Discipleship - Part 5

Introduction

Jesus said: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23)
 
This is the fifth in a series of posts on Christian discipleship, using David Watson's book Discipleship as our starting point and guide. Today we look at chapter 8 of the book on the important subject of spiritual warfare.

Spiritual Warfare

At the beginning of the chapter, Watson puts it plainly: "Discipleship is a struggle." Or as we might also put it - the Christian life is a war, a spiritual war. The struggle is evident every day. Watson gives a number of examples that resonated with me, but it boils down to this: we find it hard to do what we should, and we find it easy to do what we shouldn't. And that's true of individuals, families, churches, and indeed whole societies and nations. That is the Bible's sobering view of human nature and the reasons for it are twofold. First, because we are sinners. We are captives or slaves to sin. Our nature is to rebel against God and do what we want. But second, we are involved in a spiritual battle. The world is a war zone with an enemy, Satan, who is out to harass, frustrate and destroy us.

You cannot understand spiritual warfare until you accept that the devil is real and you cannot engage in spiritual warfare until you know how to fight against him. That the devil is real is the teaching of the Bible from beginning to end. He first appears as a serpent in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3 and leads humanity into disobedience and rebellion against God. He last appears in Revelation 20 when he is destroyed by God in the lake of fire. A significant part of Jesus teaching concerns Satan and the Bible records Jesus being tempted by Satan right at the start of his public ministry (Matthew 4). The apostolic writers also make reference to this mysterious and evil being. This includes Paul (2 Corinthians 2:11, 1 Timothy 3:7, 2 Timothy 2:26, Ephesians 6:11 and Colossians 2:5), Peter (1 Peter 5:8), James (James 4:7) and John (1 John 3:8).

Watson goes on to point out that many Christians down through history have also recognised that we are involved in spiritual warfare against Satan and his minions, including Martin Luther, the puritan William Gurnall (whose massive book The Christian in Complete Armour is a classic on spiritual warfare), John Bunyan (the author of Pilgrim's Progress also wrote the classic The Holy War), John Wesley and Jonathan Edwards.

After laying out this groundwork, Watson then turns to an analysis of firstly the types of attack we need to look out for in spiritual warfare and then the principles of victory for how we might counter the attacks and engage the enemy.

Types of Attack

Watson lists six different types of Satanic attack.


(1) Direct Attack

The first kind of attack is simply the direct attack of persecution designed to cow us into silence and submission to the world, or frighten us into disobeying God. This is what we might call "open warfare". The gloves are off in persecution and it is simply a matter of coming after Christians through the agency of human hatred. For millions of our Christian brothers and sisters in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, this is the reality of their Christian lives every day and we need to remember that and pray for them regularly. We need to familiarise ourselves with the work of charities like Barnabas Fund and Christian Solidarity Worldwide to know about what is going on and take action to help our Christian brothers and sisters in their extreme need.

(2) Accusation

The name Satan means the Accuser. Accusation is more subtle than direct attack, but mere accusation can be an effective weapon in Satan's arsenal. He often tries to stop God's work being carried out by accusing Christians, by name calling, probably hoping this will lead to persecution. But he also comes with his "fiery darts" directly into Christians' minds and consciences to remind us of our failures, to highlight our sins and give us a stifling and crippling sense of guilt and worthlessness that can make us inactive in our Christian service. Sometimes a guilty conscience comes from God - when we have sinned, we should feel guilty. But once we have repented and asked for God's forgiveness, then our sins have been taken away and so should our guilt go with it. If God has forgiven you, don't listen to the devil's lies. Your status as a Christian does not rely on you, but on Christ's work and God's faithfulness.


(3) Exploitation

Satan can take something good and exploit it to become something not good. Watson mentions several examples. He can take the love of truth and pervert it into something harsh, cold and bigoted. He can take emotions and twist them into lust or adultery. He can even take love of peace and tolerance and turn it into appeasement of evil, peace at all costs, so that false teaching is not dealt with appropriately in the church.


(4) Counterfeits

Satan can "appear as an angel of light" as Paul wrote. He uses counterfeit versions of the truth to lead people astray through false teaching.



(5) Temptation

One of Satan's main strategies - the one he even used with Jesus - is to try to lure us into sin. Satan cannot make anyone sin, but he can tempt us to sin. And he is masterful at it. Temptations can be the obvious ones like sex, money and power, or they can be incredibly subtle, like fitting in, being liked, being respected, etc.


