The Unseen War

A spiritual war rages around us unseen, except by seers. Sometimes seers perceive the unseen war with their eyes or in their minds. It's akin to imagination, but more real.This weekend, after church service, a teen seer contacted me, and told me about a married couple in church.She stated she saw a war raging between a dark spirit on him and angels on her. They were sitting next to each other in service, and a war was raging in the spirit realm.She said, “You know how when you Google Angels and Demons fighting, you get pictures of angels with swords and shields and it’s all Romeo and Juliet?”I imagine she’s describing pictures of demons and angels fighting using medieval weapons, such as in the pictures I often use for art, taken from religious texts of the Medieval and Renaissance Eras.She said, “It’s not like that at all. It’s more of a power fight, with…like… you know in some movies, you see magic people and they make a ball of light and they throw it at people. It was a battle like I’ve never seen before.”She added, “I kinda wanted to pull up a chair and grab some popcorn and just watch. It was awesome.”The whole idea of sitting back and watching a spiritual battle wage like that is a little disconcerting to me, but sometimes it's not the place or time to jump in and do battle... or is it? How would most churches treat a young woman who stands up in church and says, "There are angels and demons fighting right now over that couple, and we need to get involved."Or maybe a better tact would be to approach the couple in private, or even the pastor after the service and indicate what she saw.  How would that be received? But anyway, she had to leave the service before getting involved.As she described what she saw to me, the picture that came to my mind was a scene from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, when Gandalf, a good wizard, encounters The Necromancer.  (In the Middle Earth cosmology, Gandalf was a spiritual power clothed as an old man and sent to Middle Earth to help the free peoples resist Sauron, a more powerful spiritual figure who sought domination.)In the scene, the Necromancer declares, “There is no light that can defeat the darkness.” Gandalf initially is able to hold him off, forcing the Necromancer to reveal who he really is (Sauron in disguise).http://youtu.be/1-zfmX1Yew0To my eyes, this clip from the film beautifully depicts the spiritual war around us. It's constant, and if at any moment, your light isn't shining, darkness will pounce.[ref]Ultimately, the Necromancer is wrong. Light dispels darkness. When you enter a bright room, you don’t say, “Will you turn up the darkness?" Instead, you turn down the light. In the context of the film, though, the battle is a spiritual one. I remember watching it the first time, wanting to shout, "Tell him to go away in the name of Jesus! Tell him to go away in the name of Jesus!" Ha! Too bad the Lord of the Rings world is a pre-Christian world![/ref]It’s the nature of the Kingdom Conflict.Dark spirits oppress and smother, follow and afflict people. And they do it all the time.Sometimes the light of God drives them away when people engage with God, but when they stop engaging, the darkness will return.

Isn't Spiritual Stuff Just for Sunday?

The dark spirits do not see the Kingdom Conflict as a Sunday-only thing. They don’t see it as a “when you make it to church” thing. And it's not something only to be done in private.Dark spirits are always at war. Always watching. Always ready to pounce.And that’s fine, because the Christian walk isn’t a thing done only on Sundays, only in church, or in private.

Christianity is a Daily Walk

It’s a walk. It’s a daily thing. Daily, I fix my mind on Jesus and interact with him. He’s the source of light and life and truth. Why wouldn’t I want to interact with him?To not interact with Jesus on a day-to-day basis would be even more weird than to ignore my wife and children on a day-to-day basis.In the morning, when I get up, and my kids say something to me, imagine me replying, "Sorry, kids. It's not Sunday. I'm not speaking to you till Sunday. That's when we do family relationships." Um, what?Or we are in public somewhere, and my 2 year old stumbles, falls, and wants a hug, and I reply, "Sorry. That's only for Sunday, and in private. Stop it. People are watching. You're pushing your love for me on someone else."Or if my wife wanted some attention, and I replied, "Sorry, honey. I said I love you on Sunday. I held your hand that morning, and even gave you a kiss. You're going to have to wait till next Sunday, unless I decide to skip, in which case, you might have to wait 2 weeks. And then, if I get something out of it, I might give you a hug. Maybe. Don't want to get too passionate, you know. Especially in church. That's weird."Oh my goodness! Love is unconditional! Love is daily! Love doesn't hold back! I'm holding nothing back from Jesus on a day-to-day basis!

Let Your Light Shine!

When a spiritual enemy pounces on a weakness in my armor, that reveals an area to bring more of Jesus into it: to set that area on faith. It does not mean that’s an area I need to work on. Jesus did the work. It’s an area to bring faith to.I don't fully understand what that means; but it’s what the New Testament is all about. It's what Paul meant when he said we must consider ourselves dead to sin and New Creations.[ref]Romans 6:11 ESV: "So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." 2 Corinthians 5:17, 'Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."[/ref] Sin is dead. Jesus killed that thing; it doesn't live in me anymore.[ref]Romans 6:6-7 ESV, "We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him..." Basically, read Romans Chapters 4-8 (in any translation).[/ref]  If I commit a sin, that's not coming from my nature; it's coming from something else, probably from a lie I'm believing about an area in my life or in my identity (as when Eve sinned) or perhaps open rebellion by me (as when Adam sinned).[ref]Remember, in the Garden, Adam and Eve had no sin. They were made correctly. Eve believed a lie about her identity (that to be like God, she had to do something, whereas God already made her like God - Genesis 1:26 ESV, "Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."); and Adam just openly rebelled. He wasn't deceived. Because of that, Sin entered humanity; but Jesus came to remove that Sin forever. Even when you are a Christian and commit sin, a.) that sin has been paid for and forgiven, and b.) the Sin nature isn't in you. You've been made right when you were born again. (See the terms of the New Covenant in Hebrews 8:10-12, a covenant entered into by faith in Jesus.[/ref] I need to bring faith to that area, because Jesus done killed Sin, nailing it and all its power to the tree. [ref]As Eve took the Fruit off the tree and consumed it, thus sowing sin nature into our essence, Jesus took the sin nature out of us, and put the Fruit back onto the tree, remaking us in the right way, through faith.[/ref]Even before the Cross, Jesus was telling people to "sin no more."[ref]John 8:11[/ref] Did he mean it?Yes, he did. His message was to change your minds! You don't have to sin anymore. Particularly if you have God living inside you (and if you are a Christian, you do), you have the source of all Light ready and able to drive away all the forces of darkness around you. You have "live-in help" through the Holy Spirit.

