SPIRITUAL WARFARE (PART TWO) If you want to fight with the big boys you'll have to learn to fight like the big boys

God you’ve got something to say about the enemy haven’t you?

Sure have, but what about you Mark – you’ve got something to say too.

Well I’d sure like to get my hands on him God… but I imagine that’s a silly thing to say?

Not as silly as you think Mark. If you want to fight him you’ll need to know what you’re doing. But you don’t have to be scared. Much of what you’re taught about the enemy is his own propaganda, a smokescreen to scare you.

You sure God?

Why don’t you try your hand at this and find out Mark?

You mean just wade in and take a swing at him??

No, not unless you want to come off second best.

Well what do you mean? We get taught not to take him on unwisely.

That part is right Mark. Don’t wade in swinging blindly at him, but if you’re game you should try your hand at fighting him.

Sounds like a contradiction in terms God? We can’t even see him so how do we fight wisely. We’re taught not to fight him, not to provoke him.

Exactly. And as a result you only ever fight on the defensive. You never see him coming so you’re always trying to fight your way out of surprise ambushes.

How on earth are we supposed to see him coming God?

Actually very easily Mark.

How?

Listen to me. The reason you are so all so easily led, bruised and bashed by Satan is that you don’t even know he’s about until he wounds you. A soldier who doesn’t know his enemy is close until he suffers the first wound is a soldier in danger. But it’s even worse with most of you – you are wounded repeatedly and you have no idea that it’s even happening.

Exactly God! He’s so powerful. All this talk of attacking him is extremely dangerous.

Actually it’s not Mark. That’s the cunning of his lies. He convinces you that the moment you go demon hunting you’re in dangerous territory. Oh for a warrior willing to come hunting!

God do you want to get me thrown out of churches?!?! ‘Demon hunting’ – for goodness sake?? You make all this sound like good sport.

It is.

GOD!?!?!?

Mark it’s very good sport – you’re much more likely to come out alive if you’re on the watch for your enemy and attacking him before he attacks you.

God I’ve been taught that’s just asking for trouble.

You’ve been taught wrong Mark.

God what about in the bible where Jude teaches that even Michael, one of your strongest angels, didn’t dare condemn or abuse Satan.

Why do you think Michael was so careful Mark? Do you think he was scared of Satan?

I don’t know God! How would I know?

Michael is never scared Mark. Michael was careful because he is a seasoned warrior! He is constantly watching his enemy, always taking his measure. Always listening to me for the next step in the fight. If you want to fight the enemy (and you’ll have to fight him if you want to survive this war), you have to drop your prescribed methods.

What do you mean?

I mean forget all your ‘Satan we rebuke you in the name of Jesus’ methods. That’s like picking up a gun and shooting wildly often in the wrong direction.

Why? We were taught to say that kind of stuff.

IT’S NOT HOW TO DO IT Mark, it’s just a weapon – it can be a good weapon but it is often not the right one for the fight. It is dangerous to rely on weapons rather than me. The armies of Israel relied on their weapons, but they turned out to be useless against just one Giant because they didn’t listen to me. Then along comes David, a boy. He refused the weapons they’d all been taught to use. I told him to use a slingshot instead so he picked up stones and ran at the enemy! What made David different is he relied on what I said, not on the prescribed weapons.

You’re all so focused on which weapon - which rebuke or verse to use based on what some famous teacher has taught you and then once armed you run blindly in waving your weapon about.

A mighty man fights with his eyes open. He never relies on his weapons, he fights listening to me for each and every step of the fight. He attacks or he stands, charges or withdraws to the tune of the battle song I am singing in his ear. “Pick up those stones, now run at him - swing that slingshot, that’s right, now aim for his forehead that’s his weak spot. Now cut off his head’’.

God are you sure?? There’s such a big body of teaching on rebuking the devil and what to say and when to say it.

Of course I’m sure, but you tell me Mark. Do the people who use these formulas you put so much trust in, do they look like they’re winning?

Well probably not but….

Mark a weapon is a weapon. Thousands of swords couldn’t save Israel, but a single slingshot and five stones could. You can actually RUN AT YOUR ENEMY unarmed if you hear me say to do so. The reason you all lose in this fight is that you have no idea what I’m saying, no idea how to listen for step by step instructions. In the absence of my voice you pick up the weapons prescribed by your great teachers and then already under attack, bruised and bloody, and weakening you wade blindly into the fight, swinging widely with the weapon you’ve been assured will do the trick. It’s often pointless.

