If you minister to Christians who have been emotionally wounded and demonically oppressed, it doesn’t take long to discover that very few Christians know how to fight in the spiritual realm. Many don’t know how to fight because they have been taught by their churches that there is actually no spiritual realm here on the earth or they have been taught nothing and so come to that unconscious conclusion. For many, there is only earth, heaven, and hell.  In their view, we live on the earth the best life we know how and then we die and go to either heaven or hell which are thought of as spiritual locations far away that ouch us only after death.  Although these churches acknowledge temptation and, perhaps, some angelic activity, they don’t seem to connect the dots that point them to an active, spiritual realm right here on earth.

The spiritual realm on earth is a dimension that is separated from the natural realm by only a thin membrane rather than a location far, far away. When spiritual activity does occur around these believers, they don’t recognize it for what it is and, therefore, the spiritual realm, demons, angels, and moves of the Holy Spirit go unnoticed even though they may be greatly affected by it.  The devil does his best work when he is not recognized like the invisible man moving through a crowd picking pockets while never being seen.

There are many other Christians who definitely believe in the spiritual realm and are very aware of demons and angels. It is amazing how many people see demonic manifestations in their homes. They are often seen as dark shadows and sometimes appear as more terrifying figures. Children see the spiritual realm readily because they haven/t yet been taught to ignore what they see and write it off as imagination. But although they experience demons and recognize them for what they are, they still don’t know how to fight and many don’t even know that they can fight.  They live with fear and anger and sometimes the experience of being choked on their beds with a resignation that there is nothing they can do about it.  Often they are embarrassed to tell anyone for fear that others will think they are crazy.

Many spiritually oppressed people have come to believe that they have no power against the enemy.  Satan loves to intimidate and make claims that no one can deliver a person from his hand.  As we do deliverance, we usually instruct the oppressed individual to command the spirit to leave.  They often beg the spirit to leave or tearfully ask the spirit to leave – which is not at all commanding.  They clearly still believe that the devil has the upper hand and cannot be forced to leave, so they plead with a demon to leave who will never leave unless sternly commanded by the authority of Christ.  When a demon begins to manifest, in that individual, they rarely resist as if they have no power to refuse to cooperate with the unclean spirit.  Again, these believers have never been taught who they are in Christ and how to fight. After a season of ineffective resistance to a spirit, they simply give in to the torment. I have seen this over and over in God’s people.

Knowing how to fight with divine weapons in the spiritual realm should be a part of every believer’s basic discipleship.  Paul tells the church at Ephesus, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms,”  (Eph.6:10-12).

According to Paul, the devil schemes against us and our real struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual authorities in heavenly realms. If we do not disciple our people in the realm of spiritual warfare they will be helpless against these enemies and, for the most part, that is what we see in the church. Many believe that prayer is the answer. So they pray for God to take away the torment but it continues. Because it continues, they give up.

I am not minimizing prayer because it is essential to everything we are and do as believers and is a significant part of spiritual warfare.  But the apostles and the early church were not taught to simply pray for God to remove the enemy, but to confront the enemy in the name of Jesus and command him to come out. God is not helpless to remove the torment but has chosen another way.

God did not instruct the Israelites to sit on the banks of the Jordon River and pray until he drove the enemies of Israel out of the Promise Land.  He told them to cross the Jordan and engage in battle.  His promise was to give them victory but they were to take sword in hand and confront the enemy.  We are to do the same. That is why prayer alone does not always bring freedom. That is why God has given us spiritual armor, the sword of the Spirit, which is his Word, and authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy (Lk.10:17).  We are to resist (oppose, take a stand against, push back) the devil and he will flee from us. And we are to exercise divine weapons to pull down strongholds or fortified places (2 Cor. 10:4).

When believers who have been oppressed by the enemy, finally discover who they are in Christ and discover the authority he has given them to drive out the enemy, they are transformed.  Their faith grows.  Their view of God grows. Their view of Satan shrinks and they are ready to free other captives in the name of Jesus. If you have not been trained in spiritual warfare, find someone to train you.  If you have been trained, then train others.  It is not for a few specialists in the church but for every believer so that they can defend themselves, their families, and push back the borders of darkness as soldiers of the Lord.  We have his authority, we have his power and we have an assignment to establish God’s kingdom on the earth.  The enemy will not go quietly or at our request.  It will take God’s people engaged in spiritual warfare on every front to clear the land. The victory is assured, but only when we confront the enemy in faith, with God going before us.

