The Minister and his Battle

Continuing with our theme of the pastor's ministry and the ministry of any servant of God, we now touch on the area of battle against the works of the evil one. If we are to walk in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus, it is inevitable that we have many battles to fight. It is wishful thinking that there will be no battles if we are tearing down the kingdom of Satan. The kingdoms of the world are in the hands of Satan. He offered his kingdom to Jesus in return for a little worship. We are commissioned to establish our Lord's Kingdom. That means doing away with Satan's. The more threat you are to him, the more he will harass you. Stay quiet and be no threat to him and he will leave you alone.

Nehemiah did not face oppositions, ridicule, attack, threats and mockery until he started to rebuild the walls. David lived a peaceful, quiet life until he was annointed king. Elijah was not threatened and hunted until Baal's false prophets were killed. John the Baptist was not beheaded until he introduced the Messiah and exposed the sins of Herod. Paul became the persecuted when he received the vision of the true Messiah and sought to convert every Jew from Judaism to Christianity. The illustrations are endless and all speak the same message.

Facing up with the battle

Sit quietly in your comfortable pew or stand behind the pulpit like a clown, you can be sure the enemy will not bother you. Declare war on the enemy and his hordes will come out full force. You can get fearful and retreat (that's what the enemy wants) or you can take the stone that the builders' rejected and successfully face Goliath. You can take Aaron's rod that budded, and the Rod of the stem of Jesse, and go and do exploits with that Name. A sword left in the scabbard is no threat to the enemy. It is when it is drawn in a skillful hand that a battle looms.

What shall we do then? To those who have joined the mighty army, who love not their lives unto death (Rev. 12:11), who know that greater is He that is in them than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4), there is no question. They are out in the front lines. They fight with victory in view. Nothing surfaces in their lives that will detract them from victory. Their purpose in life, their commitment and objective, is to establich His Kingdom. We must understant that "The battle is not yours but God's" (2 Chron. 22:15). But He chose to use us.

This calls for a disciplined life. Just like an Olympic Games swimming gold medalist who trained for years to break his own record and every record. He lived swimming and each day was taken up with it. He watched his diet, watched his exercise, cast aside other interests an put everthing he had into one vision - getting an Olympic gold medal for his country and himself.

Christian workers and ministers need to have the same measure of commitment and devotion. We need to ask ourselves - Is there no prize to win? Is there no contest? Is there no adversary that seeks to hinder or destroy us? Does our heavenly citizenship give us no pride? Are we not zealous and willing to pay the price to be winners? Are we not listening to our Coach, the Holy Spirit? How long will it be before He disqualified us? Discipline and commitment will either make or break an athlete, a pastor or any Church worker!


The reality of Satan and demon spirits


There is a battle to be fought because of the fact that we do have an enemy. We must recognize the real person (spiritual) that talked to Eve in the Garden; the real person that talked to Jesus in the wilderness; the real person that sought our Lord's worship, sought to get Jesus to tempt the Father; sought to get Jesus to draw on His diety (Matt. 4:1 - 11). This real person is Satan. Satan and his demons were there to derange the mind and soul of the man at Gadarenes (Luke 8:26 - 39). Satan gave residence to seven of his demons in Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9). He bound a daughter of Abraham, a Jewish believer for 18 years (Luke 13:10 - 16).


Here are some of the evil works of Satan:


Satan claims authority over this world


"Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in moment of time. And the devil said to Him, 'All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish'" (Luke 4:5, 6, NKJV).


Satan is the father of every lie


Jesus said: "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it" (John 8:44, NKJV).


Satan comes as an angel of light


Paul said: "And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:14).


Satan goes after you as a roaring lion


Peter said: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8).


Sinners are under the control of Satan


Jesus said to Paul: "I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me" (Acts 25:17, 18).


Paul said: "But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them" (2 Cor. 4:3, 4).


Satan sometimes afflicts the righteous


"And the Lord said to Satan, 'Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not lay a hand on his person,' So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord" (Job 1:12).


Every calamity is the act of god (Satan, the god of this age)


Many people (Christians and non-christians) attribute every calamity to divine providence - An earthquake takes place, a tornado passes through, a typhoon or monsoon wrecks the vessels at sea. The Insurance companies hasten to say, "It was an act of God", but they don't say which "god."


