Spiritual Warfare
Spiritual Warfare is a subject that is often discussed when followers of Jesus are gathered together in public worship or conversations in homes and public places. Often the subject of Spiritual Warfare is muddled with and including Religious Warfare in the same conversation.
Is Spiritual Warfare real or is it just a Christian “fairy tale?” If the bible is true, and it is, then you must embrace that there is a spiritual battle that exists between God and Satan. This war was being waged before God placed man and woman in the garden.
Satan was created as a very important part of God’s domain,
“Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.” Ezekiel 28:13
Satan was a walking, one-angle, instrumental extravaganza. His important place in God’s garden was to be his downfall.
The bible makes clear that Satan sought to overthrow God in a coup that struck him down from the service and presence of God, not only him but also his host of angles. Satan was cast out of God’s court because of his pride,
“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”
How has humanity become involved in this battle between Satan and God? When God recreated earth to accommodate Adam and Eve and their descendants, Satan’s domain was reduced from a beautiful, powerful creature in God’s garden to, “the prince of the power of the air.” In the failure in the garden, God’s judgment against the serpent possessed by Satan gives us the image we still use today to define the nature of Satan’s character. God changed what was most likely one of the most intelligent and beautiful creatures in the garden into a creature that is despised and rejected by most of all humanity, “upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life." CJ Lovik’s work, Hebrew in 3d, reveals a great insight hidden in the word Satan. Lovik’s whiteboard presentation is well worth the few minutes it takes to view it. (Lovik's whiteboard prensentation titled Serpent, Pictures)
Satan, having failed in his attempted coup in God’s garden, now wages his war in the domain of mankind, earth. The Apostle Paul makes this observation of Satan’s war against God when he declares that Satan is now,
“the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:”
Having lost his attempted overthrow of God, Satan now has refocused his war on God’s creation. Spiritual Warfare on earth took a new twist when Jesus came as the Saviour that took away the power of Satan over the sin nature of humanity.
All who are born as offspring of Adam are born with a sin nature,
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”
This sinful condition is often referred to as “original sin,” this sinful condition was the result of Satan’s victory over Adam’s faithfulness to God.
Check back for Part II – Spiritual Warfare in the life of a believer and How is it engaged…
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