Spiritual Warfare: Stay on the Path (Eph. 6:11)

 Do you remember the scene in The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug when the dwarves are about to enter Mirkwood?  Mirkwood is full of dangers, distractions, and deceptions that will try to confuse them and get them off-track, lost.  And so before Gandalf leaves to attend matters elsewhere, he instructs them about how to get through the evil forest successfully.  He tells them what they need to know about the dangers they'll face and the path they should take, and then he warns them, "Stay on the path."  But while in the forest, it's up to them to do it, to be on-guard and wise, to remember and follow what Gandalf said instead of trusting themselves.  

Well, life is our Mirkwood, full of spiritual dangers, distractions, and deceptions that try to get us off-track in life, away from God's best.  But God has created a way through, a path that He wants us to walk for the best life (and eternity) possible.  

But where is this path?  How do we stay on it and avoid the dangers?

Psalm 119:9-11: “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.  I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.  I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

In His Word, God tells us how to get through this life successfully, for the best lives and eternities possible.  In His Word, we find wisdom and instructions from the One who knows best how we should live, how the spirit world operates, how we can avoid the pitfalls, snares, and tricks of the evil one, and how we can fight back against evil and win.  In His Word, we find the path, and advice about how to stay on it.

But it's up to us to do it, to read the Word for all its worth, to take it seriously, and to obey what it says.  It's up to us to stay on the path.

Ephesians 6:11: "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes."

God has given Christians a dress code, a uniform to wear while we journey down the path through life's spiritual dangers.  A military uniform.  To fight against the devil requires armor from God.  Not any old armor, but THE armor of God - the armor that He created to be powerful and effective against evil.  If we are not properly outfitted, if we try to fight the enemy in our own wisdom and efforts, we'll fail.  We are weaker and more limited than spiritual beings.  A spiritual being cannot be hurt by earthly things.  Satan is not afraid of us li'l ol' humans or our li'l ol' puny human efforts or our li'l ol' wimpy human weapons.

But he is afraid of God.  God is more powerful and knows Satan's weaknesses.  He knows how evil beings operate and how to defeat them.  And He shares this information with us in His Word.  It takes spiritual weapons to fight spiritual beings in spiritual battles.  And thankfully, graciously, God tells us in His Word what those weapons are, such as prayer, Jesus's name, the Word of God spoken out loud, obedience, truth, praise and worship, fasting, forgiveness, humility, etc., which we'll cover in later posts.  (In this series, I'm including other biblical things that help in the battle against evil, in addition to what's listed in Ephesians 6.)  

If we want to be successful in our spiritual battles, we need God, and we need to do things His way.  We are not more powerful or wiser than the devil, but God is.

And guess what?  God (as the Holy Spirit) lives in each and every believer.

"Now it is God who makes both of us and you stand firm in Christ.  He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come." (2 Cor. 1:21-22)

"And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.  Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit," (Eph. 1:13)

“… the [Holy Spirit] who is in you is greater than [Satan] who is in the world." (1 John 4:4) 

Satan cannot be defeated by us humans, but he can be defeated by the God who lives in us.  The Holy Spirit in us gives us the power to do things we couldn't do on our own: resist temptations, confess sin, break addictions, forgive, be strong when we feel weak, have peace when we're freaking out, have joy in the hard times, keep going when we want to give up, repel demons, win the spiritual battles, etc.

James 4:7: "Submit yourself, then, to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

Submitting ourselves to God (including putting on the armor) comes first, before being able to resist the devil and make him flee - because the devil will only flee from us when we've got God's power backing us up.  All believers have God's power backing them up to a degree, of course, but faithful, humble, obedient, God-dependent believers have it more because they are walking closely with God, within His Will, remaining under His protective cover.  All believers have God, but how much of us God has will determine how well we do in life and in the spiritual battles.

One obvious lesson we learn from Ephesians 6:11 is that it’s our responsibility to put on the armor of God (we'll look at these in future posts), to prepare ourselves for spiritual attacks.  We have to do it.  It's not done for us or to us.  We have to do it.    

Of course, there is a basic degree to which all Christians are automatically protected by God: Satan cannot take our souls anymore or steal us from God's hand or do anything to us that God won't allow.  But it’s up to us if we are more protected or less protected along the way, if we allow or don't allow Satan more access to us and more influence over us.  The more closely we follow God, the more protected we'll be, but the more steps we take away from God, the less protected we'll be.

It's a biblical principle that God takes care of those who love Him:

Psalm 91:14-16: "'Because he loves me,' says the Lord, 'I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.  He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.  With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.'" 

Psalm 145:20: "The Lord watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy." 

Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him..."

