Spiritual Warfare

[Jenni Biegler]

There are so many perspectives when it comes to Spiritual Warfare and the continuum of belief that says it doesn't exist, to the belief that there's a demon behind anything and everything that goes wrong.

 

If you were discipling someone, what do you consider to be the essentials that a new or young believer needs to know about Spiritual Warfare?  How would you teach a new believer to identify Spiritual Warfare?  What pitfalls would you warn them of?

 

Do you think that it's important to have a prayer covering when you are encountering spiritual warfare?

[Lars Widerberg]

There is a fundamental difference between what some call spiritual warfare and proper prayer warfare.
A minimal, to the point, definition: Spiritual warfare – standing, yelling at powers of the air. Prayer warfare – kneeling before a Holy God in company with mature saints.

The warfare is indeed real – the powers are to be engaged and overcome. It is done by Christians in unity, matured by the Cross of Christ. This testimony will cause the powers to tremble and to back off from their positions and strongholds.

The yelling and commanding is a game, a show, mostly generated by immature men and women – bringing no spiritual fruit.

We do not send our children to war – we protect them from its procedures and pain, if it is possible. We cannot send new-born Christians to war – they will be harshly handled by the powers.
Lars Widerberg

[Jenni Biegler]

Good point about not sending children into battle, but do we not have a responsibility to teach them about warfare so that they know how to respond to it when we are not around?

[Lars Widerberg]

The beginner’s war is one against his or her own curiosity and superstitious behaviour. The person who looks for the excitement that a war situation might bring, must go through some personal exercises before being ready for battling outer enemies.

We find a law in operation in the fleshly nature which might be labeled “the Law of the Attraction of the Bizarre”. It operates through enticement, seduction and persuasion. It works to attract an unstable mind to that which is odd and secretive. It is a force which produces both fear and thrill – it settles in a mind which is prone to conspiring, a mind which is open to lies and lying. It binds the mind to the operations of the enemy. Such a person must learn to renounce any and every contact with items and issues belonging to the realm of the enemy. A person who sits under this law cannot engage in Prayer Warfare.

Ours is the duty to teach repentance – a thorough turning away as well as a thorough and ongoing turning to, a turning away from the realm of evil, even the beautiful side of evil, an ongoing turning to God in demonstrated submission and obedience.
Ours is the duty to teach baptism – a thorough severing of the person from that which must be left behind as belonging to the old man and to a life lived without God. A true baptism is a functional weapon in the war of deliverance of a man to stand before God.
Ours is the duty to teach regarding the ministry of the Cross over a life fully given to the Lord. The teaching process itself is war indeed.
Lars W.