©2003 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

02/15/04

The True Nature Of Spiritual Warfare

2/15/04 Life’s Greatest Surprises Pt. 3

The True Nature Of Spiritual Warfare

We are going to return this morning

to a series I have been calling “Life’s Greatest Surprises”.

I realized recently

that there are a number of things about my Christian life

that I see so differently now

than I did during the early years of my Christian life.

I recently jotted down a list

of those things that have turned out to be my greatest surprises,

and we’ve take a few weeks break from our study of Ephesians

so that I can share some of them with you.

I have decided to do this in part because I thought you’d find it interesting,

but far more because I hope that some of my surprises during the past 35 years

may help you to avoid some of the wrong turns

and dead ends I have run into along the way.

I have shared with you in the past

that remarkable statement made by John in his first Epistle

where, speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ, John says,

1JO 3:2 ... We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.

In that one amazing statement

John reveals to us

a crucial key to all true forward movement in our walk with Christ.

He tells us that one of the greatest barriers we face right now

to truly being conformed to the image of Christ

is the degree to which our perception of our Lord

is twisted and distorted from the truth.

John tells us that, when Christ appears,

for the first time we will finally see Him exactly as He is,

and our spirits will be freed to respond perfectly to what we see.

All the lies currently imbedded in our memories, our emotions, and our reasoning processes

will instantly become evident,

freeing us from their power in a way that brings us into conformity to Him.

So many of the battles we continue to fight with our God and with ourselves now

are the direct result of our blindness to who He really is

and how He operates in our lives.

And this list of mine that I am calling my greatest surprises

could just as well be called, “My greatest blind spots”,

or perhaps, “Lies I Have Believed”.

All of these are, in some ways,

places where I have seen my God incorrectly,

and because of that,

have found it harder to respond correctly to Him as my God.

It is my hope

that some of my blind spots

will help you to avoid the same lies in your own lives.

We have looked at two surprises so far.

At the head of the list is God Himself.

And, as you have already seen during the past few weeks,

every time I get near this first surprise

in my attempts to offer a brief review of where we have already been,

I get drawn into it once again

and end up never moving on with my list.

But this morning I am going to resist that urge

and say simply that His personal entrance into my life took me completely by surprise,

and the growing discovery of His kindness,

and His compassion,

and His absolute niceness has been an ongoing surprise that continues to this day.

The second surprise I shared with you

was the surprise of the true nature of the church.

And the great surprise for me here

came in the discovery

that the true church,

the church established by Christ Himself on this earth,

the one about which He said,

MAT 16:18 "...upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it.”,

that church is utterly distinct from any human organization that has ever existed.

Several weeks ago

we spent most of one morning

looking at that truth in some detail.

Now, this morning,

I want to move on to the third surprise on my list,

the surprise of the true nature of spiritual warfare.

And let me begin first of all

by affirming the existence of the spirit world around us

and the reality of the warfare in which we are involved.

For those of you who are new to the truths revealed to us by our God,

what I am about to say may sound a little strange.

We have been trained in our culture

to keep a clear mental distinction between things that are “real”

and things that our culture believes are imagined, or mythical, or fictional in nature.

Our literature,

and now more recently our film and entertainment industry

are filled with elves, and wizards, and hobbits, and dwarfs, and orcs,

and leprechauns,

and, here and there, angels or demons

who frequently disguise themselves as men or women.

We love those literary techniques

in which the hero or heroin is miraculously delivered from disaster

by mythical or supernatural forces that swoop in at the last moment and save the day.

But when we leave the theater,

or close the book,

or turn off the TV,

no sane person expects to step outside

and catch a glimpse of an elf,

or an angel,

or a demon slipping out of sight behind a nearby bush.

For something to be accepted as “real” in our society,

we must be able to interact with it in some way

through our five senses.

We must be able to see it,

or hear it,

or feel it,

or taste it,

or smell it.

If a person honestly attempted to claim

that they interacted with angelic or demonic forces on a regular basis

they would probably be diagnosed as schizophrenic

and in need of proper medication

that would then eliminate their mental delusions.

And that diagnosis would quite likely be correct.

But the truth is,

though most people like the idea of the existence of an unseen spirit world around us,

in practical reality,

as a culture we do not accept the logical, reasonable existence of that unseen world

any more than we accept the practical reality of wizards and hobbits and leprechauns.

It’s not that we utterly deny the existence of the spirit world,

it’s just that, because we cannot communicate with it through our senses,

we view it as not being “real” in the same way as the chair you are sitting on right now is “real”.

