Spiritual Warfare: It's Roots..

The Origin of Spiritual Warfare:

• Introduction- This can be traced to the fall of Lucifer; after his fall he began to wage war with humankind. Therefore this explains his activity from genesis to Revelation.

• Lucifer-Son of the Morning-Satan was an Angelic Prince-or known as Son of the Morning. He was described as beautiful. He had so much spiritual authority that he was able to influence 1/3 of the angels to participate in rebellion. (in charge of the breaking forth of the sun)

• Ezekiel 28:13-16: “You were in Eden, the garden of God. Your clothing was adorned with every precious stone red carnelian, pale-green peridot, white moonstone, blue-green beryl, onyx, green jasper, blue lapis lazuli, turquoise, and emerald—all beautifully crafted for you and set in the finest gold. They were given to you on the day you were created. I ordained and anointed you as the mighty angelic guardian. You had access to the holy mountain of God and walked among the stones of fire. “You were blameless in all you did from the day you were created until the day evil was found in you. Your rich commerce led you to violence, and you sinned. So I banished you in disgrace from the mountain of God. I expelled you, O mighty Guardian, from your place among the stones of fire.”

• Isaiah 14:12-18: “How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning! You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world. For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north. I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.’ Instead, you will be brought down to the place of the dead, down to its lowest depths. Everyone there will stare at you and ask ‘Can this be the one who shook the earth and made the kingdoms of the world tremble? Is this the one who destroyed the world and made it into a wasteland? Is this the king who demolished the world’s greatest cities and had no mercy on his prisoners?’ “The kings of the nations lie in stately glory, each in his own tomb,”

• The war in heaven: Revelation 12:3-4: “Then I witnessed in heaven another significant event. I saw a large red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, with seven crowns on his heads. 4 His tail swept away one-third of the stars in the sky, and he threw them to the earth. He stood in front of the woman as she was about to give birth, ready to devour her baby as soon as it was born.”

• Revelation 12:7-12: “Then there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels. And the dragon lost the battle, and he and his angels were forced out of heaven. This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels. Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens, “It has come at last—salvation and power and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth—the one who accuses them before our God day and night. And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens! And you, who live in the heavens, rejoice! But terror will come on the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you in great anger, knowing that he has little time.”

• Satan’s ambition: Lucifer discovered that almost every power was in his hand (supervisory role). He imagined that he should elevate himself higher and become like the Most High God who created him. God then saw corrupt dirty ambition in him. God knew there was no point keeping corruption in the midst of His Holiness. The Bible also says that God’s eyes are too pure to behold iniquity. He asked the Chief Prince Michael to address him and send him down.

• There is a hierarchy in heaven-Lucifer was an administrative archangel or a Chief of Staff in the heavenly armed forces. His job was to oversee the duties of other persons. In times of war, Michael is in charge of the military department. You will notice that Michael is the Executor of God’s vengeance.

• Satan influenced 1/3 of the angelic hosts and staging a resistance. He was defeated by Michael and cast down to the earth. When he descended, he came with a terrible wrath and the Bible said: “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth”. The devil enjoys sabotaging the purposes of God in everything”

• As soon as the he saw Eve in the garden his 1st purpose was to confuse her. He tempted her in her weakness and took the certificate of occupancy from her and the legal right to dominate the earth. So God sent Michael to defeat the enemy as it was in Heaven and the woman (Eve’ s) seed crushed his head (Gen 3:15)

• Spiritual Warfare has an ancient history: It began in heaven and continued on earth in the Garden of Eden.

1 John 3:8: But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning.

When God appointed his disciples and then promoted them to the apostleship (Matthew 10:1)-He commissioned them to preach, and he charged them to teach the good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; they were empowered to confront, and cast out devils, like the military evicting illegal immigrants from a house. For example, we can look at Operation Desert Storm. The allied forces landed Kuwait and advised the Iraqis to leave. They did not and the US military declared took action and got them out. God 1st declared war in heaven by releasing the Archangel Michael to fight, then when the devil was evicted to earth (The Garden of Eden) it had to be championed by Christ and then by man. Therefore we are born in battle; we must fight according to rules and use strategy. During Desert Storm, the allies used what we called “Precision bombing” where each bomb was directed at a specific designated target. Within a short time they destroyed each strategic military system and then they were able to zero in on their target. If physical warfare is this sophisticated then we must concede to take a higher position in the spirit as spiritual warfare will be even more sophisticated.

• Let’s learn from Eve’s mistake: If God has commanded us not to do a thing, then we should not think of even going near it. We can’t be wiser than God to expect we will play with fire and not get burned.

• Obey God’s Word to the letter: If God says don’t cheat; don’t even try to do it. We think that when we commit certain actions and we are not seen we are OK, but we do not realize we have planted a seed of cheating.

Gal 6:7 says: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” You are sure to reap people stealing from you.”