(6) Possession

This last one is controversial and reflects Watson's charismatic views. However, the Bible does speak of people being demon-possessed and I do not believe all of the examples can be explained as antiquated ways of looking at mental or physical illness. This is perhaps the least subtle way that Satan can work and it would appear to be extremely rare. We might consider that Satan has been so successful using the other five strategies that he hardly needs to "show his hand" in possession nowadays.

Principles of Victory

Watson then turns to the principles we might keep in mind as we find ourselves as "God's freedom fighters" (Watson's phrase) engaging in spiritual warfare.

(1) Know the Enemy

It goes without saying that in any military conflict it is vital to know and if possible understand the aims and motives of the enemy. As Christians, if we know the devil's tactics and what he's trying to achieve, we will be in a better position to see through the various kinds of camouflage he uses and effectively resist him when we encounter his activity in our lives.

(2) Keep in the Love of God

There are countless stories of soldiers in battle drawing strength from the knowledge that they have  "someone special" back home who loves them. As Christians we have our Father God who loves us more than any human being can love. And when we are "going through it" we need to keep God's love for us constantly in mind and draw comfort from the peace this gives us.

(3) Be strong in Christ

Soldiers in battle often draw courage from their commanding officer as he leads, inspires and motivates them to carry on and "get stuck in". A good officer also looks after his men. Jesus is our commanding officer as Christians. But he is no general safe in a chateau far behind the front lines. He is more like a sergeant major, right alongside us in trenches. We need to draw strength for the fight directly from Christ and our knowledge of his life, teachings and saving work on our behalf. He has already stormed the enemy position and inflicted a crushing defeat on Satan. The decisive battle was won singlehanded by Christ on Calvary. We are merely engaged in a "mopping up" operation until the enemy's final unconditional surrender. That doesn't mean the battle isn't still fierce. Some of the fiercest battles in World War 2 took place between the decisive victory in Normandy and the final German surrender the following year.

(4) Be filled with the Spirit

We lack the strength and power to engage in spiritual warfare without the Holy Spirit. We need him to fill us with his fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, meekness, faithfulness and self-control. These are the kinds of attitudes Christ's army need for the war they are engaged in. We need the Holy Spirit to energise us for the fight.

(5) Be active in witness and service

If we as Christians were never to bear witness to Christ or seek to live out our faith in practical service to Christ and to others, we would be like well-trained soldiers who stay behind in the barracks and never actually engage the enemy in the front line. It is when we go out to be witnesses to Christ and to serve Christ in the world that the devil will really try to stop us. However, we cannot be loyal to our commanding officer and fail to be witnesses and servants to him. Christ's lordship demands it.

(6) Be quick to put things right

This seemingly small thing is actually huge. It is vital in any military unit that the soldiers get along with each other and trust each other, and when there are problems, these need to be sorted out for the good of everyone. So with us as Christians in fellowship with each other. We need to be quick to apologise when we've done something wrong and look always to put things right if we possibly can. We also need to be ready to accept the apologies of others when we've been wronged and be quick to forgive, as God has forgiven us.

(7) Put on the armour of God

One of Paul's great passages in Ephesians 6 tells us all about the different parts of the armour God gives us as Christians. We need to use all the weapons God gives us if we are to have any success in our spiritual battles. We need to study this passage time and again until it is second nature to put the armour on daily and carry it through the day. Here is Ephesians 6:10-18 in full in the NIV:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 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 armour 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. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people.

(8) Be constant in prayer

This point is made in Ephesians 6:18 as we've just seen. As we have already looked at prayer in a previous post, there's not much to add here, except to say it is crucial to pray regularly, just as lines of communication between an army's headquarters and the front line are vital to the success of any military operation.

(9) Praise and Worship God

You know the scene in many a film? The hero rides out in front of the troops to inspire and encourage them and they respond with a roars of approval and cheers that puts fire in their belly for the fight. That's partly what we are doing when we praise and worship God. We are acknowledging him as our hero and leader, and in a way as we worship, we also draw strength and renewal for ourselves. Worship helps us put everything in perspective and reminds us of just who God is and how our victories through him are certain because God reigns!

Next time we will look at the subject of evangelism for Christ's disciples.