The Battle Hidden in Plain Sight

What is the spiritual realm?

Listen now: The Battle Hidden in Plain Sight – Series 8, Ep 1

Today we begin our new series, Fighting Your Spiritual Battles, where we take a closer look at the spiritual forces that rage all around us. Because many of our problems are earthly, and visible, the unseen world can seem unimportant and irrelevant. Wars, conflicts, and elections dominate the headlines. It’s easy to focus on the things we can see and forget about the spiritual realm.

However, as the apostle Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6:12, “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.” There is an unseen, vertical, cosmic realm on top of our horizontal, person-to-person embodied life, and it’s important to understand how it affects our lives, relationships, and spiritual health.

The esteemed author and theologian C.S. Lewis gave us a helpful framework to use when contemplating these spiritual forces of evil: “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.” In other words, we can err in two ways: by giving spiritual forces too little focus, or by giving them too much.

Instead of getting into the details of biblical theology behind spiritual warfare, we want to speak from some of our assumptions about it as pastors and clinicians.  These assumptions are grounded in our understanding of the Bible and our experience of working with people in the trenches.

Assumption #1: We believe Satan does exist. There is an enemy in the spiritual realm, who, as Jesus says, “…seeks to steal, kill and destroy”.  We need to take evil seriously, but we don’t need to live in fear over it. That’s because of assumption #2…

Assumption #2: We believe that Satan is limited. Satan and his minions are not omniscient (they don’t know everything); are not omnipotent (they don’t have ultimate power); and they are not omnipresent (cannot be everywhere at all times).

With this background in place, we’re going to look more closely at three important points:

• What did Jesus believe about spiritual battles?

• What might this battle look like in your life?

• How can you and I fight this battle?

What Jesus Believed

1. Jesus believed this spiritual battle was real.  He fought this battle himself! In Matthew 4:1-11, he was led into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan after fasting for 40 days and 40 nights and taken to the highest pinnacle of the temple where Satan challenged him to throw himself down. Both times, Jesus resists temptation, using words of Scripture to silence Satan.

2. Jesus believed this spiritual battle caused problems for people. In Luke 8, Jesus tells the parable of the sower. A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. The seed is the word of God.  The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.

3. Jesus believed He was in control of this spiritual battle. Mark 5 tells the story of a man who is possessed by an unclean spirit. When Jesus arrives on the scene, this man - controlled by the unclean spirit - ran up to him, fell at his feet and said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” This spirit knows that The King with true power just arrived on the scene.

How It Plays Out

At its heart, evil’s intent is always to destroy and mar the glory of God, and the highest expression of God’s glory on earth is found in us because we are the only creatures created in God’s image. So evil will go after our hearts - our faith, our hope, and our ability to love.

We constantly hear our clients wrestling with whether or not God really loves them. Satan likes to prey on the gap between our heads and our hearts. He persistently seeks out our wounds, flaws, and weaknesses. He cannot make good people bad; rather, he can only make flawed people worse!

I (John) grew up without a father, so it is very easy for me to assume that God will not be present when I need Him. I am tempted to believe the lie that I am all alone. That gets woven deep into my heart and mind, and all the enemy must do is to aggravate it when it is strategic for him. The enemy roots his accusations and lies in our stories. If we know our stories well, we will be able to identify where the enemy is targeting his resources to take us down. 

Truth That Helps us Fight This Battle

Two truths can help us as we stand against Satan: The Already and The Not Yet

The Already

Jesus has already defeated the power of Satan. Colossians 2:15 says Jesus “disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection was the blow that secured the victory over Satan. Knowing this outcome can bring relief in the present. It doesn’t guarantee things will immediately get better. In fact they might get worse in the short term! And yet knowing that Jesus is victorious over these rulers and authorities and powers is the foundation we can have confidence in.

The Not Yet

Until Jesus returns, we are not yet free of the devil’s schemes. God has left us to fight spiritual battles until then. In Ephesians 6, Paul tells us to “take our stand” against the devil’s schemes. This is an enormous battle against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Paul goes on to tell us to put on the armor of God, including the sword of the spirit, the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation. Translation: we need everything God has provided in order to fight the enemy!

Start to think about the accusations that constantly resurface in your heart and mind. What are the lies that you believe about your story? Intentionally name how you have believed the enemy’s lies and accusations. Ask Jesus to stand between you and the evil that uses your brokenness against you. Return the influence of evil spirits to the cross for Jesus to pronounce judgment upon them. He has already dealt with them, and it is his blood that seals their doom.

Sometimes it may not be clear why God allows his children to be tempted, tried, and accused. But we believe that God has left us to fight this battle as a training ground. He is inviting us to become spiritually intelligent and strong because he is training us to discern good from evil. We know that in this world we will have trouble, but as Jesus said in John 16:33, “Take heart! I have overcome the world.”