Advanced Spiritual Warfare: Taking The Battleground

Advanced Spiritual Warfare: Taking The Battleground

“These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: The Tachmonite that sat in the seat, chief among the captains; the same was Adino the Eznite: he lifted up his spear against eight hundred, whom he slew at one time.” [2Samuel 23:8]

More than a year ago, I wrote an article entitled, Advanced Spiritual Warfare: Frustrating the Devil. This is a follow up. However, by reading the Bible you will see how rich the Bible is in the different victorious strategies God has equipped us for.

What many are calling spiritual warfare is quite elementary in the practicalities of life. Arming yourself with a table knife and challenging an army general armed with a 500 Smith and Wesson Magnum, the most powerful pistol in the world, to a duel is simply suicidal. Unfortunately, this is what we have in the Church and many are losing battles after battles, ending up being victims – and God is not happy about it at all.

David was a man of war. He had been fighting from his teens – fighting rejection from his family, fighting lions and bears in the woods; he fought Goliath, and had Saul chase him for some ten years, however, he had some relatively little known mighty men with him. One of those was Adino the Eznite, another was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite, another was Eleazar, a man who fought until his sword stuck in his hand.

David’s victories were not all about Goliath, his sling and five smooth stones. All the other men displayed unique qualities we can learn a few things from so as to truly win in spiritual warfare. One of these is taking the battleground. The man who takes the battleground wins the war.

Recently, a dear Christian friend of mine (let us call her Mary) was lovestruck by a charming man and couldn’t get him out of her head. She recounted, “I need deliverance not to get mad. I should not be affected by all this; this is my problem at the moment. I must have a demon.”

Apparently, she thought she had been delivered from the crush and had got over her affections for this man whom she describes as being “gorgeous”, but somehow she just keeps finding herself drawn to him inexplicably. She is at war!

Her eternity could hinge on whether she wins or loses this warfare.

“What was it, is it a demon or what? Why on earth did I suddenly have my emotions taken over like that? How can that happen? I need deliverance not to get mad,” Mary concluded.

Unfortunately, she is not the only one experiencing this serious fight – all believers are, but the vast majority is ignorant. Ignorant of where the fight is taking place, ignorant of what or who they are fighting, ignorant of what weapons are needed for assured victory, ignorant of why they are in that fight and what is at stake.

Another elderly Christian person shared this with me from a famous preacher, “Recently, I’ve seen that people whose light is getting brighter have come under a stronger demonic attack than ever before. As I was praying on what to do about this, this is what I heard: ‘When you turn a light bulb on in the darkest of night, what does it draw? It draws Beelzebub!’”

The quote continues, “Flies, mosquitoes and other bugs are literally like the enemy’s tormentors. And the children of light are getting under a stronger demonic attack. These tormentors come to distract and put out their light.”

The teachings of this type of preacher on true spiritual warfare are one of the reasons why many are fighting losing battles. They are totally mislead from the truth of genuine spiritual warfare. They try to make people believe they have this special revelation in the spirit world and hence know something that are not found in the Bible. These preachers are liars and false!

Someone wrote, “Angels and Demons (movie) is a prime example of a new trend appearing in Hollywood over the last decade: secret societies being at the center of movie intrigues. Some might find this surprising since secret societies are supposed to be…well…secret. Many people in the movie industry are part of those Brotherhoods so what is the reasoning behind this? 

“In the 20th century, movies about Freemasonry or the Illuminati were rare and far apart. There has however been a major switch during the last decade. The worldwide public has witnessed major blockbuster movies featuring those Brotherhoods at the center of the story. Their exoteric symbols are abundantly displayed and some of their history is even explained. Why are those societies exposing themselves to the average movie goers, who, for the most part aren’t even aware of their existence? Isn’t secrecy an important requisite for the survival of those orders?

