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Unseen War - WED

August 6, 2014

Topic: Daily Living Passage: Ephesians 6:12

The enigma of Christianity is that it is a daily battle being fought in a war that has already been won. For some people, this is a frustrating truth; for others, it is a freeing truth. The determining factor in whether spiritual warfare will frustrate or free you is your diligence to obey, learn, and grow in your understanding of this UNSEEN WAR. Our ability to recognize the components and characters as defined by God’s Word is invaluable. God desires for our daily transformation to not only free us, but to also free others in the process (Romans 12:1-2, Matthew 28:18-20, Luke 4:18, II Corinthians 3:17). His design is not one of cruelty but rather one of grace and mercy. His ultimate drive and goal is that He is “…not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (II Peter 3:9)

This truth is probably one of the greatest that can be learned by any Christian, young or old. To understand the Creator’s design for His creation is to give purpose to your life, especially in those seemingly bleak moments when we experience pain, hurt, failure, emptiness, loneliness, rejection…feelings that tell us something is wrong. Stop lights along the road of life that, upon further study, seem to reveal a fork in the road…an opportunity to escape the hurt. Whatever element has caused us to doubt God’s revealed plan for us always seems to offer an easier, and sometimes what would even appear to be a more sensible, path.

It is obvious in Scripture that there is a spiritual factor to life which we cannot avoid. We are spiritual beings, a trait that was passed on to us by our Creator. God even describes Himself not as a physical or emotional presence, but rather as a spirit in John 4:24. Many people realize this when they first experience God. They sense, maybe for the first time ever, a spiritual awakening (Ephesians 2:1, Colossians 2:13). Ironically enough, many Christians, after experiencing God spiritually, simply revert back to what they know, living only with those senses that they have learned to use since their physical birth. They go through life relying on their emotional and physical abilities simply because it is familiar ground for them. They try desperately to reconcile their feelings to reflect what they know the Bible says about them. They struggle to rein in their physical desires to conform to the rules of the Bible. Unfortunately, their life becomes a performance of conformity. Our churches are filled with Christians who, fearing failure, perform. One day these individuals will tire of performing, as we all do, and they will decide that they have no need to conform to a set of rules, a creed, or a belief system that never seemed to work for them anyway. Still others will hold on, trapped once again by familiarity. Their church is familiar, their Bible is familiar, and their morals are familiar. So they continue through life embracing the familiar, but having no real depth to their Christianity. God forbid if a storm of life ever blows their way, testing the roots of their faith which are weakly grounded in soil which has long lacked the water of life which Christ offered so freely to the woman at the well.

It is sometimes difficult to see past the everyday ease of our Christian lives here in America. Truthfully, our spiritual senses have become desensitized with the volume of information, easy accessibility to sin, and lack of accountability to one another. We live in a 24/7 society that is on the go every day of the year. It is amidst this hustle and bustle, this drone of everyday life, that the invisible realm hosts an UNSEEN WAR that is far beyond what the finite minds of people can imagine. Thankfully, God does not desire for us to live in darkness, but rather in the light of His Word. God gives us a little insight as to what exactly this realm can consist of and how it can interact with the physical realm in II Kings 6. Here the king of Syria is at war with Israel. The Syrian king had encountered a problem with a certain prophet named Elisha. It seemed as though every time the Syrian king went on the offensive, Elisha would know it and advise the king of Israel how to counter or escape. II Kings 6:15-18 finds the king of Syria frustrated, having finally surrounded the city in which Elisha was in.

II Kings 6:15-18: “And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! How shall we do? “And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. “And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. “And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the LORD, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.”

Here the unseen and spiritual realm, recognized by the mindset of faith that Elisha maintained, not only had an effect on the physical realm, but it actually changed the outcome. It must be noted that this is a very rare instance. The rarity is found not in the effect of the spiritual realm on the physical, but rather in the opening of the servant’s eyes to see the unseen. Scripture is replete with admonishments that, on a regular basis, battles take place in the spiritual realm (II Corinthians 10:1-6, II Kings 6:15-18, Ephesians 6:10-18). Often, the spiritual battle is over before the physical effects are ever seen. We find this to be the case in Daniel’s life where he is overcome with a dream that causes him to go on a three week long fast in search of the meaning. For three weeks Daniel heard nothing from the Lord. The reason for this silence would have remained unknown had it not been revealed in Scripture.

Daniel 10:12-14: “Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. “But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia. “Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.”

The battle that took place in Daniel 10 was an angelic war, but the purpose of the angelic war was to stop the interpretation of the dream from getting to Daniel. The Christian must remember that if God had not chosen to allow it, the demonic power would not have been able to stop the heavenly message. Rather, God chose to allow it, for reasons that are higher than our understanding. It could be that God desired for patience to “have her perfect work” in the life of Daniel (James 1:4). It could be that it was simply for an example to us of how to handle spiritual warfare (I Corinthians 10:11). Either way, God deems it necessary for our understanding to pull back the curtain to reveal the UNSEEN WAR, but not necessarily to show His reasons in allowing it.

Our theme this year in IMPACT Youth Ministry is UNSEEN WAR. Our goal is that each young person would grow into a better understanding of how the spiritual realm affects every part of the physical realm. We desire for every teenager to not only understand the transformational power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but to experience it. Rather than being caught in a life of performance-based living, we wish to convey the truth that our real identity is found only in Christ and His finished work for us on the cross, freeing us to completely abandon our lives to God’s greater purpose. We want each young person to be aware of the fact that the Christian life lived without the constant presence of the Holy Spirit of God is a recipe for disaster. We, as Christians, face a real enemy, and we will not allow ourselves to be deceived by his presentation of himself as an angel of light. We want to own the truth that the arena for courage does not always lay in some far away battlefield, but in our daily willingness to face our own struggles, private or public. By following God’s Word, we will not only overcome defeat in this UNSEEN WAR, but we will also experience daily victory!

1. Accept: The spiritual affects the physical.

“In the midst of a generation screaming for answers, Christians are stuttering.”

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." - Ephesians 6:12

2. Experience: The power of your salvation.

Rather than being caught in a life of performance-based living, we wish to convey the truth that our real identity is found only in Christ and His finished work for us on the cross, freeing us to completely abandon our lives to God’s greater purpose. (II Corinthians 10:3-6; Romans 12:1-2)

"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled." - 2 Corinthians 10:3-6

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." - Romans 12:1-2

3. Understand: The need for the presence of God in your life.

We, as Christians, face a real enemy, and we will not allow ourselves to be deceived by his presentation of himself as an angel of light.

"And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:" - Luke 22:31

4. Overcome: Celebrate victory on a daily basis!

Own the truth that the arena for courage does not always lay in some far away battlefield, but in our daily willingness to face our own struggles, private or public.

"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." - Romans 8:37