PSALM 24:7-10 – Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory! Selah.

THEME OF THE DAY. THE SPIRITUAL WARFARE OF A BELIEVER. No genuine believer denies the reality of spiritual warfare. We are confronted daily by forces of evil from the outside in our world to within us with screaming voices of condemnation and accusation from the devil and our flesh. The Apostles Paul and John define these spiritual certainties in the lives of God’s children. Paul closes out his letter to the Ephesians with warfare language – Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:10-12). And the Apostle John reminds us of the never-sleeping devil who is the accuser of our souls – And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God (Revelation 12:10).

When it comes to fighting spiritual warfare, a couple of things we need to know. First, the definition. There is much talk in contemporary Christianity about this topic. I fear much lacks biblical support and is dangerous. We don’t have space to go into details, but remember, spiritual warfare is centered on one thing – to distract Christians from a Gospel-centered, Christocentric life. This means we cannot chalk up every inconvenience in our lives, every change of schedule, every tough situation, every period of suffering, look for a demon under every rock, and say, “I am in spiritual warfare.” Why? Because everything I just mentioned happens to unbelievers too and they are not in spiritual warfare. They are already held captive by the devil. Now, all those things could be used in spiritual warfare, but the end goal of the warfare the devil, the world, and our flesh wage is to distract us from a Gospel-centered, Christocentric life. And this warfare doesn’t have to contain any of those things mentioned. Perhaps the greatest tactics of spiritual warfare used by our foes to distract and defeat us are spiritual neglect, spiritual laziness, and attaching our affections on the things of the world. But there is another side of spiritual warfare. We don’t fight alone. We are not only incapable of spiritual warfare alone, God has ordained that He is the Captain of our salvation; the Mighty Warrior leading and empowering us for spiritual combat.

In today’s scripture, we have strong military imagery for our encouragement. We get the picture of our Mighty God marching into a city victorious in strength and unrivaled in power to conquer. Settle into the scene. God is on our side. This King of Glory is mighty in battle and that towards those He has called into His army – us. All the way back in Genesis, this “battle posture” of the Lord against our foes is revealed. Right after the fall of our first parents, what does God do? He deals with our enemy before our sinning parents. He brings to bear upon the serpent the mighty prophecy and power of the conquering Gospel – I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel (Genesis 3:15). Friends, our God who declared the defeat of the devil in the Garden of Eden is also our God who goes to war against Him with us in our daily battles. Rest in Him. Rely upon Him. Wear His armor (Ephesians 6:10-18). Put on the Lord Jesus as our daily battle gear and we will know two things; we don’t fight alone and victory in all spiritual battles is certain (Romans 13:12-14).

PRAYER: “Father, help me grasp my dependency on You, Your Spirit, and Your armor to fight all spiritual warfare.”

QUOTE: “Our battles are the Lord’s, but soldiers fight for their Commander in Chief. We have warfare responsibilities.”