ACTS 19:15 "Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?"

Mark you have no idea how Michael was armed – all you know is that he exercised caution and called on me to enter the battle – ‘The Lord rebuke you Satan’. In your language he might have said ‘Whack him God’. His focus in the battle is always on me. He ALWAYS asks me for his next step, ALWAYS listens, ALWAYS maintains contact. As a result he’s one of the strongest angelic beings.

In contrast you humans are the most powerless in this battle – that’s because you don’t listen to me, you don’t even know how. For the most part you don’t even know you’re in a battle! When to stand, when to run at your enemy, when not. How to strike, how to duck and withdraw. Michael hears all that, if you’ll fight like Michael you’ll win. Do NOT rely on prescribed prayers, rely instead on what I say to you right there in the heat of each battle. Don’t ask what I have said in the past, ask what I am saying now in this moment, in the battle that wages right now.

Why are you telling me all this God?

It’s payback time Mark. The reason you were never taught this conversation is that the king of slime has hid it from humanity. So do you want to take a swing at him?

Not unless I can be sure it will harm him.

That’s actually possible. You’re fighting welter-weight Mark, you’re fighting little demons, but you could take on their bosses.

God you just said not to fight unwisely – but now you’re sounding flippant, unwise.

Mark I’m never flippant, never irresponsible. Remember the story of Aslan’s growl?

Yes?

That’s just a story Mark. But now you’re talking to the real Lion - the Lion who comes now like a lamb, now like thunder – because he is always listening.

 JOHN 5:30 “I can do nothing on my own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and my judgement is just because I do not seek my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

I am always listening Mark. You’re in the halls of war now. In a council with The Three. We taught your enemy to fight. We thought him up, created him, loved him and taught him to fight.  And then, when he wanted to overpower us, when no entreaty could change his mind, heartbroken for him we threw him to the ground. It was like taking ice cream from a baby and there’s no joy in that for a warrior Mark. Compared to us he’s less than a baby. We loved him, we had no desire for his demise, but in the face of his insistent desire for ours we were left with no choice. We threw him down.

Ok?

So when we counsel you to fight we never do it unwisely, neither are we afraid of him. When you are in our presence you’ll sense there is no fear of him, none at all. We love him but we are not afraid of him. He is afraid of us. And believe it or not, he’s also afraid of you.

Me?

All of you. He’s constantly afraid that you’ll recognise your potential and turn and fight. He’s terrified you’ll look him in the eye, stare him down, step him out.

Oh God come on!! Now you’re making fun of him. You might not be scared of him, but I am.

Actually you’re not, and you can fight like we do.

How?

By listening. I showed you yesterday that there are at least three levels at which you can fight the lord of darkness.

Yes. And I wanted to fight at the top level. It seems silly now when I think about it, I have no right to fight up there, no ability, but that’s what I want.

Yes you do – I’ll tell you why you feel that need to fight him where the big demons fight. Remember that verse that I won’t let you suffer an attack from him that you’re not able to withstand.

Yes. I looked it up on google, it’s 1 Corinthians 10:13

Yes Mark and what did I talk to you about yesterday?

About my dad’s friend, the Spiritist guy who cursed me when I was in my early 20s.

How do you know he cursed you?

Well I guess I don’t know, it sure seemed like he did, but I wasn’t sure. Moments after he said it I realised that feeling of horror. His words sounded like an innocent comment, just an observation somehow, but within seconds I sensed that something had happened in the invisible world – something sinister – an invisible transaction had taken place in the dark world that somehow involved me.

It sure had Mark. Do you want to do something about it?

I would.

Good. It has troubled and held you back and squashed your hopes and bought sickness and strife to you ever since. Do you want to fight?

Anger deep within me wants to stand and crush it God, but caution within me says no.

Caution be damned Mark. Seriously I mean that. The Caution you can hear in this moment is already damned so don’t listen to him.

So what do I do?

You listen.

We’re back to that? I thought we were going above all that.

