We have reached the final battle field training and our Spiritual Soldier Series. We’ve spent a lot of time talking about spiritual warfare through this series. I hope these battlefield trainings have helped you prepare for the spiritual battles in your life.
After our summary on the do’s and don’ts of spiritual warfare we now finalize this series by putting together some takeaways. Let’s dive in!
- Be prepared to face the enemy.
If you are a Christian you will encounter spiritual warfare. The devil is not happy you are on Jesus’ side. He does not want you to follow Christ. Besides this, so many people have yet to find the love of Christ.
They walk with the enemy and in many cases have no idea about this spiritual battlefield. They don’t know how much he uses them. They don’t know how little he cares about them. They are just pawns in his schemes.
Since you know you will face spiritual battles of all kinds you must be prepared. Be prayed up and solid in God’s Word. Know enough about the enemy to know his schemes and the things he is planning against you and your loved ones.
Stay close to Jesus in a vibrant relationship with Him. And put on the full armor of God to withstand all the schemes and fiery darts of the enemy when they come. Throughout these battlefield trainings we have talked about preparation. It is the first thing you can do to see victory in your spiritual warfare battles.
- Stand behind Jesus’ power and blood.
The battlefield training on the power of Jesus’ blood can help you see why His blood is so important to the Christian, especially in spiritual warfare. You don’t have to fight the devil in your own strength.
Jesus has given you many weapons for spiritual warfare. He can tell you about them all He wants. But you must take the initiative to stand against the enemy with these weapons. Even better, Jesus is with you in every battle.
His presence goes before you and that is your most powerful ally. Demons flee from you when you are submitted to God and walking in His presence. They can’t even get close to you. But your power is not in what you can do.
Your power and authority lie in the power and blood of Jesus. You walk behind Him as He leads you into battle. Just like he will in the battle of Armageddon (Revelation 19:11-16) so the battle belongs to Him. He provides the victory just as he did on the Cross.
When you stand with Jesus there is no spiritual battle you cannot win. He is the most powerful being on the battlefield. You are on His side. And when you walk in Him you walk in victory. Don’t go anywhere without Jesus’ protection and power.
- Fight spiritual darkness and depression.
Not too many people talk about spiritual darkness and depression as far as Christians are concerned. Although saints in the Church are getting better about addressing darkness and depression we have not done well with it in the past.
Some Christians believe a Christian cannot experience darkness or depression. Such a thing means you are not really a Christian. But so many Christians throughout the ages have dealt with spiritual darkness and depression.
Make no mistake. When you are fighting spiritual warfare battles you will encounter darkness and depression. The darkness may not be in you, but it is all around you. And you need to know what to do about it.
Many Christians have also experienced depression on minor and major levels. In the past, many church leaders have been reticent to deal with depression in their own lives or in the lives of those they lead.
But this is a tool I believe is being placed in the hands of many church leaders when they realize how important it is to address depression. Depression is real and Christians can be affected by it. This doesn’t make them less faithful, less holy, or less of a believer.
Sometimes depression can be clinical. Sometimes depression can be the result of a chemical imbalance. And unless we find professionals outside the Church who can help us with these types of depression we will continue to not have answers.
A combination of all of these options should be available when we encounter depression. The local pastor is usually not equipped to handle every single thing that comes across the desk. This is why we need professional Christian counselors and psychologists to help us.
No one should feel ashamed or be shamed because they suffer with spiritual darkness and depression. The devil would like nothing more than to oppress the people of God. But we don’t have to stand for it. Rather than pushing people away we need to come alongside them and fight these battles with them.
Do not be afraid to find help within and outside of the Church for these things. Let the leadership know and hopefully they will be able to lead you to resources if they are not equipped to handle your questions and concerns. At the very least they can pray for you as you seek to win the battle against depression and spiritual darkness. Hopefully they will come alongside you.
- Put on the full armor of God.
I have already mentioned it but one of the best weapons we have in spiritual warfare is the armor of God. Check out the battlefield trainings on the armor of God for further details. And you must put on the full armor of God. Leave any peace off and you will be susceptible to the blows and attacks of the enemy.
I have gone through the armor of God piece by piece throughout this blog series. Paul used the armor of a Roman soldier to represent those characteristics and traits the Holy Spirit is cultivating in each of us.
