Tony Evans - Tony Evans Speaks Out On Spiritual Warfare

M OODY P UBLISHERS
CHICAGO

2000 by
A NTHONY T. E VANS

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R emember that old newsreel that shows President Franklin Roosevelt addressing Congress the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941?

Talking about a day that will live in infamy, the president declared that in reality, America was already at war. Roosevelt just needed a declaration of Congress to make it official.

I am not the president, but I have a declaration to make: You and I are at war! In fact, we are engaged right now in the mother of all battles. No war in history can compare with the battle you and I are fighting. It can be the cause of either your greatest joy as a Christian or your deepest pain.

The war I am talking about is the spiritual warfare that you became a part of the day you received Jesus Christ as your Savior. This war affects every area of your life. There is no way you can avoid the conflict. There is no bunker or foxhole you can crawl into that will shield you from the effects of this cosmic battle between the forces of God and the forces of Satan.

You may not even know youre at war. A lot of Christians dont. But other people can see the results of the battle in those peoples lives, because they have become casualties of spiritual warfare.

Some Christians are emotional casualties of spiritual warfare. They are discouraged, depressed, downtrodden, and defeated. Others are marital and family casualties. Divorce, conflict, and abuse are some of the battle scars these believers bear.

Still others have been wounded morally in the battle. They cannot control their passions, or they make poor moral choices. For some Christians, the wounds have been inflicted on their finances. They are losing the financial battle because they are losing the spiritual battle. Its not just a matter of how they use their credit cards.

Since we are all at war, and since there is so much at stake both here on earth and in eternity, wed better find out what spiritual warfare is all about and how to fight the battle successfully. Thats what I want to help you do in this book.

Let me begin by stating the obvious. The essence of our warfare is spiritual. Because of this, the degree to which we will be successful is the degree to which we are prepared to understand and fight this battle on a spiritual level.

Perhaps a definition will help at this point. Spiritual warfare is that conflict being waged in the invisible, spiritual realm that is being manifest in the visible, physical realm.

In other words, spiritual warfare is a battle between invisible, angelic forces that affects you and me. The cause of the war is something you and I cant see. But the effects are very visible in the kinds of problems I mentioned above, and in the day-to-day stuff you and I face all the time.

Its hard enough to fight an enemy you can see. Its much harder to fight someone you cant see. That is exactly the kind of enemy we face. Paul wrote, Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12).

This verse identifies the enemy: Satan and his demons. That means we are making a grand mistake if we think people are the real enemy. People can be bad, no doubt. But they are merely conduits for this greater battle. Satan has been very successful in getting us to fight people, rather than fighting that which is causing people to be the way they are.

Let me set down a foundational principle for spiritual warfare. Everything we see in the physical realm is either caused, influenced, or provoked by something in the spiritual realm. Your five senses are not the limit of reality.

Daniel 4:32 states that heaven rules over all the affairs of earth. So until we address the spiritual cause of a problem, we will never fix the physical effect of that problem.

Not only are our physical senses very limited, but they are often of little help in spiritual warfare. If we are going to wage successful spiritual battle, we need a sixth sensea keen awareness of the spiritual realm. In order to understand spiritual warfare, we have to address it through the lens of the spirit, with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Even though this battle is spiritual, it has very definite effects in the physical realm. You know youre in a battle when you get shot and start bleeding. We are seeing the bleeding, the impact, of spiritual warfare in at least four areas of life today.

Many believers are seeing the wounds of spiritual warfare in their personal lives. This doesnt mean these people are necessarily doing something really bad. It could be that they have a problem such as uncontrolled anger.

Our emotions can give the devil an entry into our lives. Paul explained the relationship between our emotions and spiritual warfare: Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity (Ephesians 4:2527).

Failing to control anger grants the devil an opportunity to get a foothold in your life. Then he can use it as a base of operation to launch more spiritual attacks against you.

Many Christians are suffering today because of anger that was not resolved yesterdayand anger is just one of a complex range of human emotions. If Satan can seize our emotions, he can destroy our ability to function by crippling us emotionally or leading us into all manner of destructive and addictive behavior.

Many believers are also feeling the effects of spiritual warfare in their families. The devil messed up the first family in the Garden of Eden, and we have been dealing with the effects of that sin ever since.

Heres a specific example of family relationships and spiritual warfare. Paul wrote to husbands and wives in 1 Corinthians 7:5, Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.