Spiritual Warfare Isn’t What You Think It Is… — Transcript

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1. 0:00Spiritual warfare is not what [music]
2. 0:02you think it is. You are in the war
3. 0:04right now. This is not a metaphor. This
4. 0:06is not some church [music] catchy
5. 0:08phrase. Notice this deliverance junkies
6. 0:11form of viewing this world. You're in
7. 0:14actual war with an actual [music] enemy,
8. 0:17actual casualties, and actual weapons.
9. 0:19But here's the problem that a lot of
10. 0:21people have is most Christians have
11. 0:23[music] actually secretly, quietly opted
12. 0:25out of it. Some of us have opted out of
13. 0:27this because we think the spiritual
14. 0:29world and the spiritual warfare is this
15. 0:32French thing. [music] Something that
16. 0:33happens on the mission field, something
17. 0:35that happens in deliverance session or
18. 0:37something that happens in the movie. But
19. 0:38not in our office, not in our marriage,
20. 0:40not in our family, not in our workplace,
21. 0:42and not in our scrolling [music] through
22. 0:44the midnight. Some of us have went to
23. 0:46the other extreme where we made
24. 0:47spiritual warfare into some kind of a
25. 0:49spectacle. Everything is a demon. Every
26. 0:51headache is an attack. And every mood
27. 0:54needs [music] an exorcism. And both
28. 0:56extremes are wrong. But today, we're
29. 0:58going to open the New Testament [music]
30. 0:59and actually see what the spiritual
31. 1:01warfare is, how it shows up, and what
32. 1:04[music] it means for you and I. Number
33. 1:06one, spiritual warfare is not a
34. 1:08specialty ministry. It's actually
35. 1:11everyone's daily reality. And this is
36. 1:14what I want you to shift in your
37. 1:15understanding. When people hear of
38. 1:17spiritual warfare, one thing that people
39. 1:19sometimes associate that with is with
40. 1:21casting out demons or deliverance
41. 1:23ministry. somebody yelling come out in
42. 1:24Jesus' name at the altar or in the
43. 1:26prayer room. While that's not wrong and
44. 1:29that's a part of it, that is not the
45. 1:31totality of the spiritual warfare.
46. 1:33Spiritual warfare in the New Testament
47. 1:35is simply the word for the everyday
48. 1:38struggle that every Christian is already
49. 1:41in. It's not some specialized job for
50. 1:44handful people who are in spiritual
51. 1:46warfare or people who are fanatic or
52. 1:49passionate or obsessed with spiritual
53. 1:51world. You will see this in Jesus. The
54. 1:54moment he stepped into ministry, his
55. 1:56public ministry, he stepped into
56. 1:57conflict. His first sermon was at the
57. 2:00Capernaum where he experienced a
58. 2:03confrontation with the demon in Mark
59. 2:05chapter one. And Jesus said if he's
60. 2:07driving out demons, it's a proof that
61. 2:09the kingdom of God has arrived. I want
62. 2:11you to notice Jesus is not connecting
63. 2:13his deliverance ministry to a specific
64. 2:17focus on demons. It was about the
65. 2:20kingdom of God. So his healings, his
66. 2:22exorcisms, they were not some side
67. 2:25things, some little French footnote
68. 2:27things. They were actually signs that a
69. 2:29rival kingdom was being pushed back. So
70. 2:31from that day one, the gospel story has
71. 2:34always been about two kingdoms in
72. 2:37conflict. Paul calls Satan the god of
73. 2:40this age, meaning that his influence is
74. 2:42not just in a region or one culture.
75. 2:45It's actually woven into the fabric of
76. 2:48how this present age operates. That
77. 2:51means you don't need a special gift. You
78. 2:54don't need to be in a deliverance
79. 2:56ministry or a special title to be
80. 3:00engaged in spiritual warfare. As a
81. 3:02Christian, you are already in a
82. 3:05spiritual warfare. The second thing I
83. 3:07want to highlight and that is this why
84. 3:09people are not engaged in a spiritual
85. 3:11warfare. And there's really two main
86. 3:14reasons. And the first one is this is we
87. 3:16have absorbed the naturalistic
88. 3:18worldview. Many of us in the modern
89. 3:21world especially modern west we were
90. 3:24trained by our school. We were trained
91. 3:26by our media and actually for a lot of
92. 3:28us we were trained by our religious
93. 3:30institutions. It's actually in the
94. 3:33cultural air that everything that we
95. 3:36breathe in has an explanation by natural
96. 3:39causes. Chemistry, psychology,
97. 3:42circumstances. And there's a truth in
98. 3:44all of those things. But see, somewhere
99. 3:47behind the scenes, we have been
100. 3:49convinced and it started with the
101. 3:51enlightenment era. It really kind of
102. 3:54went down into even Christian church and
103. 3:57some the philosophy and theology that
104. 4:00pastors, professors, and scholars have
105. 4:03that the devil, spiritual forces are all
106. 4:06primitive, meaning they are
107. 4:08pre-scientific.
