Spiritual Warfare Part 2, from Sunday Dec. 2nd

There are at least four areas of life in which we war in the spirit whether we realize it or not.

1. Your Personal Life
Many believers are suffering with the wounds of spiritual warfare in their personal lives. This doesn’t mean that they are committing what we might call really bad sin. It could be that they have a problem such as uncontrolled anger.

When we allow our emotions to be controlled by our human nature, we can give the devil a foot hold into our lives. Failing to control anger grants the devil an opportunity to get a foothold in your life. Then he can use it as a base of operations to launch more spiritual attacks against you.

Many Christians are suffering today because of anger that was not resolved yesterday. Anger is just one of an assortment of human emotions. If Satan can seize your emotions, he can destroy your ability to function by crippling you emotionally. This can lead you into all manner of destructive and addictive behavior.

2. Your Family Life
Many believers are also feeling the effects of spiritual warfare in their families. The devil messed up the first family in the Garden of Eden, and we have been dealing with the effects of Adam’s and Eve’s sin ever since.

Let me give you an example of family relationships and spiritual warfare. This is one that is not discussed in great detail, especially in church. It is a very personal issue between husbands and wives.

Paul wrote to husbands and wives in 1 Corinthians 7:5, “Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time that you may devote yourself to prayer, and come together again lest Satan tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”

Often times, sexual intimacy is an emotional experience for the woman, and physical for man. Conflict happens when intimacy is inconsistent in a marriage.

Paul is saying that when a husband and wife don’t have a fulfilling sexual relationship, it becomes an opportunity for the devil to come in and bring about moral destruction in the family. This is one reason why men especially, turn to pornography for fulfillment.

I am not saying that women aren’t affected as well, because they are. So, husbands and wives, do you want a better relationship with your spouse? If so, don’t use I have a headache for an excuse, and make time together a priority. You will be amazed at the positive ripple effect that consistent times of intimacy will have in your family life.

3. Church Life
Spiritual warfare also has an impact on church life. Paul told Timothy to watch out for “doctrines of demons” that will infiltrate the church (1 Tim. 4:1). The church is being undermined in many places today by teachers who claim to teach the Bible, but are teaching doctrines of devils.

Anyone can quote the Bible. However, we need to be like the Berean's, who checked out what Paul and Silas were teaching them to see whether their teachings agreed with Scriptures (Acts. 17:11)

4. Our Culture
Spiritual warfare affects the life of a nation and the culture in which we live. When we allow people who have a twisted sense of right and wrong, who have no moral foundation, who do what is right in their own eyes, to occupy positions that direct this nation, we will suffer as a nation.

According to passages like Daniel 10, entire nations are influenced by the invisible battle in the angelic realm. Satan is called “the prince of the power of the air” with good reason (Eph. 2:2)

There is no place we can go to escape the effect of spiritual warfare. We need to learn how to fight. Our ability to deal with the spiritual realm will determine whether we win or lose in the physical realm.

Satan’s job is to get us to ignore the spiritual realm or give it low value. If he can divert us from the spiritual realm, he can divert us from finding spiritual solutions.

• ”For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.”
  

What does Paul mean when he says we do not wage war as the world does?

The answer to that question is in Ephesians 6:12 which says, “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.”

Paul is making in quite clear that our warfare is with the devil and his hierarchy of demonic influences. Warfare is simply that battle between truth and lies.