Spiritual Warfare in Everyday Life

Many Christians know spiritual warfare is real, but few understand what it actually looks like in everyday life. In this episode, Pastor Charlie explores Ephesians 6 and discusses the enemy’s most effective tactics against believers, including distraction, twisting God’s Word, and settling for lukewarm faith.

Learn how to recognize the spiritual battle around you, put on the full armor of God, and stand firm in the strength Christ provides.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

All right, welcome back to another episode of the QA with Pastor Charlie Podcast. Um, as you guys know, in our church we've been reading through Ephesians, and now we're finally in Ephesians 6, and we've been talking about spiritual warfare. And so we have a couple questions about that topic. The first one being if we're prepared for the schemes and tactics of the devil, what do you think some of his greatest tactics are for keeping us from following after Jesus?

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Well, this topic has really been one that's been on my heart and mind a lot lately, of course, because I've been studying it as we've been preaching through it and just thinking about, you know, the reality of spiritual warfare, the implications of it, uh the effect that it has. And you know, the more the more I think about it, the more I realize just that there is this cosmic struggle going on in all of us. And I sometimes we don't know the words how to describe it. Like I think sometimes we lack the vocabulary to be, you know, what is this struggle, this fight, this this feeling that's going on? And if you really stop and think about it, there is this war being waged in our life. Like nothing ever goes the way we want it to. Nothing ever just seems to function like we think it's supposed to function. I mean, you even think about some of the best things that God has given us. And so I'll just, you know, bring it back to family because we've been talking about family in the book of Ephesians also. Like this husband-wife relationship is supposed to be such a blessing and gift. I mean, you think about what God says at the beginning. It's not good for man to be alone. I'm gonna create a helper suitable for him. And so God forms this woman who's to compliment this man, and they're to enjoy the beauty of the garden together, and just to walk in fellowship with the Lord. And we know through the temptation of the evil one and Eve's desire for wisdom that she eats of the fruit, and then Adam too eats of the fruit, and and and now instantly there's this fracturing and friction that happens that's been been on display throughout history of even though marriage is a good thing, there's a struggle. There's a battle. You think about the gift of having children. I mean, this is a gift that God gave Adam and Eve in the beginning. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. You know, the Bible's very clear that children are a blessing. Yet there's this struggle. And we don't even know how to articulate it all the time. I mean, because it doesn't even always make sense. Like things can be good, like we can have a home and all of this, yet there's just this friction. And and and I, as I said before, when we looked at it, like it's easy to attribute our struggles to people or things, yet the Bible takes it deeper and says there's this cosmic battle, there's this spiritual battle that's going on. And the more I think about it, the more I see it everywhere. I see it in my own life, I see it in my own heart. You know, when Paul said the things I want to do, I don't do, the things I know I should do, I find myself not doing, that's the spiritual battle. You know, you think about what's going on in the world today, and constantly in the news, we're bombarded with the ugliness of humanity and the things that are going on. And sure, it manifests itself in physical ways, but down deeper below that, we see there's this struggle of the forces of good and evil. And so I say that to say, like, what we're talking about here is very real. I mean, and it's something that, again, we might not know how to put our finger on it, but we know that it's there, that there's just this conflict that's taking place. And so I want to go back and read the passage that we've been talking about just to kind of help our mind, and then we'll think about his primary tactics. But he says this finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his fast strength, put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. And so Paul's just clear, and I appreciate this about him. He's like, finally, you know, know that this struggle that we have, it's a spiritual struggle, and it's not against flesh and blood. You know, he's writing to a church and he's like, you know, the struggle that you guys have against one another sometimes isn't a physical. These brothers and sisters in Christ aren't your enemy. We have an enemy, and he names him very clearly. It's the devil. And so we need to be ready for his schemes. And so, you know, the question is in alignment with this, what are the tactics that that the devil uses to keep us from following after Jesus? And so there's there's a lot. I mean, my goodness. I mean, we can we could spend forever talking about all the things that he does. But I but I was thinking about this question. I was thinking, you know, in our modern culture, in most of our lives, and I'm gonna speak, of course, about believers here because I think that's who he's writing to, and this is who this podcast is is listened to by. I'm thinking about in terms of, you know, the believers I know in our church, you know, so so good people, by and large, you know, not wanting to follow Jesus, you know, you know, the levels of commitment vary, but like I think we would all say, well, yeah, that's what we want to do. So how does he keep us from doing it? And I think the first one, I'm just gonna give some three simple ones. The first one is I think through distractions. I think he loves to keep us distracted from what's really important. You know, if I think about the average person's life, like life is busy, and it's busy because we've chosen to make it busy. There's a myth out there that that life, you know, I mean, matter of fact, if if I you were to ask the average person, and I say this a lot, how's it going? Good. Busy, but good, you know, and I mean that. Like my life is busy. Well, why is it busy? Well, I got responsibilities, I've got a lot of things going on, but partly it's by choice. You know, and so so how do we stay distracted from following Jesus? Well, we fill our schedule with things. We're afraid of sitting in silence, we're afraid of being quiet and being still. We we fill our kid schedules with sports activities and a thousand things that just keep us running. We're distracted by jobs, we're distracted by, you know, entertainment, you know, what are we gonna do with our time? And it's almost like we've come to a point where like if we have a night off, well, I gotta find something to do with that. Well, then you think about just how distracted we