Luke 6: 38 says: “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

This scripture is not about money as many ministers like to teach. It has to do with what you give out you will receive back in greater measure. Don’t plant a seed that you are not comfortable reaping. Do not try to examine God’s commands for clever loopholes or reason with your human senses so that you can try to avoid them. No man can bypass God’s wisdom in earth or in heaven.

• Clean up your temple: If we are bound in pornography, lust, masturbation or any type of sexual sin, we should know that whatever we feed our spirit and soul is what we become.

Prov 23:7 says: For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.

Prov 4:23 instructs us to: Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.

If you fill your heart with dirt and filth this is what will come out:

-The Spirit of God works with our imaginations. If you fill your eyes with corruption the devil will have place to work on your heart; it will occupy you in such a way that there will be no room for anything else.

• Guard your gates: There are several gates into your body: eye gate, ear gate, umbilical gate, mouth gate, rectal gate, and reproductive gates. These gates all receive messages and send messages to our spirit man. Whatever you feed them determines your physical and spiritual health. Remember, the enemy was happy at the fall of man because he was only too happy to strip man of their authority.

• Jesus was tempted too: God gave man dominion over the whole earth; Adam was the Prince of the world. Gen 1:26-30 says “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.”

The devil stripped man of 2 things:

a. relationship with God

b. His spiritual authority

This automatically gave Satan the right to be the prince of this world; which is why he asked Jesus to bow to him and he would give him the kingdoms of the world. Jesus’ reply was found in Jn 14:30 “I will not say much more to you, for the is coming. He has no hold over me”, Before Jesus could access this world, He had to take the keys back from the devil; this was why the enemy asked him to bow down and worship him (3rd temptation).

In the 2nd temptation (Matthew 4:6 “and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’” This would end Jesus’ ministry prematurely. If the devil does not succeed in making you doubt your identity in Christ, he will work on destroying you because he sees you as a threat to him and his kingdom. Pride is subtle-the love of money, power, and the lust of the eyes and flesh are others. When Satan came to God he twisted, lied and perverted psalms 91:11-12-he is a deceiver & liar-the Father of lies. The devil knows more scripture than you and I and he deliberately quotes things out of context to deceive the mature and immature believers. When the enemy saw that he lost all his chances to tempt Jesus, he declared war against him and his ministry. He then gave assignments to different demons over continents, nations, races and groups of people throughout the world.

• Satanic activities throughout the world: in some parts of the world people unearth the remains of their dead relatives after they have been dead to make shrines to worship them; because of this people (farmers) do not have free access to the crops of that land and they have to go to the person who then appoints themselves as a spirit medium to get permission from the demons to access the land.

Some places have specially assigned palm readers who carry out divinations for them. Some serve the Queen of the Coast. These people are possessed by evil spirits to cause problems for people. The devil is successful at stealing people’s confidence in God and convince them that he is more powerful than God.

• Jesus fought and disarmed the devil in the grave.

-We know Jesus took our position in death but when He went to the grave He disarmed the enemy. : to deprive of the means of attack or defense or to lay down one's weapons. Jesus in essence, removed and destroyed every weapon that the devil could use against us and made them of no effect. Therefore if Jesus says in Matt 28:18b: “Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”

m. Jesus then restored to man all that the enemy took from man: Therefore He was able to give to us Matthew 16:19, “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

• The Devil is fighting a losing battle: the devils desire is to take as many people to hell with him as possible. He wants to deceive man and take as many to hell with them as possible. The demons went to their different locations to continue their assignments against mankind. Evil princes were appointed over nations, who supervised the work of deception. They work hard to release the spirit of delusion on men’s minds and cause confusion. This is carried out by the principalities, powers, wicked spirits, and lesser demons. (ie Prince of Persia) there are princes assigned to different countries: U.S.A., Greece, Nigeria, India etc. Each prince is assigned a ruler of darkness and host of wickedness to work with them. Their assignment is to make sure as true believers do not live victorious/triumphant Christians, and be able to deliver our brothers or sisters and to occupy the earth.

• Jesus reminded us that He is with us:

Matthew 28:20 “…

• The nature of war: We need to consider the nature of this war after examining its origins.

• Demons are stubborn spirits: Jude 3 “I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” sometimes if you see we are screaming at demons it is because they are stubborn

• Warfare is deadly: 1 cor 15:30-32-“And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I face death every day—yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

• 2 cor 10:4- “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. Who chases a cockroach with a gun? No one uses mighty weapons to fight a little war. All you need are bathroom slippers and a broom.

3. Warfare is fierce: the warfare is fierce depending on the level you fight at. There are 4 spiritual levels we will discuss but you will not fight certain demons the way Daniel did when he fought demon princes of Persia-violent cosmic war.

4. Warfare is demanding: warfare is no place for lazy Christians. It requires physical and spiritual strength to be able to withstand the enemy bombarding us.

q. Scope of warfare: you are fighting a global evil network. “Prince of this world”

1. this is a global warfare: we are not fighting princes not just in a particular city, state, nation or continent but all over the globe. Where you are spiritually at that moment determines what you do.

2. Satanists understand the scope of this warfare