DCW Spiritual warfare 4

Spiritual Warfare week 4

Good morning One River,

We’re on a journey to see a fuller picture of the supernatural world view. Along this journey we’ve looked at the nature of Yahweh’s supernatural universe and its creation. We’ve considered the narrative stories on the fall of humanity and that it probably has multiple parts, not merely the simple Fall in the Garden story that we’ve all been told in our early Sunday school teachings.

We’ve moved into a place where we’re looking at the Evil influence of the wicked elohim and their children on humanity. Last week and a few weeks before, I showed that Jesus did the heavy lifting. The mantel of battle that we may have been told was placed upon us when we joined the larger Christian community, I hope we’re starting to see is not something really meant for us.

Jesus won the War. We’re his family. The chosen, adopted family of Yahweh. It’s up to us to accept this role. We are the chosen children of God. He loves us and wants us to share that love, with those we love. Nothing more and nothing less. Unfortunately, that doesn’t protect us entirely from the wicked supernatural world.

The demons that afflict us are largely the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim killed in battles long since settled. Occasionally we run up against and evil elohim. These are the creatures with immense supernatural power. But these tend to take the form of territorial spirits or oppressors for world leaders. They are not the ones afflicting troubles on the majority of common people.

We live in the period of the “Already Not-Yet”, we’re the people of the “Naturally Supernatural”. But what does this mean on a practical level?

Well, let’s look at a story.

2 Kings 6:8–17 (NIV)

Elisha Traps Blinded Arameans

8 Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After conferring with his officers, he said, “I will set up my camp in such and such a place.”

9 The man of God sent word to the king of Israel: “Beware of passing that place, because the Arameans are going down there.” 10 So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places.

11 This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, “Tell me! Which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?”

12 “None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.”

I want you to think about this story. The supernatural world is so close, Yahweh is so close, that He knows what’s going on in the king’s bedroom. This is a world that exists on top of ours. It lives in conjunction with our world.

13 “Go, find out where he is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.” The report came back: “He is in Dothan.” 14 Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.

15 When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked.

16 “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

17 And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

There’s a few things here. Like I said, this world exists with ours and over ours. Specifically, these spiritual beings exist and they work for both sides. They are good and evil. Elisha prayed and the eyes of his servant were opened. That has got to be one of the most powerful prayers in scripture. Lord, open the eyes of my servant, and let him see.

The servant turns and sees and entire supernatural army from Yahweh. This is the real stuff here. This is where the rubber meets the road. I know we have probably all prayed prayers like; Lord, show me the people you want me to see and how to help them. Lord, give me a word or a picture for this person. And those are great prayers. But, how many of us have prayed, Lord, show me the supernatural world?

Just imagine what it would be like to see all the hosts of heaven, all the evil spirits of the universe and the armies of heaven in combat. That would be a sight to beholden.

As we continue on this journey of exploration, I would ask if this is a prayer you could pray? If you could, would you really want to see all the wonders and evils of the supernatural universe before you?

There’s no right answer here. It’s just something to think about. Do you find it helpful to consider the supernatural world in a larger context?

When we dig into scripture and look at the nature of demonic powers, scripture shows us that there are still rules amongst the chaos.

We looked briefly at categories of supernatural conflict that affect humans.

Here’s a quick reminder:

Demonic possession: A demon using someone's body as their own. This is rare.

Demonic infestation: The presence of evil in a location (such as a haunted house) or an object (such as a voodoo doll or ouija board).

Demonic vexation: Physical attacks on a person's body, such as cuts, bite marks or bruises.

Demonic obsession: Demonic attacks on someone's mind. This can be the devil trying to get inside someone's head so everything they are thinking or experiencing is being filtered through the presences of the demonic.

I don’t think this is a completely comprehensive list, but it shows the majority of events in scripture and my own personal experiences working in this world for some years.

I’ve been going on the last few weeks about how Jesus won the War, but individual battles still remain. However, this is not a free for all. There are still rules to the supernatural world. There are still rules the enemy must follow. They cannot randomly afflict a person without some type of acquiescence on the person’s part.

One of Yahweh’s cardinal rules seems to be humans have free will and no one and nothing is allowed to take that from us.

Ultimately, the power here lies with us on an individual level to make choices that honor and serve our LORD.

That said, the enemy is wicked, cunning and deceitful.

I want to look at another OT story here.

1 Samuel 16:13–14 (NIV)

13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon David. Samuel then went to Ramah.

14 Now the Spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him.

I know this is the type of story that freaks us out, right? Yahweh sent and evil/harmful spirit to work over Saul. How can that be? That seems evil.

