Spiritual Warfare is a silent war we are waging in our mind. Maybe you aren’t even aware the battle you are fighting with an invisible enemy every day. The definition of warfare is an armed conflict between two massed enemies, especially when vicious and unrelenting. Just the definition alone should strike a little fear in you. This is the struggle of the Christian life, with or without the struggle of mental illness. If that feels heavy then you are listening to the enemy. The devil wants us to see this as hopeless, but Jesus has won the war and given us the Spirit to do battle. 

What is warfare?

           Warfare is described as armed conflict. Yes, the enemy has weapons. Jesus describes our enemy as without truth and a liar. We are on the side of truth and the truth sets us free. God doesn’t just prepare us for battle, he arms us with the Spirit.

We have the weapons of truth (God’s Word Eph. 6:14), righteousness (through the sacrifice of Christ we are a new Creation, no longer enslaved to sin, but made righteous in Christ Eph. 6:14), our faith (which will extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one Eph. 6:16). We have the helmet of salvation (Eph. 6:17) which protects our mind, the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17 ) and our final but most powerful weapon, prayer.

Prayer is probably the least used weapon and yet the easiest one to use. Pray at all times, be on the alert, pray on the behalf of other believers and ourselves (Eph. 6:18-19). I’d say we are pretty armed for battle, wouldn’t you? What gets in our way? We don’t FEEL armed, but God says we are. If we wait for our feelings to catch up with the truth of God’s Word we will never fight. 

We mustn’t trust our feelings when we prepare for battle.

            Secondly, we are two massed warriors. Massed here refers to numerous. There are numerous enemies, but we are also a large army of believers. God says that we are joined with other saints who are fighting the battle with us, not just the people we know but saints all over the world. Jesus defeated our sin and won the war when he rose from the dead. We are victors my friends and we out to live that way.

            Lastly the enemy is described as vicious and unrelenting. We know the Spirit of God is ready to go to battle with us we just have to ask Him. Do you ask God to prepare you every day for the battle of your mind? We have a warrior who is ready to arm us and. help us defeat the enemy one battle at a time. 

Don’t believe the lies of the enemy.

            While my desire is not to focus on the gravity of the battle that we are in, all too often we walk through life completely unaware that a war is waging all around us. That the enemy desires to see us fail and would have us believe the lie that there isn’t even a battle going on. We are armed my friends and the devil would love to see our depression win and our flesh fail us. There is a battle and we have the hope of Jesus and the Spirit of power because of Him. 

Your fellow warrior, 

Sara