This week, Donny Zondervan (yes, he’s related to the Zondervan Publishing Company) came from New Zealand to teach us about spiritual warfare.  Probably after reading this first sentence your mind jumps to flashbacks of Linda Blair in The Exorcist.  Good news: if you are a believer, you can’t become possessed.  Possession is taking ownership of something and involves overstepping one’s will. If one is truly possessed by the enemy it is because they have opened themselves up to the demonic realm and they have not submitted their lives to Christ.  Oppression is the correct term to use if you are a believer.  To the Western church, we may feel as though we need to think of extreme examples of spiritual attacks.  However, the enemy tries to use anything in our day-to-day lives to “steal, kill, and destroy” as a distraction.  For example, a lack of sleep, unresolved anger or bitterness, headaches, depression can be the enemy trying to divert us away from the Holy Spirit.

 

This week highlighted a lot of crazy sounding stories of the spiritual war going on in Thailand; stories that include generational curses and physical manifestations of the battle between light and darkness. However, I don’t want to expand on specific examples because the enemy doesn’t deserve credit for distractions and torment. The enemy is limited and we serve an all-powerful and limitless, loving God.

 

I heard a great illustration from Bill Johnson on spiritual warfare – Light is completely superior to darkness. Where light exists darkness has no choice to flee. When you walk into a dark room and turn on the lights there is no struggle between light and dark, the darkness just leaves. When the sun rises in the morning there is no fight between night and day, night leaves. This is the reality that we live in. The light inside of us (Jesus) is totally superior to any darkness that we may meet.

 

Yet, whether you are a believer or not, we can’t choose to “sit on the sidelines” of spiritual warfare and be passive. If this topic scares you, look around you. We are in a constant battle of the heart and mind. Do not fear. God protects his kids in perfect love. You have the keys and weapons you need (Eph. 6:11, Matt 6:6) so use them.  Donny also talked about that often we shy away from warring against the demonic, but we are super quick to wage war against our own flesh and blood.  How fast do we judge and hurt our neighbors? How many lies do we believe?

 

Believe in the truth. The truth brings freedom. Freedom to walk in the light.