are with devices in our hand. And and and I'm uh, you know, I joke about this, and I know I'm starting to sound old and I'm getting old, but part of it is I begin to see more with more maturity and have more life experience. And I truly believe we are being inebriated and distracted by streaming, binge watching shows, TikTok, Instagram, any form of social media, you know, to the point that our minds are never focused spiritually and on the battle that's going on. And so you want to defeat your enemy, well, distract them. Keep them from being aware of the battle, keep them from being in the fight because they got a thousand other things going on. And then in the meantime, when you do have time, let's put a device in your hand that you can sit there for hours upon end looking at cat videos or monkey videos or, you know, divisive arguments of people. And then next thing you know, you're weighing in on them and you're being shaped by the ideas of people, first that aren't Christians, and secondly, that you don't even know. And and I think, you know, him being a master deceiver, he can just keep us distracted by these little things. And I think sometimes like we're thinking like there's just some big demonic attack that he's he's perpetuating. And I think he is, but in a very simple way, by let me just distract you. And now you're not listening to the word, you're not spending time in the word, you're you're allowing the influences of the world, and I'm gonna get to that here in just a moment. The second thing I think that he does is he wants to twist God's word. And so I have a lot of conversations, of course, being a pastor, and and I'm amazed at how we misinterpret God's word. And it takes me all the way back to Satan in the Garden of Eden when he begins with, Did God really say? So he's twisting God's word. He's causing a seed of doubt. He's beginning to say, Well, is this what God really meant? And I'm amazed at how many conversations I can have with people that involve Scripture, but are a twisting of Scripture that with a little bit of study would cause you to believe, well, well, that's not accurate. But the evil one is great. And so I think I see this a lot online, and I, you know, I'm just to make fun of social media, but like like you see, these people want to pretend to be Christian. So like I believe in Jesus, or or or every day I spend time with Jesus, but then you begin to get beneath the surface of what these people are saying or some of the things they say, and they're like, that's not biblical. There's a framework of biblical. So for instance, well, Jesus is loving. Well, sure he is, but they twist the definition of what loving means. You know, Jesus wants me to be happy. Well, does he want you to have joy? Yeah. I mean, the beatitudes are blessed are those or happy are those. So is there a level that Jesus wants me to be happy? Sure, but not the way they mean it. They've twisted it, and happiness means I get whatever I want whenever I want. And so I think what you're seeing in that is a group of people who are not outright denying Jesus or Scripture, but they've twisted it to a point where we're not really talking about Jesus and Scripture anymore. We're talking about a concoction that we've come up with. I think the third thing that I thought about was uh being content with lukewarm Christianity. We love to be able to dabble our toes in both realms when I don't really think the Bible gives us license to do that. And so I think about what Jesus says to the church in Laodicea, you know, I wish that you were hot or cold, but because you're lukewarm, tepid, I'm gonna spew you out of my mouth. You know, I think that's a great example that that Jesus gives there, of course, clearly, because he's the master teacher. But like you think about life. We like cold things, we like hot things. We rarely like tepid things. You know, rarely do we like no nobody goes to Starbucks and orders a lukewarm coffee. You got hot coffee, you got cold coffee. You know, you want a cold drink, you want a warm drink. But like, does anybody want a can of Coke after it's just been sitting on the counter? Like, I don't know why, but like there's just something about that. And I think the the vision's perfect there for us because I think it rings true with us. Jesus says, I wish you were cold. Because if you're cold to me, distant to me, like, all right, we've got something to work with. I really wish you were hot on fire for me, that you were were in love with me. But this playing the middle ground is disgusting to me because, and I think it's dangerous, and and I see it as so dangerous as a pastor. The guy who's cold and distant toward the Lord, God can through you can convince him that his life isn't okay. People who are serious about the Lord is a whole nother thing. People who just are okay with being in the middle, they got enough Jesus, enough knowledge, enough ability to comprehend that they think they're okay when really they're not. And those are the hardest people to get to understand. And unfortunately, if we're not careful, our churches can be filled with this lukewarm Christianity. I I fight that battle. I mean, it's easy to be influenced by the world. It's I think it's so important that we be mindful of what we're allowing into our life that that brings us to that lukewarmness. Recently in my own life, I've kind of had a bit of a fast from TV and you know what I'm watching, and pretty much for the last little bit. And I've watched, you know, here recently have allowed a little bit more into my life, but really the only things I've watched on TV for the last several months have just been sports, and then try to limit the amount of that. Partly because I began to notice I was becoming desensitized to things. I could I could see things on TV or on a streaming show or even on a documentary, and like it wasn't affecting me like it probably should have. I was just used to it. And then the more I thought about like it was distracting me and things of that nature, I thought, you know, I gotta get this out of my life. I I gotta take a break from it. And it was almost refreshing. It was refreshing when I got some of that out of there. And as I've slowly allowed some things back in, and I've been far more mindful, like I'm seeing it completely different than I was before. And I think, you know, God's kind of purging some of that out of me and showing me like this was influencing you, even though you didn't think it was influencing you. It was affecting you, it was desensitizing your heart to me, even though you didn't realize it. And so I think those three things distraction, I think, you know, twisting scripture, I think lukewarmness, being okay with that are really some of his most useful tactics in the church to keep us from following after Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Yeah, that's good. I read a book last year, it was called Your Story Has a Villain by Jonathan Pakluda, and it talks about this subject at length, and it was a really good answer to that question. So if anybody wants to keep diving in.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

