War of Spirit
“There are two spirits within the Earth, the Spirit of God, and the spirit of Satan, and those are at eternal enmity…. Satan will never cease to make war on the Man-child, and the soul in which dwells the Spirit of Christ will continue to be the target for his attacks.”
“The Warfare of the Spirit” by A.W. Tozer
An enemy indicates a fight, a battle, a war. It is so easy to be disillusioned, living in denial of the truth that we are in a spiritual war at the very same moment you are reading this. I share this not to monger you with fear and shame you for not knowing, but to point you in the direction of being equipped to fight a war you have no choice of being a part of. Our tendencies fall into either ignoring the reality of the spiritual war we are in or allowing our situation to overcome every thought, causing us to live in fear. Whether you wake up in the morning to your kids, your spouse, your school work, or to tend to your job, you are waking up to a spiritual battle, and our only choices are to fight, to succumb, or grow numb. You can fight back or you can succumb to evil, to sin. For the Christian, we know and believe that the false promises of our sin run dry and are never fully satisfying, alluding to the notion that standing idly on the sidelines of the fight between sin and holiness is not an option after all. Believing that sin is an offense against our holy God must propel us to action.
The schemes of the enemy aim to make sin look appealing or even better than what our God offers us, enticing us to choose sin that ultimately separates us from our Heavenly Father. Look around, friend. I’m sure you can think of someone in your personal sphere or within culture that is deeply deceived by the temporary satisfaction of the specific sins that grip them. The more we sin, the less we look like Jesus and the less we find ourselves obeying what God asks of us, which to the enemy of our souls is a win, but to our Father in Heaven is deeply upsetting.
Ephesians 6:12 says “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” The Apostle Paul couldn’t have made it any more clear. Spiritual war is our reality and we can see it taking the form of selfishness, greed, social climbing, idolatry, hatred of truth, being power hungry, and so much more. Desires that aren’t rooted in God’s word tend to feed the flesh, creating separation between us and our Heavenly Father. Our lives are a battlefield and our minds a warzone. If you took a second to reflect on the thoughts that have crossed your mind within the last 24 hours, it’s incredibly likely that you had an anxious worry that momentarily waivered your trust in God, or you believed a lie about yourself and what God has for you. Temptation is not sin, but a tactic of the enemy to entice you to choose sin. These things indicate a spiritual tug of war between the enemy of your soul and the King of Kings. Which will you believe? How will you fight for that belief?
Without God, we will fall victim to the schemes of the enemy. We cannot win this fight on our own and the only way we can reach victory is through partnering with Jesus and clothing ourselves in His armor.
