Spiritual Warfare (Part 5 of 6)

Continued from Part 4 of 6
As long as we stay with the Word of God, we can prosecute intelligent spiritual warfare as opposed to many ignorant varieties we find out there among Christians. And it’s simple. You learned it in Sunday School when you were a child.

The Bible teaches that God has an arsenal (Jer 50:25). There are a number of gifts the Lord has given us which the enemy cannot counterfeit. Among them are thanksgiving and praise (Psa 100:4), confession (1 Jn 1:8-9; Neh 1:6-7), repentance (Dan 9:3; Mk 1:15), forgiveness (Jn 20:23; Lk 23:34), and blessing (Deut 28:3-6; Rom 12:14).

Thanksgiving and praise of the Lord announce in the spiritual realm the Lord’s victory and the enemy’s defeat.

Confession removes the only power the enemy can garner, the power of the secret of sin and defilement. Confession brings sin out into the open, giving us the ability to deal with it.

Repentance announces the turning away from the enemy’s power source in the battlefield of the mind.

Forgiveness removes the offense of sin and iniquity, whether my own forgiveness or ultimately that of our Lord Jesus Christ who removed for us the power of sin through His sacrifice on the cross.

Blessing is also a spiritual technology that the enemy cannot replicate. Demons know curses, but blessings are forever beyond their technological level. Christ and His believers are uniquely gifted in the universe with the privilege of blessing others, blessing ourselves, blessing our churches, our families, our governments, our land, blessing unreached nations with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

These strategies cut the enemy’s supply lines of defilement through sin and weaken and destroy wicked strongholds in the mind (2 Cor 10:5). This kind of spiritual warfare provides intelligent warfare, the ability to annihilate the enemy’s objectives without unwisely offering open pitched battle directly with the devil.

Even ancient pagans knew this principle. The ancient Chinese war strategist Sun Tzu wrote: "Achieving victory in every battle is not absolute perfection: Neutralizing an adversary=s forces without battle is absolute perfection. . . . Therefore the skillful leader subdues the enemy's troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field. With his forces intact . . ., without losing a man, his triumph will be complete. This is the method of attacking by stratagem." [1]

Continued in Part 6 of 6

[1] Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Book 3, "Offensive Strategy."