10 Essentials for Winning Spiritual Battles
By Doug Bierl
If you’ve followed Pastor Greg’s recent sermon series, you know that we live in the middle of a war between God’s Kingdom and the kingdom of darkness. The war is over our heart, whether we will turn towards God or away. Satan and his army will do everything in their power to keep us from drawing close to God and others. One of their key objectives is division.
As followers of Christ, we have all that we need to win the daily spiritual battles. Jesus has already won the war, but we must still fight spiritual battles until he comes again. We may not win every battle, but when we engage and use what we’ve been given, we will win more times than not. Over the years, I’ve learned 10 essentials for winning spiritual battles and will share some perspective on each one.
1. Put God First.
Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind.(Matthew 22:37) That means thinking about him first, making him our highest priority, andbringing him into everything we do.
2. Ingest God’s Word.
In Paul’s second letter to Timothy (3:16-17), he wrote that all Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking correcting, and training in righteousness. In Hebrews (4:12), it is written that the word of God is alive and active and judges the attitudes of the heart. Because of this, it is critical that we make the Bible as part of our daily nourishment.
3. Stay Close to Jesus.
In John 15:5, Jesus said that unless we remain in him, we can do nothing. Earlier, Jesus said that his “sheep” (those who believe in him) hear his voice. While that can happen at any time, if we aren’t close to him, we will have a more difficult time hearing his voice.
4. Know the Real Enemy.
According to Ephesians 6:12, our battles are against the spiritual forces of evil, not against each other (although the enemy often works through other people). This means that Satan and his army of fallen angels are behind most, if not all, struggles we have, either directly or indirectly, so we need to understand what they are capable of doing.
5. Live From Your True Identity.
If you have been born again, God chose you as one of his children. (John 1:12-13) You have been adopted into his family and can call him Father. (Romans 8:14-17) You are a member of God’s family, and the devil cannot take that away. (Romans 8:38-39)
6. Put On the Full Armor of God.
Through Ephesians, Paul tells us to put on the full armor of God so that we can stand against the schemes of the devil. (Ephesians 6:10-18). While this isn’t physical armor, it has power in the spiritual realm and is one of the few places where we have clear instructions about what to do to combat the enemy. We need to put it on daily!
7. Submit to God and Resist the Devil.
James (4:7) tells us that the enemy will flee when we submit to God (first) and resist the devil (second). Peter also writes about the importance of resisting the devil by standing firm in faith. (1 Peter 5:8-9) Submitting to God means putting him first in everything and turning to him first when we are confronted with any challenging situation (enemy attack).
8. Invoke the Authority of Jesus.
When Jesus sent his disciples out to preach the kingdom, heal the sick, and cast out demons, he gave them his authority to overcome the power of the devil. (Luke 10:19) We also have that authority, and when we invoke it, the enemy has to respond. (Romans 14:11)
9. Bind and Loose.
Twice in Matthew (16:18-19, 18:18), Jesus says that whatever we bind on earth is bound in heaven and whatever we loose (release) on earth is loosed in heaven. This is one of the “keys to the kingdom” as an effective weapon to win spiritual battles. You can bind or loose something good or evil.
10. Take Thoughts Captive.
In his second letter to the Corinthians (10:3-5), Paul tells us that a specific weapon against spiritual attacks is to take thoughts captive and make them obedient to Jesus. The spiritual war is over our hearts, but the battlefield is our mind, our thought life.
The above is just scratching the surface on some of the ways we effectively fight spiritual battles. There is so much more to unpack within each of these ten essentials, but because this is a blog, I will stop here. If you want to go deeper, I will be leading a workshop on Sunday, March 24 from 1:00 to 3:00 in the Fireside Room. Open to anyone. No registration required. We will discuss and share some practical applications for each of these. I hope you will come and engage in the conversation. It will bring you closer to winning the daily spiritual battles you face.