Introduction
For ministry the best approach to spiritual warfare is to center a congregation around the sacraments in order to ensure that God’s protection and administration of justice is performed by God and is performed in accordance with the work of God’s government on earth (the church is God’s government on earth). Spiritual warfare however also can take the form of prayer, direct confrontations of Satan’s kingdom, and methods for overcoming spiritual bondage. When in ministry, a ministry leader must be wise in determining when the sacraments need something extra to accompany them in order to be fully effective and also he must know when they can stand alone as instruments of spiritual warfare.
Prime Objective
When Saul stopped killing Christians and become the apostle Paul, his commissioning was to change the gentiles from the power of Satan to the power of God,[1] and it was the power of God that caused Paul to be converted and to take on that commissioning to begin with. The objective of Paul was clearly set by God, and God chose to do incredible works through Paul. For Paul all he had to do with the gentiles was to continue on in the Spirit and to interact with God in ways that would establish God’s government on earth through converting the gentiles to the power of God.
In contrast James the Jerusalem leader of Jewish Christians can be seen in James 5:9 to have made spiritual warfare center and pivot on the Lord’s Supper as can be seen in the phrase, “The Judge is standing at the door!” (NIV) One must note that the Passover is what Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper on, and during Passover the judge would stand at the door and determine if a house was of Israel or not. What is critical is that James 5 uses the Lord’s Supper as an instrument of spiritual warfare against the rich oppressors outside the church[2] and it acts as an instrument of spiritual warfare for settling disputes inside of the church as well.[3]
At the end of James 5 he goes on to describe outreaching methods of spiritual warfare including prayer for those in trouble,[4] songs sung of praise,[5] the laying on of hands with the anointing oil,[6] and through prayer and the laying on of hands the forgiveness of sins.[7] The book of James concludes with instructions to take measures of spiritual warfare into the hands of every believer such that confessing sins to one another is promoted along with intercessory prayer[8] and James also makes clear that people should be outgoing to bring others back through prayer if they fall away.[9] Overall, James 5 provides a powerful set of scripture for spiritual warfare in the Jewish church, and it makes the sacraments central and prayer and confession of sins to one another peripheral.
Although some material written today on the topic of spiritual warfare can have a way of promoting direct confrontation of Satan’s kingdom like in the case of Legion,[10] the fact remains that after the resurrection and establishment of the Church hardly any need existed for the direct confrontation of Satan’s kingdom (this was likely because of the sacraments). The objective thus of spiritual warfare today (in the context of ministry) should be to work to establish God’s government on earth in order to establish the sacraments as central to spiritual warfare, but prior to the establishment of the sacraments, direct confrontation with the powers of Satan and or prayer may need to be undertaken. Overall, one should follow in the footsteps of Paul and James by utilizing many secondary methods of spiritual warfare (these are prayer, direct confrontation of Satan, and other such things done outside of the church) to establish the primary methods of spiritual warfare in the continual use of the sacraments.
Steps
The best steps to take in establishing God’s government on earth to administer the sacraments is to engage in prayer, but if prayer is not enough then dealing with demons directly might be necessary in many regards. Earley gives an example of David in Psalm 109 pointing to prayer as being the key to solving the leadership challenges of David,[11] and what is clear is that at times when the sacraments cannot be administered a minister should pray for others without stopping. The fact is that David in Psalm 51:6-8 demonstrates that he recognizes an intercessor to exist that can administer the cleansing rite of the priest and David asks for God to administer this rite instead of asking for strictly human intercession in this regard,[12] and this shows how Christ can intercede from heaven to administer the sacraments from the heavenly temple[13] when brought about by prayer.
