Bound and Set Free: The Reality of Spiritual Warfare (SEEN SERIES)

We have an invisible enemy who is out for our destruction. But we don't have to live in fear. Jesus has defeated Satan, equipped us with spiritual weapons, and accomplished our victory! As He does with the hunched woman from Luke 13, He reaches toward us and invites us to live in freedom.

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The Hunched Woman's Story

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Transcript

Why Spiritual Warfare Matters

Teresa Whiting 0:00

In writing and talking about the hunched woman from Luke 13, I can't ignore the reality of her life. Her condition wasn't just physical, it was spiritual. It went beyond this earthly realm into the realm of angels and demons, a world I'd really rather not talk about. And I don't think I'm alone. I think a lot of Christians today shy away from spiritual warfare discussions, which is exactly why we absolutely have to have this conversation. When we ignore the spiritual realities of life, it only serves to weaken us and make us more vulnerable to the attacks of Satan. What I'm hoping to do is whet your appetite so that you will dig into scripture for yourself and learn more about what it means to live on this physical earth while being immersed and surrounded by spiritual realities.

The Hunched Woman’s Healing

Teresa Whiting 1:01

Hi, friend. Welcome to Beauty and the Brokenness, where we have honest conversations about the Bible, our real life struggles, and the hope God brings for healing. I'm your host, Teresa Whitey, an author, Bible teacher, and trauma-informed life coach, but mostly a friend and fellow struggler. No matter who you are or where you've been, I'm inviting you to encounter the God who is still creating beauty right in the midst of your brokenness. So a couple weeks ago, I introduced the hunched woman from Luke chapter 13. And I did a creative retelling of her story, but I didn't actually read straight from the scripture. So we're gonna go to Luke 13, verses 10 to 17, and hear her story from the NIV. On a Sabbath day, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for 18 years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, Woman, you are set free from your infirmity. Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, There are six days for work, so come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath. The Lord answered him, You hypocrites, doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her? When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing. According to Jesus, this woman was bound by Satan for eighteen years. It deformed her, it debilitated her body, and then in a moment, at the command of Jesus, she was set free. Her condition was not a physical problem, it was a spiritual

Satan’s First Scheme In Eden

Teresa Whiting 3:17

problem. Initially, I thought I'd go right to Ephesians 6, which talks about spiritual warfare, but I actually want to start all the way at the beginning. I want to read where Satan launches his first attack against humanity. So we're going to go back to the garden. In Genesis chapters 1 and 2, we read the account of creation. We read about God speaking the world into existence, forming man and woman with his own hands, breathing into their nostrils the breath of life, and pronouncing all things very good. Genesis 2 25 ends on this beautiful note. And the man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. But now we have to cue the ominous music because Genesis three opens up with a diabolical scheme. Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? The woman said to the serpent, We may eat from the trees in the garden. But God did say you must not eat from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it or you will die. You will not certainly die, the serpent said to the woman, for God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. We are introduced to the serpent in Genesis chapter 3, and the Hebrew word for serpent is nakash. Now it does mean serpent or snake, but it can also mean to enchant, to practice divination, to whisper a magic spell, or to hiss. He is described as shrewd, cunning, crafty. When we look at Satan's schemes, they haven't changed in thousands of years. The first thing he does is he questions God's word. He says, Did God really say? He plants seeds of doubt about God's goodness. And so it led the woman to believe, like, hmm, maybe God's holding out on me. Maybe God isn't really that good. And she's looking around at the trees and thinking, hmm, if only I could have that one. Interestingly, if you go back and read Genesis chapter 2, it describes all the trees being good for food and pleasing to the eye. But Satan has a way of fixating us on the one thing that we can't have, even though even though all around us is an abundance of God's goodness. Secondly, he twists the truth. He mingles a little bit of truth with falsehood. Because he said, Your eyes will be opened and you will be like God. Well, yeah, their eyes were opened, but it wasn't in a good way. And then he outright contradicts God. He said, You will not certainly die, which is a direct contradiction to Genesis 2.17. And then finally he appeals to our flesh, to our desires. And it says, When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. We see the immediate result of Satan's scheme shame, guilt, hiding. Satan's intention is always, always, always to separate God from his kids. And we see the tragedy of that reality playing out in his first interaction with humankind.

Jesus Faces Temptation With Scripture

Teresa Whiting 7:37

But I also want to take us to another scene where we see Satan interacting with Jesus. I'm gonna read Luke 4, 1 through 13. Now, this is right at the beginning of Jesus' ministry. Satan was trying to take him out before he even got started. Here's Luke 4. Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread. Jesus answered, It is written, Man shall not live on bread alone. The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world, and he said to him, I will give you all their authority and splendor. It has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours. Jesus answered, It is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve him only. The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you are the Son of God, he said, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully, they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. Jesus answered, It is said, Do not put the Lord your God to the test. When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. We see Satan using the same exact playbook. He questions, he appeals to Jesus' appetites, he even twists scripture, he has the audacity to use God's word against Jesus. And every time Jesus responds with, it is written. He fights Satan with the word of God. We'll come back to that in a little bit. But I just want to note a couple interesting things about this interaction. It tells us at the beginning of the chapter that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. And after this temptation, he returns in power and begins his ministry. I think maybe we think of Jesus fasting and praying for 40 days, and Satan comes to him in this weakened state. But maybe that was a strengthened state. Maybe him spending all that time with God prepared him for the temptation that was about to come.

