COMPOSED

It sounds crazy to believe in spiritual warfare. That’s a pretty tough sell. I mean, you can’t see a spirit. I suppose if you don’t believe in the presence of either God or Satan, or both, there aren’t any participants to be involved in such a war. But once a Divine Being is plausible, or a demonic one, the other seems to exist by default. I’m not able to make a case for it or convince anyone, I’m just saying it sounds crazy to believe in spiritual warfare. Until it doesn’t. 

To back up, though, it’s easiest, perhaps, to acknowledge that bad things happen indiscriminately. Suffering lands in the laps of both the least, and most, deserving of us. Some of it seems purely by chance – accidents, rare diseases, earthly plights related to food, water, the weather. Some of it certainly appears to be perpetrated by unseemly characters, those ‘without a conscience’ – crimes, war, hostilities, severe neglect and the like. There is a wide continuum of misery, from mild to extreme to monumental.

It doesn’t take much of a stretch to recognize the opposite is also true. Good things happen that land in anyone’s lap, whether deserving or not, sometimes by chance, sometimes because of the actions of kindly, thoughtful folk. Same continuum - broad from one end to the other – pleasant to delightful to spectacular. All simple enough, no matter what you believe about the forces, or lack thereof, behind the scenes. Good and bad exist, from one end to the other – that we can easily see. 

And you can leave it right there, if you’d like. No need to wonder more about why life here is filled with both ends of that spectrum. But if you are curious, or even if you are skeptical, take a minute to just sit with your mind and consider a few angles that might be interesting. We often only take a minute to think quietly when we are forced to, when something happens that’s either really, really good, or really, really bad – the far ends of our continuum. When something has stopped us in our tracks and we either celebrate or lament a specific reality of living on Earth. But you’re here at the moment – no harm in musing.

I don’t remember when I first started to believe that God and Satan are clearly fighting out their differences in a cosmic war. One that I can’t see, but into which I, and all of us, are thrust. Years ago, I would have squirmed uncomfortably if someone tried to tell me this. Or thought they were just really weird. Now I’m the weirdo who’s sure that prayer is consequential, God is alive, Satan is cunning, and there’s more to this world than meets the eye. How did all that crazy begin to make sense? Honestly, it started to make sense when nothing else did. The bad didn’t make sense, but the good didn’t either. I’ll try to explain.

We all have examples of really hard situations in our lives. And we know all too well of shocking atrocities that humans commit toward each other. Chaotic, terrible things happen seemingly by sheer chance, like the weather over our spinning globe, or because of horrible, maniacal things people do. This all results in misery and grief. If we are only accidentally here because of a fully random, yet somehow fully immaculate and pristine, formation of matter, then where did all this sullied, messy stuff come from? What purpose does it serve in the culmination of life forms? Do we exist just for lives filled with arbitrary suffering? Some believe we do. But I don’t. This sort of chaos doesn’t fit with the impeccable, endlessly intricate scientific design that is abundantly, clearly, in existence. It doesn’t make sense. 

To bring it to my own micro-level, similar to many, walking amid the chaos of my teen years, none of the bad things made any sense. Depression, anxiety, insecurity and self-destructive patterns were real, with rampant unpredictability of how I would respond on any given day. Some of this resulted from the actions of others, some I brought on myself. But how to ‘fix’ it all was a complete mystery. Of course there was counseling, various supports and success in hobbies and school, but that was all just coping – it wasn’t healing the root of anything. There was just a life with emotional suffering, and some days were better than others, by chance. And we can leave it right there, if we want. 

However, at age 19, when I was invited into a new life of faith in Jesus, the very first thing I experienced was immediate, overwhelming peace. This was new. I could lie down and sleep, without fear or loneliness or feelings of entrenching abandonment. Nothing in my outward circumstances had changed, but something profoundly different inhabited my heart and mind and changed everything. Truths from the Bible, when I started to read it voluntarily, soaked deep inside of me to begin restoration at my core. Passages spoke directly into my life, stunning in their timely accuracy and consistency. Prayer delivered similar outcomes of remarkably pertinent, specific experiences. It was healing, comforting, reliable, strong and liberating. Finding comfort, joy and confidence in the midst of turmoil and struggle brought peace that passes understanding. That didn’t make sense either. 

