Fighting The Battle
The Bible makes it clear that humans in general and christians in particular are engaged in a cosmic battle between God and satan. This starts in Genesis chapter 3 and continues all the way through both the Old Testament and the New Testament to the book of Revelation.
It is no surprise that while this battle has engulfed every human being since Adam and Eve, in the end God wins the war and puts things to right. It is also no surprise that one of satan’s most successful tactics in the war is to persuade most of the combatants that the war is not really happening, with the result that most christians live as civilians in the middle of the battlefield.
In a recent video on the topic of spiritual warfare, John Alley describes an incident in which he was struck down by a mysterious illness at the beginning of a church service. He ended up in hospital suffering severe vertigo. As people prayed, he was healed enough to go home after a short stay.
In recounting this incident, John makes this statement, “Most of the things that come against us have a spiritual root.” He goes on to say that when things happen in our lives we need to spend time listening to the Holy Spirit to discern the cause or the source of the problem.
In Ephesians 6:12, Paul says, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
Much of what we might interpret as “bad luck”, “the pandemic”, the family curse or nasty neighbours, is in fact a spiritual attack that is directed against us.
Satan does not want you to thrive in your walk with God. He will do everything possible to undermine you and destroy your relationship with God and with other people. The challenge is to look beyond the surface events and to see the spiritual forces at work.
So when things happen, whether illness or family issues or emotional imbalances, the first thing we need to do is to seek the Lord. Be still and come into the presence of the Lord. Ask Him what the root cause is and listen to what He says.
One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 is the discernment of spirits. This is the ability to see and identify what particular evil spirits are at work in a situation. God knows what is going on and how the enemy is attacking you, and He can tell you what to do.
Having identified the exact cause of the problem, address that thing in the name of Jesus and command it to leave. You have the authority to do that in the name of Jesus. As a believer, you can command these evil spirits to go.
Then give thanks to God for His victory.
You may get some push back. You will get doubts in your mind, condemnation and ideas that you are not good enough or don’t have enough faith. Don’t listen to those voices. Keep pushing in, trusting God for the victory.
We were created for victory and have been given every necessary weapon to win the victory. We don’t need to be pushed around by the Devil. He is a defeated foe. Jesus won the victory for us when He died on the cross and rose again to life.
