I was recently handed a book about “Spiritual Warfare.” The author, whom I won’t identify, is a very well-known and highly respected Christian pastor and teacher. No question, he’s a great man of God. I revere him; but like too many Christian leaders, he ventures into territory about which he has little practical knowledge — spiritual warfare. A standard of the medical profession is that a urologist doesn’t do cardiology. A pulmonologist doesn’t perform orthopedic surgery. Medical professionals stick to their area of expertise and training. But preachers who have never done deliverance, never cast out a demon, never ministered inner healing, and never verbally confronted a demon hold themselves up as experts in “spiritual warfare.” Why? Several reasons: 1) They actually think they understand what fighting the devil is all about. 2) They condense the concept of demonic activity into palatable sound bites digestible by shallow American Christianity. 3) Their theology is locked down and incapable of considerations outside the box. 4) Their edicts are enforced by the politically correct mindset of mainstream evangelicalism. 5) Their views are theoretical, not empirical, and they never butt heads with demons, an experience which might change their thinking.
The book in question is a good book. It is biblical. It has helpful advice on Christian living. It’s a great guide to basic spiritual consistency, but it’s not a book about REAL spiritual warfare. The introduction concludes with these words, “All we have to do is to be alert and wear the armor God has provided in order to make it safely through.” That sounds good, but it’s not true; certainly not in the real world. Day after day my heart breaks because of the hundreds of people, tormented by the devil, who come to with a sense of hopelessness. They’ve been given such unrealistic advice. These dear people have desperately tried to fix things the conventional ways. They’ve been faithful in church attendance. They’ve tithed. They’ve prayed and fasted. They’ve memorized Scripture. But no one told them how to break curses. They were never given healing for the traumatic abuses of their past. Most important, no one dared to directly confront the demons embedded in their lives. That was off limits because these precious, hurting souls were told that they couldn’t be a Christian and have a demon so their problems had to be solved differently. That’s inadequate spiritual warfare. And it is spiritually endangering the lives and families of multitudes of people. This charade has to stop, and in this ministry we’re doing everything possible to credibly alter this faulty paradigm of Christian thinking. I’m grateful for every friend and supporter of this ministry who helps us onward toward this goal. And I’m thankful for the Christian leaders who are willing to shed inadequate thinking about spiritual warfare and get in the trenches to deal with the devil, doing REAL spiritual warfare.
An encouraging word: HE CREATED EVERYTHING
“By Him all things were created” (Colossians 1:9). Not some, ALL. I realize that flies in the face of atheism and evolutionary biology, but it’s a statement that can’t be circumvented. Granted, how God went about creating everything is open to some dispute. But the “a priori” evidence is indisputable that before there was anything there was God, and all that is came from His Word and being. As the Nicene Creed put it way back in 325 A. D., We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. Rest today in the assurance that He who created everything can certainly handle any problem that you hand to Him today.
Bob Larson has trained healing and deliverance teams all over the world to set the captives free and Do What Jesus Did (Luke 4:18). You can partner with Bob and support this vision to demonstrate God’s power in action by calling 303-980-1511 or clicking here to donate online.