And because each of us enters this world

with a spirit separated from God,

believing we really do have both the right and the ability

to run our own lives anyway we want,

that same inherent arrogance within our spirits

convinces us that we really do have the ability

to determine the boundaries between what is “real” and what is “not real”,

and if we cannot sense it in some way,

we reject its reality.

If I declare that I do not believe in the literal existence of a spirit world surrounding me

inhabited by real angels and real demons,

I honestly believe it eliminates that whole issue

from being anything I need to be concerned about.

That is at the heart of why God’s entrance into my life in the fall of 1966

came as such a terrifying jolt to me.

The concept of God was fine.

The philosophical idea of God was great.

Discussions and debates about the historical Jesus - who He was and what He said,

didn’t trouble me in the least.

But He wasn’t suppose to really be THERE.

He wasn’t suppose to be REAL,

and He certainly wasn’t suppose to be aware of me,

seeking direct personal interaction with me.

That ruined everything.

Among other things,

it meant that I could not trust my senses

as the sure and certain means by which I determined what was real and what was not.

All of the sudden

there were some things that were more real than anything I had ever seen, or heard, or touched,

things that I would never be able to sense in any way with any of my five senses,

and yet things that possessed tremendous influence over me and my life.

Now, let me share with you the truth about the way things really are,

and then I’ll offer an illustration that may help a little,

and then I’ll bring this back to my surprises about the true nature of spiritual warfare.

First of all, I want to share with you the way things really are,

or rather, I’ll let Paul share with you the way things really are.

EPH 6:10 ¶ Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might.

EPH 6:11 Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

EPH 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

EPH 6:13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

Our struggle is not against flesh and blood...

That’s Paul’s way of saying

that the most significant battles we will ever face in this world

are not against anything

or anyone that we can see, or hear, or taste, or smell, or feel.

The greatest enemies we face

are absolutely real,

but they cannot be communicated with through any of our senses in any way.

Our struggle is against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

And it will help us here

if we understand that the phrase “heavenly places”

is best understood in terms of the unseen world around us.

There are two absolutely real worlds coexisting around us right now.

There is the physical world that we understand perfectly,

that world with which we can communicate through our 5 senses.

And then there is the unseen world,

or more accurately the unsensed world,

inhabited by all of those beings that cannot be sensed in any way by any of our physical senses,

yet, beings that are just as “real” as you and I.

I tried to come up with some sort of illustration

that might help us here a little,

and this is the best I could do.

Right now, as we sit here together in this room,

there are hundreds of conversations raging around us.

These are real conversations

between real people

using real words,

conversations that are having a powerful affect on both those who hear and those who speak.

Right now someone is being told of the birth of their first grandchild,

and someone else is getting the terrifying news

of a sudden sickness in the life of someone they love,

and someone else is putting the finishing touches on a business transaction

that will make them extremely wealthy,

and someone else is just completing the reservations for their honeymoon trip.

All of these conversations are taking place here, now,

in this room,

and yet we are completely unaware of them.

But if we each had in our hands a cell phone

and we could adjust that phone to the correct frequencies,

we could listen in and hear every word.

Now, obviously that analogy has some major flaws,

among them the fact that, because we understand the principles

and the technology involved in cell phone communication,

the existence of cell phone transmissions taking place around us makes logical sense to our minds.

It fits within the principles that govern our lives in this physical plane

and because it does,

it in no way appears supernatural to us.

But my point is simply this -

to only accept the existence of those things we can verify with our five senses

is the ultimate in arrogant foolishness.

Whether we believe it or not,

whether our minds can understand it or not,

there is and always has been

an unseen world co-existing with this seen world in which we live.

That world is populated by God Himself,

and by a multitude of created beings,

some of which are in submission to God,

and some of which are in rebellion against Him.

Those in submission to God we call “angels”,

those in rebellion against Him we call “demons”,

but both are, or at least were at their creation, identical types of beings.

Angels do not have flowing white gowns and halo’s hovering above their heads,

and demons do not have pitchforks and little horns sticking out of their heads.

And here is the most crucial point of all in this whole thing -

all of these inhabitants are currently involved in an intense warfare.

But they are not simply fighting among themselves,

they are fighting over us,

for the possession of our spirits, our minds, and or emotions.

They are fighting for influence over us.

God tells us very little about the ground-rules He has established

for the ways in which these spirit beings are permitted to influence us,

but we get little glimpses into what’s happening.

We are told that 1PE 5:8 ...our adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

We are told that angels are HEB 1:14... sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation...

We are even told that angels are specifically assigned to render service to us

during our childhood years.

MAT 18:10 "See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you, that their angels in heaven continually behold the face of My Father who is in heaven.

