The Reality of Spiritual Warfare:
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God's Army of Angels versus Satan's Evil Demons Distorted by artists and ignored by the church, these unseen warriors are REAL!
God's creation is truly amazing! We may be familiar with life on planet earth, but the dimensions of His unseen habitations reach far beyond our human comprehension. That heavenly dimension -- including God's unseen armies of mighty supernatural beings -- is mentioned throughout the Bible, but few of us seem to take it seriously. Usually hidden from our earthly eyes stand two kinds of warriors: God's faithful angels and Satan's malicious demons. God uses His loyal angels to guide, fight, protect and watch over His people. He uses Satan's demonic hordes to enforce His justice, punish the wicked, and train us in spiritual warfare. While He calls us to follow Him, share His Word and spread His love, He also prepares us to face spiritual battles that involve evil forces as well as the good. "When I cry out to You, then my enemies will turn back; this I know, because God is for me.... In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid." (Psalm 56:9-11) Prayer and Preparation One evening in the spring of 1973, I received a phone call from a distraught young woman. Karen, the stranger on the other end, had immersed her heart and soul in a satanic cult: a dark spiritual reality that was virtually unknown to most Christian churches. I knew nothing about the terrifying occult bondage that had enveloped her. But I invited her to come to my home later that week. Then I started to pray. A few weeks earlier, with God's guidance and my husband's blessing, I had joined the new "Compassion Corps" at our evangelical church. My first assignment was to counsel a young woman with a three-month old baby. Karen [not her real name] had called the church for help and had indicated she was a Christian. She said suffered from fear, anger and depression as well as mental and spiritual confusion. The church office gave her my name and phone number. When she called, I felt utterly inadequate to help her. But through my weakness God showed me His strength! Using my Bible and concordance, I began my study on angels and demons -- confident that Satan's malicious trickery was no obstacle to God's power and protection. Keep in mind... Satan's lures have brought sickness, death, fear and confusion from the beginning of time. That spiritual darkness seemed to diminish during America's first centuries, but the tide has turned! Today's children face an unthinkable flood of corrupt entertainment. Mind-changing movies, occult computer games, seductive books, and mesmerizing music are fast banishing the good and welcoming evil! Our history books as well as God's Word have traced the ups and downs of this movement. When people dismiss God, cultures around the world embrace the occult with its mesmerizing mysticism. Through the years, that darkness has lured the imagination of families, tribes and nations along a deadly path. Today's explorations into that enticing darkness have entrapped addicted captives around the world. Those who live by evil are likely to spread that evil, and today's merchants of darkness have found an incredible source of destructive wealth. And they have little or no tolerance for those who follow Jesus. "It came to pass in those days
that Jesus came
from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And
immediately, coming up
from the water, He saw the
heavens parting and the Spirit
descending upon Him like a dove.
Then
a voice came from heaven, 'You are My beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased.'
Fighting the Forces of
Evil A few days after her
initial phone call, Karen and I were sitting in our kitchen and praying,
asking our heavenly Counselor for guidance.
He led us for the next seven hours as Karen shared her traumatic personal history, read
Scriptures, extended forgiveness to all who had hurt and abused her, confessed her own
sins as God brought them to mind, and then praised the God who had begun to heal her.
Though she had not yet mentioned her occult connection, she left
full of joy, God had indeed touched her, and her heart was singing. The joy didn't last long. That evening
she called me in a state of panic. Her home was in chaos. The baby was
screaming, her husband was threatening suicide and she was terrified.
God then prompted me to ask if she
had been involved in any occult activities in the past. "Yes," she answered.
She was aware of the evil behind that dark seductive power that had
been tormenting her. I knew little about demonic oppression
and spiritual bondage, but again God prompted me to ask some questions. First, had
she kept any of the objects and symbols that still linked her to the cult? We
asked our Shepherd to help her remember, and she began to list all the objects and clothes in her
house that had been used in ritual worship. We prayed that He would guide both Karen and
her husband as they sought to do their part in cleansing their home of all
occult connections.
When Karen called back the next
day, she had completed her search and discarded all relics from her years of
bondage. We thanked God, but my concern had deepened.
