Spiritual warfare

The Battle Within

The human soul is constantly struggling to choose between the prompting of the Holy Spirit and the inciting of our fleshly desires for the world.  Through the renewing of our mind, we become equipped to distinguish the “false beliefs” of this world from the “absolute truths” of God.

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Romans 7:15 NIV).

As we learn to submit our mind to God, our soul progressively becomes patterned to submit itself as well.  Through faithfulness over time, we will become more in tune with the ways of God, and much less aligned with the lies of the world.  The scales will begin to tip.

Spiritual warfareWhat’s at Stake?

To understand the battle within our hearts, we must first acknowledge that we are in a war of sorts.  Battles are merely smaller components of a bigger picture.  By definition, battles involve combat between two persons or factions, and they consist of any type of extended contest or struggle.  As Christians, we are in a spiritual struggle of some sort on a daily basis.  Our spiritual battles are real, even though we cannot physically see the attacker.

It is important to educate ourselves on the nature of spiritual battles, even if we can’t fully comprehend the reason for the fight, and often overlook its impact on our daily lives.  War is very controversial in today’s physical world, so it is common for our beliefs and convictions about war to spill over into the spiritual realm, where there is a battle going on regardless of our opinion on the subject.  We are either victors or victims in our spiritual battles!  Jesus has come and conquered.  The war is already won in the heavens.  But we must choose for ourselves how we will respond to that reality.

Jesus told us in Matthew 28:18 (NIV) that, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.”  This verse is not only about our being saved from the penalty of sin.  It is also very much about us experiencing everyday victory over our struggles, which adds up to victorious living in Christ here on this earth.

The Battle Is Partly Spiritual…

Many of us do not want to put much thought into a world we cannot see, when the world we do see is hard enough to deal with in itself.  If we choose to ignore or not believe in the spiritual realm – let alone the spiritual nature of our inner battles – we will find ourselves not only confused and frustrated but will be extinguishing the peace that God has promised each of us, as well.  Enlightening ourselves about the spiritual realm is half the fight.  God has provided us everything else we need in order to come out on top.

“For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12 NLT).

As Christians, we believe Jesus accomplished these things in the spiritual realm when He lived in the physical realm on earth.  We believe this with the eyes of our heart, instead of with the eyes of our physical bodies.  By believing in Jesus, we believe that He died to conquer the works of the devil so that we might be set free.  There would have been no need for Jesus to come to die for us if life was limited to just the physical world.

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