This is a unfished and vary rough draft of the book i am writing to help my self and others learn to fight ageist the evil in the world today in spiritual combat.
Teaching is a huge responsibility
When I was first asked to speak before communion at church, I honestly didn’t really want to. It wasn’t the public speaking that I had a problem with; I just didn’t know what I was supposed to say and didn’t take it all too seriously. But in time, that changed drastically. Now, I spend a great deal of my time studying the Bible and thinking about what to say.
I have two lists of ideas to speak about. I write down things that inspire me for Bible readings and commentaries, church services and other places. In fact, this book started out as a list of ideas to teach my local church about what I have been learning about the spiritual battleground all around us.
I now take the responsibility to teach very seriously. I spend a lot of time preparing for it. I apologize to those who heard me in the past when I didn’t do what I was supposed to do in teaching. James says that I will be judged by God for that. I am trying to do the best that I can. Sometimes I will get stuff wrong, but I am listening to the guidance of the Holy Spirit the best I can and practicing to get better at that.
I don’t think I have everything figured out, and I’m by no means an expert or theologian. I am nothing more than a layman follower of Christ trying to do my part, using the talents the Father gave me and listening to the Holy Spirit. It is obvious to anyone who looks at the United States and the rest of the world that evil is growing. It has touched my life and some of those I love.
I don’t want anyone to have to go through what this kind of thing things can bring into their life. That is why I’m writing this. So you and I can learn to fight alongside God and glory in His eventual and total triumph.
David and Goliath
Most of the time when I talk about the David and Goliath story, I spend too much time talking about how scary Goliath is. I should be focusing on David. He showed up to check on his brothers for his dad. When he got there, he wondered why the army wasn’t dealing with the Philistines. He first asked his brothers, and they mocked and ridiculed him. When we deal with problems, a lot of people in the world do the same to us. It’s important to focus on the problem. David gave them a quick response and then moved on, continuing to find more information about the problem. In later chapters, I will tell you about some of the problems, but you will encounter things that are different from me and will have to do your own learning.
When David went to King Saul, he didn’t tell him the problem. The king already knew there was an army and a giant. David went to the king with a solution: he was going to kill Goliath and lead the defeat of the Philistine army. We need to stop waiting for “leaders” to solve the problem for us. They can’t. And they won’t. Political leaders don’t care enough to or even worse, sometimes they are on the side of the problem. We can’t wait for our preachers and church leaders to fix everything either because there aren’t enough of them. We need to get off our butts and start working on it like David did.
How was David able to be so confident even though he was so young and inexperienced with war? Well, he had experiences in other trials in his life. He relied on God to help him with little things. And when he had problems as a shepherd, like lions and bears stealing sheep, David did not wait for God to just fix everything for him. No, he asked God to help him kill the lion or the bear. He knew God would defeat Goliath and the Philistine army. He just had to be on God’s side.
When Jesus died on the cross, he defeated sin, death and the demons. He will eventually destroy them permanently. It is our job to side with Him and join the fight. In later chapters, I will help you learn how, but for now, try to rely on God to help us with all our problems so that we are more skilled in relying on Him.
King Saul gave David his armor, and he said something to the effect that he couldn’t use it because he didn’t trust it and couldn’t rely on it since he doesn’t know firsthand that it works. He said this because he hadn’t ever used it and had no experience with the armor. Contrary to that, he knew that God would help him if he did what God wanted of him because that is how David lived his life and he was accustomed to God’s divine protection. If we follow God’s will, we can find safety and comfort in Him.
David then went and faced off with his opponent. He did not shy away from what was hard. And after killing Goliath, he saw that there was still a problem with the rest of the Philistine army. He didn’t wait for any other person. He didn’t wait on the army of Israel. David charged headlong into what needed to be done. When he did, the rest of the army was so inspired that they rushed in to help. Much like we need to do what God is calling us to do and not wait but instead inspire others to join in.
Ester
If God is all-powerful, why did He wait for David to step up to defeat Goliath in the Philistine army? And why do we have to do the work now? The short answer is that He doesn’t need us to do anything; He lets us help Him and share in His glory. The book of Esther helps us understand that.
There are four people we need to know in the Book of Esther. First, there is Mordecai, a Jewish elder, and his niece Esther, the queen of the Persian Empire. Next is King Xerxes and his adviser Haman. Because Mordecai would not show Haman the respect he thought he deserved, Haman hated Mordecai.
