Spiritual Warfare
The battle taking place between God and Satan is being fought in the minds of men.
Eph 6:12-20 ... there is a lot of stuff going on and we must participate in the fight.
One thing that grace believers tend to ignore is the spiritual component. (I’ve been guilty of this). We get so hung up on the fact that the work is done (as far as sin is concerned) that we forget that we are now engaged in a spiritual war that has real stakes. We realize that God has completed the scriptures and has “gone silent” but we overlook the fact that the battle has simply changed form.
As Paul points out in 2 Cor 10:1-6 (as well as in Eph 6) our warfare is not in the “flesh” but in the imagination. I.E. The battle today is for the mind. In fact, the battle has been in the mind all along, not just in this dispensation.
Here’s some examples of situations that took place where the mind was the battlefield and, when the mind was won, physical action took place.
Gen 3:1-6 – Satan didn’t physically grab Eve and force her to take action. He planted a suggestion in her mind and the rest took place on its own!
Gen 26:6-10 – Isaac wasn’t “up front” with Abimelech because of an internal battle (which was obviously a mental one) going on so he told them that his wife was his sister!
1 Sam 18:6-11 Saul was losing the spiritual battle here. He had become drunk with power. Rather than being glad for David he was wroth. 1 Sam 19:9-10 The Spirit of the LORD got on Saul’s case here. This was obviously a battle of the mind going on here – Saul had corrupted himself to the point that he was receptive to the influence of an evil spirit. Note that this evil spirit didn’t physically force Saul’s hand, the battle was all in the mind. The evil spirit didn’t throw the Javelin at David!
Rom 7:14-25 – Notice the spiritual (mental) struggle that Paul was dealing with here. Do any of us resemble this? You bet!
Note that the most important component of the 10 Commandments involves the mind!
Mat 22:37 [Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27] – cf – Deut 6:5
Rom 12:1-2 – We are told to renew our mind on a daily basis (v2). There is a good reason for this. The world is a very noisy place and attractions are many. If we’re not renewing our mind, what is happening to it on a daily basis?
James 4:4 – Being a friend of the world is being an enemy with God.
Satan is operational today and is doing his best to subvert God’s plan.
2 Tim 2:24-26 – The captivity spoken of here is not a physical one but a mental one.
