Spiritual Warfare - The Unseen Battle for our Soul

We are instructed in the Bible to be aware of Satan's schemes, his strategies. In order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. 2 Cor. 2:11 Yet how many of us bother to understand the enemy we face.  How effective would an army be if it went in to battle without making an effort to understand the enemy? Satan's primary strategy is weakening, or cracking  the foundation of  our lives . Although we sometimes give credit for Satan being creative, in reality, he is quite predictable. He will always come after our foundations if he feels we are a threat to him. If you find yourself growing in the Christian life then you will inevitably experience an attack from Satan or his demons against the foundations of your life, such as your family and loved ones, your church family relationships, and perhaps the most important, your relationship with God.  You can count on it! Satan has been attacking people's foundations for a long ti

Paul tells us in his letter to the Ephesian that Satan has an organization with a hierarchical command structure. He states that our real battle is not with the people caught up in sin and Satan’s schemes, but with Satan himself and his army. Notice how Satan’s army has rulers at the top, then authorities, followed by powers of darkness, and finally spiritual forces of evil: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Eph 6:12-13 Not every fallen angel (demon) in Satan’s army has the same position and power. Some are fairly weak demons that spend all of their time blinding the non Christians to the truth and harassing Christians, tempting us to detour from our calling. Others, however are much more powerful rulers over geographical regions, such as cities or even countries. Still others are authorities over specifi

Satan is a fallen angel, and his demons are fallen angels that chose to join him and rebel against God. Many make out Satan to be more than he is, to be equal to God, but the fact is he is no more than a fallen angel. We, as Christians, are sons of God, and the scripture tells us we will one day judge angels (1 Cor 6).   We are not inferior to angels, and certainly not to fallen ones, such as Satan. So, where does Satan get all of his power? After the fall of Adam, Satan gained control of the earth. You see this when Satan offers it back to Jesus when he tempted him during the start of his ministry while fasting in the wilderness. However, Jesus regained all authority over the earth with his death and resurrection. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Matt 28:18-19 Although Satan has power over those that have not accepted Jesus as Lord, for Christians he operates primarily through our ignorance of o

Many argue that because of Jesus ’ death and resurrection , Satan has been defeated, and we do not need to bother with him anymore. However, if this were the case, why does the apostle Paul tell us in his letter to the Ephesians that we are to expect a struggle with spiritual forces of evil? He then goes on to describe the spiritual armor we are to wear in this struggle, hardly necessary if we are not in conflict with forces of darkness:   stand fast with your loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate, and your feet shod in readiness for the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield, to quench all [the] flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6:14-17 If we are to ignore Satan, why does the Apostle Peter tell us that the devil is our enemy and is like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 3:8)? Then there’s