Haman talked the king into issuing a decree to kill all the Jews because of his hatred for Mordecai. King Xerxes went along with this because he didn’t know that his beloved Queen was related to Mordecai or that she was a Jew. When Mordecai heard of this, he was greatly disturbed and went to his niece, Queen Esther.
She was scared to confront the king over this. What Mordecai then told her is something we should take to heart ourselves.
“Do not think that because you are in the king’s house, you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
Esther responded to Mordecai by asking him to gather all the people of God together to pray and fast. We should do the same. We should gather together to fast and pray. Then we should go and fight evil by helping to lead people to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10
Many of us, myself included, have a hard time knowing where to start. Fortunately, God gave us a great and convenient way to get started and practice: our own minds and lives. Quite a few unbelievers call Christians hypocrites. This accusation is wrong when leveled at people genuinely trying to follow Christ. Unfortunately, some of us call ourselves Christians but don’t really try.
No matter where you fall, you should start by following the Apostle Paul’s advice in 2 Corinthians:
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.”
I, by no means, am an expert at this or even good at it. I do spend time growing better at this. Just like athletes of all levels, from JV peewee teams to the pros, spend time working on the fundamentals, we should too. Those fundamentals for us are Bible reading, prayer, and apologetics.
How to get good at those things is out of the scope of this book, but I don’t want to leave you without help. To start praying more, put reminders in your life. Every time you get in the car, pray for protection; every time you eat, thank God, and if you hear sirens, pray for those that may be sick or need help. To read the Bible, set time aside to do it. Good times are first thing in the morning or right before bed, or maybe on your lunch break or when you get home from work instead of watching TV. Apologetics is something I’m not as good at, but there are conferences, classes, books, podcasts, and YouTube videos that can help. Greg Koukl’s radio show/podcast and books are an easy way to start.
LTR
Many people, myself included, will wonder why God chose us to be alive at a time where evil is growing. Frodo in “The Lord of the Rings” also questioned why he had to take on the responsibility of doing good in a time of despair. J.R.R. Tolkien gave us some great inspiring advice through his character Gandalf.
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
A Little about the problem
Before we delve any more deeply into what we must do to fight spiritual warfare, we must know who the enemy is. The enemy is the spirits of darkness, Satan, and his demands. Our fight needs to be from God’s side. God is not enemies with any person on earth. It doesn’t matter how much your neighbor mistreats you or what that guy says on Facebook. They are not the enemy. Their souls are the battlefield. We are supposed to be fighting to bring them to God. If we attack them, it will only drive them further into the hands of the enemy. That doesn’t mean we should accept the wrongs others do either. If someone is promoting that others follow the enemy, we must stand and say they are wrong but do it from a place of love, just as Jesus did.
In the ancient Middle East, people were doing a lot of evil to each other—things like human sacrifices, demon worship, and ritualized sex acts, among more. Many of those things we are doing now. Later, we will go into more detail on those things as we discuss the most worshiped pagan gods of the Bible and how they are influencing our society to this day.
President Obama was right when he said that the United States is not a Christian nation. We have three “foundings” of America. One was the Jamestown colony, founded on making money and using people, which was wrong and not our focus. The next was the Massachusetts Bay Colony, founded by the Pilgrims, who saw themselves as continuing the exodus in a lesser way.
When they arrived, some of the native tribes were doing many of the same things as the inhabitants of the ancient Middle East did. But not all of them were like that. The Pilgrims befriended and signed treaties with the good people and started to teach them the ways of God, much like the Hebrews did. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get along with the other tribes because of their demand for worshiping.
Over time, the evil was purged from the land. Not perfectly because humans are never perfect, and the taint of Jamestown lingered. Eventually, the country broke away from their oppressors, and the first thing the new government did was enter into a covenant with God, vowing to follow Him.
After freeing a man from a demon, He was challenged by the leaders of the day about what He did. He told them: “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.”
It is no different for us. Over the years, we as a people have been sitting on our butts and enjoying the good life provided by previous generations. We have not been preventing the demands from coming back with seven more, even worse.
The whole armor of God
We are all soldiers in God’s army, and our battlefield is not in flesh and blood but in the spiritual realm. I want to make it clear that I’m not calling for violence. Violence is the weapon of our enemy. Jesus didn’t call down legions of angels after his arrest. He didn’t strike them down with lightning. In fact, He told Peter to put away his sword and not fight people that way.
