THEME: WINNING EUROPE FOR CHRIST 

PREAMBLE 

Praise ye the Lord! We have come to the closing chapter of the discussions on Winning Europe for Christ. Now is the time to discuss the deep, underlying activity in Church mission: SPIRITUAL WARFARE. During our discussions, we discovered that spiritual warfare runs throughout all the activities in church mission. That the vision or mission to win and take-over nations for Christ’s possession for His government and Kingdom order, His dominion, reign, and rule on earth—implies a declaration of war.  

To be sure, it is true that Christ has fought, conquered the enemies, won the battles, and overcome the principalities and powers of the world. Therefore, the Church’s mission, strictly speaking, involves principally the proclamation of the good news of salvation, redemption, and restoration due to the victory won by Christ for man and oppressed and captive creation on earth. Thanks be to God for the victory won. Nevertheless, the Church’s mission also involves the spiritual and practical extension of the victory won through the open declaration of Christ’s Victory, Redemption, Life, Light, Liberty, Joy, and Hope for the benefit and enjoyment of the peoples and creation in nations and territories of the world.  

It may be appreciated that it is here that church mission in whatever field, whatever community, wherever the engagement, involves warfare. We should expect the reigning and ruling spirits and powers. The dominant and reigning knowledge and thoughts, philosophies, ideologies, belief  systems, faiths—as well as the customs, practices, culture, and existing spiritual, political ,and social order—to resist the implied change, the transfer of power, loyalties, honor, and the domains of influence, authority and power, as well as the benefits and glory in the existing order. 

The Spirit of God reveals to us in this respect that the church mission is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of darkness of the world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6: 12).  This is the spiritual liberty in Christian life, Christian service, and church mission in general. That being the case, the Church people are enjoined to put on the full armour of God for battles, in short for the inevitable war expedition involved in the faith.  

Beloved, the ‘armour of God’ is essentially for the battles at the individual, household, corporate, and all levels of the church life and church mission. But that is not enough for the realities of church mission, especially so when it comes to the extensive and comprehensive mission in winning nations for Christ. In this our closing discussion on Winning Europe for Christ, we will focus on the nature and demands of SPIRITUAL WARFARE. 

 

INTRODUCTION 

Spiritual warfare is a term that does not yield for easy definition. Simply stated, spiritual warfare is a warfare in the spirit where the enemies being fought are spirit-beings, the issues to be confronted, and the weapons used in the engagement are not carnal, and the theatre of the battle is in the spirit. 

As Ephesians 6: 12 and 2:2 denote, the battle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against spirit-beings, ruling systems and rulers, the prince of the power of the air that rules the world of darkness. Hence, the armour for the battles involved is not carnal but spiritual. It does not consist of material clothing, wooden, and metal weapons such as shields, bows, arrows, guns, bombs, and goggles for sight in the dark. Truth, faith, righteousness, the word of God, the spirit, mind, heart desire to pursue peace and prayer are all in the spirit. Though they are abstract, yet they are mighty to the pulling down of strongholds.  

On the other hand, we are also told in 1 Corinthians 2, the engagement in church mission is not and should not be in the spirit and mind power, knowledge, and wisdom of man. We operate in the power of the Spirit, Mind, Knowledge, and Wisdom of God. We are always guided and operate according to the mind of Christ as revealed and ushered in by the Spirit of God, not our own, certainly not of the world. That is to say the weapons though abstract have their origin in heaven, not the earth. We can deduce therefore that Christian spiritual warfare is a warfare concerned with the pursuit and execution of the victory and mind of Christ on earth, as commanded, directed, and supervised by the Holy Spirit. Christ Jesus is the Commander in Chief. However, the Holy Spirit who alone knows the mind of the Father and of the Son and the meaning, purpose, and significance of the will and commandments of God, is the commander in the battlefield. 

 

WEAPONS OF WARFARE 

It goes without saying, therefore, that the weapons for spiritual warfare must come from and shall be weapons released by the Holy Spirit. We can discern that the weapon can and may well include the ‘Armour of God’ (Ephesians 6: 13-19), the gifts of the Holy Spirit (1st Corinthians 12: 4-11) and any others that may be released by the Holy Spirit as need be in specific operations and theatres of operation. The command post from where instructions proceed for battle is the Throne of God. The guiding map is the Will, Spirit, and Mind of the Triune God—where Christ seated at the right hand of the Father assumes full authority and power to the pleasure of the Father. 

We can conclude here that spiritual warfare pertaining to church mission in general and in particular, the winning of nations for Christ must be based first on the command from Christ Jesus. Second, it must be directed, supervised, and controlled by the Holy Spirit. 

Our personal experience with spiritual warfare in church mission, in evangelism, church building, kingdom building, and nation-building—and above all, the winning of nations for Christ—demands careful seeking, waiting, hearing, and obedience to God. It also demands holiness, righteousness, and faithfulness of a pure, honest, and non-obtrusive nature. Indeed, the greatest danger to the servant of God and soldier of the cross is not so much the weapons and darts of the enemy, that is an inevitable reality of warfare, as the question of an obtrusive nature in doing things according to human understanding and perception, the desire to please or project one-self, the human ego. Hence, declares the Lord, “except a man dies to himself, he cannot be a disciple of Christ.”  