108. 4:10something people believed before we knew
109. 4:14better. But see, the Bible never
110. 4:16apologizes for the spiritual warfare
111. 4:19situation or theme. In fact, I would say
112. 4:22it's a lens. It's a framework from
113. 4:24Genesis to Revelation that there is a
114. 4:27conflict with evil spiritual powers.
115. 4:30This is not some footnote. This is
116. 4:32actually the main thread that goes from
117. 4:34Genesis chapter 3 all the way to the
118. 4:36end. So if our operating assumptions
119. 4:39make us skeptical of what the Bible
120. 4:43plainly teaches, it's not the Bible that
121. 4:46needs to be updated. It is our
122. 4:48assumptions that need to be challenged.
123. 4:50The second thing that is operating in
124. 4:53believers today because of which they're
125. 4:55not engaging in spiritual warfare is
126. 4:58that we think that the spiritual warfare
127. 5:01happens out there. Meaning there's a
128. 5:04common assumption among believers that
129. 5:06demonic activity is a missionfilled
130. 5:09phenomena. It's something you hear in
131. 5:11far off countries. It it's it's not in
132. 5:13our neighborhoods. But there's no
133. 5:15biblical basis for that. That the
134. 5:18spiritual hostility, the conflict exists
135. 5:20in Africa and in India, but it does not
136. 5:23exist in the West. That it does not
137. 5:25exist in America. That it does not exist
138. 5:27in Europe. The west has spent last two
139. 5:29generations becoming less Christian and
140. 5:32more open to every alternative
141. 5:34spirituality on the planet. And so if
142. 5:36anything, the conditions for spiritual
143. 5:39conflict in the west have increased, not
144. 5:42decreased. So we ended up with a very
145. 5:44strange combination. And we have a
146. 5:45culture that's soaked with the occult,
147. 5:47manifest your reality, spirituality, the
148. 5:50new age, right alongside a church that
149. 5:52is embarrassed to talk about the
150. 5:55spiritual warfare or about confronting
151. 5:58the real enemy that we face. And that is
152. 6:00why many Christians are afraid. Many
153. 6:02Christians are feel weirded about this
154. 6:05whole topic of spiritual warfare. Point
155. 6:09number three that I want to highlight
156. 6:10and that is this. the real framework of
157. 6:12spiritual warfare revealed in the Bible
158. 6:15and this will help to bring some
159. 6:17balance. The framework of spiritual
160. 6:19warfare is a threefold cord or three
161. 6:23strands not one. When you think of
162. 6:25spiritual warfare, many people think of
163. 6:28the devil. But the Bible doesn't limit
164. 6:30everything to the devil. In fact, the
165. 6:32Bible talks about three things when it
166. 6:35comes to the complete picture of what
167. 6:38the spiritual warfare meaning the three
168. 6:40sources of evil influence on believers
169. 6:43life. The first one actually is inside
170. 6:46of you. It's the flesh. It's the inward
171. 6:49pull towards sin and something that is
172. 6:52inside of us, the fallen people. Even
173. 6:55after we are saved, though our old man
174. 6:57is crucified, we still have that sinful
175. 7:00tendencies that need to be dealt with
176. 7:03and constantly honestly renounced and
177. 7:06put off like Paul tells us and that is a
178. 7:08spiritual warfare. The second one is the
179. 7:11world because see you have to understand
180. 7:12Satan uses the flesh. He he co
181. 7:15collaborates with the flesh and he also
182. 7:17collaborates with the world. The world
183. 7:19is the ungodly systems, values and the
184. 7:21pressures of the culture around us. The
185. 7:23Bible tells us not to conform to the
186. 7:25world. And then there's of course the
187. 7:27devil, the actual intelligent personal
188. 7:30being who is hostile to God and he's
189. 7:32also hostile to you. So these three
190. 7:35things, they're not operating
191. 7:37separately. They're actually brought in
192. 7:39together like a threefolded cord. And
193. 7:42see, the devil doesn't have to invent
194. 7:44temptation out of nothing. He already
195. 7:46leans into what's there. He's leaning
196. 7:49into the flesh because the pool is
197. 7:51already there. He uses the pressure
198. 7:53that's already in the culture. And the
199. 7:56most terrifying part is that you're not
200. 7:58just fighting yourself, the flesh. You
201. 8:00actually have an intelligent opponent
202. 8:02who is studying your weak points and who
203. 8:06is pressing on them. That means the
204. 8:09answer to the spiritual warfare
205. 8:12phenomena is not blame the devil for
206. 8:15everything, nor is it ignore the devil
207. 8:18altogether. It is a holistic view that
208. 8:22you deal with your heart. You resist the
209. 8:25cultural pressure and you take the real
210. 8:28enemy seriously.
