The Two-Hundred-Forty-First (Warfare)

We’ve got another interesting topic this week, and it’s something I believe YHWH is calling believers to focus on at this time.  There are some disturbing things happening in places we would not normally see as promoting or allowing persecution of believers, and while they don’t necessarily fall into the category of persecution, I believe they could easily become the precursor to it.  In fact, what is happening is very much the same as what Paul experienced during his ministry.

According to scripture, Paul was put in prison three times (Acts 16:22-24, 22:24, 2 Timothy 2:9).  He could have been imprisoned more than that, but those were the only occasions specifically recorded.  The reason he was put in prison was because he preached the gospel, however as far as the Roman Empire was concerned, they could care less about that.  It was the citizens that had issue with Paul and what he was doing, which caused the empire to take action.  In some cases, it was the Jews, and in other cases it was the Gentiles, but something I find interesting is that in the case of the Gentiles, they associated Paul with Jews rather than with Christianity.  

At any rate, if you haven’t been keeping up on events in the United Kingdom recently, over the course of the past two years they have passed and implemented a law associated with the areas surrounding abortion clinics.  Starting in March of 2023, when the law was first passed, areas of the UK have implemented what they call “safe access zones” in the approximately 500 feet around abortion clinics.  The latest area to implement was in England and Wales, which occurred in October of last year.

Much like any scheme of Satan, the name given to this effort seems benign, or even positively helpful.  However, as you dig deeper, the true purpose behind it is revealed for those who have eyes to see.  I believe this is a perfect example of the phrase, “the Devil is in the details,” put into action.  Many of our laws in the United States also fall into this category, and you’ve likely come into that same realization if you’ve ever tried to figure out what a law’s intention was after the political establishment has rendered it down to a catch phrase like the “safe access zones” in the UK.

If you look up the UK’s own media on this law, officially called the Public Order Act of 2023, you’ll find that one of the offences (spelled in British English, of course ;) is being within the zone while in silent prayer.  By the UK government’s own admission, you could be given an “unlimited fine” for handing out leaflets, protesting, shouting at individuals, holding vigils, trying to influence a person accessing the clinic, or having a silent prayer.  In fact, there have been multiple people detained already for simply standing on a corner, praying in their own mind, in one of these zones.  Just a few days ago, a woman was convicted of violating this law and fined 20,000 British Pounds for standing in a zone with a sign that said “Here to talk, if you want."  Additionally, while I couldn’t confirm this, I had also heard residents in such zones were given warning of the impending implementation of the law, and that praying even in their home could be considered a violation.

Whether it’s true or not that residents could be arrested or fined for praying in their homes, even just the fact that standing on a corner silently praying is a violation must cause you to ask yourself one question: Why?  Perhaps, you might think, as in many cases in the US, the aspect of silent prayer being included is simply a byproduct of the law having more general language in order to achieve its goal.  However, when you look at the process of the law being passed in the British Parliament, it turns out that there was an amendment proposed that would have exempted silent prayer from being considered an offense.  And what do you think happened with that proposed amendment?  You guessed it.  It was voted down.

Why, then, would they not only pass this law, but go to the extent of ensuring that silent prayer was included as a violation of it?  I believe the answer, as with many answers, lies in scripture.  A verse quoted many times by many believers is that we are not waging war according to the flesh (2 Corinthians 10:3), and this is a perfect example of that truth.  

I have no doubt that with very few exceptions, all the British Parliament members that voted to pass this law believed they were doing the right thing.  In other words, I don’t believe they thought they were working a scheme of the Devil.  They believed they were simply trying to ensure they were protecting something they believe is a person’s right.  However, as believers, we can clearly see this as an act motivated by the spiritual influences of Satan, and consequently, you can see other such acts occurring in the UK, including things like people being arrested for posting comments about the government or government organizations.  I have to say at this point, I feel very blessed right now to be in the US.  

Not being in the UK, or in other areas of the world where believers are more physically persecuted, does not give us the right or privilege as believers to relax or ignore what’s happening in those areas, however.  I’m sure the residents of the UK never thought they’d see the day where their speech could cause incarceration or their prayer could cause a fine and we should not assume that we will never see that day in the US, either.  To me, the battle between good and evil is present and in full force now more than ever, and there are places where good is losing ground and there are places were evil is losing ground.  Only nowadays, the methods of evil are more hidden and deceitful, in my opinion, because they don’t involve things like instigating world wars, or global fears about mutually assured nuclear destruction.

Without getting into too much detail and getting off-track from this week’s topic, as of right now in my in-depth study of Revelation, and eschatology in general, I believe we may be in the period of Revelation 20 where Satan has been released from his chains, released from the Abyss, and has gone out for “a little while” to once again deceive the nations (Revelation 20:3).  We’ve looked in a previous study about the “1,000 years” being a completeness of time rather than a literal one thousand years, and you may wonder how we could have gone through the last 19 centuries, or so, with so much evil in the world while Satan was bound.  However, something to keep in mind is that while Satan is the leader of evil, he had other fallen angels as help, as well as the demons that roam the earth, and as far as I can tell, during the thousand years, the only one locked up in the Abyss was Satan.  The rest of his troop, so to speak, was free to cause chaos, even if it was random and disorganized because it lacked a singular leader.  And then, of course, you have to consider natural man and his influence and desires, as a separate force from Satan’s, being worked throughout that time.      