Perhaps, it may be necessary to mention here that often we face challenges in our personal, family, church, business, and corporate matters. In this regard, we are normally expected to put on the Armour of God to withstand the challenges. However, the challenges may be such that we will need Divine intervention in personal matters. We have right in that case as children or servants of God to wait on the Lord, ask, seek, and knock in prayer and fasting for direction, appropriate word of God, utterance, authority, and power to meet the challenges. That cannot be an abuse of grace or obtrusiveness for that matter. 

 

THE NATURE OF SPIRITUAL WARFARE 

Spiritual warfare, essentially speaking, is a matter of THE SPOKEN WORD. The word spoken through prayers, proclamation, and declaration is the principal weapon and prime act in spiritual warfare. Hence, the word of God has been described as the Sword of the Spirit. Psalm 29 declares that the voice of God is powerful and mighty. 

The best and greatest demonstration of spiritual warfare then, is the encounter between Satan, the devil, and Jesus Christ in the wilderness (Matthew 4: 4-11). In that encounter, Jesus first had the Armour, Coverage, and Presence of the Holy Spirit with Him. He stood in full Divine Grace, Coverage, and Power after the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, followed by forty days/nights fasting and prayer (Matthew 3: 13 – 4: 3). 

The human flesh standing in weakness, passion, lust, and aspiration for power, prominence, and glory were consumed in the Holy Heavenly Stature, Coverage, and Presence. Secondly, Jesus stood in the truth, holiness, and righteousness of God. His Spirit, heart, and mind were consumed with the will, purpose, glory, and zeal of the Father, in short—His call and mission. He has been revealed, equipped, and sent for a purpose. That was paramount to Him for the encounter hence He humbled Himself in obedience (Phil. 2: 6-8). Third, He resorted to the main weapons of warfare, The Word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit of God. 

That noted, we can also refer to Jesus Christ encounter with the spirits of Gadarenes. There also His personal spiritual stature and standing constituted the background to His victory over the legion. Yet the real victory came from His spoken word nevertheless, Jesus spoke with authority and power saying, “Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.” (Mark. 5: 8) The demons obeyed Him. Such was also the case of the seventy who were given authority and power “behold I send you like lambs among wolves….” The seventy returned with this report, “Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through Thy name.” (Luke 10: 17) 

Here we find yet another background weapon—the Name of Jesus Christ. Added to the name is the Blood of Jesus Christ, which also is a spiritual cover as well as weapon of war for battle. The story of the Seventy and the Twelve disciples reveals the spiritual significance of the Authority and Power bestowed upon the Church (Luke 10: 19; Matthew 16: 18-19; Matthew 28: 18-20). Without adequate spiritual cover, authority, power, standing, and presence of God, —supported by proper and adequate armour of God—the weapons of warfare will not avail much. For example, it may be remembered that once a spirit parried the spoken word and name of Jesus Christ by saying “Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are you?” (Acts 19: 13-15). We find from here that there are exorcists, curious arts, and spiritual means by which people can cast out spirits and do wonders. (Acts 19: 17-19, 24-28) This gives an idea of the scenario of spiritual warfare. It can be confirmed from these that indeed the weapons of our warfare are not carnal and the theatre of operation is in the spirit. 

 

TYPES AND LEVELS OF SPIRITUAL WARFARE 

 We turn to types and levels of spiritual warfare. It may be appreciated that from the concept of Armour of God, that spiritual warfare requires a background coverage of armour, spiritual garment standing and stature, authority and power, the presence and the commandments of the Commander-in-Chief, Jesus Christ. It goes without saying therefore, that there may be, and there are in fact varying types and levels of spiritual warfare. 

For our purposes, we will dwell on four main types of warfare: – 

1. THE GENERAL WARFARE (Ephesians 6: 10-16; Acts 1: 8; Matthew 16: 19; 1st Cor. 15: 57). 

This is the warfare in which all saints engage in contention and defense of the faith, in meeting challenges and darts of the enemy, and in witnessing of Christ in Christian life, Christian worship, and service.  

 

2. INTERCESSION (1st Timothy 2: 1-6; Hebrews 7: 22-28; Ezekiel 22: 25-30) 

Essentially, intercession is a priestly mediatory role, whereby the saints and those upon whom the burden of Christ’s priestly intercession, compassion, and mediatory role falls, take on battles and warfare connected therewith. We are priests and kings in Him. Intercessional prayer is strictly speaking, not a warfare issue as such. However, it may demand dealing with spirits and powers, exercising influence and dominion or being hindrance in the life, affairs, and circumstances of people or nations. We intercede in evangelism, in family, and personal matters, in the affairs of institutions, peoples, and nations. We confess sins, we plead for mercy and cry out for promises and declare the will and mind of God in intercession. 

We compare the ministry of intercession to that of the Police service, the peace officers in nations. They serve the community, help preserve peace, stability, and security. They promote peace, law, order, and justice. They help protect rights and liberties, security of life, and society. Intercession in this respect can be said to be part of the Church’s ministry of reconciliation (2nd Corinthians 5: 18-19; 2nd Chronicles 7: 14-15). 