But do you realize that loving God has little to do with our feelings and much more to do with our actions?  According to the Bible, to love God is to obey Him.    

1 John 5:3: "... this is love for God: to keep his commands.”  

John 14:15,21: "If you love me, keep my commands... Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me..." 

1 John 2:3-6: "We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.  The man who says 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.  But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him.  This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did."

We can't separate the two: If we truly love God, we will be doing our best to obey Him.  And obedience will keep us under God's care and protection, and God will work things out for our good.  

[Of course, none of us obeys perfectly all the time ... but that's where forgiveness comes in.  Your sins were nailed to the cross with Jesus.  Nothing you do or have done or will do can keep you from God, unless you let it.  So don't let your sins, your shame, keep you from drawing near to God again.  Humbly and honestly confess your sins to God, accept His forgiveness out of thankfulness, and then draw near to Him again.  And again.  And again.  All of your sins were paid for by Jesus at the cross; don't keep paying for them yourself.  Jesus carried your shame so that you don't have to.  Isaiah 53:5: "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."  Romans 10:11: “… ‘Anyone who trusts in Him will not be put to shame.’”  1 John 2:1: "... But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One."  (More about forgiveness in a later post.)]

And obviously, in order to be able to obey God's commands, we need to know what His commands are, which means we need to be in His Word because that's where He tells us how He wants us to live.  And we need to be in prayer - inviting God into our days, into our hearts and minds and situations, seeking His help and guidance in living out His Word in our lives.  

It always comes back to God's Word (knowing it and obeying it) and prayer.

Eph. 6:18: "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests…"

1 Thess. 5:17: "pray continually"

Phil. 4:6-7: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

Psalm 119:105: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.”

Prov. 2:6-8: “For the Lord gives wisdom, and from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.  He holds victory in store for the upright, He is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for He guards the course of the just and protects the way of His faithful ones.”

Staying close to God in prayer and in His Word (knowing and obeying it), relying on Him and His power and His wisdom to guide us and help us, will help us win the spiritual battles we couldn't win on our own. 

Sometimes God's Word is so clear that there's no gray area, no wiggle room, making it obvious from the very beginning what God wants us to do, such as it will always be wrong to cheat, steal, have an affair, murder, do witchcraft, consult mediums, hold grudges (Ouch, I bet that one stung a lot of you!), use God's name in vain (Ooh, that one too!), etc., no matter how much we might want to do it.  

And so if we do what we know we shouldn't do or if we don't do what we know we should do, it's sin.  And sin gets us off-track with God, further away from Him, which makes us more vulnerable to demonic attacks and influence and bad consequences ... until we confess our sin to God in repentance and turn to Him again.  (I've seen what happens when a believer refuses to repent of what's clearly a grievous sin ... and it isn't pretty.  Repent and draw near to God ASAP.  Time is precious and the cost of refusing to repent is high, and it can hurt not only you but those around you too.)  

But sometimes, the right thing to do, the best thing to do, is not always easy to figure out (or the easiest thing to do).  Sometimes it's confusing and unclear, and it takes a lot of time, prayer, heart-searching, Scripture-searching, and waiting on God.  Sometimes God reveals and leads us down the right path slowly, step by step, lighting the way and showing us the next step only as we need it, straightening the path as we walk in faith to the best of our ability.  (Sometimes we might not even know we're on the right path till we get to the end of it and look back and say "Wow, God, thank you!  You were with me the whole time and brought me through everything in the best way, to the right end, but I didn't realize it till now.")

Those confusing, unclear times of waiting on God are times when we really need our armor because Satan will try to take advantage of us, of our confusion and our frustration with waiting.  (I think learning to wait on God is a lesson we all have to learn many times over, because it's so hard for us to learn it.)  

In these times, Satan will try to mess with our emotions and muddle up our thoughts, tempting us take steps on our own, away from God and His Will and His protection.  He presents us with counterfeit options, enticing alternatives that God doesn't want for us (especially ones that appeal to our desires, our pride, or our sense of security/control) and he makes us feel rushed, like we can't wait on God any longer and so we have to make the decision we think is best.  

If Satan can get us to rush ahead of God on our own, to act in our own wisdom and timing, in self-sufficiency, if he can lure us outside of God's Will and off the path God wants for us, it will eventually damage our heart, faith, and futures.  It will cause consequences God never wanted.  It will make us feel separated from God, lost, on our own, floundering.  It will make us more vulnerable to following the wrong voices.  

And the longer we walk in our own wisdom and desires, resisting God's leading and refusing to repent and to draw near to Him again in obedience, the more numb we'll grow to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and the easier it will be to keep wandering farther from God, until some intense trial or tragedy shakes us awake and knocks us on our knees.  (More on making wise decisions in another post.)  