Who Satan Is And What He Wants

Teresa Whiting 10:20

Well, let's just look at a few more descriptions of who Satan is. In John 8 44, Jesus says he was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Peter describes Satan as your adversary, the devil, prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Satan is not playing. Luke 8, 12, Jesus is telling a parable of the sower and about how the word of God goes out to different people. And when he's explaining the parable to his disciples, he says, Those along the path are the ones who hear. And then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved. The last thing that Satan wants is for people to be saved. So we can kind of look at these different descriptions and we can summarize his character, who he is. He's a liar. He dwells in darkness and death. He questions God's word. He twists the truth. He appeals to our desires. And his ultimate, ultimate goal is to always separate us from God. He comes after us where we're most vulnerable. He appeals to power, knowledge, reputation. He comes in and plants seeds of doubt. He goes after our minds, our hearts, our bodies with the intention of destruction. But the good news is if we are in Christ, we have nothing to fear because Jesus has purchased the victory for us.

Jesus’ Mission To Set Free

Teresa Whiting 12:15

So we're going to go back to Luke chapter 4. After Jesus is tempted in the wilderness, he begins his ministry. And the first thing he does is he reads scripture in a synagogue on the Sabbath, much like what he's doing in Luke chapter 13 when we meet the hunched woman. So listen to this first message when Jesus is beginning his ministry. Luke 4, 16 to 21 says this. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. On rolling it, he found the place where it is written, The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Jesus came to bring good news to the poor, freedom to captives, release from darkness. In Luke alone, Jesus cast out demons at least seven times, including setting this dear daughter of Abraham free from her oppression. So this is not a one-off. Setting people free from spiritual oppression was central to Jesus' ministry. It was what he was about. It's what he did. One of the things that Greg does when he preaches at the end of his messages is he often says, so what? Like, what does all this teaching have to do with our very real practical

Living On A Battlefield

Teresa Whiting 14:24

lives? Well, this has everything to do with our real life. First of all, we need to acknowledge that the spiritual realm is real. It's even more real than the physical world that we live in. We need to acknowledge that we live on a battlefield. I think one of the reasons that stories, that epics, that novels and movies of good and evil resonate with us so deeply is because we're living on the set. Like we live in a war zone. Hollywood wants us to think that we live in a fairy tale, that we live, you know, in a movie where everything gets wrapped up in 30 minutes or two hours. But the reality is we live in a war zone. We have enemies, though they're invisible. And it seems kind of unfair that we have to fight enemies that we can't see, but we are not powerless and we are called to fight. Like the hunched woman, we have an enemy who's gonna do anything to keep us pushed down, to keep us defeated. He lies to us through discouragement, through making us question our identity, making us feel like we have to live in powerlessness. Sometimes even unconfessed sin can quench the Holy Spirit living in us, and that will leave us spiritually vulnerable. But God has given