Angel of Light?

The most over-quoted verse with respect to spiritual warfare says, “Even Satan can disguise himself as an angel of light.”[ref]2 Corinthians 11:14 ESV. In this context, the author Paul is expressing frustration because impressive orators have come to Corinth and undermined his teachings and his authority, nitpicking about his appearance and skills as a speaker, attacking the message of grace and righteousness and replacing it with works-based salvation. Any religion that teaches you must do works to earn God's grace (which is a contradiction in terms) is a servant of Satan. What further irked Paul was those in Corinth paid them!)[/ref]Yes, yes, and when the Spirit of Truth is in you, you can see right through the disguise. Which is why Satan has little use in that disguise. (I'm being a little flip).Sure, it worked with Mohammed, Joseph Smith, and others, but as the Kingdom of God advances, maybe now he is less interested in disguise, and more in open warfare. Christians do enough focusing on error, he doesn't even need to point it out anymore.

The Church and Its Focus on Error

For the most part, Christians are so easily deceived by their own misunderstandings of scripture and their fruitless battles about peripheral things, Satan doesn’t even need to focus his energy to keep them from advancing the rule and reign of God.  They're so worried about asking God for a good parking space, they missed the opportunity to extend God's love to the unloveable.Christians spend copious amounts of energy pointing out flaws in each others’ doctrines or theology or belief systems or they have become inwardly focussed.Satan meanwhile just points a spotlight at them and says, “See? Hypocrites. Follow your own path to truth.”And the non-Christians do so, missing, completely missing that Jesus offers to make them new and free from bondage and suffering now; to set their lives on the course of love and truth; life and peace; joy and freedom.The Church was never called to be a beacon focused on error, a spotlight on mistakes, a sword to cut others.  The focus of the Church should always be on Jesus and advancing the rule and reign of God across the planet, making disciples of all nations, while overturning the works of the enemy wherever they occur, setting captives free, healing the sick, and feeding the hungry.The focus on theological errors or errant theology misses the whole point of Christianity: Jesus.The enemy is perfectly fine with Christians who hash out their theological issues, their End Times Theology, the Evolution/Creation debates, cessationist/non-cessationist fights, and their anguish over if tithing is a New Testament mandate or not.In the meantime, the enemy wages a constant, unseen war, killing, stealing, and destroying the very charges the Church is called to reach.

Seers and the Unseen War

My seer friend Gerry described the constant onslaught of seeing the spiritual war like this:

“…Sometimes I myself need an oasis from the spirit world.  It is always active.  There is always a war.  People wrestle against it.  Sometimes there are vague shapes.  Other times you become awaked from a deep sleep on a park bench to a 1080p high definition demon staring at you.  It can be startling…”

My friend Olivia has told me she saw shadows following people all the time. She sees angels during worship and demons attacking as soon as people shut off their communication with God. Sometimes the demons will flee during worship, leave the church building, and just wait for their assignment to leave the Presence of God, to focus on other things than Jesus, and then attack again.My friend JB contacted me a couple weeks ago, scared at what he saw.  I called him: he said he saw "Death." He described what is the popular conception of the Grim Reaper, but without the scythe. To him, it looked like one of the Ring-wraiths from The Lord of the Rings.It looked at him, and said to be grateful it wasn't coming for him. JB was scared. There was major warfare going on in his youth group around one of the new kids who was struggling with suicidal thoughts. He could see it, and it was constant.I was at work, but made the phone call in the parking lot. I prayed for him, right on the phone in that parking lot. I asked the Father to release an angel from heaven, a warrior angel, to guard JB, and to wage spiritual war for him so JB could focus on bringing the Kingdom to the new kid.[ref]This is the Lord's Prayer, asking Heaven to come to Earth. See my report on Hearing from God for further explanation. [/ref] After I prayed, I went back to work.A few minutes later, JB texted me this:

Just wanted to let you know, about 5 minutes ago the angel that you prayed would come and heal and protect me showed up! He spoke too! He said, "Sorry I'd not come earlier, my brother, for I was out doing my God's work."[ref]If this seems weird to you, that an angel would come and speak, in response to prayer to God, I understand. However, the biblical precedent is there. See Daniel Chapter 10; and also notice how angels came to minister to Jesus after Satan tempted him, although the Bible doesn't indicate Jesus asked. The Father just sent them to his Son, who was in need. [/ref]

Who is this King of Glory? The LORD strong and mighty! That's Jesus!Who is the King of Glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory.[ref]Psalms 24;8,10)[/ref]The Lord of Heaven's armies is Jesus and Jesus is love.We Christians have access to the throne room of God. He's our Father, and he loves us as children. When we ask for help, he's going to send it. So, ask! And then extend that love to others.Fight the unseen war with your prayers and faith, rooted in the love of God: those are our weapons. Know who you are in Christ, believe it in your heart, and then go and extend the rule and reign of God in your sphere of influence, because "the kingdom of God is not in word but in power!" [ref]1 Corinthians 4:20[/ref](If you don't know how to pray, download my report on hearing from God. I explain how there.)