Good deal.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

Do you think on the other side of the spectrum that maybe sometimes we over-spiritualize things and say that it's spiritual warfare when like really you were late for church because you just didn't want to get out of bed on time? Do you think there's some merit to the other end of the argument?

SPEAKER_01 13:50

For sure. Like, for instance, like if I get a flat tire today, I don't say the devil he's out to get me. I drove over a nail, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

And God's working in all of that. I'm I mean, I do think there is a danger. I think currently in our culture, we probably under-spiritualize things too much, but I do think that there's a danger, and I've seen it, over-spiritualization of giving the devil too much credit, giving him too much power. And I and I think he's clearly a very powerful being. Jesus says he's the father of lies. He's been deceiving people from the beginning, and I don't ever want to downplay that. Yet at the same time, every mistake I make is not just about spiritual warfare. There's there's a fight that's going on inside with my own desires. Uh and life, because of sin, has brokenness and things in it that lead to certain issues. That doesn't always mean it's a demonic attack. And I do think we got to be careful that we don't just blame everything on some form of demonic force. And I think one of the ways that we know how to discern between the two is by staying in the word and connected to the Lord, and we sense the differences in between.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Yeah, that's true. I think that leads us to the second question here, which says, what does it look like to daily fight in the spiritual battle that we are engaged in? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