 

3. WATCHMAN (Ezekiel 3: 17; Isaiah 62: 6-7; 52: 7-12) 

Watchmen are appointed and assigned tasks for protecting and maintaining the standing, integrity, and observance of the will of God, the peace, righteousness, and justice in nations, and the truth, purity, and integrity of God’s works and standards in and the security of nations cf. Is. 62: 1, 6-7. This essentially is a prophetic mission which involves prayer and fasting, the declaration of the will and mind of God in national affairs, as well as the protection, defense, and security of God’s purposes and glory in nations. (Ezekiel 3: 17-24). The prophetic watchman function is a battlefield. Watchmen stand at the gates and on the walls of nations, and in the gaps in the city. They have the gift of seeing followed by word of knowledge and direction of the Lord. This mission should be understood as a mission to stand for, raise alarm, blow the trumpet, and where necessary fight battles concerned with all aspects of church and national affairs. Remember the word “gates” covers all areas of decision-making, chief of which are political order and governance, economic and social order, righteousness and justice, and the protection of the rights and liberties, the defense of the poor, needy, oppressed, and helpless. 

 

THE VOICE OF GOD IN NATIONS 

In this respect, the Church is the Voice of God as well as the voice of the needy, oppressed, and voiceless in nations and the world. How sad it is then that many Christians—the more so, ministers of Christ—frown on the Church’s engagement with politics, governance, unrighteousness, injustice, and oppression in society and for that matter threats to the peace, righteousness, stability, and security of nations, pretending hypocritically that all that the Church must do is pray, while they hobnob with kings and nobles, the rich and oppressors in the land.  

 

4. SOLDIERS AND WARRIORS – SPIRITUAL WARFARE  

(Matthew 16: 19; Luke 10: 18-19; Ephesians 6: 12; 2nd Corinthians 10: 3-6; Revelation 17: 1-18 note verses 14 & 18; 19: 11-17). 

If we compare intercession with police duties, we can compare the watchman with the secret service of countries (such as MIA of UK, FBI of US or BNI of Ghana). These all are armed with varying kinds of weapons and have specific levels of authority and power in the detection of matters and defense of nations. When it comes to real war, battles in defense and/or offence in the pursuit of national interest and security, it is the Army that undertakes such assignments.  

The same goes with the Church mission with Church building, Kingdom building, and Nation building. Spiritual Warriors are the specially enlisted, trained, equipped, and armed soldiers of the cross, the Lord’s Army for the church mission in the nations.  Spiritual warfare as engaged in by spiritual warriors is of a very high order and consequently of a higher level of operation than those of intercession and watchman duties. 

The weapons for spiritual warriors go beyond the basic weapons, as given so far. Spiritual warriors engage in deep battles. They are specially immersed in the Spirit, power, and authority of God and are given weapons to meet the demands of each and every battle. Some weapons are for permanent keeping by the soldier. Others are supplied for battles but withdrawn after battles. Otherwise, soldiers can cause havoc or assume too much authority and power, as has been the case with Lucifer and some angels or is it coup plotters and ambitious soldiers in the nations. 

 

CONCLUSION 

Spiritual Warfare is a very important and integral part of church mission. Indeed, all aspects of church mission involve spiritual warfare. The warfare is spiritual not so much because the weapons involved are spiritual and not carnal, but because church mission—to win and take-over spiritual power, dominion, and thrones of Satan and man for Christ’s possession, dominion, reign, and rule—take place mainly in the spirit. 

Winning nations can result in spiritual, political, and socio-cultural transformation and transfer of power. The Christ-Kingdom Order, reign, and rule can affect and transform social realities. Nevertheless, the essential aspect of the mission is the Spiritual Overthrow of ‘Satan-Man’ dominion and control over the nations and kingdom order on earth. Thus, taking over nations and kingdoms of the world involves, by definition, deep and broad spiritual warfare in all aspects of the process. We have discovered four types of warfare. The General Warfare to maintain the faith, standing, and life of the Church, The Mission of Intercession, The Mission of Watchman, and the Soldier-Warrior-Army Mission of Spiritual Warriors. Of the four types of warfare, the Soldier-Warrior-Army mission is of the highest level and ranking in the mission to win, take-over, transform spiritual, and social order and transfer nations for Christ’s possession and His Messianic Kingdom Order on earth. 

To get a practical picture of the soldiers required for the mission to win nation for Christ, please take time to read about David’s warriors and the Nehemiah mission in the Old Testament. That will give you a picture of how well-trained, what level of mastery, diligence, zeal, and expeditions of the soldiers of the Cross, the spiritual warriors, and the Lord’s Army in the nations must be. (1st Chronicles chapter11 & 12; Nehemiah chapter 4, 5 & 6; Joel 2: 1-11). 

We may discuss this and others at another conference. But meanwhile, we need to prepare our minds, study the process, and take decisions on the mission and role the Spirit of God has placed or is placing on our hearts. 

For now, Welcome into The Ark and the Redemption Mission Machine. 

God Bless you! Amen! 

 

Saturday, 8th May 2010