One of the things that causes me to think we’re in the little time that Satan is released is how deceived many churches are into believing and promoting some of evil’s “core values,” if you could call them that.  Up until recently, you would never have seen churches en masse promoting homosexuality or abortion, acts clearly prohibited in scripture by YHWH.  But regardless of if you believe Satan is released right now or if he still has yet to be bound in the Abyss, the question is what are we believers to do as we see these things in the world, and in Christianity, today?  

It's called spiritual warfare, and the first thing to realize and understand, that we’ve already touched on, is that it is not waged against flesh and blood.  We are not fighting against man, we are fighting against something spiritual.  You may have been able to identify that already simply by the frenzy the promoters of evil get into seemingly at the drop of a hat, or perhaps you noticed how none of their thoughts and views align with one another.  On the one hand, they preach bodily autonomy in order to justify killing an unborn child, but on the other hand they strip that autonomy in order to justify mass injections of untested substances.

We are called, now more than ever, to wage war against these evil spiritual forces, and at this point I want to not only state that a majority of my views on this subject are influenced by the preaching and studies of Derek Prince.  I also want to encourage you to seek out his in-depth study of the concepts and actions of spiritual warfare.  He goes into great detail on how the current state of spiritual influence came to be in the world and how we as believers can work the will of YHWH by fighting against the evil working in the world.  I believe he was led by YHWH to all his beliefs on the subject, and while I disagree with him on certain eschatological views he gives during the study, I also believe that he wasn’t given the accurate interpretation in the area of eschatology because he didn’t need to have it.  It wasn’t time yet for that to be revealed.

So, how do we fight against something that’s not flesh and blood?  We use spiritual weapons to fight against a spiritual problem.  If you’ve ever tried to argue against someone that’s thoroughly deceived by evil, you’ve figured out that it’s useless.  However, the power given to us through Yeshua has the divine power to demolish the strongholds put in place by Satan (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).  

The same Greek word used for strongholds also means a fortress or a castle.  These are places of security and defense, and in the case of evil, they have been built up by Satan.  When you look at the world you can see many cases of these strongholds, and we’ve mentioned a couple already: abortion and homosexuality.  Wherever you see specific, active efforts to protect evil things, you can be sure that Satan has made that one of his strongholds.  

The events in the UK prove this, but they also give indication of what Satan views as a weakness of his stronghold.  Do you think he would actively try to ensure prayer was banned around an abortion clinic if he didn’t think it was a vulnerability to his efforts to destroy the image of YHWH through the murder of unborn children?  Yes, prayers absolutely work outside of a “safe access zone,” but even Satan has limits to his power.  And the fact that there is so much media and focus on the aspect of silent prayer being included in the law tells me two things: 1) there continues to be hope that many people’s eyes are being opened to Satan’s schemes (even if those people don’t specifically attribute it to Satan), and 2) YHWH has once again worked something meant for evil into something good by showing all believers that prayer actually means something!  It has power!

Paul also mentions the general characteristics of these strongholds that we are meant to bring down.  They include arguments against the knowledge of YHWH, and all high things lifting themselves up against the knowledge of YHWH (2 Corinthians 10:5).  The Greek word for “arguments” he uses means thoughts and reasoning.  It is derived from the Greek word that means “to reckon,” or “to consider.”  In other words, we are to demolish any thoughts or reasoning that goes against the existence and power of YHWH, not only in our own minds but in the world.

The “high things” being lifted up against the knowledge of YHWH are indicative of things associated with spiritual presence or power.  In Greco-Roman culture, heights and elevated places were associated with places of worship, and you can see this all across the landscape of Rome in the various temples and historic buildings dedicated to Roman gods.  Similarly, in Jewish culture, elevated places were associated with idolatrous worship.  So, we are also to use our spiritual weapons to demolish the idolatrous things we see in the world today.    

How do we execute this warfare, though?  Paul gives us an image that may not mean as much in this day and age, but is a clear picture of what we are equipped with, spiritually, to engage in warfare against evil.  In the closing of his letter to the church of Ephesus, Paul lists the components of the armor of YHWH (Ephesians 6:10-18).  The first thing to recognize about this list, and something you’ll hear Derek Prince mention multiple times, is that there is nothing on it to protect a believer’s backside.  We are not intended to run from evil or turn our back on it in any way!  And that includes ignoring it and hoping it will go away or thinking some other believer will take care of it instead of taking action ourselves!

Another thing Paul does in this description, I believe, is give us a map as to how evil is able to work its schemes in the world.  It starts with the spiritual ruler, which are spiritual beings that instigate all this.  We can see that clearly in Daniel as the messenger Gabriel talked about being held up from arriving due to the “prince of Persia” opposing him for 21 days (Daniel 10:13).  The evil spiritual being then uses the authority granted to him in order to work his evil agenda.  In Yeshua’s parable of the unforgiving servant, a servant that was given mercy by his master did not subsequently give mercy to his debtors and as a result was given over to the “jailers” (Matthew 18:21-35).  In Greek, the word for jailers is actually tormentors, and you can see in the parable that these tormentors were given authority over the servant because of his unforgiveness.  In the same way, the evil spiritual beings are given authority over certain areas and aspects of the world based on the sinfulness and rebelliousness of the people in it.  

