Invisible War: Traps & Breaking Free
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Evidence of a Spiritual War
On October 7th, Hamas fired an estimated 2,200 rockets at Israel and then militants stormed into Israel and began to slaughter Jews and take women, children and the elderly hostage - dragging them back into Gaza. Videos circulate online, posted by Hamas, of militants raiding an outdoor music concert - again women and children dragged away - young girls raped. 260 bodies removed from the scene following the attack. Footage and reports begin to circulate of beheadings of men, women and babies.
By the end of the day, 1400+ dead and 4629 injured. An unprovoked attack targeting innocent civilians.
Pure evil on display for all to see. The perpetrators celebrated - releasing videos of their work.
Did the world stand behind Israel and condemn Hamas and their major funder, Iran, and demand justice?
Did people hang the Jewish flag outside their homes in solidarity like some did with Ukraine? Was social media filled with “I stand with Israel” posts? Did the media proclaim there is no excuse for this level of evil?
For the most part…no.
In fact, a little over three weeks later, and headlines are reading “Hatred of Jews is surging.” The number of anti-semitic incidents are up several hundred percent. Pro Palestinian rallies are heated in college campuses and Jews are having to hide. In France, anti-semitism is high and Jews are waking up to find the Star of David spray painted on their homes - marking the place where a Jew lives.
Mitch Glaser - Talbot School of Theology
Antisemitism and Spiritual Warfare
Antisemitism and Spiritual Warfare
I believe we are told to pray for the peace of Jerusalem because the Lord knows that antisemitism is fundamentally a spiritual issue. The devil, who never stops trying to destroy the Jewish people, is at the heart of antisemitism. He wants to overturn the plan of God and, throughout Scripture, we see his diabolical efforts to destroy the Jewish people and to thwart God’s unfolding plan of redemption.
The antisemitism we see is evidence of the spiritual warfare we do not see! For instance, do you recall the heavenly conflict between angels and demons described by the angel Gabriel to the prophet Daniel? In the following passage, Gabriel explains his lateness in bringing answers to Daniel’s prayers because he was detained by the prince of Persia—a reference to some type of heavenly creature and probably a fallen angel. Gabriel mentions that if not for the efforts of the Archangel Michael, he never would have made it to Daniel’s side:
But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia. (Daniel 10:13)
It is a cryptic passage, but it gives us a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the true spiritual battle being fought in the heavenlies that rages each day of our lives, even though we are not always aware of it!
The Apostle Paul wrote about this battle as well:
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. (Ephesians 6:12)
Gabriel lets Daniel know that the heavenly fight for the soul of Israel would continue as he would soon do battle with the prince of Greece, the next Gentile power who would replace the Persian empire in oppressing Israel and the Jewish people.
Then he said, “Do you understand why I came to you? But I shall now return to fight against the prince of Persia; so I am going forth, and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come.” (Daniel 10:20)
If I am correct in the way I view Scripture, the return of Jesus is tied to the end-time repentance of the Jewish remnant (Romans 11:11–29). Therefore, it is obvious why Satan still wants to destroy the Jewish people. Satan wants to prevent Jesus the Messiah from fulfilling His ministry and returning to a repentant Israel (Matthew 23:367-39, Romans 11:11-29).
When we discuss spiritual warfare - we are talking about matters that affect us, our neighbors, our country and our world right now.
As Christians, we need to be prepared for what is happening by seeing the world not only through our physical eyes, but also our spiritual eyes. If the Jews are being persecuted, you can count on the fact that Christians will be as well.
So in today’s session - we will be looking at Traps & Breaking Free.
Keep me from the trap that they have laid for me and from the snares of evildoers!
As we have been discussing, we have an enemy who’s whole purpose is to steal, kill and destroy. He is an intelligent being and knows how to ensnare you - he had had lots of practice.
So how can we avoid traps? And if we do fall for a trap, how do we break free?
We may say to ourselves, I’m not going to be tempted - I’m not going to fall for the devil’s schemes - but that always proves difficult to do. We are not only battling spiritual forces, we are also fighting ourselves.
First Rule for Freedom - Believe Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. If that matter is not settled in your heart, then you have a hard road ahead.
I’m going to quote quite a bit from author Neil Anderson for this first part of the study - he wrote the books Bondage Breaker and Winning the Battle Within - I attended a workshop he taught and found it very practical.
He writes...
“Truth sets us free - believing the truth precedes responsible behavior”
It is faith in Jesus that opens us up to the power of the Spirit, which we need in order to pursue holy living.
For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
look again at verse 12
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
We have a choice to make - it is our responsibility to not allow sin to reign in our body. Satan and the demons can’t make you sin. He will tempt, deceive, accuse - but he cannot make us do anything.
If sin reigns in our body - it is because we have allowed it.
(v13) Do not offer the parts of your body to sin.
Question: How do we present our members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness?
We are not to use our eyes, our ears, our feet, our mouth - or any part of our body - to serve sin. Whether we are watching something we should not watch, or if you are married, flirting with someone of the opposite sex, or fantasizing about doing harm to another - we are opening our eyes, our body, our mind to sin and giving it permission to rule over you. James 4:1
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
Offer yourself and the parts of your body to God. Paul distinguishes between “yourself” and “your members” - between the core of who you are and your flesh. Our core - our essence - is what lives on after we die and what will one day be rejoined with our new heavenly body.
