Answers to 9 Questions About the Devil and His Demons: Part 6

In this, the final blog for the series, I want to thank you for allowing me to try and be of some help to your spiritual life. I have been praying for everyone who has read these blogs, asking God the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth of the spirit realm to them. And, I want to answer our final common question.

Question 9: What hope do we have, seeing that we have such a powerful Enemy? How would you encourage a Christ follower who is experiencing spiritual warfare?

1. Facing spiritual warfare often means you are serving Jesus faithfully, and that’s why you’re being attacked. Evil people live by the power of the demonic forces at work in the world to harass and harm those advancing the Kingdom of God. Because they are empowered by the demonic, they are far more powerful when seeking to cause harm than they otherwise are in normal life. Evil people who move into spiritual leadership become wolves who strike the shepherd in an effort to scatter the sheep.

2. Simply acknowledging the spiritual warfare you are experiencing for what it is, and realizing that it may stem back into previous generations of your family, is a great step forward in fighting against it. In Christ, God intends to bring it to an end before it continues in the lives of your children and grandchildren. Perhaps God has recently opened your eyes to see this because you are at the point in your walk with Jesus that, for the first time, you are able to join Jesus in his battle for your life.

3. God intends to work in your life as he did in the life of Joseph, as recorded in Genesis 50:20. There we learn that even evil that is intended to destroy us is used by our sovereign God for good and the saving of many lives. No enemy can stop God’s ultimate intent to do good.

4. The lessons we learn about Jesus’ victory over Satan and ways to live practically in light of his conquest will not only encourage our own personal growth in faith, but also enable us for greater ministry to others, helping them to experience the full freedom of life in Christ, and the joy of liberation from our shared enemy.

5. Just as he began his letters, Paul closed them with two words that are pregnant with meaning: “peace” and “grace.” He wrote, “Peace to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen,” (Eph. 6:23-24). The question is not whether or not you live amid a spiritual war. The only question is what side you’re on. For those who have peace with God through Jesus Christ, we’re not only saved by grace; we’re also empowered by grace to victoriously live out our new identity in Christ in the face of a real enemy.

In Adam, a war was lost. In Jesus, a war is won. Satan tempted our first parents to sin, and they did. In so doing, they implicated all of us in their tragedy and misery. We’re all born sinners by nature and live as sinners by choice. As a Christian, you were once a captive in this war until Jesus gave you grace from him and peace with him (Luke 4:18).

The theme of freedom from captivity to Satan and sin is woven throughout the tapestry of Scripture. The first promise of Jesus freeing us from captivity is found shortly after the first humans sin in Genesis 3:15. This theme of redemption then runs throughout the rest of the Old Testament in the stories of Noah, Abraham, and Moses, in the Psalms and the Prophets, and more. Its fulfillment is seen in the Gospels through Jesus and taught deeply in the Epistles.

Jesus then went to the cross and died the death we should have died. Practically, this means that, for the person who becomes a Christian, every single sin you have committed or will ever commit was forgiven, and every sin that was committed or ever will be committed against you was cleansed in full without exception. As 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” You are free from captivity, redeemed by Christ to live in him. In Christ, you are victorious and given a new identity and new power to live a new life with a new destiny for all eternity.

Lastly, do not be deceived into thinking, as many sadly do, that spirituality is in and of itself a good thing. Spirit beings, just like human beings, are not each trustworthy true and good. In the name of spirituality many people have unknowingly opened themselves up to the world of the demonic not understanding that unless a spirit submits to and honors the Holy Spirit it is an unholy unhelpful and unclean spirit. This is a great problem in our day when everything from workforce training to relaxation techniques and storylines across music film and publishing in pop culture treat the entire spirit realm as an equally safe place for us to enter into which is in fact just part of a great deception.

Portions of this blog post were adapted from Who Do You Think You Are? (2013, Thomas Nelson), by Mark Driscoll, Death By Love (2008, Crossway), by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, and Doctrine (2010, Crossway), by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears.