Spiritual Warfare

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Eph 6:12

What is spiritual warfare? How do we fight this warfare? Which weapons must we use? Questions, questions and more questions.

In order to understand how it originated we must take a look at the fall of Satan out of heaven. In this way we get a clearer picture of how spiritual warfare did in fact originate. Its origin lies in the rebellion of Satan against God. Scripture tells us that Satan was an anointed Cherub (Ezekiel 28:14. He was also covered in precious stones, and was a very beautiful cherub. Let’s take a look at what Ezekiel 28:11-15 tells us about him:

“Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so : thou wast upon the holy mountain of God ; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee .” (Ezek. 28:11-15).

Ezekiel not only speaks in this verse of the King of Tyrus but also of Satan. This Scripture actually teaches us quite a lot about Satan. First of all, he was perfect in wisdom and beauty. He was covered with all kinds of precious stones. His former habitation was heaven until he rebelled against God. Let’s see what Isaiah had to say about him:

“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer , son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.” Isaiah 14:12-15

As you can see this is plain rebellion. How did he exactly rebel against God? By trying to usurp God’s throne. He wanted to be just to be like God How did this come about? Through pride.Satan was very beautiful and pride set in. He thought he could do a better job than God and therefore he thought he could become God. He wanted to have the worship that God gets. When he was expelled from heaven his became Satan or Lucifer. Lucifer means ‘shining one’. With him, he took two thirds of the rebelling angels with him. Their new habitat became the pit of the earth, hell.

“Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.”(Isaiah 14:15). Let’s take a look at what Scripture has to say about this horrendous place. Jude tells us that hell is “the blackness of darkness for ever “(Jude 1:13b), “place of eternal fire.”(Jude 1:7) and of “ everlasting chains” (Jude 1:6). Jesus himself talked much about hell (Matt18:28; 25:41; Matt 25:46; etc).

Now that we have established who our enemy is, we can now understand whom we wrestle against. Satan and his evil minions! The battle is fought in the spiritual realm. Satan and his forces are well organized. These forces comprise powers, throne’s principalities. This conflict is not only fought between humans but also between races, countries, nations. The battle is an invisible battle, fought in the spiritual realm. In regard to us, humans, the battle is for our souls. Satan hates us because we are children of God. In fact, he hates everything that has to do with God. And he will do his ‘utmost’ best to get you from getting to heaven. Believe me! We can thus conclude that spiritual warfare is a battle fought between good and evil on the supernatural level. Even though we cannot see it with our physical eyes, we just need to take a look at the world around us to see that the battle is on and very much alive. Let's see what the Bible has to say about this warfare:

"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds." 2 Co 10:3-4

This battle requires weapons, in our case it is the armor of God. God tells us to put on His armour. Only in this way we can overcome the attack of the enemy. Let’s take a look at what the Bible tells us about this armour:

“Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints ;” Ephesians 6:13-18

Let’s take a good look at this armour. In Jesus’ time and shortly afterwards, the Roman Empire was in reign. It had vast territories under its rule. We can compare the armour of God with the armour of a Roman soldier. Let’s start and let’s take a look at what exactly is meant by girding the loins. The Roman soldiers, as part of their uniform, had a belt around their waist. This belt kept their garment together. This belt also contained their spare holder. Thus we see it was essential for their protection. The breastplate protected the chest area where the heart and the vital organs are. The feed were protected by shoes and this gave the soldiers the advantage of not having infections nor any foot diseases due to the absence of shoes. In this way they could march and attack without any problems for their feet were protected. (Shoes were very expensive in those times). The shield was a huge shield which protected almost the entire forefront of the soldier. This shield was a metal plate shield which allowed no arrows to pass through it. No arrows could easily catch up with the soldier, if he was protected by this shield. With this shield he could quench all the fiery darts of the enemy. But, the shield did not protect the head area. This is where the helmet came in. It protected the head. The head contains our vital sensitive organs as well as our brains. In our heads are our eyes which enable us to see and perceive the world, it contains our mouth which is essential for our daily food provision and the ears to hear. And finally, we have the sword which was of course their weapon to attack the enemy.

We can conclude from Ephesians that our armour is indeed the Word of God. Spoken aloud and in truth. We see, that the Word of God protects our very life. It is essential for our well-being. Just as the Roman soldier needed his soldier-outfit, so we need our own outfit to win our battle, the Word of God. The Word of God is our whole armour! Take a look at the Roman soldier outfit to see how powerful our weaponry is. This is why it is so important to spend time reading and studying your Bible. Daily! Only in this way, you can counterattack the devil. Only in this way you know your place, and you can be strong. A good soldier trains himself for the battle. We ought to do the same. We need to train ourselves for our ongoing battle. This battle will last all of our life. Once you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, you enter into a heavy battle with the forces of darkness. And this battle will not cease, not until you die anyway. This is why you need to have a certain knowledge of who your enemy is, and how he operates. You need to know his schemes in order to know how to successfully counter attack him. The only way you will know your enemy and your Savior (who overcame the enemy at the cross), is by reading your Bible. When you start reading your Bible, you will see that Satan will be cast into the Lake of fire (Rev.20). But till then, we still have to fight our good figt. Waste no more time and start to seriously study your Bible, prepare yourself for the attack. In Jesus, your Savior, you have the victory. But you need to know the Scriptures. You need to know how to use your arsenal.

"This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare." 1 Tim. 1:18

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