Often when people think about spiritual warfare, they think of those times when demonic forces rise up in a direct, external attack upon us, either personally or through other people. Whilst certainly we all face these times in our lives, and we need to understand our authority in Christ to deal with them, they definitely not the most common means by which the devil comes against us. By far his most constant and consistent attack comes not from anything external, but internally, through our own thoughts and feelings.
Every time the devil can persuade us to think that sin in any of its multitude of forms is ok; every time he can nudge us to live out of our negative emotions rather than standing in Christ’s power; every time he can divert us to focus on the problems in our lives rather than on the Lord, he has won a small victory.
Much of the time, we don’t even think of these things as warfare. We see the source as being within ourselves – we are just down, or stressed, or overwhelmed – and therefore we don’t put up a fight. That, of course, is exactly what the devil wants.
Even when we do recognise the warfare element, the question arises, how do we fight against something that seems to come from within us? Is it just a matter of discipline: grab ourselves very firmly by the bootstraps and pull ourselves up? Should we start on a prolonged course of counselling to find the root causes of our problems and deal with them? Perhaps we should start on the “antidepressant merry-go-round.”
Self-discipline, counselling and medication all have their place, but they are not enough to bring us through a spiritual attack in victory. We need to fight spiritual battles with spiritual weapons: and one of the greatest of those weapons is the Word of God.
The problem, of course, is that those times when we are tempted, down, or overwhelmed are not the best times to try to start using the Word of God. If it is not our normal habit to turn to the Word, we will probably not even think of turning to it in the difficult times. Even if we do think to open our Bibles, if we are not familiar with the Word we will not know where to go in the Word for what we need. It’s a very simple equation: you can’t take out what you haven’t put in.
David wrote, “I have hidden Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” (Ps 119:11Ps 119:11
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11 I have hidden your word in my heart,
That I might not sin against you.
WP-Bible plugin) When He was preparing them for His death, Jesus told His disciples, “The Holy Spirit … will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.” (Jn 14:26Jn 14:26
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26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you.
WP-Bible plugin) Whilst the Holy Spirit is perfectly capable of moving sovereignly to give someone a revelation of things he had never known before, most of the time He chooses to give revelation through the Word that we already have in us. No Word means no revelation, and no revelation means no power.
It is not enough to turn to the Word in times of crisis. We need to be storing it up, hiding it in our hearts as David did. That comes from regular times of reading and meditation, not just on our favourite “blessing” verses, but through the whole of the Word. Over the years I have tried many Bible reading plans, but I always come back to the simplest plan of all: start at the beginning, read to the end, then start at the beginning again. (Actually, I now do a slight variation on this simple plan: I begin simultaneously on the Old and New Testaments, and read twice as much of the Old as of the New. It’s a good way to balance Law and Grace.) It’s important, too, that we don’t just read the word, but spend time thinking about it, chewing it over, finding its relevance for our own lives and situations. That’s what the Bible calls meditation.
As we regularly take the Word into our hearts and minds, it begins to become part of us, and once it is part of us we can count on it being there when we need it. When sin starts to look attractive, the Word will pop up and remind us of God’s opinion about the things we are considering. When we are down or overwhelmed, the Word will be there to remind us that, even if we don’t feel it, we are on the victory side in Christ.
This blog is © copyright Lynn Fowler.
There is one God, the God who manifested Himself in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and one mediator between God and people, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:51 Timothy 2:5
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5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
WP-Bible plugin)in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9Colossians 2:9
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9 For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily,
WP-Bible plugin)and Whom God the Father has exalted to the highest place, giving Him the Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11Philippians 2:9-11
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9 Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name;
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
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