SPIRITUAL WARFARE 1

Spiritual Warfare
By Eddie Smith
 
Warfare implies a battle, doesn’t it? But what about the battle? Who are the combatants, and why are they at odds?
Some of us see the devil primarily as our enemy—ours personally.
 
To hear them, you’d think Satan himself is entirely immersed in plotting and planning strategies against them and their concerns. That’s hardly likely, however, because Satan has limited power, limited knowledge, and can be only one place at a time. As currently there are more than six and a half billion people on earth, I doubt he has any idea who or where I am.
 
You and I aren’t Satan’s primary enemies. We arrived on the scene a few thousand years too late. He was at war with our Father eons before we came along. And here we discover the only reason he even messes with us—he hates
our Heavenly Daddy!
 
This timeless cosmic conflict into which we were born is between God and Satan. We were born on a battlefield in the midst of war; one of the warring parties is our Father, which highlights the part we play in combat. Perhaps it would help to put this in context. Rebecca Greenwood writes
in Authority to Tread:
 
"The day John baptized Jesus in the Jordan River was
the day of an invasion so great that, by comparison, it could
make D-Day of World War II seem like a mere video game.
From that day on, Jesus and His disciples began preaching
the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
 
A 'kingdom' by definition, has a government headed up by a king. Jesus was the invading King. The kingdom He was invading also had a government, and its king was Satan.
For thousands of years after the time of Adam and Eve, the
human population of the whole world, with a few exceptions
such as the people of God in Israel, was under the evil
control of the prince of the power of the air. Practically
speaking Satan could do anything he wanted to the peoples
of the earth. And what he did was not good.
 
Things radically changed when God sent His Son.
 
From the time of Jesus until now, the war has been hot and
it is getting hotter. The Kingdom of God has been advancing
as it always has advanced—namely by force (see Matthew
11:12). Satan’s fury continues to swell because he knows his
time is shorter than it ever has been.'
 
We were born sinners, and, in time, given the freedom to choose, every one of us chose sin and proved our lost condition. We once were known as children of Satan (see 1 John 3:10; yikes, that hurts!). Knowing that God’s
purposes are all wrapped up with His desire for spiritual children, don’t you imagine Satan basked in the thought that he had gained custody of even one whom God had created to be His child?
 
Billions of people around the world suffer from satanic domination of their lives. Turn on the news anytime and it’s more murder, rape, abuse, abortion, and violence. We were miserably lost when God found us. Had He not, we might have been tonight’s featured tragedy on Headline News, and in the end we would have been cast into the hell God prepared for the devil and his angels (not for people; see Revelation 12:9).
 
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Only my oldest and closest friends know that one of my hobbies once was ventriloquism. As a young evangelist I had several ventriloquist figures and used them in skits to present the gospel to children and teens. Years later,
after I stopped traveling and became a pastor, I began carving figures again. I made them with eyebrows that would rise; eyes that would look left and right; a hand that would extend. I enjoyed creating and selling them.
 
Several more years later I was driving past a garage sale when from the corner of my eye I saw something familiar. One of my figures was for sale. I stopped quickly, jumped out, and ran to purchase it before someone else did. It
was such a prize for me. After all, I’d created it myself. Now it was twice mine—I made it, and I bought it!
 
This analogy resembles our relationship with the Father. Again, we were born sinners, and soon thereafter proved our condition by submitting to sin.
 
We were lost and for sale on Satan’s auction block. But Jesus paid the price for our redemption, bought us back with great joy, and took us home with Him!
 
Today God is carefully “carving us” into the likeness of His Son (see Romans 8:29). Impossible? No, because when God saved us, Christ came to live by His Spirit in us, and Christ in us is the very hope of glory. What an indescribably amazing plan!
 
The Lord has ransomed us from our slavery to sin. He has set up His kingdom in us so He can extend His kingdom through us (see Luke 17:21). As we share the saving gospel of Christ with others, He transforms life after life, nation after nation, ultimately to fill His heavenly house with children.
 
It’s the ultimate viral experience. He who had only one begotten Son now has billions of kids! The primary purpose for everything is to satisfy the Fatherheart of God.