If a storm was sent by God, then why did Jesus rebuke the storm (Matt. 8:23 - 26)? Can anyone with reasonable thinking conclude that the Father sent a storm to drown His own Son? Or to drown His own children that were in the boat? It is the Devil that comes to kill and destroy (John 10:10). God comes to heal and restore the the bruised, the broken-hearted and to save the lost. He comes that we may have life, and that we may have it more abundantly.


Satan causes cancer, accident and heart attack etc


I was told this story. A little girl was killed by a road accident. At the funeral, the pastor went into detail how God needed another voice in His heavenly choir and chose to take this little girl. If such unscriptural nonsense could be attributed to God, would it not make more sense to translate this child as He did Enoch? Does God need a painful destructive accident to take a loved one hom? It is absurd and sounds blasphemous to attribute such action to a loving God.


No! God, our loving heavenly Father, does not need an accident, a cancer or even a heart attack to take us home. He could just say to us as He did to Moses (in my on words), "Lay down, Moses and fall asleep. I will awaken you in My house in glory" (Deut. 32:49, 50). Or He could just take us as He did Enoch who walked with God right into heaven (Gen. 5:24).


I was told another story. A pastor and his wife with seven children were serving God in a small Local Church. In the process of time, both of them had terminal cancer. The pastor died first and then followed by the wife. Their pastor friends praised God for them for being so faithful. Even without the husband, the wife, inflected with cancer, still carried on His work until the very end. The truth is, even if God allowed it, for some reason, it was Satan who cause this painful situation.


Our defense and victory


There are a number of things believers can do. I have posted a number of messages on spiritual warfare. Please refer to them.


Our defense


James said: "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:6, 7, emphasis added).


Peter said: "Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world" (1 Peter 5:8, 9, RSV, emphasis added).


Paul said: "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil" (Eph. 6:11, NKJV, emphasis added).


From the above Scriptures the things we need to do are: Be humble and submit to God and resist the devil; be sober, be watchful and be strong and firm in your faith; and put on the whole armor of God. Notice that we are not able to resist Satan unless we submit ourselves to God first.


An important key in spiritual warfare is to recognize that the attacks of the enemy are are never from within, but always from without. His attacks on Eve, on Christ, or on Job were always from without. His attacks on Christians are also from without. The reason being, he has been removed, cast out from our innermost being when Christ came in and took up residance.


Paul said: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Cor. 5:17, emphasis added).


The phrase, "in Christ" means, "to be united to Christ by faith." It denotes a close union. All of our strength and support derived from Him. It denotes that we partake of His fullness. It means, "abide in the vine" (John 15:4). Our old carnal nature (the old man) within us have passed away and crucified with Him.


Our victory


Paul said: "... that you have put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness" (Eph. 4:22 - 24, emphasis added).


The Devil can only fire his fiery darts of lust and temptation to the spirit of your mind. Once you have located the enemy, and you know his tactics, you, who have the whole armor of God on, can lift the shield of faith and quench all those darts.


The beliver's battle is different than that of the man under the law of sin. The man of Roman 7, who is under the law of sin, has warring going on in his mind, but he does not have the indwelling Christ to give him the victory, and so he is brought into captivity of the law of sin (Romans 7:23). But there is no condemnation, there is no sense of guilt to the man who is in Christ and lives after the Spirit of God (Romans 8:1).


As servants of God, we must take this spiritual warfare very seriously. There are real evil forces out there. Principalities, powers, spiritual wickedness, powers that want to overcome and control man's spirit, soul, mind, emotions and will. The mind is their entry gate. To be victorious we must gird up the loins of your mind (1 Peter 1:3), because Satan attacks the mind with all types of tempatations and imagination, seeking to take back control of that which he lost.


The enemy is always about his business, watching every step, ever action that we make. He watches our loose moments when our guards are down. He looks for opportune times when we may have special needs and urges. Then he strikes when we are least prepared and taken unawares.


Paul said: "For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting ong th breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation" (1 Thess. 5:7, 8).


We have been give the full armor for victory. We have been promised the constant presence of the Lord (Ps. 125:2). The Lord has given us authority over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19). We are designed to be victorious under every kind of circumstance.


Paul said: "If God is for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:31, 35, 38, 39).


We are endowed to be overcomers - read Revelation 2 and 3.