Nothing that happens in the life of a child of GOD is ever random or innocent. Everything is always spiritual. Always. We chose a life of being in Christ, being in service to GOD, and living in service to the Kingdom of GOD. This conscious decision is informed by a knowing that our one and only salvation in this life is in the LORD and that we are of GOD [1 John 5:19]. By choosing a new birth in the LORD, we make a declaration of another soul that the kingdom of darkness has lost to GOD, and this angers the devil to no end. It should not come as a surprise for us to find ourselves in the thick of war, because from the very minute that we become born-again of GOD, we are enlisted in the army of the Kingdom of GOD, we become soldiers of Christ Jesus fighting for all that is good, righteous and holy. And we ‘therefore must endure hardships as a good first-class soldier of Jesus Christ, the One who enlisted us as soldiers’ [2 Timothy 2:3-4 NKJV/AMPC].
Some of the tell-tale signs that you are in a spiritual tug-of-war of some sorts, are when you can tick off one or more things from the following checklist, like— (i) When you see good people leaving a good church for no good reason; (ii) When you see a good church not grow as it should and/or when you see a good church shrink; (iii) When you see churchless or unchurched people (believers and unbelievers alike) visit a good church, they enjoy the experience, but they never return for no apparent reason; (iv) When you see unreasonable, unexplainable, unfortunate events befall a good person (i.e. when bad things happen to good believers, a good home, a good business or a good career, it is always spiritual); (v) When you see people in a good church not progress as they should in any aspect of their lives (this is always spiritual); (vi) When you see constant delays in the Word of GOD/breakthrough coming to pass in a person’s life; (vii) When you see a sick person being prayed for but they are not healed; (viii) When a good person is paid less than the job that they do or what they are worth. The list is goes on.
At any given time, satan and his army of demons, principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this age, and spiritual hosts of wickedness are orchestrating one or more of the events listed in the checklist. At any given moment there are spiritual beings that are fighting, resisting and opposing prophesies, opposing—(i) the Word that is spoken so that you do not hear it or do not take it seriously; and (ii) the progress, promotion and elevation of believers. This is the kind of opposition and resistance that Nehemiah was met with when he set out to rebuild the city walls of Jerusalem, during the time after Israel was returned from Babylonian captivity when Jerusalem was being rebuilt. Nehemiah was a man of prayer [Nehemiah 1:4-11, 2:4b], the hand of GOD was on him [Nehemiah 2:8b, 18], and he was doing the will of GOD [Nehemiah 2:12]. Nehemiah’s desire to see GOD honoured and glorified, spurred him on to rebuild the city walls for the ultimate protection of the LORD’s Temple which was being reconstructed, despite all the opposition, accusations, intimidation and threats that were targeted at him.
Scripture tells us, that Nehemiah was able to discern that he was being opposed, accused, intimidated and threatened, because the enemy wanted him to be so frustrated and discouraged that he stops the building works on the city walls [Nehemiah 6:9 NLT]. Nehemiah was able to discern that he needed to push on and continue in the face of all the attacks coming at him. More often than not, when opposition and resistance happen to us, we get discouraged and frustrated, we begin to turn on each other, we fight among ourselves as strife sets in, thinking that it is a personal attack when it is not. The feelings of discouragement and frustration are meant to drive us to stop coming to church, to stop praying, to stop reading the Word. In addition to discouragement and frustration, the devil uses offence as a third weapon to destabilise and weaken the spirit man in us, to disrupt our relationships with other believers, and ultimately weaken our relationship with the Church. Most believers do not even realise that whatever offence they feel is not personal but that it is spiritual.
Discouragement, frustration, and offence are the three go-to weapons of mass distraction and destruction that satan employs to uproot you from a church where GOD has planted you. Satan displaces a believer from a good Church which has the presence of GOD, a church where GOD has placed a believer, so that he can—(i) separate you, (ii) neutralise you, and (iii) destroy you. Once satan has isolated you and neutralised the kind of impact that you can have when you are in the right church, it becomes easier for him to destroy you out there where you are not under the spiritual covering of the Church. Satan does not have a problem with those churches where Christ is not there or where Christ is compromised. His demons shepherd people into those churches. Satan always manipulates situations inside and outside of the Church to distract us, making us turn a blind eye to the real enemy in our midst. Our fight is not against any person walking this earth on two feet, but it is against the devilish invisible enemy who instigates strife between us and other people [Ephesians 6:12].
Going forward—Be spiritually conscious of your situations; Develop the Nehemiah-like sense of discernment whenever situations arise; And seek the face of GOD, allow the LORD to reveal to you what the real cause behind the strife and skirmishes is. The devil is everywhere, there is no demilitarised zone anywhere in the world. This fallen archangel and his legion of demons are everywhere, wreaking havoc. And GOD allows and permits the spiritual attacks to come upon believers to teach us— (i) spiritual discernment, watchfulness and alertness; (ii) the ways of our enemy and how to master, defeat, conquer and overcome him (the same way that familiar spirits are assigned to study you, your each and every move, your ways and your desires, resulting in such high success rates when the devil attacks believers); (iii) how to war in the spirit; (iv) how to walk in victory (spiritual victory is not attained through spiritual ignorance). Believers cannot walk in spiritual victory through ignorance. We need knowledge, revelation, and understanding of GOD, through the Word, to emerge victorious from spiritual warfare.