I’m only guessing here, of course,

but I can’t help but wonder

if possibly this special protection of the spirit is given to children

to insure that Satan is not permitted to devastate children at the spirit level

in such a way that they would never be able to hear the voice of their God

or respond to Him once they reach adulthood.

I know we typically think in terms of physical protection for children,

and certainly that must be involved,

but the most crucial thing is the protection of a child’s spirit.

And above all,

we are told that all of these spirits, both good and evil,

are required by God to submit to the choices and decisions we make.

MAT 18:18 "Truly I say to you, whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

JAM 4:7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

1CO 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.

And I want to be sure we do not miss what God is saying to us here.

We are the central figures in this warfare that is raging in the spirit world,

we are the ones being fought over,

the ones those in the unseen world are seeking to influence, to conquer, to claim.

But God has given us just one weapon with which we can impact that warfare.

God has given us true free will,

the ability to make choices,

and then He tells us that when we make those choices

He will require all those in the unseen world to abide by those choices.

If God had not placed those limits on Satan and his forces,

those forces could easily respond to our choices of faith in Christ

by harassing us and oppressing us to the point

where we would all ultimately be crushed under the attacks.

And then,

with all of that as background,

let me share with you the heart of this great surprise I have discovered

in this whole are of spiritual warfare.

It isn’t in the existence of the warfare itself,

it is in the realization

of what it is that both sides are fighting so heard to accomplish in our lives.

When I was younger

I just naturally assumed

that Satan’s central battlefields were twofold -

to keep people from submitting to Christ,

and to keep them from making righteousness choices.

During my college years

I spent one entire summer

going from door to door with a little black suitcase full of tracks

witnessing to everyone who would let me in the door,

trying to bring them to the point of submission to Christ.

And once a person reached that point of submission,

I then assumed that the whole battle shifted

to God’s attempts to get us to act righteous

and Satan’s attempts to keep us in sin.

But in recent years I have come to realize

that there is a far more central issue involved,

and that, especially with those of us who are Christians,

the focus of Satan’s attacks

are altogether different than I once thought they were.

From the very beginning of all that is,

God has been fighting a battle designed to reveal to us the true nature of His love for us,

and Satan has been waging a battle

designed to prevent us from discovering the true nature of that love.

The very first attack Satan brought against the human race

communicated the heart of everything he has ever done since then.

What was the message he gave to Adam and Eve?

“Watch out for this God of yours -

you can’t really trust Him.

He’s out to cheat you.”

GEN 3:5 "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Every significant battle we face in life

has, at it’s core, that same issue -

what sort of God is this, anyway?

Can I really trust Him,

trust His love,

trust His ability to handle my life correctly?

Some of you here this morning are facing intense moral battles in your life right now.

You have made,

or are seriously considering making some choices

that you know are absolutely inconsistent with what your God has said to you

about what’s right and what’s wrong.

You probably think the central issue in that whole thing

is whether you will obey or disobey.

It’s not.

The central issue,

and the heart of the warfare raging around you right now

concerns what you choose to believe

about the true nature of God’s love for you.

I can tell you what messages you’re receiving from the forces of evil.

They are telling you in a thousand different ways

that this God cannot be trusted.

They are telling you that there is no way your needs will ever be met

if you trust His love.

They are telling you

that He either doesn’t know

or doesn’t really care about what will bring you fulfillment and satisfaction in life.

They are telling you

His intentions cannot be trusted

and His path will never take you where you really want to be.

In other words,

they are telling you He really doesn’t love you.

And on the other side,

from the very beginning

the one message God has been seeking to communicate to each of us

is that He loves us with a perfect and everlasting love.

It is a love that found it’s ultimate expression

through His death for us for our sins.

But that is only the beginning,

the doorway through which we then discover more and more of the truth.

Do you know the one thing

that truly has the power to change the human spirit,

the one thing that has the ability

to transform our lives at the deepest level?

It is when we discover

and then reconfirm over and over and over again

that our God is truly good

and in every way good to us.

Without that discovery

our lives are quickly filled with the poison of lies

that bring about bitterness,

complaining,

anger,

and endless resentments against our circumstances and other people,

all of which are simply our thinly veiled resentments against a God we don’t really like very much

and certainly don’t trust.

But to the degree we discover the truth,

to the degree that we discover that our God loves us

as no one else has ever loved us before,

we find our spirits overflowing with a gratitude to Him

that gradually alters every aspect of our lives.

There is only one pivotal issue in this great cosmic warfare raging around us,

it is the battle for our discovery of the love of God for us, His creation.

And it is no wonder that Paul concluded the first half of his letter to the Ephesians in the way he did,

with that prayer we spent so much time studying a few month ago,

EPH 3:14-19 ¶ For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father,...and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.