“The truth is that occult orders have adapted their strategy to this new context. The strategy is: “If they have to know about us, we’ll tell them what to know“. Through Hollywood and best-selling books, secret societies are being introduced to the average Joe but with one BIG condition: the public is given a distorted, caricatured and romantic portrayal of secret societies. We are introducing in pop culture a mythical lore around secret societies, associating them with fascinating symbols, treasures hunts and exotic adventures.”

You must know that the kingdom of darkness is full of lies, deception and diversion. The Devil thrives on diversion from the Truth. He and his savants always do their utmost to divert your attention and concerted effort from the main battleground, so that you do not experience true deliverance.

Read this: “As long as there remains among the Gentiles any moral conception of the social order, and until all faith, patriotism, and dignity are uprooted, our reign over the world shall not come . . . And the Gentiles, in their stupidity, have proved easier dupes than we expected them to be. One would expect more intelligence and more practical common sense, but they are no better than a herd of sheep. Let them graze in our fields till they become fat enough to be worthy of being immolated to our future King of the World . . . We have founded many secret associations, which all work for our purpose, under our orders and our direction. We have made it an honor, a great honor, for the Gentiles to join us in our organizations (such as Masonry), which are, thanks to our gold, flourishing now more than ever. Yet it remains our secret that those Gentiles who betray their own and most precious interests, by joining us in our plot, should never know that those associations are of our creation, and that they serve our purpose. One of the many triumphs of our Freemasonry is that those Gentiles who become members of our Lodges, should never suspect that we are using them to build their own jails, upon whose terraces we shall erect the throne of our Universal King of the Jews; and should never know that we are commanding them to forge the chains of their own servility to our future King of the World . . . We have induced some of our children to join the Christian Body, with the explicit intimation that they should work in a still more efficient way for the disintegration of the Christian Church, by creating scandals within her. We have thus followed the advice of our Prince of the Jews, who so wisely said: ‘Let some of your children become cannons, so that they may destroy the Church.’ Unfortunately, not all among the ‘convert’ Jews have proved faithful to their mission. Many of them have even betrayed us! But, on the other hand, others have kept their promise and honored their word. Thus the counsel of our Elders has proved successful. We are the Fathers of all Revolutions, even of those which sometimes happen to turn against us. We are the supreme Masters of Peace and War. We can boast of being the Creators of the Reformation!” (Culled from a series of speeches at the B’nai B’rith Convention in Paris, published shortly afterwards in the London Catholic Gazette, February, 1936. http://www.johnthebaptist.us/jbw_english/documents/articles/misc/tmi2_jewish_peril.pdf)

The quote above was from a 1936 Catholic publication and should by no means serve as another form of diversion, but at least, it exposes some intent. It should not serve as another diversion simply because the believer has access to the Word of God from the pages of the Bible to discern the Truth.

I shake my head when I see believers going for deliverance sessions for the umpteenth time, usually with the same issue as the very first time they started the sessions. I am not against the deliverance ministry in the Body, but unfortunately, it is full of misinformation and false prophets who take advantage of the weak and vulnerable.

Most deliverance ministries of today are nothing but another version of the secular “shrink” except that they are laden with religion or religious beliefs, and usually these complex mixes have little or no biblical basis. They thrive in the continuation of the subtle lies of the Old Serpent. They are always afraid of being challenged with the truth in the Word.

Truth is never afraid of being challenged, because when you examine it from any angle, all you see is truth. But the same cannot be said of lies; it’s full of layers or levels of deception and diversions, always having something to hide, because it does not want to be exposed.

Am I saying we should ignore the devil? Of course not, but most of the spiritual fight believers engage in, for those who bother to put up a fight, are in vain and Satan is busy laughing at our so-called spiritual warfare prayers. We have been deceived for too long!

Personally, I wish to state that I have experienced almost all of these different types of deliverance meetings and seen them for what they truly are – falsehood. The reason for this is summed up in one word – Ignorance!

It is no wonder God disappointedly states: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” [Hosea 4:6]

Sad to report that many believers are praying amiss (James 4:3), declaring that they are in spiritual warfare with the devil when the real fight is taking place elsewhere and that with a different being entirely.

