Own IT!

You don't own it until you experience it!

Owning Spiritual Warfare

Too many Christians are playing war games on their Gameboy. It is a virtual battle. It feels like war, looks like war, but it is not real. It is play. The enemies are not real. They cannot hurt you. They just look scary. When you shoot them, they do not die. They will be recreated digitally over and over again. The experience is fake. Since it is fake, then your ownership is also fake. On the other hand, war in the heavenly realms is real. There are forces trying to destroy your soul in hell. These demons are trying to permanently separate you from God. You may have read some interesting books about spiritual warfare. Peretti’s books are compelling. This Present Darkness is chilling. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters will get your attention. Some may prefer a more secular version like Stephen King style books and movies. His movies will send shivers up your spine, but the experience is not real. That is not how you own spiritual warfare. When I was a child, my older brothers joined the National Guard and went off to bootcamp. I wanted to join the experience, but they were not taking eight-year-olds. So, I started the United States Junior National Guard, recruited my second cousin, and rose to the rank of general on the second day. We drilled and played war for a day or two, until I went back to being Zorro to fight different battles astride my steed-bicycle. This was all fantasy battle.

Until one actually suits up with the spiritual armor described in Ephesians 6, unsheathes the sword of the Spirit, wrestles in prayer in the Spirit, and engages the enemy in real spiritual battle, spiritual warfare will not be owned. It must be experienced. You must come home at the end of the day bloody and sweaty from hand-to-hand combat with the devil for the soul of another who would fall prey except for your intervention. You must put ice on the spiritual bruises and splints on the broken spiritual bones. You must be wrapped in the bandages of battle for the souls of men. Until you have some spiritual blood on your clothes, you have not known spiritual warfare. YOU DON’T OWN IT UNTIL YOU EXPERIENCE IT.