Earley instructs that a person should pray for those that they serve, and he gives the example of Moses praying for the people in Numbers 21:7 as an example. In regard to the prayers of Moses one must remember that God was willing to destroy all of Israel and to exclusively bless Moses, but Moses prayed for them all as a single intercessor as he, ‘saved’ the nation through allowing the 600,000 others to share in the blessing that he would otherwise have exclusively for himself.[14] The fact is that Paul had much the same attitude as Moses but only instead to the extreme that Paul was willing to be damned for the sake of saving his people,[15] and the principle teaches that intercessory prayer should be undertaken for the salvation of others even with possible harm to one’s own self. Overall, Earley also points out that people should pray for the ministry in order that the message may be advanced,[16] and this attitude was made clear with the apostle Paul.[17]
Gordon makes clear that, “The greatest thing anyone can do for God and for man is to pray”,[18] and he makes clear that intercession is service as it is the chief service of life in God’s plan.[19] One of the major steps of kingdom building for Gordon is becoming a successful ambassador,[20] and one must be reminded that the term apostle means ambassador (this simply means being an ambassador of God’s government). Gordon largely points out that, “The wise ambassador has an absorbing purpose to further the interests of his government,”[21] and the point to be made is that a great step in doing ministry for spiritual warfare is to put God’s government as central and as the number one focal point in doing the interests of the king as top priority that permeates everything that is done.
Bubeck describes the Word of God as being the sward of the spirit,[22] and he advises that a person undergo elaborate efforts to memorize the scripture in order to effectively have the weapon to work with.[23] Bubeck’s point cannot be understated that understanding Satan and having biblical insight is what provides the equipment needed in order to be successful as spiritual warfare.[24] Bubeck shows that a person is legally set free from being turned to the power of God,[25] and in this regard full authority should be claimed over devils as a result of the unity in Christ such that the full victory of Christ is made known to the demonized.[26] The point is that as an ambassador of Christ, a minister could express his power of authority over demons as a step in establishing God’s government on earth. Going out to the demonic dwellings and establishing God’s government in these places may need direct confrontation of the devils as an ambassador, and when this is done it causes the devils to flee as a result of the resurrection and the establishment of God’s government.[27]
Anderson describes such encounters of the Word of God with the demonized as being like a truth encounter,[28] and in this way a demonized person is able to be confronted with the Word of God directly by an ambassador of Christ in order to bring about deliverance. The points that Anderson thus promotes with the truth encounter are that a person is a child of God,[29] made spiritually alive as well as eternally,[30] and that they are a new creation in Christ.[31] Although Anderson’s methods of deliverance are certainly of great value and use if Christ administers sacraments in order to work a person through all three phases of deliverance, a unbeliever that is made into a believer should still undergo the physical sacraments of the church in order to have a uniformity of testimony between the work of Christ and the testimony of the church concerning the work of Christ (in other words don’t throw out the church because of Christ’s work).
Anderson makes clear that Satan seeks to influence a person’s thoughts by way of strongholds,[32] and much of what it otherwise known as mental illness actually is demonic in nature.[33] The fact that today many people are lead into the lure of the occult through various practices that are demonic[34] is reason enough for confronting Satan’s kingdom directly as an ambassador. Anderson even goes on to describe the main channels for demons as being the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,[35] and so a person must understand when demonic activity is occurring through captivating a person through their passions. The point to be made is that mental illness, the occult, and demonic activity occurs through a person’s passions, and a minister should guard their passions well in order to protect themselves from the forces of evil, and scripture confirms this vital step as critical for ministry in 1 Timothy 4:16.
Every thought should be hold captive by the Word of God and more distinctly to the obedience of Christ,[36] and in this way a person would be able to understand the sorrow that leads to death and the sorry that leads to life.[37] One should thus test every spirit,[38] and steer clear of independent spirits[39] that are independent of God’s government. For Anderson a person could be free of the reign of Satan simply by denouncing Satan and his government and by announcing God and his government in exchange,[40] and although this is a great testimony, one must be reminded that Christ’s church should not be forsaken in its sacraments because otherwise God’s government can and does get divided by Satan to the extent that people can no longer worship God without having to serve two masters in some other aria of their lives as a result of the division between faith and works that is generated through faith without works.
In summary the steps to be taken in this author’s life in order to do spiritual warfare are the steps of praying to God for administration of the sacraments, praying for the intercession of others, and taking the role of an ambassador of Christ. In order to take such steps in ministry of a church this author must make encounters with the truth to people, make strongholds disappear through spiritual warfare, take thoughts captive to be obedient to Christ, and test spirits in order to know how to react in various situations. Overall, although James 5:1-6 gives condemnation to the rich oppressors and Romans 9:14-18 makes clear that God can choose to make wickedness abound in order to show his wrath to some and his mercy to others, the fact remains that Christ was nailed to the cross in order to save the world[41] and thus the steps of spiritual warfare can be important and vital for extending the love of God from the cross to the otherwise unsaved.