  

Note: Calvinism believes that "God's Will" always happens and that everything that happens is "God's Will," that whatever path we're on, even if it's sinful, is "God's Will" because God (according to Calvinism) always causes what He wants to happen and so we could've never done anything differently.  

But Calvinism is wrong.  

Biblically, God's Will is about the path God wants us on, His preferred path for us, what He wants us to do ... but He allows us to choose to follow Him on that path or not, to obey or disobey.  And so if we refuse to obey, God's Will doesn't always happen, and we create consequences God never wanted for us.

But don't despair.  God is a very big God who is always coming up with new paths, new plans, always bringing good out of the bad, weaving everything (even our detours and bad choices, which He already knew we'd make) into His plans and using them for His purposes.  

But don't let this be an excuse to be lazy or to sin, to do whatever you want because "God will work it out somehow."  God's first plan for us is always His best, and it will save us a lot of heartache and stress if we do the right thing the first time instead of waiting until after we've made a mess of our lives.  While God can work our obedience or disobedience into His plans, He'd much rather we obey from the beginning, bringing Him glory through our faithful living and sparing us from bad consequences that didn't have to happen.  Things don't always "happen for a reason" or because God caused/wanted it to happen that way.  Sometimes, bad things happen because we caused them by disobeying God or by running ahead of Him in our own "wisdom," desires, and timing.  

So don't make God responsible for your bad choices and the consequences they caused.  Don't blame Him for your sins and mistakes.  But instead, thank Him that He forgives you and that He can bring good out of the bad, that He is a God of second chances, and third, and fourth, etc.  

If and when you feel you've gotten off track with God but you're ready to get back on-track, let these verses be your prayers:   

Psalm 139:23-24: "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

Psalm 32:5: "Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.  I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord' - and you forgave the guilt of my sin."

Psalm 51:10: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

Humble yourself before Him, confess it all in prayer, and begin drawing near to Him again, through His Word and prayer.  Ask Him what He wants you to do to get back on track and to protect yourself from future attacks, and then be willing to wait for His answer and to obey when He gives it.  God is always willing to lead us, to help us get back on the right track (maybe not the original "right track," but a new one, because God knows how to work all things together for good, even our detours and bad decisions), but we have to follow Him in it.

We cannot fight the spiritual battles on our own, in our own wisdom or strength.  We need to do it in God's wisdom and strength, which means that we need to be in the Word and in prayer, walking in daily obedience to God's Word.  

I'm guessing that right about now many of you are thinking "I thought posts on spiritual warfare would be flashier and more exciting than just talking about reading the Bible, praying, and obeying.  I was hoping there'd be some shortcut around all that."  

I'm sorry but there is no shortcut.  And the flashier, more exciting things are not necessarily the right things.  More likely, the shortcuts and flashier things are Satan's attempts to get us to use ineffective human weapons and tactics, to keep us relying on ourselves instead of on God, to distract us from what God says about how we should live.  

Satan knows we can't defeat him on our own, and so he keeps trying to get us on our own, to separate us from God.  How we live - if we pray and if we obey God's Word (or if we don't) - will have a major impact on our lives: on if we are more in God's Will or less, on if we are closer to Him or farther away from Him, on if we get or don't get His blessings and protections, on if we are more vulnerable or less vulnerable to Satan's lies and attacks, etc.  We cannot and will not be successful in spiritual warfare if we are not living according to His Word and dependent upon Him in prayer.

There are no shortcuts in faith, in spiritual warfare.  No matter how scary it might be or how much we might want to do something else, the best thing we can do is to put on our armor daily and "stay on the path," as revealed in God's Word.  It's the only way we'll have a fighting chance against evil.  (Satan knows this.  Why do you think he tries so hard to distract us from God's Word, from prayer, from obedience?  Why do you think he tries so hard to make Christians live like he isn't real, like the spiritual world is mythical?  But, oh, the amazing work God can do in someone's life when they fully commit to Him and take His Word, prayer, obedience, and spiritual warfare seriously!)

"For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him." (1 Chronicles 16:9)

"If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.  All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God.... However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.... I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.  Now choose life, so that you and your children may live." (Deut. 28:1-2,15,30:19)

"and observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in his ways, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements, as written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go." (1 Kings 2:3)

"Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the Lord our God... so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the Lord our God." (Jeremiah 42:6) 

“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.  But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yield its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.  Whatever he does prospers.  Not so with the wicked!  They are like chaff that the wind blows away.  Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.  For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” (Psalm 1) 

A great song - Crazy Faith - from a great movie, War Room.