The Armor Of God Explained

Teresa Whiting 15:46

us weapons. Now we're finally getting to Ephesians 6. This is kind of the classic spiritual warfare passage, and there is so much in here that we can learn from. Listen to Ephesians 6, 10 to 20. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor 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 armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground, and after you've 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. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me, so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should. Before we get into the particular pieces of armor, I want to point out verse twelve, which says, Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities, powers of this dark world, and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. I don't know if you've ever noticed this, but this is not the first time those descriptors of those spiritual entities come up in the book of Ephesians. If you go back to Ephesians chapter 1, Paul is praying this beautiful Thanksgiving prayer for his people there in Ephesus. And he talks about the fact that these powers are already under the feet of Jesus. It says in verse 18, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his old in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. Now this is the power, this is the power that's available to you and me. I'm continuing verse 19. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. And God placed all these things under his feet and appointed him, that is Christ, to be head over everything for the church. Did you see that? Those spiritual rulers and authorities and the powers of this dark world, did you see where they are? They are under the feet of Christ. Our spiritual enemies have already been defeated. We have nothing to fear. We are on the winning side. Jesus has already accomplished the victory. So we don't enter this battle with timidity. We enter it with confidence, not arrogance, not confidence in ourselves, but confidence knowing that our Savior has assured us that we win. Ephesians 6 10 says to be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. We fight in the strength of his might. We have his spirit living in us, which enables us to wear these weapons. Listen to them. First of all, the belt of truth. The belt of truth is what holds everything else together. Without truth, everything else falls apart. Where is truth coming from? It comes from Jesus, who is the truth. It comes from the Word of God, which is the truth. Wearing the belt of truth is imperative. And we are surrounded by lies. We are inundated by all kinds of false ideas, false ideologies all around us. The movies, the social media feeds. I mean, there are lies constantly swarming our heads. We have to be so careful about what we're putting into our minds so that we can recognize the truth. We have to spend time in God's word so that we can know the truth and live the truth. Next is the breastplate of righteousness that protects our hearts. Our most vulnerable place is the righteousness of Christ. It's not our own righteousness. We don't come by righteousness on our own. We are given the righteousness of Christ and enabled to wear it because we're His. Another weapon is having the gospel of peace as shoes on our feet. What a beautiful picture that when we move about in this world wherever we go, we have the opportunity and the responsibility to take the gospel of peace. And that peace starts with peace between us and God. We can have that peace because of Christ. And once we do, we can share with others that they can have peace with God. And when people have peace with God, then it's possible to have peace with one another. We take the shield of faith. Faith is a gift given to us by God. We don't muster up faith. You can take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. I'm a wimp. Like, I don't even like to get a paper cut. And when I hear the word flaming arrow, that's just not like a little, you know, put a little neosporin on it and a band-aid. No, a flaming arrow is designed to take us out. And yet God has given us a weapon to fight those arrows that Satan is going to hurl at us. Sometimes we wonder, like, why is this happening? Why is why am I struggling with my faith? Why wouldn't we? We have an enemy who is constantly against us, who is constantly trying to take us out in any way he possibly can. We need to have the armor of God on at all times, the helmet of salvation. That helmet protects our head, our mind, our thoughts. Our salvation is not rooted in our goodness. It's not rooted in our ability to fight well. It's rooted in God through Christ forgiving our sins. Here is something so fascinating. Paul is actually quoting Isaiah 59 in this verse, which is talking about God. And it says, He put on righteousness as his breastplate and the helmet of salvation on his head. God himself is a warrior. God himself puts on this armor. This is called the armor of God because it's the same armor that God wears. And then finally, the last piece is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Jesus said over and over when he was being tempted, it is written. And you and I can take that word of God and we can use it as a weapon to fight back against Satan's schemes and his lies and his attacks. There's actually one more weapon. And it can kind of get lost. But I don't know if you notice this, but after Paul lists things like the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, he says three times in this passage, pray. Pray in the spirit on all occasions. Pray for me with all kinds of prayers and requests. Prayer might just be our greatest weapon. Staying in constant communication with God. Now, as we wrap up this teaching on spiritual warfare, I want to take it back to a couple questions that might come up when we hear the story of the hunched woman.

Oppression Vs Possession And Avoiding Extremes

Teresa Whiting 24:36

Um, you know, that she was oppressed. We talked about this in our um pilot group actually. Like, how is it that she was at the synagogue? She was a woman who was there wanting to worship, and yet she was oppressed by Satan. Well, the truth is Satan can oppress believers. He can come after us, he cannot possess us. Demons cannot possess the body of a person who has the spirit of the living God inside of them. This woman was not possessed, but she was oppressed. The other caution that I want to give, and honestly, one of my fears about talking about spiritual warfare is that it could cause us to look for Satan and his demons behind every corner. Like, was that Satan who made my car break down? Is there a demon under my bed? And so I kind of would rather ignore the spiritual realm altogether, but it doesn't serve us well to go from one extreme to another. We need to know and understand the word of God. We need to acknowledge the reality of spiritual warfare, and we need to live armored up in the confidence that Jesus has already assured our victory, but that doesn't mean we are not gonna face spiritual opposition. We will face it, and we need to be prepared to fight back. I just want to kind of wrap up the hunched woman's

Jesus Sees You And Invites Freedom

Teresa Whiting 25:59

story. She came into that synagogue bound. She was bent in half, basically. She was unable to straighten herself up. And here's the beautiful thing. It says, when Jesus had seen her, when he looked upon her, he noticed her and called her forward. She didn't even ask for healing. He saw her with eyes of compassion, mercy, love, and he invited her to a place of healing in a moment, in an instant, as soon as he spoke her healing, she was able to stand up and praise God. That's what Jesus does. It's who he is. He sees those who are bent low under oppression, under anxiety, under illness or rejection, and he lifts us up. He can free us from a burden that has held us down for years and years, simply by his word or simply by his touch. I want to speak directly to you, listener. If you're feeling like I'm under some kind of oppression and I can't seem to get out of it, I want you to know that freedom is possible. I want to encourage you to share that with somebody, with somebody who is safe, and that you would ask for prayer, that you would ask the spiritual leaders in your life, maybe to anoint you with oil, to pray over you. Ask for healing. We don't know what that healing looks like. We don't know Jesus' plan for how your healing looks. But we know that he wants you to live in freedom. He came for your freedom. So hear him now calling you forward. I hope that if you hear him calling you into freedom, you will not resist his calling.

Website Link Reviews And Closing Prayer

Teresa Whiting 27:50

Thanks for hanging out with me today on Beauty and the Brokenness. To find anything I mentioned on the episode, go to TeresaVighting.com slash episode dash 149. Friend, if you are enjoying this podcast, would you do me a huge favor and head over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify Podcasts wherever you listen and leave a five-star rating and review. That makes such a difference. It will help other people discover beauty and the brokenness. I am gonna thank you in advance. In closing, I want to leave you with this prayer from number six, 24 to 26. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.