So how do we overcome fear, anxiety and insecurity?  As I mentioned in Part 1, we are surrounded by fear and those who promote it.  Each day we hear that the polar caps are melting, Iran is developing nukes, and another great depression is just around the corner. We hear about super bugs , identity theft, terrorist cells, China, North Korea, giant asteroids, and a million other things that threaten our safety and security according to every news broadcast and talk show.  Some of those threats are real.  Some are only perceived.  The truth is that I can hardly affect any of those sources of fear. They are out of my control and the real truth about each of those circumstances seems unknowable. The realization of that only increases the fear of many because so much we cannot control could affect us. What I need is to have someone in my life who cares for me deeply and who is bigger, more powerful, and more resourced than any of those issues.

The truth is that every follower of Jesus already has that person in his/her life.  The answer to fear, however, is not the fact of that reality but a genuine belief that it is true for us personally.  That is faith and faith unlocks the resources of heaven.  Faith makes heaven’s peace accessible to us.  Since the answer to anxiety is peace and since peace comes by faith, how then, do we grow in that faith?

First of all, we must believe that God exists. If there is no God, then we are certainly on our own in a dangerous and random universe.  However, if you are a follower of Jesus, you should have already crossed that bridge. The next step, then,  is to believe that God is more than willing to be intimately involved in your life. The key to peace in a world of threats is to believe that God is willing to be involved in your life as much as he was in the lives of Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, Peter, and Paul. We tend to think that God did great things for his extraordinary people back then, but is not so willing to be involved in our lives because we are ordinary people and really not all that spiritual.

What we forget is that God got involved in the lives of his extraordinary people long before they were any of that. Abraham put Sarah at risk twice because he didn’t believe God could protect him from minor kings through whose land he was passing.  Moses resisted God’s call to greatness at the burning bush episode so much that God became angry.  David was just a red-faced kid tending sheep when he was anointed to be king.  Jacob was a cheater and deceiver when God renamed him Israel.  Rahab was a idolatrous hooker when God called her to be a woman of faith.  Mary Magdalene had seven demons before becoming a notable figure in the little group that followed Jesus around and the twelve were made up of uneducated fishermen, crooked tax collectors, and political terrorists. One gave up Jesus for thirty pieces of silver and they all ran off into the night when Jesus was arrested.

My point is that God got very involved in each of the lives of these unremarkable people before they ever became remarkable. If you have responded to the gospel, then God has already demonstrated his personal involvement in your life. So much so that he lives within you. So get over the idea that he is not willing to be there for you, because he already has been.

Secondly, we need biblical expectations of God’s involvement in our lives. I have talked to many believers who have taken offense at God because they feel he betrayed them at some point in their past.  They felt betrayed because something bad happened to them as a child or as an adult – sickness, death, divorce, abuse, etc. They believed that God had promised to keep bad things from happening to them because they were Christians and so he broke his promise when tragedy hit. Therefore, they don’t expect him to be there for them when the next tragedy strikes.   They still feel as if they are on their own in a very dangerous world.

Some preacher or well meaning evangelist may have told them that once you come to Jesus all your troubles are over, but the Bible never says that.  God never says he will keep you from trouble. What he does say is that he will join you in the midst of your trouble and walk you through it.

Paul declared, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God” (2 Cor.1:3-4).  Notice that the promise is not that God will keep us from trouble but that he will comfort us in our troubles so we can comfort other believers in their troubles. In John 16:33, Jesus said that in this world, we will have trouble. In the 23rd Psalm David wrote that we may well have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death.  He said that God prepares a table for him…but,  in the midst of his enemies.  David faced death on many occasions and was often surrounded by his enemies.  His faith was that God would sustain him as he went through those trials rather than believing that God would keep him from the trials.  Every person of faith in the Bible went through hard times and faced personal tragedies,  but found God in a greater way through those hard times.  Our offense with God is often misplaced.

Thirdly, we must focus on what God has done for us rather than on what we believe he has not done. When David was about to face Goliath, he recounted how God had delivered him from the lion and the bear in the past and so he concluded that God would not fail him in the coming challenge. The scriptures are full of commands to remember what God had done. The command is not a fascination with history but the idea is that whatever God has done in the past, he is willing to do again. Having faith for that is a key to overcoming anxiety.

The next objection is always, “Yes, but…..God didn’t save my marriage or my child died anyway or he didn’t keep my father from molesting me…”  Those are serious and tragic events.  They are part of the trouble we will have in this world.  Where there is free will,there is also the ability to hurt others. According to Isaiah 61, Jesus came to heal broken hearts, set captives free, rebuild ruined lives, etc.  God knows damage has been done. It is the cost of sin in a fallen world, but the promise is that God will take what the enemy has damaged or destroyed and rebuild, restore, and heal.  That knowledge certainty brings peace even in the face of ruin.

