New Kids At The Grown Ups Table

OK…spiritual warfare.

The phrase itself brings up all kinds of images from Lord of the Rings to Left Behind to the Exorcist to Twilight. It means many things to many people: psychotherapy, dark nights of the soul, sweat, visions, and – usually – yelling and casting out demons. As someone who came through the Charismatic Renewal I have experienced a fare share of yelling and casting out.

But as I’ve gotten older, I think that spiritual warfare has less to do with “casting out.” Although I need to be clear that I do believe that demons, oppression, possession, etc do exist and must be confronted in the power of the Lord. However, that is not the place we start in understanding “spiritual warfare.”

Warfare points to the fact that at least two things (sides if you will) are in conflict with one trying to overcome the other. “Spiritual” means not-material (“flesh and blood”) but heavenly (Christ and the devil, the church and gates of hell, angels and demons) and ideologically (values, intentions, priorities). This is not to say that the “spiritual” and “material” are disconnected or not related to each other. It merely goes to the point that when Christians talk about spiritual warfare they are talking about the hostility between two sides: God and those in rebellion against God and merely “flesh and blood” (Eph 6:12).

With this as both background and starting point we can move into what I think is a foundational orientation when understanding spiritual warfare – Sabbath.

Sabbath reminds us that we live in two worlds: the culture and “realities” of the world on the one hand (what scripture calls the kingdom of this world, principalities, powers, and authorities, etc), and God’s Kingdom on the other. Sabbath reminds us that we can’t live in both, and that we have to make purposeful decisions in the rhythm and practice of our lives.

At its most basic Sabbath is about rest and delight in the Lord. It’s not about certain days or times or things to eat or not eat or religious practices that make you right with God. Instead it is about celebrating a relationship and entering his rest. It is pushing away the world and its priorities (rushing, doing, insecurity, economic anxiety) and being God’s people focused on Him.

To do this most fully means to think on, meditate on, sing about, and work deeper and deeper into the fabric of our being thankfulness and joy about who Christ is, what Christ has accomplished, and why. In Christ-only do we fully see the Father’s love and the Holy Spirit’s work. As we bask in his beauty we see (or we should see if we do it right) ourselves and our world more clearly. We can then adjust our lifestyle, our decision-making, our priorities and purposes in life according to Him, His ways, His purposes. It is this adjustment that is the first – and vitally important part of – spiritual warfare.

The main conflict in our lives is (according to Ephesians) putting off the “old man” and putting on the “new man”. This is Paul’s image to explain what it means to be renewed in your nous. That is, in the perceptive, imaginative, intuitive, knowing-without-always-know-why part of your mind/heart. Without this essential reorientation of your thoughts, attitudes, emotions, will, and intentions we are mindlessly, uncritically drifting on in the ways of our culture and world. God’s kingdom always cuts across the pull and direction of culture in some way.

Now to do this – here is the spiritual warfare part – means confronting all kinds of obstacles and pressures. On a practical level, these run from not spending our time and money in the same ways, to how we see the goal and purpose of life, to how we see ourselves and define success.

The conflict is real and difficult and comes with consequences. For example, to have a certain kind of job that demands certain hours and sacrifices may be in direct conflict with what the faith tells us our main goals should be. To stand up for what is most important in this situation will mean definite and difficult consequences. We just had a woman in our fellowship forced to become a whistle blower against her company because of the corruption and theft she saw being perpetrated. She has lost her job and is now embroiled in the legal complexities. The whole affair has been full of anxiety, anger, dread, moments of confusion and despair.  In other words, warfare living according to God’s values (or not).

And we could give innumerable examples not just in work, but in home life, personal life, hobbies, recreation…you name it. Even in the life of a church we have conflicts in how we define and live out success, popularity, security (read money), and prestige as defined more by the world than by God.

It’s not that the ways of the world and God’s ways are essentially in opposition. Sometimes the word’s ways remind of ways we have compromised our faith unknowingly and bring us back (environmental movement, peace activists, modern anti-slavery movements, etc). However, while World and Kingdom are not essentially (always) in opposition in certain values, they are always in opposition when it comes to the why and how of these values.

But let’s not get side-tracked.

So in the tension and conflict between living according to God’s Kingdom and living according to the ways of the world, the main “weapon” we have is Sabbath. In Sabbath the life of God is renewed in us and we gain the energy, perspective, and fortitude to live according to God’s ways and not compromise (or at least compromise less and less as we mature in Him). We have peace with God and rest in God because of Christ as a standard. In Christ we are given the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of future (eternal) consummation of our relationship with God in Christ, and the power to live according to God’s ways. Ways that put us in difficult and sometimes horrible conflict with the world in which we live.

What does this have to do with demons and the devil? Let’s tackle that next.

But before I do, one last defense for my more-broad definition of spiritual warfare. The reason I draw the boundaries larger than just power encounters between Christians and the demon-possessed, is because that’s what I see in scripture.  For example, putting on the full armor of God to stand against the wiles of the evil one is (according to Ephesians 6) about the normal Christian life.  This scripture isn’t one exciting, dramatic part of that life. It is one, dramatic way to depict essential elements of the normal Christian life.