Table of Contents
Living in the Here and the Now
The Struggle is Real
The Kingdom of God is at Hand
Authority Over Evil
Roaring Lions
Ground Zero the Battle with the Flesh
Of Good Angels
Of Evil Angels
Concerning Mental Illness, Natural Disasters, Accidents, and Diseases
Case Studies
The Demonic Plague of Unhealthy Narcissism
Tactical Means of Fighting
How to Fight
The Tactics of Collective Evil
Overcoming the Spiritual Attack
The Best is Yet to Come
“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.” –The Apostle Paul (Ephesians 6:12 NIV)
“Evil is not to be traced back to the individual but to the collective behavior of humanity.” --Reinhold Niebuhr
Do you know you are in a spiritual battle with evil every day? Do you know that the battles that wage around us are not only a part of our individual lives but also our corporate lives in the body of Christ? These battles are a part of our journey, our destiny and our calling in doing God’s work. Let me just say, you can deny your purpose and the war that rages around you, but that does not mean that it is not happening. To acknowledge that spiritual warfare is around us and to engage in that war is a part of our Christian walk, life, testimony, inheritance, and narrative. This war is fought on different fronts, with fluctuating degrees, and forces. We may not win all the battles, but we know, by the grace of God, we will win the war.
All battles are woven into the tapestry of our lives that eventually make up the big picture that God desires for us but that we, many times, cannot see in the here and the now. It is like a child looking through a knothole in a fence at the circus parade going through town. He sees the acrobats, and their crazy routines in the parade that make him laugh. He sees the bearded women and is amazed. He sees the Lions, and he is all of a sudden afraid. He sees an elephant, and he is astonished at its size. Then he is totally freaked out by the clowns with their painted faces. If we were to sit up in the tree by the fence, we could see the beginning, the middle, and the end of the parade. The spiritual world we live in is like that boy looking at that parade from the knothole. Life is all about perspective. Only God can see the big picture, but it is our responsibility to be aware of what is around us and trust that God has the best plans for our life.
We must believe that God knows the desires of our hearts including the desires that we do not even know. That is why it is imperative that we not only know that we are in a spiritual war, but we need to be willing to fight. We need to develop some tactics to maneuver in this world to be battle ready. The spiritual world is real. The battle is being fought. The question is, do you want to engage in the warfare or live a life in denial of the war waging around you? To engage is the difference between being a victim of our circumstances or living victorious lives.
Jesus told us in Matthew 28:18 that, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.” (NLT) As believers who trust in God, we have this confidence that we are free for joyful service to the Lord because the war has been won. We have victory in Jesus and grace saves us through faith in Jesus as God’s Son. So my prayer is that this book will empower you to choose not to be a victim but to be victorious because the battle is ours!
Living in the Here and the Now
“In this life, we have to make many choices. Some are crucial, and some are not. Many of our choices are between good and evil. The choices we make, however, determine to a large extent our happiness or our unhappiness, because we have to live with the consequences of our choices.” --James E. Faust
How we choose to live our lives is important. We can take the easy road and live in denial of the spiritual world around us and pretend it does not exist. The other day, I was at IHOP eating some of my favorite pancakes. The delicious harvest and grain pancakes make my stomach happy! To my right and across from me, there was this cute little girl sitting at a table and, for some reason, she was enamored with me. I guess I just look goofy or something. I remembered one of my daughters’ favorite games to play when they were little was “Peek A Boo!” So, I took a napkin and unfolded it and held it before my face. Now to the toddler, I mysteriously disappeared and when I pulled it down and said “Peek A Boo,” I suddenly re-appeared. For a child’s mindset, this appeared to be magic. Every time I disappeared, she was quiet and when I re-appeared she squealed with joy. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Paul’s analogy in 1 Corinthians 13:11, where he says “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” (NKJV) We are at a time where we must all grow up and cease to play “Peek A Boo” with the spiritual world that surrounds us. We may try to mysteriously make spiritual warfare disappear, but it is there all the same.