As Christians, we are in a battlefield!

Spiritual warfare is very real. There is a fierce and ferocious battle raging in the realm of the spirit between the forces of God and the forces of evil. This warfare happens every day, all the time. We are in a battlefield. We are in warfare!

The moment we become Christians, the devil’s grip over our lives is broken, we cease to be his children, and we become a threat to him. He begins to see us as his enemy and seeks to either win us back or destroy us. We are therefore immediately thrust onto the front line of this brutal battle whether we appreciate it or not, whether we like it or not, and whether we know it or not!

The first thing we need to know is who the enemy is. The Bible makes it very clear in Ephesians 6 that we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms. In other words, we are fighting Satan, the devil, an enemy who is a spirit. The enemy is therefore not your mother-in-law, or your neighbour, or your boss at work!

We are waging war against an enemy who is invisible to the naked eye. Therefore, to stand a chance, we must rely totally and completely on God, because He is Spirit and He can see the end of a thing from its beginning. Our weapons are mighty through God, and we are nothing without Him. In reality, the battle is His; we are merely His battle-axes!

On the cross of Calvary, Jesus obtained total victory over sin, sickness, and death. He triumphed over the Enemy through His death and resurrection. Jesus Christ’s triumph at Calvary means that in this warfare, our victory has been predetermined. Jesus, the greater one, far superior to the Enemy, is with us, therefore we are assured of triumph and victory. This is the only battle where the outcome is preordained and predestined, even before the fighting begins. In other words, we fight from victory not for victory! The Bible confirms this in Romans 8:37 where it says, “No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us” (NLT).

This battle continues until we depart from this world. As we go on in this battle, spectators are urging us on. These are the saints triumphant, i.e., the Christians who have died and gone ahead of us to heaven, who have now become “a cloud of witnesses” and who are cheering us on!

(C) Pedro Okoro, Blogger, Author, Pastor. You can follow Pedro on Twitter: http://twitter.com/pedrookoro