Granest Publications
Prayer and Spiritual Warfare!
Chapter Five
Spiritual Warfare and Intercession for Missions.
G. THE CONSEQUENCES OF HIS VICTORY FOR OUR CONTINUING RESPONSIBILITY
Yes, if we are serious, especially about intercession for missions, we must take the most careful note of our continuing responsibility. The issue is brought to our attention that there are many Christians who would prefer not to be involved in any kind of conflict -- least of all anything that suggests Spiritual Warfare. So they think that the best answer for them is not to take sides. But do we have such a luxury?
Remember Joshua when he saw the man with his sword drawn? "Joshua went to Him and said to Him, 'Are You for us or for our adversaries?' So He said, 'No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come.' " [Joshua 5: 13, 14]
Are you on our side or on the side of the enemy? That is the question that still must be asked today. There can be no neutral ground in this battle -- no place to stand for those who merely want to be spectators. I am here to stand for the Lord, is what Joshua was told! Are you on the Lord's side? That is the question the Lord demands everyone of us to answer.
If we are not totally resolved, no matter what the cost, to be utterly committed to be on the Lord's side in this Spiritual Warfare, then we are actually on the side of the enemy, aiding and abetting him in his attacks on the Lord's people.
Joshua knew where he stood. He said to the people, "Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve... But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." [Joshua 24: 15]
As we approach this next stage of our study, some may wonder why, if He died in the cross and there destroyed the one who held the entire world under his most evil dominion, why does it appear, at least superficially, as though nothing, or at least very little has actually changed.
The victory of our Lord is complete and eternal. He has led captivity captive. He openly, confidently proclaims liberty to the captive.
Yes, there are spiritual and moral laws and orders which God has put in place which He will always continue to honor. Those which are so vital at this time are: Faith and Obedience.
When man initially fell, his sin was a total failure of faith leading to a total failure of obedience. Because of the failure of faith he delivered the dominion to Satan.
In His death on the cross the Lord Jesus reclaimed, once and for all, the eternal dominion. But, according to the requirements of God's pure spiritual order, man is confronted with this challenge. If you want to be set free from the dominion of Satan and sin, will you now put your faith in the Word of God concerning Christ and His death on the cross for you so that you can be made free and be able to take your place under the glorious dominion and rule of the Lord Jesus?
God rightly requires that true saving faith, for He will not accept under His dominion and rule those who are unrepentant sinners. The direct result of this is that Satan can still rightfully claim dominion, and does, with the most devastating results.
In a most significant sense, it is obvious that Satan still has limited dominion over this world and that he makes that fact obvious in every way he can. This especially applies in the area of his attacks on the redeemed people of God who have been made truly free by the Lord Jesus, and his attacks on all their efforts to carry on the work which the Lord has given them to do.
Following the resurrection, the Lord Jesus told His disciples, and us through them, "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." [John 20: 21] I send you into the same situation and circumstances to be confronted by the same opposition and inevitable Spiritual Warfare. You are to take the same task of reclaiming the dominion that I came to do. Jesus did it by destroying Satan in the Spiritual Conflict. Now you are to follow up by going to each person and pointing out to them the way out of spiritual bondage and slavery into the freedom and life of the reclaimed children of God. That means, I send you to invade the strong man's house, and bind again the strong man. Then share with those whom he still holds in bondage, the fact that the Lord Jesus has won their liberty -- if they will receive Him as their Savior in an act of genuine faith and repentance.
This involves Spiritual Warfare as much as the mission of our Lord involved Spiritual Warfare for Him. "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." [Luke 24: 46, 47] "To all nations" -- where Satan still wields his dread dominion. Satan does not want this message proclaimed in any nation and will do his utmost to hinder all such efforts.
The Lord told His disciples, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." [Matthew 28: 18, 19] But the devil is determined to fight every effort we make to win even one disciple, because that will mean he has lost one whom he held in slavery to sin. That is Spiritual Warfare!
Paul writes, "For whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?" [Romans 10: 13, 14] How shall they hear unless there is someone who will go to them, invading the house of the strong man at whatever cost required, so as to tell the captives the glorious news that by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ they are made free -- free indeed!
Jesus assured His disciples, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." [Acts 1: 8] The Book of Acts is the record of the fulfillment of that mission by the early Christians. We read in one place, "Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the Word." [Acts 8: 4]
Did those early Christians find that their obedience to the commission of the Lord proved to be easy, with little suffering, conflict, and sacrifice in Spiritual Warfare? Certainly not! Their Lord had warned them, "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves...They will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues." [Matthew 10: 16, 17]
"If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you...If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you." [John 14: 18, 19, 20]
You must expect to be treated in exactly the same way that the Lord was treated. Remember Stephen. He was stoned. [See Acts 7.] Then we read, "At that time, a great persecution arose against the Church which was at Jerusalem and they were all scattered... As for Saul, he made havoc of the Church, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison." [Acts 8: 1, 3] The Christians found themselves embroiled in Spiritual Warfare on every front.