With this authority, the spiritual beings use cosmic powers (Greek, kosmokratoras) of darkness to direct and control the evil spirits and forces in the heavenly realms, thereby bringing their agenda to fruition in the physical realm.  To me, this is the clear delineation of how it works spiritually, and if we are able to affect any one of the links in that chain of events we can successfully thwart the agenda of evil.  In order to do this, Paul gives us a description of the spiritual armor that is available to every believer, should we choose to put it on, but you’ll find that there is only one piece of armor that is used in offense, to attack evil.  The rest are meant to protect us or enable us to fight.

Paul starts with what some translations call the belt of truth, but in Greek this is actually a girdle.  This is the piece of clothing used during Paul’s time, and certainly still in some societies today, to get the long flowing parts of a person’s garment around his legs out of the way and allow for unrestricted movement.  In the same way, if we do not keep ourselves surrounded by truth, as the girdle surrounds one’s waist, we will not have unrestricted movement in waging spiritual warfare.  We will force ourselves to avoid certain areas, or certain topics during our attempts to demolish strongholds in order to prevent the truth from coming out.  

Have you ever had a conversation with someone you didn’t agree with, or maybe that you were hiding something from, and felt you had to avoid saying certain things or talking about certain topics otherwise they’d become wise to you and figure out your secret?  It’s the same with spiritual warfare.  If we have aspects of our lives that we are ashamed of and we’re hiding, we do not have the freedom of movement needed to properly fight in spiritual battle.  Coincidentally, or perhaps on purpose, I also think the location of the girdle is telling of the physical reactions we have when we’re hiding the truth.  I’m sure you’ve experienced the feeling in the pit of your stomach when you know you’ve done something wrong and you’re worried that someone is going to find out about it.  

The next piece of armor is the breastplate of righteousness, and this is used to protect the heart.  There are many scriptures about the heart and the role it plays in our lives spiritually, and you can find multiple ways that this breastplate could be seen as protecting it, but I think the biggest way is as a continuation of the concept of the girdle of truth.  Many times the way evil tries to stop us from fighting or tries to set us back is by reminding us of our past sins.  Somehow, the truth of our transgression came out and ended up being used to attack us, causing us to lose heart.  However, recognizing that we have been made righteous through our confession and repentance of those transgressions, and by the blood of our Savior Yeshua, will keep us in the battle against evil and fighting for the Kingdom of Heaven.

Paul continues with putting on the shoes of the readiness of the gospel of peace.  As we go from battle to spiritual battle, we must be ready to share the good news of peace, despite the resistance, anger, and attacks we face.  The good news of peace is that everyone can reach that state with YHWH.  It’s a place of completeness and safety in Him, which ultimately translates onto the peace that no natural man can understand (Philippians 4:7).

The shield of faith is next, and this is the only piece of armor that is listed with a purpose.  It is used to extinguish all the flaming arrows of evil, and that’s exactly what faith does.  The agenda of the evil spiritual being is going to include spiritual shots that can pierce and burn, but our faith is in YHWH to protect us from those shots.  We can do nothing in spiritual battle if we’re constantly trying to dodge the darts evil throws.  We must have faith in YHWH’s protection in order to continue to fight, unphased.

The final two pieces of armor are the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, and just as the breastplate of righteousness protected our heart, the helmet of salvation protects our mind.  Another tactic of evil is to try to convince us that we are not saved.  Whether it’s because we committed sins in the past or because we somehow aren’t doing enough and have to do more to “earn” our salvation, evil tries to trip us up and cause us to focus on ourselves and figuring out how to ensure our salvation rather than fighting against its agenda.  

The only way we can don any of this armor, and subsequently the only way we can inflict any damage on the plans of evil, is by wielding the sword of the Spirit.  We learned in the past that the same Hebrew word for spirit is breath, and this sword of the Spirit Paul lists here is the Word of YHWH, spoken by Him through man and into scripture.  In Hebrews, we can see this connection, and the writer equates it with a two edged sword (Hebrews 4:12).  Interestingly, if you look at the difference between a single edge sword and a double edged sword, you’ll find that not only do the two edges allow for more lines of attack than the single edge, they are also, generally, designed to be straight.  Whereas, single blades are generally made curved.  Additionally, the double edged sword enables piercing and the ability to penetrate gaps in armor more easily, and that’s exactly what the Word of YHWH is and does!  It’s straight and pierces straight through to the heart!  

I hope you didn’t mind this week’s message being a little long!  Study the armor of YHWH for yourself this week, and ask YHWH to show you how to put it on and what He wants you to fight against.  Remember, the armor does nothing to protect the back, so we have to face evil head on!

Shabbat shalom and YHWH bless you!

-Rob and Sara Gene