Again…I think the big fear is that we are ultimately alone in a hostile world.  Ask the Lord to take you on a tour of your past and show you the evidence of his hand and his grace even in the midst of tragedy and ask him to even show you the grace he extended that you turned down because you were hurt or angry.  If you are a follower of Jesus, know that he has been following you as well. Perhaps, he has been standing in the shadows at times but he has been there to catch you, stand you up again,and to deflect the arrows of the enemy more times than you can know. Ask for a revelation of that truth and a gift of faith.  Ask for the peace of Jesus Christ that surpasses understanding.

Finally, we must be willing to live with mystery at times when things didn’t work out the way we prayed or the way we desperately wanted.  The cross is ultimately the answer because it declares that God is good and that God is love. We must choose that view of
God at times when we can’t understand why something has or hasn’t happened.  At those times, we  must choose to believe that the God who died for me still cares for me – not for people in general, but for me.  Then make his promise that “I will never leave you or forsake you” your answer to every fear the devil sends you way.

For God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind.

2 Timothy 1:7

A spirit of fear is one of the most pernicious spirits in the demonic realm.  We have all heard the axiom that fear is the opposite of faith and if faith produces peace, this fear produces inner turmoil.  Fear, phobias, and anxiety are almost epidemic in America – even among believers.  In a country where we should feel more secure than any other place in the world, our people are full of fear.

Fear is a natural response to danger and often is quite appropriate.  If you are walking through a West Texas field or canyon and hear a distinct rattle, fear is a very appropriate response. It stops you in your tracks, heightens every sense, and usually produces the good judgment to back up slowly.

But fear that becomes a resident in your life is not appropriate.  It robs you of peace, confidence, and a future because you fear moving into the future. It may make you timid and prompt you to stay in the shadows or it may make you an aggressive controller who only feels safe when you are in charge and telling everyone around you what to do. It is the source of worry that Jesus counsels against in Matthew 6.  It robs us of joy, of relationships, and eventually our health.  We often give into it, medicate it, and excuse it because we don’t know what else to do.

The phrase “Don’t be afraid” or “Fear not” is sprinkled throughout the scriptures. If fear were not so prevalent in the human race, God would not have said it so often.  Our first look at fear came immediately after Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden.  They covered themselves and hid.  They were clearly afraid because they were suddenly aware of their nakedness and clearly believed at some level that the love and care of their father had been suddenly removed.  They feared punishment and the prospect of becoming orphans in a dangerous world.

Our current epidemic of fear is based on the same assumptions.  Somewhere in our lives, we had an experience that left us believing that either there is no God and we are on our own in a dangerous world or that God exists, but he is angry or detached, or powerless and we are still on our own in a world that wants to hurt us.   The spirit of fear and an orphan spirit always work together.  One whispers that no one cares for us or is looking out for us and the other prompts us to worry, seek control, and live with a generalized fear (anxiety) that disaster and loss is always in the pipeline.

God speaks to that over and over and the cure is simply faith that God will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5). When Moses encountered God at the burning bush, Moses was afraid to return to Egypt. He made every excuse possible for his unwillingness to obey God’s call. God’s consistent answer was that He would go with Moses. God’s presence would ensure his protection and provision. He promised the same to Israel and he promises the same to us.  There are hundreds of such promises in the Bible. The question is whether we will believe them.

Anxiety gets down to what we truly believe about God. Do we believe that he exists? Do we believe that he is good and that he cares about us?  Do we believe that he is willing to involve himself in our lives as our daily bread?  Do we believe he is powerful so that he cam provide our every need and overcome the enemy’s attacks in our life?

We could list all kinds of reasons that we might find it hard to overcome our human experiences and trust God when we have never met anyone else who would not eventually let us down.  But the truth is that we must come to believe God if we are going to live without fear.  That is where a spirit of fear operates.  He whispers that God can’t be trusted.  He whispers that God was there for us in the past but we can’t count on him in the future.  He whispers that God is there for other believers but not for us because we are too defective, too perverse, and too unbelieving.  He simply whispers that, like others, when we need God the most, he won’t be there for us. Not only that but he pervades the airwaves.  The news and the talk shows are full of fear that we are always on the edge of extinction and catastrophe.  When we watch or listen to the pundits, we absorb the fear from our environment. We feel as if the problem is so big or so pervasive that even God can’t deliver us.

So…how do we come to believe God…not just at an intellectual level but in our hearts as well?  How do come to believe that he exists, he loves us, he wants to be actively involved in every second of our lives, and that he is an all-powerful Father who wants the best for us? How do we come to believe that when we have experienced trauma, loss, and betrayal in this life more than once and wonder where was this powerful, loving God when I lost my spouse or my child or contracted MS? I will share some thoughts on all of that in my next blog.