Spiritual warfare is necessary because Satan’s will is set against God’s will, and we human beings need to be joined in our will with God’s will to defeat and destroy Satan and bring in the kingdom of God on earth.
Since the rebellion of Satan, now there is another will in the universe, a will that constantly opposes God and His purpose. So God created us, men in His image and likeness, and gave us His authority so that we may rule over and defeat His enemy, fulfilling God’s purpose and bringing in the kingdom of God.
In order for us to know God’s economy, we need to see the spiritual things behind the physical things, the spiritual world behind the physical world.
Things don’t just “happen” in the world, events don’t just “take place”, and presidents or leaders are not just “elected” – there is a spiritual struggle behind the scenes, and Satan fights against God’s choice, His will, His decision, and His people.
We as God’s people need to see that there is a spiritual reality behind the physical scene, and we need to be joined to the Lord to stand on His side, for His will to be accomplished and Satan’s will to be nullified.
May we grow up in life to the extent that we are no longer children playing with toys but soldiers whose will have chosen God’s will and now stand with God’s will for it to be done on earth and for the kingdom of God to come on earth.
Many believers remain immature and are tossed about by things, events, situations, and people in their life; if we see God’s will, if we realise what is the work of God and how the church can accomplish God’s work, we will join ourselves to God for His purpose and stand with His will.
In our fighting we deal not with things that appear on the surface but with the power of darkness behind these things. What hinders the preaching and receiving of the gospel is not the outward environment but Satan with his will doing his best to hinder God.
What usurps the saints and takes their time and energy is not the outward environment or the world but Satan who operates behind these things.
The confusion, striving, indifference, gossip, divisions, and corruption in the church has its source in Satan’s will, for he is fully against God and wants to destroy the church as the house of God.
May we open to the Lord and allow Him to enlighten us to see His purpose and be joined to Him for His work to cause the enemy to suffer loss, bring in the kingdom of God, and manifest God in glory in the church as the one new man.
Satan is no longer a little serpent that came to deceive Adam in the garden on Eden – he is now a great dragon who is right in front of the church, desiring to devour the man-child, the overcomers who are being produced as the stronger part of the church to fulfill God’s purpose on behalf of the church.
May we by the Lord’s mercy be part of the man-child, the full-grown new man, to fulfill God’s purpose of defeating God’s enemy and bringing in the kingdom of God on earth.
Satan’s Will is Set against God’s Will – as the Church we Stand with God’s Will to Subdue Satan’s will
If we would know how the church as the new man can be God’s warrior to engage in spiritual warfare, we need to realize that in the universe there are three wills – the divine will, the satanic will, and the human will (Rev. 4:11).
Spiritual warfare is necessary because Satan’s will is set against God’s will, and we as God’s people can be joined to God’s will to subdue Satan’s will. We can pray, Lord, may Your kingdom come and may Your will be done on earth as in heaven (Matt. 6:10).
If we would know how the church can be God’s warrior to engage in spiritual warfare, we need to know these three wills, these three intentions. God’s will is eternal, uncreated; He is self-existing and ever-existing, and His will just is.
As created beings, the angels also have a will; at a certain time, one of the leading angels – an archangel – was appointed by God to rule the universe before the creation of Adam, and he became proud because of his high position and beauty, and rebelled against God.
This pride gave rise to an evil intention, which became the satanic will, the second will in this universe, a will that opposes God’s will.
Now there is conflict and warfare in the universe because this conflict of wills. Before Satan’s will rose to contradict God’s will, there was no war in the universe; the controversy began with the rebellion of the archangel against God.
All the fighting that we see now taking place among nations, in society, in the family, and even within our own being, has its source in the rebellion of Satan. Even within us we experience an inner warfare between our reason and our lust.
In our family life there are arguments and problems, in the church life there may also be some conflicts, and in society we can clearly see conflicts, wars, and all kinds of issues. On the one side there’s God’s will and on the other there’s Satan’s will.
But praise the Lord, we as human beings were created with a free will! Because God is great, He didn’t create us as a robot that automatically chooses God and His will; rather, He created us with a free will, and He gave Adam a choice: you can eat of all the trees in the garden, including the tree of life in the middle, but don’t eat of the tree of knowledge.
God didn’t create us as puppets; we are human beings with a free will to make decisions, and God always gives us a choice. The principle according to which God operates is that He only moves in response to our decision to choose Him, and this decision is motivated by His love and grace.
If we are passive, God will not act – but His enemy will act. Spiritual warfare has its source in the conflict between the divine will and the satanic will, God’s will and Satan’s will. Lucifer’s pride in his high position and beauty gave rise to an evil intention in the universe, which became the satanic will (see Ezek. 28:12-19; Isa. 14:12-15).