So the armor of God is the character the Spirit works in us that prepares us to see the attacks of the enemy and thwart them. Each of them guards us internally and personally against any scheme of the devil that hopes to destroy us or undo us.
You need this armor and you need to practice these character traits of the Spirit. Only through being what God is working you to be can you win on the battlefield of spiritual warfare. You must know who you are if you will defeat the enemy in battle.
- Fight arguments and philosophies that oppose God.
I mentioned this in my last battlefield training. Jesus has given us all the spiritual weapons that are powerful for breaking the strongholds we find in our communities, universities, and everywhere else in this world (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).
Any philosophy, argument, or thought that opposes God can be broken, taken captive to Christ. We could do this for our own thoughts, thoughts of fear, anxiety, doubt, and anything else that goes against Jesus’ agenda in us.
But we also see clearly with the light of revelation from Jesus to deal with any of these arguments and thoughts coming at us from this evil world system. The devil has put in place a world system that opposes God and Christians.
But we need not be afraid of these arguments and philosophies against God and us. Jesus has given us these tools of the mind to see the lies and darkness the enemy uses against the people around us. He cannot full us and he cannot deceive us.
Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the mind of Christ on a daily basis. You will be able to see all of the lies and deceit the enemy throws against you. And you will have all of the weapons at your disposal to defeat these arguments by the mind of the Spirit inside you.
- Don’t fight your battles alone.
Lastly, the Christian Church is a faith community of like-minded believers who do not stand alone in this cold, dark world. Entering into the assembly of believers is like coming in to a nice warm and bright fire.
No Christian should ever feel completely alone in this world. Jesus left your brothers and sisters in Him here so that you would never be alone. Remember that Jesus will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).
But those Christians around you have the same Lord, the same Spirit, the same Word, and the same faith. We should have the same worldview, godly and eternal perspectives, and Christian values. No one should ever gossip about you, shun you, or let you out there on your own.
No soldier fights on the battlefield alone. They always have comrades in arms, fellow soldiers who have got their back. We do not fight spiritual battles alone. That’s how you get picked off by the snipers of the enemies.
Instead we stand together locked in arms, putting our shields of faith side-by-side in a shield wall the enemy will never be able to penetrate. We take the fight to the enemy, gaining ground for Christ and His Kingdom, and tearing down the gates of Hell
We have spent way too much time being on the defensive. It’s time to go on the offensive. So I end these battlefield trainings on spiritual warfare by calling all Christians to arm yourselves to the teeth and take the fight to the enemy.
We’ve let him dictate the terms of the battlefield for far too long. But we have the upper hand, the greater Lord, the most powerful King, and the enemies of this world are confined by limited power and authority.
It’s time to get up, dust yourself off, and get into this fight. Surely you can see it all around you now. But it’s not time to sit on the sidelines. The time for souls to come into God’s Kingdom is very short. Soon it will be too late when our Lord returns. So let us make Him proud by winning these battles.
Wrapping Up
You can see I get a little fired up when I talk about the battles we face as Christians. But for too long we have remained silent, allowed others to speak, and not stood for the Lord and what is right.
So let us use all of the tools and weapons afforded to us by Jesus and discussed in these spiritual battlefield trainings. Let us go forth armed and ready for action. Use every weapon at your disposal. And beat back the enemy of the souls of those who are still lost and in the dark.
Thanks for Reading
I appreciate everyone who reads my Divine Discourse blog and comments on Facebook or here. I’m glad to have people interested in the things I discuss here. Thank you for taking the time to read these little letters of ministry to you.
I truly am grateful that though I am paralyzed from the neck down the Lord has given me my voice to speak, preach, and teach. While I may not be able to be in full-time pastoral ministry at this moment, when the Lord heals me I will be able to serve Him in even greater ways.
All of these writings are the ministry He has given me in the interim. And I appreciate you being part of my online congregation, the audience that faithfully reads and interacts with this material. May the Lord be blessed as we serve Him to gather.
My next blog serious will be entitled, “Seek the Gifts” and we’ll talk about all things gifts of the Spirit. If you have thoughts or questions about any of the gifts or their operation please let me know in an email or on social media. I am preparing for that adventure next.
