Spiritual Warfare

"There is something in human nature that just doesn't want to face the reality that we live in two worlds. We live in the physical, material world where we have jobs, read books, and go about our business. And we live in a spiritual world - and that is a world at war." ~ John Eldredge

I am a huge Ted Dekker fan. He is an amazing writer with a wide variety of books, however all of them have a common theme. God's love for us and the battle of good and evil in our world. I just happened to pick up a book yesterday that I purchased quite awhile ago but have not yet gotten to. It is called "Adam". As I read the opening pages I realized this book is about spiritual warfare. The quote above and one other I'll list below are at the beginning of the book and at the end they have an dialogue between Ted Dekker and John Eldredge about Spiritual Warfare that is very interesting. I started to read it and then realized it probably has some spoilers for the book, so I'll go back to it later.

But in the meantime a couple things struck me. It sounds like this book goes really deep into spiritual warfare, to the point of demon possession possibly. However, Ted wrote this book to make a point. He says many of his readers are in their mid twenties or younger and don't know much at all about Satan. Christians now days don't want to face the reality of a real personal evil that works in this world. Many believe evil is a just a general force in the world, not real and personal.

This is not to say that we can blame everything on Satan because the reality of it is, we are sin ridden creatures. We cause enough damage on our own. But to live your life in ignorance of the spiritual battle that rages around you is no better than believing everything you do bad is because the devil made you do it.

One thing to be very aware of is that the armor of God we've been talking about is what protects us as Believers. We can't fight these forces in our own power, we MUST have the protection of God. However, keep in mind that those in our lives who are not Believers, do not have this protection. They are wide open for the enemy to attack and many times use to try to trip us up.

The writers of the New Testatment many times warned the churches of not only the sin and evil in their own flesh, but of the spiritual evil that dwelt amoung them that they needed to be aware of and ready to fight. To them it was a given that the Believers of that time were in a spiritual battle. We've lost this awareness in our time for the most part.

There's a thief, and he comes to steal, and kill, and destroy. But I have come that you may have life and have it to the full. - John 10:10

Be on your alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion waiting for someone to devour. Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that your brothers around the world are undergoing the same thing. - 1 Peter 5:8-9

One last quote from Ted Dekker regarding the book Adam:

"This whole novel boils down to these two truths. First, evil is real. Satan and the demons are aggressively arrayed against all Christians, all the children of God, all those who were formed in the image of God. And second, the only way to defeat all the forms of darkness in your own life is through the light of Jesus Christ." ~ Ted Dekker