In regards to spiritual warfare, According to author Dave Earley, “The war is real.” I experienced this truth myself when I first started preaching 7 years ago. The night before I was to preach my third sermon, I had a dream. In my dream, the stage and pulpit area were covered by giant steaks sticking out of the ground and there was barbed wire everywhere, much like a scene from a World War II movie. In my dream, I couldn’t get onto the stage and I had an intense feeling of being attacked. When I awoke, I was unsure what it meant. That morning, there were several situations that became distractions. People had problems they needed immediate help with. Others attacked me over trivial issues. The worship team couldn’t get their equipment to work and “needed” my help. It seemed like one thing after another kept me from preaching that morning. It was not until I was finally at the pulpit preaching that I realized the connection between what I had just dreamed and experienced and the text I was preaching. I was preaching Ephesians 6:10-17 on spiritual warfare. I was clear to me that day that spiritual warfare is real.
When it comes to evangelism, spiritual warfare is Satan’s avenue to destroy us and halt the advancement of the Word of God and the salvation of lost people. As we evangelize lost people, Satan not only attacks us with many weapons, but he also attacks our listeners. He shoots fiery arrows of condemnation, deception, distraction and temptation at us before we approach non-believers and during our conversations with them. Just as he seeks to deter us from sharing the gospel with lost people, he seeks to deter the lost from hearing the gospel. He blinds their eyes from the truth with the same fiery arrows. I am reminded of a time when I was sharing the gospel with a young man in our church and his only response was, “I’m just too messed up for God.” Satan was blinding his eyes to see the grace that God provides in the gospel. After about fifteen minutes of trying to break him out of this deception, the Holy Spirit broke through and he burst into tears and accepted God’s free gift of salvation. There have been times when sharing the gospel has not turned the same results and it was discouraging. This is another tool that Satan uses. When we don’t see the results we want, we become discouraged and Satan uses that to cause us to think that we should just give up or that we just don’t have the “gift” of evangelism.
The greatest tool against the wiles of the devil in spiritual warfare is to be deep into God’s Word constantly. Only the Word of God can help us realize that the trick Satan uses are just that, tricks. Being knowledgeable of God’s Word and being closely connected to God through His Word also allows us to be aware of Satan’s attacks and tactics. Though sharing the gospel does not always yield the results we desire, we have to remember that though Satan can blind their eyes, Christ has the victory and is able and willing to release them from their blindness and give them sight. But we must continue to share the gospel so that He can use us to give them sight. We are not called to produce results, we are called to faithfully share the gospel as commanded and allow the Holy Spirit to deal with their hearts.
