What is Spiritual Warfare?
From a Christian perspective, this particular definition, which I got from battlefocused.org in an article about spiritual warfare. It says that spiritual warfare is the cosmic war of good versus evil. Its battles are fought daily between God and Satan, between the Christian Church and the world system ruled by our spiritual enemy. Within every child of God, between the Holy Spirit and the lust of the carnal flesh, the clear meanings of good and evil as defined by God rather than man are revealed within the verses of the Holy Bible and the life of Jesus Christ.
According to the book, The Adversary by Mark L. Bubeck, the book of Ephesians is the New Testament Handbook on spiritual warfare. The defeat of our enemy depends on the reliance upon the word of God, the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I have to be honest and admit that up until the past few years of my life, I was not very knowledgeable on the subject of spiritual warfare. Unfortunately, this topic is one that I feel is not covered well in most churches. I’ve been a Christian since the age of nine, and I have been very involved in the local church. Up until about three years ago, I had never heard the term.
To simplify the idea of spiritual warfare, we must think of life as a battle between two distinct areas: the spiritual realm and the world itself.
Unfortunately, there is a lot that takes place between the forces of good and evil that takes place in the spiritual realm, which we cannot see, and because we cannot see it, it makes it so much harder to understand.
This is why spiritual warfare should be founded and grounded upon the growing use of the word of God. The world is the enemy of all believers. It is a spiritual system of things that opposes God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Over the past 18 months or so, you would’ve had to be living under a rock not see the absolute unrest that our world is in.
If we study scripture, we will see just how much of this was predicted in scripture hundreds of years ago.
None of this is taking the Lord by surprise. However, as the term might suggest, spiritual warfare is a war. We are engaged in a war where we cannot see with our eyes the adversary. For some of us, it’s much easier to just close our eyes and pretend that our adversary, the devil, does not exist, rather than be fully aware of his presence and his war on our lives.
If we choose to ignore or not believe in the spiritual realm, we will find ourselves confused, frustrated, and quenching the peace that God has promised to each of us. The best defense is a strong offense. Just educating ourselves about the spiritual realm is half the fight. God gives us everything we need to be victorious in the other half.