211. 8:31All three together. That is a biblical
212. 8:34framework for spiritual warfare. Point
213. 8:38number four that I want to highlight and
214. 8:40that is this. The armor of God is not a
215. 8:43costume. It is a spiritual posture in
216. 8:48fight against the spiritual battles. Now
217. 8:51the most famous and the most quoted
218. 8:53verse or portion of verses about
219. 8:56spiritual warfare is Ephesians chapter
220. 8:596. Put on the full armor of God that you
221. 9:02may take your stand against the devil's
222. 9:04schemes. Now notice this passage is not
223. 9:08talking about casting out demons and
224. 9:11this passage is not talking about
225. 9:13casting out territorial spirits over the
226. 9:17city. Paul in here is talking about
227. 9:19ordinary daily struggle of a Christian
228. 9:23life. The word stand shows up four times
229. 9:27in this passage. Means this is not about
230. 9:30winning some dramatic battle at once. It
231. 9:34is about holding your ground day after
232. 9:37day. People love to of course
233. 9:40overspiritualize
234. 9:41each piece of the armor of God. How the
235. 9:44helmet protects your brain and it's the
236. 9:46most important one. You know how the
237. 9:48shield protects the armor other pieces
238. 9:51and how the um breastplate protects your
239. 9:53heart and that has its place but that's
240. 9:56not the main point. Paul highlights what
241. 9:59each piece of the armor represents and
242. 10:02he gets to the point very quickly. So
243. 10:04one of the pieces is the truth. Speaks
244. 10:07of knowing who you are in Jesus because
245. 10:09enemy's primary attack or weapon is
246. 10:13deception and lies. Then he talks about
247. 10:15righteousness meaning resting in the
248. 10:18fact that you are already declared
249. 10:20righteous in the eyes of God. not trying
250. 10:22to perform for righteousness and out of
251. 10:24it coming to live honest righteous life.
252. 10:28Then there's also the gospel of peace
253. 10:30being ready to carry the good news in
254. 10:33the hostile world. Then there's also
255. 10:35faith actively trusting God rather than
256. 10:38giving into doubt. And there's also
257. 10:40salvation. You know, it's having
258. 10:42security in your identity that you are
259. 10:44already saved, that you are already
260. 10:47united with Jesus. the word of God, the
261. 10:49only offensive weapon that is listed.
262. 10:52Meaning, you actually have to know the
263. 10:54scriptures to use it. And then right
264. 10:56after that, people skip that because
265. 10:57they they don't see the fact that Paul
266. 10:59highlights prayer. And prayer is not
267. 11:02attached to one single piece of armor.
268. 11:05Paul puts it last. And he repeats the
269. 11:08word all four times. Pray at all times.