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
The Spirit of God is working to sanctify us - changing the inner person every day. Our bodies, on the otherhand, are perishing day by day. Paul is instructing us to offer it all, mind, body and soul to the Lord for his glory.
I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Our bodies are mortal, therefore, they are corruptible. It is our role, therefore, to offer our bodies to God as an instrument by which we do good.
Question:
How can we offer the parts of our body to God?
We have opportunities every day to use our hands, feet, eyes, mouth, ears - all of it, to bring God glory.
Paul talks about the body in the 6th chapter of 1 Cor as he is addressing the issue of sexual immorality, but the same argument can be applied to all types of sin...
1 Corinthians 6:13–20 (ESV)
“(skip first half)...The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
We are to glorify God in our bodies. That is a choice we make. That means we need to be careful and diligent regarding everything we do. Ask yourself, is what I am about to do glorifying to God?
Easier said than done. Temptation is always right at the door.
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
So what can we do to avoid falling into a trap?
Second Rule for Freedom:
Stay Connected with the Church
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
The Christian faith is meant to be lived out in close knit community. The Greek word from which we get the word Church is Ecclesia - which literally means “the assembly” - it is were the people of God assemble. It is coming together with other Jesus followers for mutual support and encouragement.
Jonathan Arnold wrote a great piece titled “If you love Jesus, Join a Church” in which he said:
...ordinarily, a Christian who is not joined to a church is worse than a fish out of water, and will die just as soon. He is a hand severed from a body, a child torn from his mother’s breast, a loose stone plucked from a living building. No one should presume to belong to the invisible Church while refusing to become a member in a local church. John Wesley preached, “Every follower of Christ is obliged, by the very nature of the Christian institution, to be a member of some particular congregation” (“Catholic Spirit,” 10).
If Acts 2:47 is written on one side of the church’s door, 1 John 2:19 is written on the other: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” These are formidable words in a book about how to “know” if we are in God. Those who forsake the visible Church reveal (at least under ordinary circumstances) that they do not belong to the invisible Church; they are not of Christ. How can we forsake the sheep without forsaking the Shepherd? How can we forsake the Bride without forsaking the Groom? How can we be severed from the Body without being severed from the Head?
One of the reasons we are connected to the Church is for accountability. We need someone, or a few someones, who we can journey with as we grow in Christ. Persons who we can confide our struggles with, confess our darkest secrets and know that they will love us and help keep us on the right path.
Back when AA was just starting out, John D. Rockefeller sent one of his associates, Frank Amos, to investigate what was going on and verify the reports of a group of alcoholics who were all considered by physicians as incurable, but now where living in sobriety.
Amos detailed the program he observed as follows:
1. An alcoholic must realize that he is an alcoholic, incurable from a medical viewpoint, and that he must never again drink anything with alcohol in it.
2. He must surrender himself absolutely to God, realizing that in himself there is no hope.
3. Not only must he want to stop drinking permanently, he must remove from his life other sins such as hatred, adultery, and others which frequently accompany alcoholism. Unless he will do this absolutely, Smith and his associates refuse to work with him.
4. He must have devotions every morning -- a "quiet time" of prayer and some reading from the Bible and other religious literature. Unless this is faithfully followed, there is grave danger of backsliding.
5. He must be willing to help other alcoholics get straightened out. This throws up a protective barrier and strengthens his own willpower and convictions.
6. It is important, but not vital, that he meet frequently with other reformed alcoholics and form both a social and a religious comradeship.
7. Important, but not vital, that he attend some religious service at least once weekly.
The Frank Amos reports also specifically added:
The A.A. members of that time did not consider meetings necessary to maintain sobriety. They were simply "desirable." Morning devotion and "quiet time," however, were musts.
This is what it looks like when the redeemed seriously tackle sin in their lives.
Humility, Surrender, Devotion, Hatred of all sin, Small group Accountability, Fellowship, worship.
Question:
Have you experienced this type of connection with the church?
Third Rule of Freedom:
If you stumble, stand back up, confess, renounce, resist the devil, and move forward.
But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.
Confession literally means to “agree with God”. We must confess our sin to live in harmony with God. But this is only the first step. You are still in bondage.
Renounce: formally declare one's abandonment of (a claim, right, or possession). Reject and stop using or consuming.
Get rid of anything that triggers your sin. Ask God to break any bonds or unholy connections you have made. Cut off the problem at the source.
If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
This is hyperbole, Jesus doesn’t want you to cut off your hand. Yet the message is clear, get rid of anything that entices you to sin.
Resist the Devil
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
“To resist means to withstand, strive against, or oppose in some manner. Resistance can be a defensive maneuver on our part, such as resisting or withstanding the temptation to sin. Or it can be an action we take to use the only offensive weapon in the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:13-18), the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. Using the Scriptures to expose Satan’s lies and temptations is the most effective way to strive against and defeat them.” (gotQuestions.org)
Move Forward
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.