So, how are we supposed to fight this spiritual war? Well, every soldier in the U.S. has a different job. (Show a picture of an infantryman, a mechanic, and a cook.) Likewise, we are all given gifts to fight with. For some of us, our sword is to teach; for others, it’s to be a preacher. Some are gifted in singing, and still, others excel in visiting the sick. We MUST learn to use our gifts and wield them against the enemy as weapons. I can teach, but I lack the ability to offer compassionate counseling like a preacher. I can cook, but I don’t have the skills to prepare a meal for a whole church like that. I can sing, but Jane would be the only one that would like that because she can turn her hearing aids off.
Our goal in this spiritual war is not to inflict casualties. The church has a long history of that, unfortunately. Our mission is to follow our leaders like Paul, Jonah, and especially Jesus. They fought the evil one and false gods by leading people away from them and to God.
One thing all soldiers learn is who their enemies are, the tactics they use, and most importantly, how to overcome those tactics and triumph. I feel that God has been leading me, among other things, to help prepare you and myself for spiritual battle. I have been spending a lot of time learning and praying about this over the last few years, and now I feel it is time to start teaching more.
You think that Chris preaches a long series? His first year, he did only series almost every Sunday. I only get a chance to teach once every 6 weeks or so, and I may have written a short book. So buckle up; we are going to be on this journey with God for a long while.
But first, I want you to know that Jesus has already won for us. If we stick with Him, we cannot be defeated. Our job is to use our gifts to go out and save as many people from the enemy as we can. But it’s not us that does the saving; we just bring them to the One that does, like a field medic bringing a wounded soldier to a surgeon.
The whole armor of God
We are all soldiers in God’s army, and our battlefield is not in flesh and blood but in the spiritual realm. I want to make it clear that I’m not calling for violence. Violence is the weapon of our enemy. Jesus didn’t call down legions of angels after his arrest. He didn’t strike them down with lightning. In fact, He told Peter to put away his sword and not fight people that way.
So, how are we supposed to fight this spiritual war? Well, every soldier in the U.S. has a different job. (Show a picture of an infantryman, a mechanic, and a cook.) Likewise, we are all given gifts to fight with. For some of us, our sword is to teach; for others, it’s to be a preacher. Some are gifted in singing, and still, others excel in visiting the sick. We MUST learn to use our gifts and wield them against the enemy as weapons. I can teach, but I lack the ability to offer compassionate counseling like a preacher. I can cook, but I don’t have the skills to prepare a meal for a whole church like that. I can sing, but Jane would be the only one that would like that because she can turn her hearing aids off.
Our goal in this spiritual war is not to inflict casualties. The church has a long history of that, unfortunately. Our mission is to follow our leaders like Paul, Jonah, and especially Jesus. They fought the evil one and false gods by leading people away from them and to God.
One thing all soldiers learn is who their enemies are, the tactics they use, and most importantly, how to overcome those tactics and triumph. I feel that God has been leading me, among other things, to help prepare you and myself for spiritual battle. I have been spending a lot of time learning and praying about this over the last few years, and now I feel it is time to start teaching more.
You think that Chris preaches a long series? His first year, he did only series almost every Sunday. I only get a chance to teach once every 6 weeks or so, and I may have written a short book. So buckle up; we are going to be on this journey with God for a long while.
But first, I want you to know that Jesus has already won for us. If we stick with Him, we cannot be defeated. Our job is to use our gifts to go out and save as many people from the enemy as we can. But it’s not us that does the saving; we just bring them to the One that does, like a field medic bringing a wounded soldier to a surgeon.
The belt of truth
John 14
As we get ready for our spiritual battle, we must get dressed in the whole armor of God. The first piece of this is the belt of truth. Now, this is not a physical belt that Indiana Jones can go looking for or something like Wonder Woman’s lasso of truth. This is God’s truth that we wrap around ourselves and helps to hold the rest of the armor together.
What is God’s truth? It is that Jesus is the Son of God. He came to confront the darkness, defend against Satan and other demons, and conquer death. He achieved this not through violence or force but by submitting to the Father’s will. He offered himself as a sin sacrifice so that we can be washed clean of our sins with his blood. In order to stand against the enemy, we must understand and surround ourselves with the truth that Jesus is God. Through His death and resurrection, He has gained His victory. And through His victory, we can be victorious too.
We cannot defeat demons or death on our own. No one else can either. So, when we wrap ourselves with His truth and let it hold us together, we can share in His victory. But if we just hold the belt of truth and don’t let it be a part of our life, we will only know the truth and not be living by it.