270. 11:12All kinds of prayer for all the saints
271. 11:15and with all perseverance. So that's not
272. 11:18an accident. Prayer is not a seventh
273. 11:20weapon in the list of seven. It's the
274. 11:23thing that activates all the pieces of
275. 11:26the armor of God. And it's the humility
276. 11:29that we walk with when we pray that says
277. 11:32I'm not able to do any of this in my own
278. 11:36strength. So we know the spiritual
279. 11:38warfare is real. We know that there's
280. 11:41three main strengths of the spiritual
281. 11:43warfare. And we know that there's a
282. 11:45posture that we have as Christians from
283. 11:48faith to salvation to righteousness to
284. 11:51walking in peace to walking in truth
285. 11:54that already puts us on the standing
286. 11:57position not to win the battle, but to
287. 12:00reinforce the victory that Jesus already
288. 12:04won against Satan, principalities, and
289. 12:08against the world, including our flesh,
290. 12:12where he crucified our old man and now
291. 12:14we have the easy job of working out that
292. 12:17salvation that victory that's why I
293. 12:20always tell people we don't fight for
294. 12:21victory we fight from victory as
295. 12:24Christians now let's look at the fifth
296. 12:26thing about spiritual warfare and that
297. 12:29is binding the strong man and I want to
298. 12:32show something in this parable or in
299. 12:35this story that Jesus tells us that is
300. 12:37crucial to understanding spiritual
301. 12:39warfare now people love to throw the
302. 12:41phrase binding the strong men. And a lot
303. 12:43of times that is specifically used in
304. 12:46deliverance to bind the main demon that
305. 12:50is like a gate demon. The demon that
306. 12:52perhaps is controlling other demons. But
307. 12:55you have to go back to the original text
308. 12:57that Jesus talked about in the short
309. 12:59parable. Jesus says you cannot rob a
310. 13:03strong man's house unless you first tie
311. 13:06or bind the strong man and then you can
312. 13:08plunder his possessions. So in that
313. 13:11parable in the context Jesus is the one
314. 13:16that binds the strong man and the strong
315. 13:18man is Satan. Now what's easy to miss
316. 13:21there is the possessions are not money.
317. 13:24The possessions are not objects.
318. 13:26Possessions are people that are blinded
319. 13:29to the truth of the gospel. So the
320. 13:32binding of the strong man in the context
321. 13:34is not happening through a formula or
322. 13:37through a special prayer technique. It
323. 13:39actually happened at the cross. That's
324. 13:41where we see Jesus dealt a decisive
325. 13:45blow, disarming principalities and
326. 13:47powers and making a public spectacle
327. 13:50over them according to Colossians 2:15.
328. 13:55So when we're talking about binding a
329. 13:58strong man today, we are not trying to
330. 14:00accomplish something Jesus has already
331. 14:02done. We are stepping into the victory
332. 14:06that's already ours. Satan has already
333. 14:09lost his legal claim to accuse people
334. 14:12because Jesus paid for our sins on the
335. 14:15cross. The church's job now is to walk
336. 14:18into that plundered house through the
337. 14:21preaching of the gospel and bring people
338. 14:23out of the captivity into the kingdom of
339. 14:26God. This changes everything. Which
340. 14:28means spiritual warfare is not primarily
341. 14:31about us trying to defeat an undefeated
342. 14:34enemy. It is enforcing the defeat that
343. 14:38already has happened mainly by the
344. 14:41preaching of the gospel to people that
345. 14:44are blinded by the enemy and then
346. 14:47casting out demons out of those people
347. 14:50and teaching those people to resist the
348. 14:53devil by faith in Jesus Christ. Does it
349. 14:57mean that in a deliverance setting there
350. 15:00is no strong man within a person that we
351. 15:03don't have to drive out and cast out?
352. 15:05That is not what I'm saying. But in the
353. 15:07context, I'm talking about the big
354. 15:09picture spiritual warfare. Jesus has
355. 15:13defeated the strong man and we enforce
356. 15:17his victory when we cast out demons.
357. 15:21The sixth truth about spiritual warfare
358. 15:24is tearing down the strongholds. And
359. 15:27it's not what you think. Now, I'm a
360. 15:29person that believes in deliverance. But
361. 15:32the most quoted portion of spiritual
362. 15:36warfare when it comes to breaking down
363. 15:38strongholds comes from 2 Corinthians.
364. 15:41What I want you to see in 2 Corinthians
365. 15:4410, when Paul is talking about tearing
366. 15:47down strongholds, he's actually not
367. 15:50talking about a stubborn sin habit. He
368. 15:53is not talking about an addiction and
369. 15:56he's not talking about a region that is
370. 15:59resistant to the gospel. Paul is not
371. 16:02talking about a personal sin struggle at
372. 16:04all. He's actually dealing with false
373. 16:07teachers who had shown up in Corenth
374. 16:10claiming to be apostles and preaching a
375. 16:13different Jesus. 2 Corinthians 11:4. And
376. 16:17Paul says that the weapons of our
377. 16:20warfare have divine power to demolish
378. 16:23strongholds. And then he defines exactly
379. 16:27what he means. arguments and every
380. 16:30accusation or every imagination, every
381. 16:33pretension that sets itself up against
382. 16:37the knowledge of God. So in the original
383. 16:40context, a stronghold is a wrong idea
384. 16:45about who Jesus is that has taken a root
385. 16:49in someone's mind. That is actually what
386. 16:52Paul means by a stronghold. The entire
387. 16:56early church would spend centuries
388. 16:59fighting exactly these strongholds. For
389. 17:03example, there were agnostics who were
390. 17:05teaching that Jesus wasn't human. After
391. 17:09that came another heresy that was
392. 17:11teaching that Jesus wasn't really God.