There may seem to be some progress, peace, and understanding in society and in the family life, but eventually there’s clear enmity and conflict, because of Satan’s will and our passivity in choosing God’s will.
But when the Lord is reigning in us and over us in life and light, we are deeply at peace; there’s no conflict and no resistance. Even when there’s some conflict within us, and we like Jacob may wrestle with God, deep within we want to be subdued by the Lord, and we may pray,
Lord Jesus, we choose to be part of Your corporate warrior – the church as the new man! We choose to participate in the work of God. We present ourselves to You, Lord, and we place ourselves in Your hands for You to train us and gain us, whatever the cost! We say Yes to You, Lord, and we choose Your will. We stand against Satan’s will and we choose the will of God. May You fulfill Your purpose through us, the church as the new man, so that You may defeat Your enemy and bring in the kingdom of God!
God wants His creature Man to Deal with His fallen creature Satan, so our Human Will must Stand with the Divine Will
There is a difference between the power of the will and the function of the will; what God wants is not for us to exercise our will power and be strong and stubborn in fulfilling the will of God, but He wants us to choose Him and His will, exercising the function of our will.
God is great: He will not lower Himself to deal with and obliterate Satan, one of His creatures, even though He can do it; He wants His creature man to deal with His fallen creature Satan (Gen. 1:26; Matt. 26:39; 12:30; 7:21).
Because Satan’s will rose up against God’s will, God now has an enemy and a problem, but He would not lower Himself to deal with this problem; rather, He created us in His image and according to His likeness, and He gave us His authority and dominion to deal with His enemy.
The way for us to deal with God’s enemy relates to our will; if we choose the divine will, Satan suffers loss, but if we take sides with the satanic will, Satan’s will would be carried out temporarily.
This is what happened throughout history: Satan enticed, deceived, and cheated many people into doing his will, and man’s free will chose Satan’s will over God’s will.
God Himself can cast Satan into the bottomless pit or the lake of fire, but He wants man to deal with Satan in order to bring the earth back to God.
The work of God requires that man exercise authority to have dominion over all things created by God; God chose man to be this authority, and man can fulfill God’s need by exercising God’s authority over Satan and his power of darkness.
As believers in Christ and members of the Body of Christ, we need to stand in the Body and put on the whole armor of God: the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the shoes of the gospel of peace, and the word of God as the sword.
We put on the whole armor of God and stand – we don’t attack, but having done all, we stand. We allow the offensive weapon – the two-edged sword of the word of God – to cut us with one edge, dealing with God’s enemy and his work in us, and cut Satan with the other edge, cutting him into pieces.
We need to let the Lord reach us to the level of will; as soldiers in His army, we can’t be moody – we may have feelings but we can’t be governed by our feelings.
We need to set our will on God’s will and reject Satan’s will, and we do this by being empowered by the resurrection life and being guided by a vision of the ascended Christ having all authority in heaven and on earth.
Our will must stand with the divine will, being governed by the longing for the Lord to come back, marry us, and return with us as His army to abolish human government and bring in His kingdom! As the church, our fighting is to subdue the satanic will and defeat God’s enemy (Eph. 6:11-13).
Lord Jesus, thank You for giving us a free will to choose God’s will and reject Satan’s will. We open to You, Lord, and we want to enjoy You, be filled with You, and be saturated with You, so that we may see Your purpose and choose God’s will. Lord, we want to be part of the church as the new man doing the work of God by dealing with the enemy and bringing in the kingdom of God. Thank You for such a high honor to exercise Your authority as the church, the new man, over Satan, and bring in the kingdom of God! Amen, Lord, Your will be done and Your kingdom come on earth!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message given by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 63 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Spiritual Warfare of the Church as the New Man (2018 Memorial Day Conference), week 1, The Church as the New Man Engaging in Spiritual Warfare to Defeat God’s Enemy and to Bring In the Kingdom of God.
- Hymns on this topic:
# The name of Jesus is our stand, / It is our victory; / Not on ourselves do we rely, / But, mighty Lord, on Thee. / Our weapons are not arms of flesh, / But ours the Spirit’s sword, / And God’s whole armor putting on, / We battle in the Lord. (Hymns #887)
# For the Body is God’s armor, / Not for anyone alone; / When you wrestle in the Body, / All its benefits you own. / ’Tis the Church on Christ established / Satan shall not overpow’r; / ’Tis the Body built together / Which resists the evil pow’r. (Hymns #885)
# The foe though fierce, you can / Still fight with him; / If you will keep your stand, / You soon will win. / Therefore you must declare / Christ’s victory; / The situation dark / Soon changed will be. (Hymns #876)
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