Unveiling The Lies About Spiritual Warfare

Spiritual warfare is always a fascinating subject to many of my fellow brethren these days. Yet my heart grieves a little because I believe it’s one of the most misunderstood and wrongly taught of them all. I have sat and listened to a lot of sermons about this subject, but to my disappointment, I don’t remember any of them being close to the Biblical definition of Spiritual warfare. What is commonly taught is that one who does spiritual warfare is that believer who wakes up every midnight, “the time when the dark forces are operating” and engages in a loud and yelling prayer session; calling every demon by name, while binding and rebuking the devil of suffering and limitation. As well-meaning as many are who do this, my question is, is this what see – for example in Ephesians 6 – being prescribed as the way to engage the demonic principalities that attack us? Here is a glimpse of that passage.

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people - Ephesians 6:13-18

The point of all this, according to Paul, is that God’s people may stand in the day of evil. That day of evil, as you might know, is this wicked age that is doing all it can to exhaust God’s people into silent submission. I am one of those who observe a lot of things happening in the name of Christianity today, and all I can say is that things are very bad. Hence this is certainly the right time to stand our ground and put on that full amour of Spiritual weapons. I envision the good apostle somewhere in a Roman prison, beholding before him a Roman soldier, fully dressed and ready for combat. This became the picture of a Christian, ready for war against the wicked forces. This is what he saw;

Truth as a belt

Of all the weapons of our war against the underworld, nothing is as ignored and looked down upon as truth. The truth of the Gospel as opposed to worldly intelligence. The truth of who God is, the Holy One, as compared to the false gods of the nations which are nothing but idols. The truth of what Christ has done on the cross for us, as opposed to the weak self-efforts of trying to please God. The truth of the Word of God; Scripture, in comparison with false visions, dreams and the so-called “new revelations” that have promoted false doctrines, especially on this African soil. The truth of credible and sincere Christian lives, which accompanies all children of the light; with no hypocrisy, falsehood and hidden motives. This truth, beloved, must be the belt that ties our faith together into a firm, unshakable position. Make sure, therefore, that you love truth; fasten it so hard until you can’t breathe. That is the beginning of this spiritual war.

Righteousness as a breastplate

Still picturing that Roman centurion, we come to the breastplate, which was critical in protecting his vital chest organs – another illustration of a fighting Christian. If you remember (or maybe you don’t know), that believers already have that perfect righteousness that was freely given to them the moment they believed in Christ’s finished work on their behalf. It’s called imputed righteousness; just as Abraham believed God and was credited or imputed with righteousness. Regardless, once made righteousness through Jesus, we go on to live changed lives, lives that are pleasing to our Saviour. This is called walking in holiness, or better yet; righteous conduct. This practical righteousness is what is pictured as a protective breastplate. In fact, it connects very well with the previous weapon of truth. Those who love and cling to the truth will experience that truth and change the way they behave in their walk of faith. This is another effective weapon against the wicked one that many ignore in their supposed battle against dark forces. You see friend, it is totally vain to rebuke and bind Satan at night, while your life and behaviour is shameful during the day.

Salvation as a helmet

What’s more important than the brain? Nothing. Therefore, no one can survive in this spiritual walk without that important helmet. Again, is it not surprising that those who talk much about spiritual warfare, do not at all talk about salvation as part of God’s armor? Dear ones; without being saved, without being born again, you are not just vulnerable to the attacks but you are already inside the enemy’s camp fighting for them. It doesn’t matter how many times you deny yourself food in the name of fasting for spiritual strength. You must be saved! Those who are saved are way ahead in their battle against evil, because they have that eternal hope, that Jesus, their good Shepherd is for them, therefore, who can snatch them out of His hand or separate them from His love? 

Feet prepared with the Gospel

I challenge you one last time to read all those spiritual warfare books (as many as they are), and tell me if they ever talk about the proclamation of the Gospel as a weapon against the wicked forces. They don’t. It proves that many have no clue about real spiritual warfare.

Engaging in a war also requires attack. It means if we are to win this battle, we have to prepare our feet, that is, we have to be ready to go out and preach to the outside world that message which is called the Gospel of peace because mankind is already at war with God through wicked works. They are still waiting for a believer to come and inform them about the Good News that through Jesus, they can have peace with God.

Faith as a shield

We are called believers because we believe, we have faith that God has displayed His love towards us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8). It’s confidence and assurance that no matter what happens, Christ is for us, who then can be against us? Therefore, to put on the shield of faith is to constantly hold on to your belief, hope and confidence in your Saviour; a good defense against the flaming darts of the wicked one.

The Word as a sword

The final piece is the sword. A powerful believer is not the one who spends the whole week on a mountain, but he who loves his Bible; to hear it being preached, to study it individually, collectively and even at home as a family. Have you noticed that a great mass of those who call themselves believers have long lost that hunger for the Word; that daily discipline of studying it? Then we know the reason why we have this wimpy Christianity today that is so easily influenced by the world. If you ever stand a chance of standing against this evil world, friend, you need to be a lover of your Bible. It’s that simple.

Conclusion

The demonic world is real, dear brethren, yet my advice is that let us be careful who we listen to with regard to this subject. There are many so-called ministers who do not care about correctly diving the word of truth, instead, they take pleasure in making up silly doctrines that confuse people. What is outlined above is real spiritual warfare. If you put on these, together with a regular prayer life, you are already ahead in your fight against the dark forces. Grace and peace to you all.

Sinothi Ncube