The Weapons of Our Warfare, Part 1

"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

We may be biting off a little more than we can chew with all three of these verses at once, but if it gets to be too long we will just go to a part two. There is a lot of information in these verses about how we do battle as opposed to how the world does it. We know worldly warfare. We are so accustomed to how battle is waged in the physical world that to think otherwise is baffling. We have fists, feet, elbows, knives, guns, artillery, bombs, etc. to inflict damage on our enemies in the world. Did I mention I qualified "expert" with an M1 Garand? Of course that was forty years ago. Who even knows what an M1 Garand is anymore? The M1 Garand is a very outdated weapon for worldly warfare now, but it is totally useless in spiritual warfare.

There is a second, huge problem we deal with in spiritual warfare. We cannot see the enemy casualties unless we can see into the spiritual realm. Back to the M1 Garand for a minute if we may. Sergeant James F. Baxter, a World War II and Korea Marine and a good friend of mine reportedly fired at a North Korean soldier at a distance estimated to be 1,500 yards. At that distance, in those days, both the distance and aim were guesses. Shortly after he squeezed off the round, he and those with him watched the enemy soldier tumble down the hill he had been sitting on. That does not happen in spiritual warfare. We often do not even know whether we are winning or losing until the battle is over and we sense a release from the Holy Spirit that we no longer need to fight. There are equally potent spiritual weapons. We must learn what they are and how to use them if we are to be effective against demonic spirits. Now I'm sure we have bitten off more than we can chew so I am going to re-title this Part 1.

Even though we live in flesh and blood, we do not do battle as flesh and blood beings. We do battle as spiritual beings. That is what we are. That is also where the real battle is going on. Spiritual battle calls for spiritual weaponry. We have to get our minds around this concept of spiritual warfare using spiritual weapons if we are to be effective in this battle.

Let us not forget we are tripartite beings. Not only must we overcome the temptation to wage warfare in the flesh, we must also not use our souls. Our natural inclination is to think that if we are not physically fighting we are using spiritual weapons. It is hard to imagine anything being further from the truth. When we are making a persuasive argument or verbally putting someone in his place we are fighting in the soul. As one who can make great arguments on almost any subject, I have had more than my share of frustrations in making those arguments and not seeing any results. Frequently this happens because we are not discerning the battle as being spiritual so we fight it soulically, with our soul. We think we can convince a spiritually dead, blind or deceived person simply with the power of eloquent words and cogent points. That never works. They have been blinded, scripture says, by the god of this age. (2 Corinthians 4:4) The religious spirit we have set ourselves to defeat works for the god of this age. His work is blinding and deceiving people so the light of the Gospel is hidden from them.

This blog is not hurting the religious spirit at all. It has the potential to do some damage if it is motivating someone to action. That is, of course, the goal, but we are not quite there as a group yet. We do think we hear the demonic laughter subsiding a bit as they realize we are serious about this battle, but they are not ducking for cover just yet. Once we understand how to pursue this battle, that will change.