There is no ‘above all that’ Mark. Listening to me is the pinnacle. If you want to fight with the big boys you’re going to have to listen. If you want to fight like your Dad’s friend fought you’re going to have to listen. He did.

He listened God? He listened to you??

Of course not, he was listening to the darkness. He was fighting like a big boy. He heard what the dark one said. It was simple but deadly, in the mouth of another it would have been just words, that was the ‘beauty’ of his fight, it came unnoticed. He told you that you would succeed in the end, but that you would always have a hard life until you did. He pronounced a curse over you Mark. Not some prescribed curse, but one he heard his lord tell him to pronounce right then. He was in tune, listening, able to discern the moment. He was the right man at the right time for Satan. He was one who listened, one who knew how to hear. Do you want to harm the one who directed him to harm you Mark?

Is this safe God?

It’s the only safety Mark. You’ve been marked and cursed and brutalised, the only way to win at that level is to fight back at that level. If you want to fight with the big boys YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE TO LEARN TO FIGHT LIKE A BIG BOY.

Umm God I’m not entirely sure I do want to fight with the big boys.

Trust me Mark you do. You have absolutely no choice. You’ve been marked by a big boy, marked by one who listened to his dark lord. There’s no way out of this bind other than to draw guns the size he came slinging that night. He knew what he was doing, he shot you in the back, took you by surprise, cursed you without warning. That’s the sign of a strongman, his sting comes floating unnoticed on the breeze but it goes in deep, sends poison to the core. The strongman is not some trench fighter, no soldier grunt – the strongman is an artist in battle, one who makes war a thing of beauty. A dance of death.

God I’m out of my depth.

Yes you are, but I’m not. I taught these dark strongmen their art. It was a light art they were taught but they have made it black.

So what do I do?

Do what he did.

God are we talking about my dad’s friend or the invisible ‘strong men’?

We’re talking of both.

So you want me to go after the invisible strongman who directed him?

Yes I do.

Heart beating God!!

His would be too if he had one Mark. You’re frightening him.

Truly God? I don’t feel very frightening.

You’re frightening because you’re listening to me Mark and he can see that if you keep this up you’re going to hear how to grab his wrists and wrest him screaming from his hold in your life. Does he belong here Mark?

No God. Not at all!!

Good. Now summarise for me and for him – because he’s listening - what I have taught you.

Well I have heard more than we’ve said here God.

Yes you have. Tell me what you’ve heard.

Ok well you’ve been talking about those three levels at which we can fight against dark spirits and demons, and you’re saying that those who fight for the dark lords fight at the same three levels?

Yes.

So God at the lowest level there’s the basic prayer for protection against evil – sort of like the lord’s prayer -  quick fire ‘protect me from evil’ sorts of prayers. And those who move in the dark have their equivalent I think – superstitions and good luck charms and spell shifters. The low level dark spirit stuff?

Yes carry on.

And then the next level up is all that deliverance stuff we see the big dude preachers do, the ‘In the name of Jesus I rebuke you Satan’ sort of stuff. It can be powerful, but it’s very prescribed. There’s a formula they seem to follow.

Yes there is Mark and the dark side has their equivalent too. Incantations, spells, methodical ways to curse and damn. But it’s not their top level - and the prescribed and taught ways to rebuke Satan are not your top level of warfare either.

So God you’re saying that the fluid fighter, the one who listens to your specific instructions, the one who drops the prescribed methods in favour of hearing your voice – he’s the one who can fight strongmen God?

Yes when I tell him to yes. And the same is true for the dark fighter Mark. Men and women like the one who cursed you. Knowingly, deftly, listening to his lord he knew what to say and when to say it. He had no idea of the extent of the damage he did, but he knew that he did damage. It will be the same with you. You will spend a lifetime learning the extent of the damage you will do, but believe me Mark. If you throw off the prescribed and taught methods of fighting and begin to listen to me for each blow, you will fight like few do. The prescribed methods are for trainees, not for the seasoned fighter. This is not a game Mark. If you want to fight with the big boys, and you have no choice having been marked by a master warrior from the dark side – if you want to fight with the big boys you’re going to have to fight like a big boy. End of story.

But God he didn’t really look much of a master warrior, he was a weaseley little guy if I remember right.

You don’t look that scary yourself Mark. But you are.