Indicators of Success
The indicators of success are that people will become more and more spiritually alive. People will want to save the lost instead of being divided among themselves. People will want to serve instead of simply just being served. James 3:17-18 makes clear that heaven’s wisdom is peace-loving and that peacemakers will have a harvest of righteousness, so keeping such a vision as a clear indictor of success when correct doctrine is maintained along with proper service to Christ and to others, will bring about the correct indication of victory of the cross.
When people find themselves investing their talents into one another in order to build the body of Christ through offering themselves as living sacrifices in order to be crucified with Christ, then they will indeed have the harvest of righteousness through being raised into seats in heavenly places. The fact that Noah built the ark out of a heavenly fear[42] suggests that a correct indictor of success is that people will build the church out of the same heavenly fear that the lost will otherwise be damned without it. Instead of people blindly going through rituals out of obedience when they might otherwise care less, a clear indicator of success is that people will be freed from their heartless worship of a God that they know nothing about because they would not be intimate with him otherwise.
The great majority of people may want the greatest heavenly reward for the littlest earthly cost, but a great indictor of success is that people will want to sell everything that they have in order to follow Christ not out of command or obedience but because they want to flee from it (their possessions) in order to take on membership into the true spiritual family. Much care must be utilized in this regard because in this day and age it could be much better if people don’t sell everything that they have and give it to the church. People should thus want to do Christ’s will fully and at a moment’s notice, but they should have a clear ability to distinguish for themselves what is Christ’s will and what is not.
A clear indicator of success thus is that people no longer have hatred between themselves but instead they have love and joy in their hearts for one another. In many ways success is not completely about how many people are saved, but instead it is about the quality of their salvation. The best indicator of success thus is that people that are being ministered to will have a much higher quality of salvation than what they otherwise have such that they will truly rejoice out of love for Christ’s work.
Conclusion
Church should never just be an assembly of people that get together and study the Word of God, but instead it should be a collection of the true believers that are called out of the world in order to worship the true and living God. Spiritual warfare should thus center on the sacraments as they provide a complete administration of God’s government from the resurrected Christ ruling from heaven in the temple as a result of Christ’s completed work. Overall, the demonized unbelievers know such facts (or at least there demons do) and that is why they avoid the rule of Christ at all costs, and so other measures of spiritual warfare need to be transacted such that Christ administers the sacraments himself or that people enter into the realms of the damned in order to act as Christ’s ambassador in order to gain more resources for the kingdom.
Bibliography:
Anderson, Neil. The Bondage Breaker. Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 2000.
Bubeck, Mark. The Adversary: The Christian Versus Demon Activity. Chicago, Illinois: Moody Publishers, 1975.
Earley, Dave. Prayer: The Timeless Secret of High-Impact Leaders. Chattanooga, Tennessee: Living Ink Books, 2008.
Gordon, S. D. Quiet Talks. Shippensburg, Pennsylvania: Mercy Place, 2003.
[1] Note Acts 26:17-18
[2] Note James 5:1-6
[3] Note James 5:7-12
[4] James 5:13
[5] Ibid
[6] James 5:14
[7] James 5:15
[8] James 5:16
[9] James 5:19-20
[10] Mark 5:9
[11] Earley, 127
[12] Leviticus 14:3-5
[13] Note Revelation 11:19
[14] Exodus 32:9-11
[15] Romans 9:3-5
[16] Earley, 55
[17] 2 Thessalonians 3:1; Colossians 4:3; Ephesians 6:19
[18] Gordon, 9
[19] Gordon, 13
[20] Gordon, 93-94
[21] Gordon, 99
[22] Bubeck, 55
[23] Bubeck, 56
[24] Bubeck, 57
[25] Bubeck, 65
[26] Note Bubeck, 78
[27] Note Psalm 110:1; Matthew 22:43-45; Matthew 26:64; Revelation 19:15
[28] Anderson, 45-46
[29] Ibid, 46
[30] Ibid, 47
[31] Ibid, 48
[32] Ibid, 60-61
[33] Ibid, 69
[34] Ibid, 124-125
[35] Ibid, 139
[36] Ibid, 155
[37] Ibid, 156
[38] Ibid, 172
[39] Ibid, 176
[40] Ibid, 208
[41] John 3:16-17
[42] Hebrews 11:7