Knowledgeable of Spiritual Things
Defining What We Know About Spiritual Warfare – Part 2
Offensive and Defensive Prayer – Part 2.2
For this lesson we will need to take off our church-hat. If you don’t know what a church hat is, let me briefly explain. When a person puts on their church-hat, he or she throws logic, understanding, reason, and even “common sense” out the door. What I’m getting ready to share is an example of this. I’m not going to share any new information and possibly not any information that you’ve not heard before. However, I’m going to show you something that we (church people) ignore and even overlook due to putting on our church-hat. You see, your church-hat will have you believe that you must be in a prayer-closet to pray as if that’s the only place prayer can take place. Your church-hat will have you believe things about your faith that are not supported by the one book your faith is built upon, your Bible.
While this church-hat concept is fresh on your mind allow me to give you what one wearing their church-hat believes when it comes to “spiritual warfare.” Spiritual warfare as we mentioned earlier is our way to fight against evil forces and evil spirts. Here’s where the church-hat comes into play. We believe that the predominant spirits are evil. In fact, we believe it to such a degree that using the term “holy spirit” makes us uneasy while “evil-spirit” not so much. Church-hat. I need you to remove that church-hat for a moment and let’s think beyond this. Let’s take what we know on this subject to the next level.
You are spirit.
What you might not have considered is the fact that you are a multi-part being: spirit, soul, and body.
You are spirit.
You have a soul.
You live in a body.
You are spirit! Regardless of what you might wish to believe. You are more than body or physical alone. You have a spiritual aspect that can not be denied. If this is the case and it is, why is it that when we speak of spirit, the human-spirit rarely comes into play? Take off that church-hat. As you know, God is spirit and to engage with Him even in worship, we must do so in spirit. [1]
Dominated by an Evil Spirit
When it comes to spiritual talk, what we are most familiar with is when an evil-spirit overtakes a human-spirit. I’ve chosen these words very carefully so that you are not inclined to place the church-hat back on. In fact, Jesus encountered such a person who’s human-spirit was being dominated by an evil-spirit. Now before you put your church-hat back on which would have you create such thoughts like… this person must have been possessed and his head spun around on his neck. Leave your church-hat off a while longer. Allow me to describe how this evil-spirit impacted this person’s human-spirit.
The Bible says that this young boy couldn’t speak. He had foam around his mouth and he would grind his teeth. [2] Today, we’d describe this as something like a seizure. In this case, what that would mean, taking our church-hat off, is that evil-spiritual impacts on one’s human-spirit could produce seizure-like symptoms. We will get more into this later, but I’m easing you, more and more, further away from your church-hat so that you can see more than you’ve ever seen. If we can see and think beyond what we normally see and think , we can take ourselves and the results we get in prayer to the next level. Being dominated by an evil-spirit doesn’t always show up as what we call demonic, but rather in some cases as common experiences that we no longer classify as a spiritual impact on our human-spirit. Take off your church-hat.
Our Words Are A Spiritual Weapon [Prayer uses words.]
One of the takeaways I wish to leave you with is that spiritual things are not visible to human-eyes even though it can impact physical things. In the above-mentioned story about the boy whose human-spirit was being dominated by an evil-spirit, the evil-spirit is invisible and the boy’s human-spirit is invisible. That means neither spirit is seen, making them both a part of what we call the “unseen.” That statement leads me to a thought that will expand your concept of spiritual things and spirits. Allow me to restate the obvious, obvious when you let go of ordinary thinking (church-hat off thinking). Spiritual things exist in an unseen realm or exist in an invisible way. While its impacts can show up in physical ways, the spiritual is invisible.
In the same way, your words are invisible. Your words are spiritual. They are unseen things that can impact your life in physical ways. Your words interact with your life in spiritual ways. They bring about life or death. [3] Jesus actually said it plainly, “the words I speak to you are spirit.” [4] If your words are spiritual then why are we placing that church-hat on taking our greatest spiritual weapon away from you? That spiritual weapon is our words. That’s where prayer comes in. Prayer uses words. Therefore prayer is a spiritual weapon. Stay with me and keep that church-hat off a moment longer.
“Everyday the devil convinces millions of people to take a spiritual “weapon” — their words — and use it against themselves.” – ChurchForAll.ORG [5]
Spiritual warfare isn’t prayer, prayer is a component of fighting on a spiritual level.
While it’s so easy to think of spiritual warfare as only involving prayer and prayer alone, it is not. Spiritual warfare is not prayer. Prayer is a component used when fighting on a spiritual level. In fact, there are at least eight components we can use when fighting on a spiritual level:
1 – Truth. We need to know the “truth.”
2 – God’s ways. Our ways are not like His.
3 – Peace. We must not be at war, but at peace even when warring.
4 – Faith. We can’t allow our natural senses to be our final authority.
5 – Salvation. This is more than just a word or a statement of declaration; it’s a change of citizenship.
6 – The Spirit. Allow The Spirit to override your-spirit.
7 – The Word. Read, study, know, and use The Word which are spiritual in and of themselves.
8 – Prayer. Prayer is a component of fighting on a spiritual level. [6]
If we must fight spiritual battles then it would be good to know what’s spiritual. Because our knowledge of spiritual things is limited, that means how we fight spiritual things will be limited. If our knowledge of spiritual things is common, that means how we fight spiritual things will have common results. If we have next-level knowledge of spiritual things, that means how we fight spiritual things will have next level results.
Question: how knowledgeable are you on spiritual things?
[1] John 4:23-24 MSG, Bible.com, accessed December 9, 2022, https://www.bible.com/bible/97/JHN.4.23-24.MSG
[2] Mark 9:17-29 NLT, Bible.com, accessed December 9, 2022, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/MRK.9.17-29.NLT
[3] Proverbs 18:21 NLT, Bible.com, accessed December 9, 2022, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/PRO.18.21.NLT
[4] John 6:63 NLT, Bible.com, accessed December 9, 2022, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/JHN.6.63.NLT
[5] ChurchForAll.org. “You Are Delivered From The Devil” ChurchForAll.org. Accessed Apr1l 1, 2013. https://adevotion.com/archive/you-are-delivered-from-the-devil
[6] Ephesians 6:10-18 NLT, Bible.com, accessed December 9, 2022, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/EPH.6.11-18.NLT
All Scripture references used by permission, see our Scripture copyrights.
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