What is Spiritual Warfare?Sýnishorn

What is spiritual warfare?

Spiritually speaking, there’s an unseen world that our human eyes can’t see. In this unseen world, there’s a battle taking place that was instigated by our spiritual enemy, Satan. He’s also referred to as the devil, the evil one, and the thief, among other names. 

Satan is the father of lies. Every plan of attack and activity from Satan begins with a lie. That’s his ammunition against the Christ follower. If he can get us to believe a lie, that’s the beginning of our deception. That’s why we must know, live, stand on, and share God’s truth. 

We must understand that Satan isn’t omnipresent. There are eight billion people in the world and our good, amazing, God is with each and every one of us. But, Satan isn’t. Yes, there are other evil spirits and forces at work, but he’s unable to be everywhere all the time. So, let’s not give him too much credit. 

If we choose to follow Christ, we’re engaged in spiritual warfare. Why? Because Satan hates that we’re followers of Christ so he’ll do whatever he can to trip us up. And while Satan has some power, he isn’t all-powerful like our great God. In fact, he’s on a short rope and actually has to ask permission from God to do anything. 

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:31-32 NIV

The fact that Satan has to request permission from God is both encouraging and hard to hear, isn’t it? If God is 100% sovereign, why does He allow Satan to cause problems? This is where our faith must engage. We’ll never grasp why God hasn’t sent Satan to his eternal home of torment, but Revelation 20:10 tells us that’s exactly what will happen to him one day. 

Our spiritual enemy would love nothing more if we focus on the imperfections of others and forget that he’s even there. It’s a huge part of his strategy to lead us to think that the person who offended us on the highway or the family member who treated us poorly is the enemy. They aren’t—he is. 

Just because our spiritual enemy is constantly looking for ways to ruin our lives doesn’t mean we have to live in defeat. The One who resides in us is far greater than the one who sets out to destroy us. We have some tools that we can use to protect ourselves so that we don’t fall into the traps he sets for us. Dive into the next four days of this Plan to find out what they are.