393. 17:14And then there were endless versions
394. 17:16that are still coming today that are
395. 17:19teaching that Jesus is not enough. that
396. 17:22we have to add other requirements to the
397. 17:25gospel. And so what we're seeing today
398. 17:27is a pattern that is showing up in our
399. 17:30culture through Mormonism, through
400. 17:33Jehovah witnessism, through new age, and
401. 17:36through different teachings that have
402. 17:38built strongholds in people's minds that
403. 17:41present Jesus as somebody who is either
404. 17:44a created being, a moral teacher, or a
405. 17:48great spiritual guru among many. And
406. 17:51every one of these builds a stronghold
407. 17:54with exactly same thing that Paul meant.
408. 17:57An idea about Jesus that has to be
409. 17:59demolished with the truth. Now does this
410. 18:02mean that the sin habit application or a
411. 18:06pattern of emotional bondage does not
412. 18:10apply from this verse? Not necessarily.
413. 18:13It actually I believe is a legitimate
414. 18:17extension of this principle of
415. 18:20strongholds. But the main point that
416. 18:23Paul is making in Corinthians is about
417. 18:27protecting a right understanding of who
418. 18:30Jesus is. And it's worth recovering
419. 18:33today because a wrong view about Jesus
420. 18:37is the most effective stronghold Satan
421. 18:41has ever built. With rise of Islam, with
422. 18:46the rise of more false religion, we as
423. 18:49Christians will have to use the
424. 18:52spiritual weapons to help rescue people
425. 18:54from the kingdom of darkness by
426. 18:57demolishing the strongholds Satan has
427. 19:00built. So spiritual warfare is not a
428. 19:03specialty ministry for some spiritually
429. 19:06intense people. It's not primitive
430. 19:08superstition before science and before
431. 19:12the enlightenment era. It is actually a
432. 19:15biblical framework, including the one in
433. 19:18the New Testament, that gives every
434. 19:21believer for daily life pattern, dealing
435. 19:26honestly with their flesh, resisting the
436. 19:29pool of the world, and taking on the
437. 19:32real personal enemy seriously without
438. 19:36giving Satan more credit than the
439. 19:38scripture does. So, you don't need a
440. 19:41special title to be at this war. You are
441. 19:43already at this war. And the question
442. 19:45today is whether you are standing in the
443. 19:49victory Jesus secured at the cross full
444. 19:52of armor of God, praying and being clear
445. 19:56about who Jesus really is, or whether
446. 19:59you're quietly wandering off of the
447. 20:02battle without noticing and getting shot
448. 20:05and brought down and destroyed by being
449. 20:09the casualty of this spiritual war. You
450. 20:13can be the soldier or the casualty. When
451. 20:16Israel entered the promised land, the
452. 20:18victory was already theirs. They had to
453. 20:21reinforce the victory that God gave
454. 20:23them. And that's exactly what living in
455. 20:26spiritual warfare is. It's moving from
456. 20:29victory of Christ on the cross to seeing
457. 20:32it manifest in our life. We reinforce
458. 20:35that victory. We drive out unclean
459. 20:38spirits. We break down strongholds. lies
460. 20:42about Jesus and lies about things that
461. 20:45God says about us as well. And we resist
462. 20:49the forces of darkness, pushing forward
463. 20:52and going on doing God's work in our
464. 20:56generation. Thank you for watching this
465. 20:59video. Let me know in the comments, how
466. 21:01do you engage in spiritual [music]
467. 21:04warfare? I have a resource uh that I've
468. 21:07released called Make the Devil Homeless
469. 21:08where I dive into this a [music] little
470. 21:10bit deeper, especially dedicated the
471. 21:11whole chapter about warfare worldview
472. 21:13that will be a very great blessing to
473. 21:15you. This book is available on my
474. 21:17website or on Amazon. On [music] my
475. 21:18website, you can get it for free. Um and
476. 21:20I have actually Vlad school where over
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489. 21:52God bless you. Until next time. I hope
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