There had to be something beyond what I could see. There’s too much bad and too much good to be attributed only to human nature. In a spiritual world, chaos fits the devil perfectly; and peace fits Jesus with the same perfection.  Visible proof is not how faith works, but it certainly built my faith up to see unmistakable evidence of these spiritual conditions drop right down into the details of my life. I know that Satan’s death-grip on me was released when I acknowledged the rebellion of my heart toward God, and I confessed my desire for forgiveness and new life in Him. Even Satan must bow at the name of Jesus, so his reign in me was over at that moment. To go from my miserable, depressed, anxious state to being liberated from guilt, filled with hopefulness and joy, was, in fact, a miracle. I have faith in that God, as He defeated that devil.

Of course it sounds ridiculous, childlike. But if the good was all that simplistic, then everything would have been perfect from there on out. And it wasn’t; it still isn’t. Why? Because there is a battle taking place. Satan, the author of lies, comes to steal, kill and destroy – that’s what all this warfare is about. He shows up in many forms to tempt us to self-destructive sin and fear, to ignore God and follow our own will. That is, after all, the sin-nature we inherited. 

It took time to learn more about the spiritual nature of God and the Enemy, but it became abundantly clear that both exist. Jesus was vividly real and alive inside me – the cosmic shift in my heart was all the proof I needed. Undeniably life-changing, instead of moving fearfully in the clutch of guilt-inducing choices, I forged eagerly toward life and the freedom of hope. I discovered that to rebuke Satan is invisibly certain and effective. Instead of listening to his deceptive, truth-twisting lies, which brought doubt and confusion, God’s Holy Spirit, the Counselor, began to show me new ways to live under the protection of His truth. I definitely didn’t understand everything at once. But after 36 years of reading and studying His Word, practicing a prayer life, and being in relationship with mature mentors, I’m content knowing I don’t need to understand everything. The unquestionable joy, encouragement and hope in my daily journey is explanation enough. 

When He enters distinctly into the middle of your own story, where the bad and the good are at war, you realize things aren’t happening by chance – they are happening by design. God’s design is to bring life and peace; Satan’s design is to bring destruction and death. They are opposing forces, battling it out over us. Both are always true to form, infinite good versus infinite evil. Evidence of these forces at work all the time, every day, is right in front of our eyes, once you know what you’re looking for. It makes perfect sense.

My invitation to follow Jesus was unforced, filled with love, patience and gentleness. Even though at the time I was wracked with wretched distress, I would have drawn back from any coercion in that introduction. And that’s not how Jesus operates. An invitation is just that – an offer, an opportunity. A nudge that’s too hard is, essentially, a shove. He moves among us all the time, but at some point, it’s your move. If you suffer with the chaos of internal battles and fear, and the adversary of your soul needs a rebuke, you’re always invited to start your own conversation with Jesus. The nature of His gentle, orderly, wise and perfect purpose, as He defeats the enemy of your heart, will bring you peace that doesn’t even make sense. You’ll be amazed and delighted at how God shows up, plain as day. It’s not so crazy after all.

POSTLUDE

“At times I want God to overwhelm me, to overcome my doubts with certainty, to give final proof of his existence and his concern…And yet, God’s terrible insistence on human freedom is so absolute that he granted us the power to live as though he did not exist, to spit in his face, to crucify him...I believe God insists on such restraint because no pyrotechnic displays of omnipotence will achieve the response he desires. Although power can force obedience, only love can summon a response of love, which is the one thing God wants from us, and why God created us.” P. Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, p. 78

“The nature of spiritual life is that we are certain in our uncertainty…Certainty is the mark of the common-sense life: gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. Jesus said, ‘Except ye…become as little children.’ Spiritual life is the life of a child. We are not uncertain of God, but uncertain of what He is going to do next. If we are only certain in our beliefs, we get dignified and severe and have the ban of finality about our views; but when we are rightly related to God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy. ‘Believe also in Me,’ said Jesus, not – ‘Believe certain things about Me.’ Leave the whole thing to Him, it is gloriously uncertain how He will come in, but He will come…” O. Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, April 29

“God has always chosen the slow and difficult way, respecting human freedom regardless of cost. ‘God did not abolish the fact of evil: He transformed it…’He did not stop the crucifixion: He rose from the dead.’” P. Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, p. 218

“Either God or sin must die in my life. The New Testament brings us right down to this one issue. If sin rules in me, God’s life in me will be killed; if God rules in me, sin in me will be killed. There is no possible ultimate but that. The climax of sin is that it crucified Jesus Christ…we have to reconcile ourselves to the fact of sin as the only explanation as to why Jesus Christ came, and as the explanation of the grief and sorrow in life.” O. Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, June 23