The Word, as written in Ephesians 6:10-13, tells us exactly how we ought to enter the battlefield (with the strength, mighty power and full armour which the LORD supplies), exactly who the enemy that we fight against is, and how to win against the enemy. We have a spiritual war on our hands that we should never ever be complacent about. It is a battle in Spiritual Warfare against satan and his army of fallen archangels, rulers, powers, forces of darkness and spiritual forces of wickedness in the supernatural realm. With all the intel gathered by satan and his legion of demons and familiar spirits, satan has a thoroughly mapped out detailed plan of attack over each and every believer, child of GOD, pastor, church leader and person serving in the Kingdom of GOD. Not a single one of us can afford to be found passively standing idle or a sitting duck when the spiritual attack comes around to you—You must be on your feet, armed to teeth, standing your ground and ready to fight when the day of attack comes. The fray of the battlefield is a fight for your life.
Satan’s army is formidable and dangerous. It is well organised, and every demon knows exactly what its mandate is. All the beings that serve in the kingdom of satan observe, follow, and observe the authority of its hierarchy of wickedness; And none of them operate in isolation, rogue or in random formations. Christians, on the other hand, are a law unto themselves. There are just one too many Christians that are rogue, and this is why so many believers keep falling on the battlefield. Satan knew he could never overrun the world as a rogue unit of one, and he made sure that he exited GOD’s Kingdom with a complete complement of archangels who were in agreement with his class of wickedness against GOD. Yet we fail to appreciate that our strength is in our communion with other saints in the Church, that our victory will come when we are disciplined and orderly, fully submitted and obedient to the authority of the generals in Christ’s army (the Holy Spirit authority and power).
The two main rules of battle are easy to remember—(i) Never ever confront the devil as an individual, you will never win; We must wage war as a unit, a cohesive well-organised disciplined orderly military unit, that understands its foe. (ii) Use the armour and ammunition supplied by GOD for the battle and in the battle; The armour and ammunition to take into battle with you are truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, the Holy Spirit, and prayer [Ephesians 6:14-18]; These are spiritual armour and spiritual ammunition for Spiritual Warfare because this is the kind of battle where no worldly weapon will be of any good to you. These rules are seemingly easy enough to remember but there are two massive stumbling blocks that believers encounter. Firstly, satan attacks the mind and convinces believers that they do not need to be in the body of Christ to withstand spiritual attacks. Secondly, the full armour of GOD cannot and will not be available to you when you do not focus your mind on GOD, the Word and the things of GOD.
Where and how you focus your mind will ultimately determine how battle ready you are. Satan knows that if he can influence your mind (your thoughts), he can affect your actions [Proverbs 23:7a TPT; Romans 8:5-6]. And it is for this reason that satan will throw everything and the kitchen sink at you to shift your focus away from GOD, the Word, and the righteousness of GOD. He distracts you first and ultimately destroys you. The spiritual attack will thus always be on the mind first—Because he who controls the mind controls the person; And he who controls the person controls the life (of that person); And he who controls the life, controls the destiny (and all the other lives that one person’s life impacts). The battlefield between good (life, righteousness) and evil (death, sin) is in the Spirit, and in this battle between good and evil, the biggest tug-of-war is for your mind. We are up against an army of spiritual soldiers who are relentless. These kingdom of darkness soldiers are always attacking, marching forward, dedicated, disciplined, very orderly and in formation. They never tire, flinch or capitulate.
Honestly speaking, some of us enter the fray half-heartedly and ignorant, lacking knowledge, understanding, discipline, order and respect for authority. We need to regroup as Christians and ask ourselves—Do we understand what it means to serve in Christ’s army? What the ranks and rightful order of authority are in this army we are enlisted in? A soldier is different from a civilian. Discipline and order are what set soldiers apart from civilians. Soldiers live a life of order and discipline according to a strict code of conduct. They observe, respect and follow protocol, authority and seniority in the rankings. And in the same way, in Spiritual Warfare, we cannot capitulate or back paddle from obeying instruction and the code of conduct (the commandments in the Word), from being disciplined (we must read the bible, show up for prayer, and show up for church when we are supposed to, without fail). Lawlessness and slacking weaken a believer, leaving you vulnerable to spiritual attack. We have the victory, it is ours through Christ but only when we are disciplined and orderly in Spiritual Warfare.
Honestly speaking, some of us enter the fray half-heartedly and ignorant, lacking knowledge, understanding, discipline, order and respect for authority. We fail to appreciate that our strength is in our communion with other saints in the Church, that our victory will come when we are disciplined and orderly, fully submitted and obedient to the authority of the generals in Christ’s army, the Holy Spirit authority and power.
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