Another sad truth is that many sincere preachers are too lazy to seek the face of God, hence they borrow from the lies of false prophets or misconceived Biblical concepts based on personal opinions. They spend most of their time reading commentaries after commentaries instead of the real thing, the Bible.

So, what is the truth about spiritual warfare? Let us dig deeper into this spiritual warfare problem; through knowledge, we can apply wisdom and gain victory. “Wisdom will make you stronger than the ten most powerful leaders in your city.” [Ecclesiastes 7:19 CEV]

“And it came to pass after this, that Absalom the son of David had a beautiful sister, whose name was Tamar; and Amnon the son of David loved her. And Amnon was so distressed, that he became sick over his sister Tamar; for she was a virgin; and Amnon thought it improper for him to do anything to her.” [2Samuel 13:1-2]

This was an inappropriate desire and his emotions had got control of him, hence the sickness and distress. They were half siblings. Nonetheless, he could not get over the alluring beauty of his sister and wanted her at all costs.

Now Amnon had a cousin, Jonadab who was subtle – intelligent, cunning or skillful – and together they hatched a plan and it worked. They even used King David in the scheming and it made the perfect plan. But the aftermath wasn’t.

“Then Amnon hated her exceedingly; so that the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her. And Amnon said unto her, Arise, be gone.” [2Samuel 13:15]

In verse one, we are told that Amnon loved Tamar but in verse fifteen that love had suddenly turned into hatred. How can sexual affection suddenly change into hatred (1John 3:15), especially after the affection has been gratified?

Amnon was in a battle he lacked both strategy and armory to fight. He had already lost the battle when he started getting sick and distressed. Soon after what he thought was a victory in his quest, he was murdered in a revenge attack by Absalom, Tamar’s brother.

What does this story has to tell us about spiritual warfare?

It reveals the true battleground of spiritual warfare. It reveals the consequence of fighting the wrong battle. It reveals the consequence of being defeated in spiritual warfare.

Where is this Battleground?
“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” [Genesis 2:7]

Remember, “Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. ….. But he spake of the temple of his body.” [John 2:19, 21]

Man is comprised of three parts, spirit, soul and body. The spirit of man is known through the activities of the conscience, the conscience can be allowed to speak, silenced or seared (1 Timothy 4:2). The soul is also known through its activities, which can either be deadly or sweet. The body is known and seen by all. Handsome, beautiful, tall, short, slim, masculine, et cetera, are all expressions of the body.

The Human Spirit: The spirit is from God Himself and cannot be corrupted. However, it may be silenced or misinterpreted. It is the equivalent of the black box of an airplane because it is the candle of the Lord (Proverbs 20:27).

The Human Body: A lot of unjust punishments have been dished out to the body because it is thought to be the place where spiritual warfare is fought. The truth of the matter is that the body is a victim of so many ills in a human life. For example, when a person steals and he’s caught by the victim, he may be given a good beating or even have his fingers chopped off.

A woman was caught in the act of adultery and the next thing people wanted to do was stone her to death (John 8:4-5). The belief was that the battleground of her adultery was her body, hence the treatment of elimination. How wrong!

The ignorance or lack of practical understanding of the spiritual battleground will always leave a believer defeated and deflated after each battle. Worse still, many either become frustrated or desperate because they have suffered many losses. Friend, you need to discover the battleground, know how to fight and take it.

So, where is this battleground? It is the place at which lust shines!

“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that rules his spirit than he that takes a city.” [Proverbs 16:32]

“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” [Matthew 16:26]

Real spiritual warfare is possibly 10% outside (against the kingdom of darkness) and 90% inside the believer. The battle is in the soul. The soul is like a city. It can be positively or negatively fortified through agreements or it can be made impassive. It depends on you and what you do with it.

In the next article, I will be revealing the City of the Soul, the different levels, how battles are fought, lost or won in the soul. How you can start winning the war. Once you start winning this war, you will become a terror to the kingdom of darkness.

…. Continuing next week, in next article …. Cutting Off The Enemies – Spiritual Guerrilla Warfare!