“It occurs to me that all the contorted theories about Jesus that have been spontaneously generating since the day of his death merely confirm the awesome risk God took when he stretched himself out on the dissection table – a risk he seemed to welcome. Examine me. Test me. You decide.” P. Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, p. 21

“In daily life two parallel histories occur simultaneously, one on earth and one in heaven. Revelation, however, views them together, allowing a quick look behind the scenes. On earth a baby was born, a king got wind of it, a chase ensued. In heaven the Great Invasion had begun, a daring raid by the ruler of the forces of good into the universe’s seat of evil.” P. Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, p. 43

“...we live in parallel worlds. One world consists of hills and lakes and barns and politicians…The other consists of angels and sinister forces and somewhere out there places called heaven and hell. One night in the cold, in the dark, among the wrinkled hills of Bethlehem, those two worlds came together at a dramatic point of intersection. God, who knows no before or after, entered time and space. God, who knows no boundaries, took on the shocking confines of a baby’s skin, the ominous restraints of mortality.” P. Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, p. 44-45

“Interestingly, the demons never failed to recognize him [Jesus] as the ‘holy one of God’ or ‘son of the Most High’; it was human beings who questioned his identity.” P. Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, p.97

“A believer prays, and heaven responds; a sinner repents, and the angels rejoice; a mission succeeds, and Satan falls like lightning; a believer rebels, and the Holy Spirit is grieved. What we humans do here decisively affects the cosmos. I believe these things, and yet somehow I keep ‘forgetting’ them. I forget that my prayers matter to God. I forget that I am helping my neighbors to their eternal destinations. I forget that the choices I make today bring delight – or grief – to the Lord of the Universe. I live in a world of trees and telephones…and the reality of this material universe tends to overwhelm my faith in a spiritual universe suffusing it all. I look into the blank blue sky and see nothing. By ascending, Jesus took the risk of being forgotten.” P. Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, p. 230

“God has not absconded at all. Rather, he has taken on a disguise, a most unlikely disguise of the stranger, the poor, the hungry, the prisoner, the sick, the ragged ones of earth: ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it for me.’ If we cannot detect God’s presence in the world, it may be that we have been looking in the wrong places.” P. Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, p. 232

“The presence of evil guarantees that history will be full of strife and that the world will look unredeemed. For a period of time, the kingdom of God must exist alongside an active rebellion against God. God’s kingdom advances slowly, humbly, like a secret invasion force operating within the kingdoms ruled by Satan. As C. S. Lewis expressed it, ‘Why is God landing in this enemy-occupied world in disguise and starting a sort of secret society to undermine the devil? Why is He not landing in force, invading it? Is it that He is not strong enough? Well, Christians think He is going to land in force; we do not know when. But we can guess why He is delaying: He wants to give us the chance of joining His side freely…God will invade. But I wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realise what it will be like when He does. When that happens, it is the end of the world. When the author walks on to the stage the play is over.’” P. Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, p. 251-252

“[C.S.] Lewis phrased the argument more colorfully in a famous passage in Mere Christianity: ‘A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse.’” P. Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, p. 263

The Jesus I Never Knew, Copyright 1995 by Philip Yancey, used by permission.

ENCOURAGING WORD

Ephesians 6:10-12  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 spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 

James 4:7-8;10  Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up. 

John 1:5  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

Colossians 1:13  For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves...

2 Corinthians 10:3-5  For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Romans 1:18-20  The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 

Mark 3:11  Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, ‘You are the Son of God.’

Psalm 34:7  The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and He delivers them.

John 3:19  This is the verdict:  Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

John 14:16-18  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 

John 8:44  He [the devil] was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Acts 5:16  Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed.

Romans 12:21  Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

1 Corinthians 16:13-14  Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.

1 Corinthians 15:26  The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 

2 Corinthians 2:10-11  And what I have forgiven…I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

2 Corinthians 11:14  And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 

Matthew 18:3-4;10  …unless you change and become as little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven…whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven…See that you do not look down on one of these little ones.

1 Corinthians 3:19  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.

Ephesians 6:13-18  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

James 4:1-4  What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 

James 2:11  Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.

1 John 1:5-7  This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 

1 John 3:8  The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.

1 John 4:2-6  This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

1 John 5:3-4  This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world…

1 John 5:19-20  We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true.