Spiritual Warfare

Spiritual Warfare

Opening Story:

              I pulled up in front of the facility and my nerves were alive, awake, and enthusiastic. Education was my area and I loved teaching the youth and college groups at church. How hard could it be to reach these teenage girls?

              The door opened with a squeak after I knocked. The tech on duty invited me into the kitchen and explained that the girls were finishing morning chores and would be down shortly. I quizzed her about her position and asked her to tell me about her favorite parts. She loved working with the girls, that was obvious, but she did not hide how hard it was to know how to reach them.

              The girls trickled into the common area from different directions and many of them greeted me with smiles. This was a “voluntary” rehabilitation facility for teenage girls, but I quickly learned voluntary meant “voluntold”. Parents may have given the girls a choice between this place or that place, but no choice on whether they were going.

              We moved into the teaching room around a long table and I had each girl introduce themselves, sharing what they wanted me to know about themselves. They were open books—angry, broken, and hurt. Some had gotten mixed up in drugs and alcohol. Others were extremely depressed and had been involved in self-harm or suicide attempts. A few others had chosen to identify as homosexuals and their parents wanted them to change.

              The door opened behind me and every hair on my arm stood up. The environment immediately changed and the openness from the girls turned to anger and irritation. Another teenager joined our group and she sat directly across from me. The tech introduced her to me and I asked if she wanted to share. She gave her name and nothing else, but she stared directly at me and I felt very out of place.

              I looked at my notes and decided they were of no value, so I opened the Bible and encouraged the girls to do the same. We read several parables and stories from the life of Christ. I had to. Something inside, which I now recognize as the Holy Spirit, was prompting me to read God’s Word, not just talk about it.

              The more I read, the more the new girl’s posture shifted. She locked eyes with me after reading a passage and her eye color changed to pure blackness. She told me to stop reading, but the voice that came out was not the voice I’d heard previously. I told her we needed to finish the passage. She stood up and left, staring at me the whole time. And the entire atmosphere changed back to calm and open. The girls relaxed and we went back to learning.

              The other girls told me she was weird and kept to herself. That she cut herself really bad and did and said really awful things, encouraging others to join her. They talked about another girl who believed her and tried to hang herself with a bedsheet. The more I listened, the better I understood. That girl was demon possessed.

              And with that statement, I lost some of you. But don’t tune out. We are in a daily battle between God and evil. Jesus and the disciples regularly addressed demonic possessions and cast them out of the person. Whey would demons be present then, but not now? As we learned last week in Ephesians 6:12-13 (NIV), “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”

              I think we like to pretend that spiritual warfare isn’t present, that evil is not lurking behind the shadows. But the reality is that we are either on God’s side or the enemy’s side in this battle and the enemy still uses the same tactics as he used to. I think sometimes we write off evil as other things: mental illness, sickness, drug addiction, disorders, or oddness. I’m not saying that every person who is mentally ill has a demon, but what I am saying is that we have become blind to the evils of this world. That teenage girl showed me how naïve I was to the spiritual battle happening for the souls of our young people. There are some dark places in this society, many of them on social media. We need to wake up and realize how the enemy is using the good things of this world to lure us, blind us, and convince us of untruth.

Scripture Reading:

1.      Deuteronomy 18:9-12 (ESV): “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.

2.      2 Corinthians 11:14 (ESV) And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

3.      1 Peter 5:8 (ESV) Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

4.      1 John 4:1 (ESV) Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

5.      Mark 13:22 (ESV) For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect.

Discussion

1. How does the idea of there being an ongoing spiritual battle make you feel as a believer?

2. How often do you think about the events of the day from a spiritual battle perspective?

3. Have you ever been in the presence of extreme evil? What was it like?

4. Discuss how to combat evil in your classroom and elevate good.

5. What are ways you can be ready for the spiritual battle happening all around you?

Personal Reflection

              Spend some time rereading the scriptures from today. Have you just glanced over these kinds of verses, or have you taken them to heart? Does the idea of a spiritual battle scare you or encourage you? Ask God to show you what your part in the battle is and in what ways you are to take things more seriously.