Spiritual Warfare

We ended yesterday’s post with these words: The invisible world is just as real as the visible world. And in that invisible world there is spiritual warfare - a cosmic conflict, that was described in Ephesians 6:12 - warfare against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

For more of a historical background on the invisible world and satan, lets look at Jesus' involvement with him.
Luke 4:1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. (And the next 11 verses tell of satan's temptation process.) 13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

An aspect of Jesus ministry when He walked this earth was confronting demons. Luke 9:37-42 shows Jesus casting out of a boy an evil spirit. Luke 8:26-35 describes a tomb-dwelling, chain-breaking man possessed by a legion of demons. Jesus cast the demons out and into a herd of swine.

In Mark 1:23-27 the example is not of a tomb-dweller, but a church-goer:
Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God!" "Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly. "Come out of him!" The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, "What is this? A new teaching--and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him."
Mark goes on to emphasize in verse 34 Jesus healing many who had various diseases, and also driving out many demons.

Jesus was not the only person confronting demons. Acts 8 tells us about a layman, Philip, one of the seven deacons chosen to help with food distribution in the church, casting out evil spirits.
Consequently, one of Christ's objectives is seen in I John 3:8:" ... The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work."

A Scouting Report
It is not wise to focus on satan’s shenanigans. God should be our focus; but, in our battle against the kingdom of darkness, 2 Cor.2:11 challenges us to not be ignorant of satan's schemes. It is beneficial for us to get a “scouting report.” Know the enemy’s tactics.

As a younger man, I coached college basketball. If my team had talent comparable to our next opposition, I felt confident that we would give them a real tussle and usually win, whether we had a scouting report on them or not. If we had less talent, a scouting report would help us understand the opposition’s strengths and weaknesses, evening out the odds, gaining us possible victory.

In scripture we see the twelve spies sent out by Israel to get a scouting report on Canaan. What kind of military strategy would be implemented to gain victory?
Likewise, let’s perform a cursory diagnosis, a scouting report on the evil one, not to focus on him and give him more credit then he is due, but to be a good soldier in spiritual warfare as we face the enemy, the prince of this world.

In our next post we'll examine satan’s Strategy With The Christian.