Spiritual Warfare
Spiritual
Warfare is NOT what Christian believers do ON
THEIR KNEES. It is what they do ON THEIR FEET.
The
believer's mission is to GO into ALL
THE WORLD, [regions that are antagonistic, hostile, defiant, malicious
and inhospitable, as
well as areas that are receptive] and preach [tell, teach, share, communicate]
the Gospel to every creature.
Spiritual
Warfare is the struggle to get the attention of people, then to persuade them
to believe the Gospel, as Paul did. 2Co.5:11; Ac.13:43;18:4; 19:8,26; 28:23
Spiritual
Warfare is paying any price, suffering any opposition, enduring any pain,
braving any storm, climbing any mountain, sailing any sea, penetrating any
jungle, facing any enemy, resisting any devil in order to witness of Christ in
all the world.
Preparation
Before entering the devil's terrain with the message and
witness of the Gospel, we prepare ourselves by prayer and intercession. For
what? So that the Word of the Lord
might have free course2Thes.3:1 and so that our presentation of the Good
News will be persuasive and will convince people of the truths of redemption.
When we step onto a platform amidst a sea of humanity in a
non-Christian area, we ANNOUNCE THE GOSPEL because it is God's power for salvation. We depend
on Christ's promise, Lo I am with you
always, even unto the end of the world. He said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
What can the rulers of darkness do? If God be for us [and if Christ be with us], who can be against us?
Biblical Warfare
Spiritual warfare is
what I do on my FEET, out in
public places, facing multitudes of people who have no knowledge of Christ, fighting the fight of faith,
proclaiming and demonstrating the Gospel as Jesus and His followers did, making the Gentiles obedient, by word and
deed, through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God.
Rom.15:18-19 Spiritual Warfare is NOT prayer. It is action as God’s
co-worker delivering people from darkness bringing them into the light and life
of Christ.
Biblical
Prayer
Biblical
prayer is the preparation for this divine and hallowed Christian ministry of
bringing the lost to Christ.
DO I PRAY? YES! On my knees in the holy
presence of my Lord, I commune with Him. I harmonize my plans with His. I
ponder His words and His ideas. I tune my spirit and my emotions to His Holy
Spirit and to His Word. That is how I pray.
DO I PRAY? YES! I align my
spirituality, my meditations and my concepts with the facts of His redemption
and with who and what He has made me to be. I absorb his love so that I can
witness more effectively in a despairing and unloved world. I worship Him for
all that He is and for all that He has provided for humanity. I thank Him for
His gifts and for believing in me as His witness. That is how I pray.
DO I PRAY? YES! I correlate my attitude
with His attitude toward people. I harmonize my spirit, my emotions; my plans
and my mind with His, conforming my thoughts to His Word. I assimilate faith,
hope and love from His person and from His Word, allowing His dreams to be
engendered in me. I immerse myself in the emotions and attributes of His Spirit
toward people. That is how I pray.
DO I PRAY? YES! I pour out my thoughts
and dreams to Him, then I listen to the response of His Word and of His Spirit.
I correlate His guidance and wisdom with my agenda for witnessing of Him so I
can be His effective ambassador in our hurting world. That is how I pray.
DO I PRAY? YES! I drink from His
Spirit. I am inspired by His vision. I feed from His sayings. I grow in His
grace. His love and compassion are engendered in me so that He can speak
effectively through my lips, touch with my hands, walk in my feet, embrace with
my arms, hear with my ears and see with my eyes, because He has said, “I will dwell in you, and walk in you; and I
will be your God, and you shall be my son... I will be a Father to you, and you
shall be my son,”2Cor.6:16,18 That is how I pray.
DO I PRAY? YES! But
do I agonize and beat the air and fight to pull down satanic strongholds where
I am going to preach the Gospel? No! Never! I do that when I step onto the
platform amidst an ocean of people. I preach, I announce, I demonstrate the
Gospel. That is spiritual warfare. That is pulling down satan's strongholds.
That is fighting the good fight of faith. That is persuading people about
Christ in the way that Paul the Apostle did. Act.13:43; 18:4,13; 19:8; 28:23;
2Cor.5:11
Prayer to me is not a battle, a fight, a struggle, a warfare.
Prayer is communion with the Father. Jesus fought our battles. He won our war.
He triumphed in our name. He delivered
us from the power of darkness, and translated us unto the kingdom of His dear
Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood. Col.1:13-14 He spoiled principalities and powers, and
made a show of them openly, triumphing over them. Col.2:5
Witchdoctors And God's Anointed
Often in our crusades overseas, preachers warn me of
powerful. witch-doctors being present, resolved to invoke some great curse on
me. Ministers sometimes want to lay hands on me and pray for my divine
protection. To do that would be a confession of doubt in the redemptive work
of Christ. I would never honour the lying deceiver, satan, by praying for
protection from his disenfranchised emissaries that are rendered powerless when
I arrive with the Gospel. God's Word states, That Wicked One touches him not. 1Jn.5:18
When people tell me that witchdoctors are present, I urge
them to bring them near the platform so I can see them and so they can see me
and touch me. Being exposed to the power of the Holy Spirit present when the
Gospel is preached, their witchcraft will never again be effective. Greater is He that is in us, than he that is
in the world. 1Jn.4:4 I want
witchdoctors and sorcerers to be able to touch me so that they, and everyone
else can see that no demonic curse can affect an ambassador of Christ.
No,
we do not prepare for our crusades by long seasons of pulling down evil strongholds or by wasting our time fighting
satanic powers that are already defeated.
Continuing What Jesus Began
We do prepare our spirits in prayer. How? For what?
We draw near to God by pondering His word; by reflecting on
His plan; by rethinking His objectives; by remembering Christ's defeat of
satan; by contemplating the Holy Spirit's power in our lives — all of that and
much more.
Then we go in confidence, knowing that our Gospel witness is
with power to break satan's rule over his captives. We will function as
Christ's ambassadors and satan can do nothing to prevent the all conquering
power of the Gospel.
We believe that the anointing that rested upon our Lord rests
upon us as we CONTINUE the ministry that He BEGAN.
We enter the enemy's terrain with full knowledge of who we
are, rejecting and resisting every deceitful tactic of satan that denigrates us
or that contradicts redemptive truth. That is the way we fight the good fight of faith.
The Mission Of Believers
When believers announce the Gospel message of Christ to
individuals or to multitudes, that is wrestling
against principalities, powers and rulers of the darkness of this world.
When the Gospel is believed, the strongholds
of satan are pulled down in people's lives. Captives are delivered from the power of darkness, and they are
translated into the kingdom of our God. Col.1:13
That is the mission of the Church corporately and that is the
mission of every Christian individually. Christ
gives us the victory 1Cor.15:57 because this IS the
victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. 1Jn.5:4 We win the
victory over the fraudulence and deception of satan in people's lives wherever
we can persuade 2Cor.4:11;
Gal.1:10 them to hear and to believe the Gospel.
This
book is written to help clarify what biblical Spiritual Warfare. Prayer and spiritual warfare are not the same. We must distinguish between
them.
Prayer is communion with the Father. Spiritual
Warfare is entering satan's turf with the Gospel, witnessing for Christ and
bringing souls into God's Kingdom.
Any mother knows the pain and struggle of birthing a
child into this world. Soul-winners understand the struggle waged in birthing
souls into the Kingdom of God. That is Spiritual-Warfare.
That struggle is not waged on one's knees. It is waged on one's feet -
in action out amidst the un-saved.
As long as Christians stay on their knees instead of on their feet,
witnessing among the lost, the enemy has prevailed.
ITAENDELEA.
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