Well let’s look at a few things first. Do we remember the story of Saul and how he fell out of favor, shall we say, of the LORD?

Saul came into conflict with the Amalekites. This is the group of people that took advantage of the Israelites right as they were coming out of Egypt from bondage. They essentially beat up and murdered a bunch of slaves who were just trying to pass through their land.

When Saul came into conflict with them, Yahweh ordered him to destroy them all. Now, if you remember our chats during the Divine Council Worldview series, there’s only a very select group of people that God ever truly called for their annihilation.

These guys were not Nephilim or their direct descendants. But they were working on it. Their true origins are a little unsettled. But at some point, they took it upon themselves to become the destroyers of Israel. They, of course, worshipped other elohim. They also began to learn magic from them and began to consort with them. This is veiled biblical language for sleep with them. There is not much background written about them in scripture, but the Jewish Midrash has a lot to say about these guys.

When Saul saved their King Agag and many others, he sinned against God. But he also helped an enemy live so they could continue to persecute Israel for future generations. It’s also possible they created Nephilim as well, although that is just my personal hypothesis.

Now, back to “How could God do such a thing.” Well, Saul kinda had it coming, but also, all spirits are from the LORD. We don’t really have this entire encounter fleshed out. But all spirits both good and evil are from the creation of the LORD. They too enjoy free will.

You’ve probably heard the verse. Ephesians 4:26–27 (NIV)

26 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold.

Saul got to feeling some kind of way and took it upon himself to disobey God saving those that were out to destroy Israel. He made a deal with them, whether out of fear or pity or selfishness we don’t really know. But Saul gave the devil a foothold.

So, what’s a foothold? We hear this all the time in various aspects of church, right. This isn’t really new information. What’s a foothold for the devil.

The most common use of the word foothold today is as a place or thing that will support a climber’s foot or as a secure starting position from which further advance can be made. In biblical Greek it can refer to a spot, place, location, room, home, position, tract, occasion, opportunity, locality, region, or condition.

We often translate this to sin, an area of bitterness or unforgiveness in our lives. Something we cannot let go of that the enemy can use to twist into some kind of narrative that we slowly begin to believe that draws us away from Yahweh and into communion with the wicked.

Footholds are the place from which all demonic oppression starts. Without, on some level, our permission, the demonic are not permitted to come against us. Unfortunately, we often don’t know immediately or see what we may have done that gives them a foothold in our lives.

Many of these footholds come from narratives we tell ourselves.

1. If I forgive the person who offended me, he/she will just hurt me again.

2. By holding onto my anger, I can punish the one who offended me.

3. This offense is so egregious, I cannot forgive.

I know, this is easier said then done. But we are called to forgive those that trespass against us. It’s one of the commands in the LORD’s Prayer. I don’t know that we easily see the results of this, but we’re called to forgive so that we can keep our peace in the LORD.

Our modern meme culture would tell us the exact opposite of this. It tells us, we need to protect ourselves. It says we should drop people from our lives who may have caused us harm. It tells us to keep score and never forgive.

This is a message straight from Hell. Most of us, in some ways have suffered egregious sins done against us at one point or another. Things done to us that are difficult to forgive.

But that is exactly what we’ve been called to do. Forgive, allow the anger and perceived righteousness to pass through us and give it back to Yahweh where it belongs.

Carrying anger and vengeance, self-pity and the like is not something Yahweh permits us to do. We are commanded to forgive. It’s not a suggestion, it’s an order, and its there for our benefit.

We’re going to begin to look at the armor of God. How Paul instructs us to defend ourselves against the wicked ways of the supernatural realm. There’s a lot of meat in those passages. But this is our first and best start.

The best way to defend against a supernatural incursion, is to never allow one to setup shop in your life to begin with.

We are called to forgive those that sin against us. On paper this sounds easy, but it is often one of the most difficult things in the world to do. We are really not programmed to forgive. But we are ordered by our Christ to do so.

It is the mechanism by which we are saved. He forgave us all our sins and we are called to do likewise. I want to practice this in a few different ways.

First a prayer:

Holy Spirit, the Word of God declares that you are the Spirit of Truth who has come to guide me into all truth. I submit myself to You and ask that You reveal to my mind—or confirm to me—truth concerning these indicators that may reveal where I have made myself vulnerable to demonic oppression It is the desire of my heart to recognize and destroy footholds and strongholds that evil spirits may have established in order to influence my thoughts and actions

I thank You in the Name and Authority of Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

Then the Our Father….

Then a supernatural exchange…