Ephesians 4:27 and other Scriptures suggested that she might face more battles before she would walk freely in
God's
victory. Remembering Mark 9:29, I suggested we fast for
three days. Andy, my wise husband,
suggested I call our church for help. So I did. The only available pastor was supportive
but could offer no advice. He prayed that God would lead me, and we both trusted that He
would. Meanwhile I continued in prayer, study and fasting. "His
disciples asked Him privately, 'Why could we not cast it out?' So He said to them, 'This kind can come out by nothing but
prayer and fasting.” Mark 9:28-29
Some hours later, the phone rang. A woman I barely
remembered meeting at a Christmas gathering introduced herself. She told me that God had
prompted her to call
me with some advice. She had found my name and phone number on an old
Christmas list.
A bit skeptical at first, I listened, praying that God would guard me against deception. "Open your Bible to the blank pages in the
back and write down these instructions," she said. "You need to know how to lead
someone through deliverance."
How did she know about Karen? Neither
Andy nor I had told anyone other than our associate pastor. When I told her about my
need, she shared my awe at God's amazing ways. Following
her instructions, I wrote three
pages of notes. Then we prayed together, and she added an interesting comment. "If
you are fasting," she said, "drink juice as well as water. You will need it." Wow. That was good news.
Half a day after starting the fast, I had felt waves of nausea. God knew something I didn't at that
moment: I was pregnant with our third son and desperately needed something more than water in my stomach. Three days later, on a
Thursday, God led us through the steps He had given me through the woman.
This time, Karen left my kitchen with the certain knowledge that God was her
Savior, King, Lord and Shepherd. "Having
disarmed principalities and powers, He [the risen Jesus] made a
public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it."
Colossians 2:15 A week later But Karen's battle was still not over.
That Sunday night, Dr. Dick Hillis, then the General Director of Overseas Crusades
International (OCI) -- spoke at our church. By God's amazing
plan and timing, he described the demonic oppression, possession and deliverance he had
witnessed on the mission field from 1933 to 1961 in Asia. Then he
stressed this warning: "When an
unclean spirit goes
out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I
will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it swept and put
in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself,
and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first."
Luke 11:24-26 I took God's words to heart.
Karen had already memorized some key Scriptures in preparation for spiritual warfare. But we needed to discuss
the
Armor of God and make sure we were
both covered by His protective life. The next three days went well,
but on the fourth night she called again. Her frightened voice exposed the intensity of
her battle. She began to describe the demons that were pressing into "the door" of
her mind, and what she "saw" seemed strangely familiar. As she
described her scary, hideous
tormentors, they seemed to resemble some of the weird creatures we now see -- and children
idolize -- in today's mind-changing entertainment. I thought I
should go to her home and pray with
her during the night if she needed me, but Andy told me to stay home. Covered by his prayers, I
put some bedding by the phone and prayed with Karen against the forces of evil
much of
the night. By God's grace and power, Karen
"won" the initial battle. Through the next few months, she learned how to resist
her demonic oppressors
through prayer and Scriptures. Her personal combat with evil finally ended! Hungry for His Word and presence, she grew fast
in Christ and became strong
in faith and spirit -- ready to fight the spiritual battles we all face in
these challenging times. Christ had set her free, and within two years, she was teaching Bible studies and encouraging
other women in their faith.[4]
"....be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the
whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, against powers, against
the rulers of the darkness of this age, against
spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. "...thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ!" 2 Corinthians 2:14 God's Army of Faithful Angels (Will probably be deleted) Once in a while, God pulls back
the curtain and allows us a glimpse into unseen heavenly realms and the mighty
forces of our Lord. In 2 Kings 6:11-17, we see the Syrian king planning an
attack on "the king of Israel." But the king's wise servant knew enough about
Israel's prophet Elisha and his supernatural gifts to be concerned. "Elisha tells the king of
Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom,” he warned the Syrian ruler.
"...when
the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was [the Syrian]
army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to
him, 'Alas, my master! What shall we do?” So [Elisha] answered, “Do not
fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
"When I cry out to You, Then my enemies will turn back; This I know, because God is for me. In God (I will praise His word), In the Lord (I will praise His word), In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" (Ps 56:9-11)
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