James was beheaded. Peter and so many others were thrown into prison. The record of Paul's experiences lists such a wide variety of attacks of the most violent kind. So the Spiritual Warfare raged on as the faithful servants of the Lord moved in obedience to their Lord's commission to bring as many as possible out from under the bondage of Satan's dominion into the glorious freedom of new life in Christ.
The history of Christianity from those early days down to this present time confirms this pattern over and over again.
The Lord Jesus said, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest". [Matthew 9: 37, 38]
Yet over and over again, the thing that we witness happening is almost an unvarying pattern. It may be at a Missionary Conference, a Convention, a Camp Meeting or some other special service that the challenge is given for those who will surrender to the Lord to go out into the harvest fields of the world to preach the Gospel to those who so desperately need to hear it -- and many seem to respond. But as time passes, it appears as though so very few of those ever make it into any meaningful place of service where the Lord can use them to call others out of the bondage of Satan into the freedom of true Salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.
As the enemy carefully watches each one of those who do offer themselves for such service, he immediately puts into action a plan to discourage them, to divert them and dissuade them from pressing though to act with the same level of commitment that marked the attitude of the Lord Jesus, "I always do those things that please Him".
More often than not, Satan is able to win these battles with very little, if any, effort on his part. Christians today really have so little taste for anything like conflict, or sacrifice. Or they are much too easily convinced that it would be better just to stay in the close environs of home and family. Or they are attracted to larger incomes, or more luxurious comfort, or greater promise of promotion, etc. And so, the possibility of conflict fades and the devil gloats over the victories he wins so easily.
There are many Christians today who, if questioned, would be compelled to admit they know little if any of the kind of Spiritual Conflict that we are discussing. Sadly, they appear to be content that the situation remain that way, because they would much rather be able to keep their lives in a more orderly and tranquil state than have to endure the disruption such conflicts would inevitably bring.
The only trouble with such an attitude is identified in one simple fact: If the devil is not causing any of these problems, it is simply because he sees nothing in you, your life, attitude, or service that in any way is a threat to him maintaining his effective dominion. This means that even though such Christians would claim to have some kind of personal relationship with the Lord Jesus, such a claim is proven to be quite empty.
The devil sees such people, in whom he identifies, as no threat to his dominion. Satan does not identify them as being on the Lord's side, nor even as being neutral. As far as he is concerned, such people are on his side.
Is this overstating the case? We must remember that it was the Lord Jesus who said, "He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad." [Matthew 12: 30] It is those Christians who take seriously the commission of their Lord who gather in with Him. While it should also be obvious that those who go into the field to scatter abroad that harvest are doing the devil's work for him. Again, as far as the Lord is concerned, there can be no neutral position. There can be no place where a person can stand and say, "I am not getting involved. I do not care one way or another what happens to the harvest for which the Lord Jesus gave His life."
The world is a battlefield!
As we consider all of these various factors, it becomes increasingly obvious as to why we must seek to honestly face the question, Who is on the Lord's side? And why it is equally important. Why? Before we answer that challenge too quickly, we carefully need to heed the challenge of the Lord, "Count the cost!"
This challenge came in the context in which the Lord Jesus told the gathered crowd, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." [Luke 14: 26] To be on the Lord's side in this unceasing Spiritual Warfare demands that, as far as this life and this world is concerned, it permits no one nor anything else to compete with our constant loyalty to and our devotion for the Lord Jesus. Nothing can be allowed to challenge His preeminence and priority.
"So likewise, who ever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple." [verse 33] Just to hear such a challenge stirs within us responses and attitudes that the devil can so quickly use to his advantage against our commitment to the Lord.
Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul reminds us that the enemy is always looking for ways and means by which he can take advantage. He writes, "I have forgiven that one for your sakes, in the presence of Christ lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices". [2 Corinthians 2: 10, 11]
Everything we read reminds us that to be loyal to our Savior and Redeemer, we must be willing to take a strong and unflinching stand to be on His side. Therefore, we must always seek to be prepared to find ourselves caught up in a wide variety of areas that involve Spiritual Conflict. We must continually and honestly count the cost, being ready to give whatever is required to be faithful to the Lord who has enlisted us on His side.
We must be ready to fully accept the reality that accepting the challenge of such unremitting loyalty to the Lord Jesus is the only basis on which we can actually claim to be Christians. Even as it is the only way we can even begin to effectively pray for one another.
We need to go on and prayerfully study some of the most vital areas that the Lord emphasizes as being so important in our being equipped and ready to be all that the Lord seeks to enable us to be.