God has been dealing with me for some time now about spiritual warfare. I’ve been the willing recipient of a great deal of revelation of recent weeks on the subject. Now, since I have a forum through which I can express what God has put on my spirit, I intend to author a series on the topic. It will be broken up into a series of daily devotionals.
Although the Word of God is never without effect on those who will open their ears to hear, the power and benefit comes more easily to those who are willing to press in and participate. Take the scripture and revelation provides here and stash it away in your heart. Then, when God expounds upon the subject through his spirit in your life, log on and leave a comment telling us what you’ve learned. So, here goes:
Ephesians 6:12 “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
Notice the verse says “For our struggle….” That’s the entire point that I wish to make today. If you can walk away from this devotional with a basic understanding of the fact that you are, at this very moment, engaged in warfare with the spiritual forces of Evil in the heavenly realms, then we will have an excellent start.
The moment that you accepted Jesus into your life, the enemy went to work on leading you astray from the awesome and perfect destiny that God has for you. The enemy knows that if he can get you to do something, anything, except focus on Jesus that he has the potential to limit your effect upon the Earth while you are here.
It’s a sobering thought. What are we to do?
The bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 2:11 that we are to learn about the tactics of the enemy “In order that Satan might not outwit us, for we are not unaware of his schemes.”
You see, most of what we classify as “demonic attack” is really just our own ignorance of the enemy tactics allowing us to fall into his wiles. Think about it. If you go to the grocery store and leave your car running with the doors unlocked, what will happen? Your car will get stolen. Was it some diabolical plot to foil your grocery trip? No. It was a crime of opportunity.
Because you are fully aware of car thieves and how they operate, you would never leave your car running with the windows unlocked. To do so would be irresponsible. That’s the point that God would have us arrive at in the spiritual warfare in which we are engaged. We are aware of the schemes and tactics of the enemy, and therefore we take the most basic precautions to ensure that we aren’t giving him the opportunity to cause easy strife in our lives.
Be cautious. The verse in 2 Corinthians says that “we are not unaware of his schemes.” Please understand that being “not unaware” is a much different thing than being overly concerned. God is only interested in having our focus totally and completely on him. To become overly focused upon the wiles of the enemy is not only dangerous, it can lead you into spiritual isolation to the point that you actually invite attack on your life.
As a protective services special agent in the military, I went to high-speed evasive driving school. Lesson number one at that school was “The car will go wherever your focus lies, so keep your eyes on the road.” Baseball players are taught a similar principle: Keep your eyes on the ball. The principle has spiritual application as well. If you want to end up in the right camp at the end of the fight, you had better learn to keep your eyes upon Jesus.
Pray this prayer with me:
God, we accept the fact that we are engaged in spiritual warfare with the spiritual forces of evil. We pledge to become aware of the tactics of the enemy as your word has instructed us. We will keep our eyes upon Jesus, knowing that we have no cause for concern and that the battle is the Lords. Amen!
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