own life.

Spiritual warfare needs to be understood in the context of God's purpose. He has a specific will for each of us, but basically His purpose and desire is to be glorified in our life. The Bible uses various terms to reinforce this. In Romans 8:29 God's purpose is that we be conformed to the image of Christ. For those He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. Why does God predestine us to be conformed to the image of Christ? It is in order to glorify Him. Satan tempts us to sin in order to keep God from being glorified. We have an enemy that is intent on robbing God of His glory in our lives. God is glorified when we are conformed to the image of Christ and live like Him.

That is why He saved us, not just to keep us from going to hell. It was necessary for Jesus to bear the penalty of our sin on the cross so that by our believing in Him we could be restored to the image of Christ that had been lost in the fall and in our sin. God saves us by grace, not just so that we can be assured of eternal life in heaven. That's the bonus of having been restored to the image of Christ.

Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3:16 describes God's desire that we be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man. Why? Is it just for our blessing and benefit? No, it is for God's glory, and it comes from Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith as explained in verse 17. John 15:4 says we are to abide in Christ (NASB). First John 2:6 exhorts us to walk just as He walked. Ephesians 5:18 describes it as to be filled with the Spirit. All of this is what God does for us and desires for us because He is glorified when we abide in Him, live the Christlike life, and are filled and controlled by His Holy Spirit. It is not simply for our benefit. He saves us, redeems us, and restores us to a relationship with Himself, gives us a new life in Christ, and fills us with His Spirit not exclusively for our blessing but for His glory. Too often we think of becoming a Christian as just being saved from sin. But God's purpose is to conform us to the image of His Son; He has to redeem us from sin in order for that to happen. God's desire in your life—every day, all the time, in every behavior and attitude—is to be glorified. And that is His purpose in all that He does and allows to happen to us.

If God's purpose for us personally is that He be glorified in our life, what is God's purpose in the world and among the nations? It is also that He be glorified. That is His purpose in redeeming the nations and peoples of the world. It is why He calls us as His people to a mission task. He said in Psalm 46:10, I am God, exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth. He wants the nations and all the peoples of the earth to praise Him and exalt Him. This is expressed in many references throughout the Bible such as Psalm 96:1-4, Sing a new song to the LORD; sing to the LORD, all the earth… . Declare His glory among the nations, His wonderful works among all peoples. For the LORD is great and is highly praised. Obviously Satan does not want God to be glorified among the nations. Hence, the warfare commences to divert us from fulfilling our mission to declare His salvation among the nations. But neither does he want God to be glorified in our lives, so the warfare rages with him also as he does whatever it takes to deprive God of that which would glorify Him in our lives.

Notice what the Bible says about what God has given us as born-again believers and how Satan has deceived us and lied to us, convincing us to accept that which is contrary to God's truth.

PEACE—John 14:27, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Your heart must not be troubled or fearful.

JOY—John 15:11, I have spoken these things to you that My joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete.

POWER and STRENGTH-Acts 1:8, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses. Philippians 4:13, I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me.

VICTORY-Luke 10:19, Look, I have given you the authority…over all the power of the enemy.

HOLINESS and BLESSING-Philippians 4:19, My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Second Peter 1:3, For His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness.

We have all of these blessings because we are in Christ. This is what accompanies our salvation and what it means to be restored to the image of Christ. We don't struggle and work to have a life characterized by peace, joy, power, and victory over sin; we have already been given all of this because God's Holy Spirit lives within us. This is what God's Word tells us about the reality of our experience and position in Christ. It is all summed up in 2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.

These verses and promises are not unfamiliar, but are they a reality in your life? Are these characteristics evident in your daily experience? Instead of having abiding peace each day in every situation, do you struggle with anxiety? Do you find yourself worried about finances, security, the welfare of your children, or other concerns? Jesus said we have peace so where is all that worry and anxiety coming from? It is certainly not from God. Is someone robbing you of the peace He has given? In contrast with what