Every serious believer would like to know how to win spiritual battles. This being an important point of concern; we cannot however adequately deal with it before addressing the following. First, life is spiritual, and every believer must seek to know how the spiritual world works.
It’s unfortunate that many people claiming to be believers (born again) don’t know or have never understood that though they are in a physical body, their struggle or battles they face in life has nothing or very little to do with the physical.
Personally, I was brought up in a church background where spiritual battles were the order of the day, yet people handled or dealt with them just physically. I can recall several times there were physical confrontations between pastors and elders or between the leadership and the congregations. Each time spiritual battles were handled physically the situation grew even worse.
If you want to emerge victorious in spiritual warfare, you must correctly answer the following questions: –
- What is Spiritual Battle?
Let’s begin with answering the first question, i.e defining spiritual battle(s). As the name suggests, this is a spiritual confrontation with the camp of our adversary. In Ephesians 6:12-13, we learn that our fighting or struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, authorities and principalities of this dark world and against spiritual forces
You must understand these struggles Paul is talking about in this passage may many times manifest in the physical and this is where many Christians lose the battles when by trying to handle them in a carnal way.
Spiritual battles may manifest themselves in form of incurable sickness and diseases, poverty, evil family patterns, relationship breakages, abnormalities, famines, uncommon failures, accidents, calamities, untold disasters, etc. When you see such issues occurring in your life, family, church, neighborhood, or nation, never take things for granted.
2. Who is a Man?
In Psalm 8:4, this question is clearly asked, “what is a mankind that you are mindful of?” In other words, who is a man that God is so mindful of? Man was created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26). What is the image of God? In John 4:24, Jesus described God as Spirit and His worshippers must worship Him in truth and spirit.
In Ephesians 1:4, God chose us before the beginning of the world to be holy and blameless. God knew Jeremiah even before he was formed in his mother’s womb. These two verses show us that man’s existence does not start during conception but long before the foundations of the world were set up. Man, therefore, exists in the spiritual state before his birth to the world and after death.
So, anyone who wants to understand life more clearly is the one who realizes that man is a spiritual being living in a physical body. If man is a spirit, then he must be acquainted on how to interact with other spiritual beings. This calls for divine wisdom and knowledge.
3. Who is your Enemy?
One of the major problems in the church today is to have believers battling with their fellow men. The devil smiles when he sees Christians fighting the wrong battles. Knowing how to win spiritual battles involves understanding who exactly your enemy is and how to win the battle. For us, believers, our enemy is not our fellow brothers and sisters, relatives our haters, rather or enemy is Satan, who is called the ancient serpent, Revelation 12:7-11.
Having read the above passenger together with Ephesians 6:12-13, Satan in conjunction with the other evil forces ie fallen angels, demons, authorities, principalities, and all forces of the dark kingdom are our enemies and always advance against our progress.
A good example we can find in the scriptures is the story of Job (Job 1). The bible tells us that Job was wealthy, righteous, and lived a blameless life before God. Job was living a good life until there was a dialogue between God and Satan over him and everything immediately turned against him.
Even though Job didn’t fall in the trap of sinning against God, yet he ended up living a miserable life. In the same way, most people end up in grumpliing against God is such a situation. So, this story shows that Satan is truly our accuser before God.
4. What Battles Should You Fight?
A Christian is not supposed to fight all battles in life. Maturity is that ability to classify the battles to fight or not. As a matter of fact, the battle belongs to the Lord not to us (2Chronicles 20:15).
Believers are not entitled to fight any physical battles or fight their fellow brethren in the Lord. If anyone wrongs you in your family or church, before you start a physical battle, you must always remember that Satan is behind the scenes. Don’t fight your brother, fight the enemy.
When we were small kids, the big boys would push us against each other then we would fight each other thinking that my opponent is my enemy. At our age, we could not understand that the big boys were the problem. What the enemy does is to push brethren and causes them to knock their heads against each other then disappears from the scene leaving them to fight each other with no apparent reason.
Any believer fighting the fellow believer in any way is absolutely missing the mark. Believers must always bear in mind that they have have only one common enemy, the devil. Whenever Satan pushes you to fight physical battles, always push the battle back to the spiritual realms.
5. What Weapons Must You Use?
After you realize who your enemy is, the next step is to understand what weapons to use. You cannot win Satan physically rather spiritually using the spiritual weapons provided in the word of God.
2Corinthians 10:3-6, Paul said that though we live in the world we do not use the weapons the world uses rather the weapons we use have divine power to demolish arguments and silence arguments and every pretention that raises itself against the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul both in 2Corinthians 10 and Ephesians 6, uses military language whereby he talks about what a solder must use. Paul describes the full armor of God in Ephesians 6:13-18.
First, is to stand firm with the belt of truth buckled around the waist, Secondly, breastplate or righteousness (Ephesians 6:14). Thirdly, feet to be fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace (verse 15); Fourthly, shield of faith (verse 16); fifthly, helmet of salvation; sixth, the sword of the spirit, the Word of God (verse 17) and finally, prayer – praying in the Spirit for all the saints (Verse 18).
These are our spiritual weapons ready for your disposal. You are not supposed to watch things or situations helplessly, you are supposed to use the weapons and bring victory home.
6. Why Must You Get Involved with Spiritual Warfare?
The world is not a playground, it’s a battlefield between Satan and the children of God. When God created mankind and placed him in the garden of Eden, Satan immediately jeopardized the relationship between God and man by bringing about sinfulness.
Satan rightfully took away the dominion that was given to mankind in creation. In Genesis 3, when man sinned against God, man did not repent instead he blamed the wife over his mistakes. The wife in the same way blamed the serpent for the sinfulness.
Satan however took the blame; he didn’t shift any blame to anyone because this was a way of possessing the man’s dominion. After this, Satan became the god of this world (2Corinthians 4:4). Jesus however came and died on the cross to hand over the dominion back to man.
If anyone is in Christ, he is an enemy to the devil and whether he likes or not, Satan is in the mission of making that a believer does not enter Paradise (heaven). Remember Satan was here before fall and he knows how good the place is. Every believer must be ready to defend their faith.
Conclusion
As I conclude this post about how to win spiritual battles, I’d like to say that every believer must understand the implication of spiritual battles. The devil was in heaven and was thrown out of heaven due to pride and he uses the same to make sure that men do not enter heaven.
Always remember that you have a responsibility to know which battles to fight and when. Also, you must learn to understand which weapons to use in winning spiritual battles. Always remember that it doesn’t matter how good you become to the devil. So long as you believe in the Lord Jesus you are a target of the enemy.
Are you ready to fight and win that spiritual battle you are encountering?
Reognize the enemy’s goals.
1Pet.5.8 – Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring [in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour.
Remember Satan attacks us personally through our mind and thoughts.
2Cor.10.3 – For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and using mere human weapons.
2Cor.10.4 – For the weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood], but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds, —
2Cor.10.5 – [Inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One), —
Thanks so much Margret for those scriptures you have posted.