And this, you know, I think I'm just gonna give very basic things because again, this is such a wide topic that we could dive into a lot. And um the first one is you gotta be aware. And again, I think this goes back to distraction. I think the reason that most of us are defeated is because we're so distracted we're not even aware of what's going on. You know, we go through the motions so much, and I have to remind myself, like like I'm in a spiritual battle today, you know, and and and and the Bible gives me clear pictures of what I need to do to fight it. I need to be strong in the Lord. Well, how am I gonna be strong in the Lord? Well, I'm gonna have to wake up today and make a decision. Jesus, I'm gonna walk with you. And yesterday's decision to do that is not sufficient for today. It's something I can build upon, but like I don't get to say, well, yesterday I decided to walk with the Lord, and so today it's just a given. No, I have to wake up today and say, all right, I'm gonna serve somebody. I'm gonna serve myself, I'm gonna serve the forces of evil, or I'm gonna serve the world, or I'm gonna serve the Lord Jesus. And so I've got to make a conscience effort to say, okay, I'm in a battle. I've got to be strong in the Lord. I don't have the strength to do this myself. And so I've got to strengthen myself in Him. Now, how do I do that? Well, it goes back to the age-old spiritual disciplines. I need to spend time in the Word. I need to be in fellowship with God. And I think sometimes we we assume, well, spending time in the Word means hours upon hours of Bible study. It can look like that, but I don't think that's what it looks like all the time and most of the time. I think it looks like getting the word of God, letting it rule richly in our hearts, you know, the way the Bible says, let the word of Christ dwell richly in us. And so throughout the day, I am mindful about the word of God, I'm mindful about Jesus, I'm mindful about what he says, what he wants. And there is a some great truth to the Bible verse, many of us have uh memorized. Your word I have hidden my heart that I might not sin against you. So I'm studying it, I'm I'm memorizing it, I'm meditating on it, and that's the source of my strength. The Spirit of God that dwells in me, that connects me to the Lord. Jesus' spirit is there. I need to tap into him, and that's the source of my strength. He says, put on the full armor of God. And so we've looked at that on Sunday morning sermon that, you know, there's very strategic pieces that were here. But I think it's interesting that Paul twice says full armor. Not part of it. So it's not sufficient to pick up one piece and say, all right, well, that's good enough. You know, I I watch a lot of military documentaries, I listen to a lot of military podcasts, and and and I love listening about like special ops soldiers. And part of it is not just because, you know, they're they're cool and whatnot. It's like the detail, the planning, the preparation, mission specific. Like, like they never carry any more than they think that they're gonna have to have, but they never carry less either. I mean, they've got to meet a certain weight to get on a helicopter, but they're prepared with contingencies. And if this doesn't work right, we're gonna do this. And I'm just always amazed at the level of professionalism and planning and preparation. That way, when they get in that battle, in their mind, they've thought through every situation, they've got a solution, and they've got what they need to accomplish it. Well, I think about that, you know, this is the full armor. Like no soldier goes into battle half prepared. It's life or death. So we've got to take these pieces seriously and we've got to put them on, and we've got to lean into them and trust by faith that God has given them to us to help us to stand firm. He tells us now we're gonna be able to stand and resist in the evil day. And so I'm a firm believer. I don't go out every day looking for a spiritual battle. I'm not looking to kick the devil in the face every day. I'm gonna live my life as God's called me to live it, prepared that if and when the attacks come, I'm gonna have what I need to stand firm, to resist. I mean, think about that word resist, right? So when the temptation comes, because what God's given me, I can resist it. I'm not a victim of it. I don't have to succumb, I don't have to give in. I think sometimes we give ourselves excuses to say, well, this is just my weakness. Or he pushed my button. So what did he expect? Well, no, I can resist these attacks, I can resist these temptations. And then he says this having prepared everything, take your stand. So I'm prepared, I'm ready, I've got this armor, and now that I know that I'm strong in the Lord and I'm I'm complete in him, and I think part of it is I know the victory's already won. Jesus has already defeated the devil. And so while there's still a battle now, I know the ultimate outcome. I'm not gonna be defeated long term, and so that gives me confidence to stand firm, and I'm prepared for everything to take my stand. And I think the second thing with that, or final thing, is I'm not alone in the battle. And I think there's twofold there. The spirit of God is with me. So I'm not some isolated guy, I'm not John J. Rambo running into the midst of the enemy all by myself, fighting against all of these forces. That sounds glamorous, but it's not a stupidity. It's it's it's failure. The spirit of God is with me, which is my strength. But secondly, this context of this passage is the church. We're in a spiritual battle together. I've got you, you've got me, we've got one another, we've got other brothers and sisters who have all of the armor on. We're strong in the Lord, we're able to link up together and stand firm. And I think that's again why the church is so important. You know, don't go out there isolating yourself, trying to fight. You know, 1 Peter 5:8. Your adversary, the devil, is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. You know, if you watch enough new National Geographic, you know that that picture of a roaring lion is he's not going after the herd by himself, he's isolating the seek, the weak, sick, the weak, and he's using his tactics to get you alone to attack. And there, and there's strength in numbers. There's this idea of us being together. And so I think, you know, on the simplest form, if we can do that, we're gonna be prepared every day. And and it's mine, it's it's it's decisive, it's it's intentional, it doesn't happen on its own. You don't fall into it. Like being part of a church family, like you might think you fell into it, but you didn't. You your first time might have been accidental or coincidental, but God was working in that, and for you to stay connected, you made a decision to do that.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

Yep. It's good. I think we forget like this is an ongoing thing for our whole lives, maybe because we ignore it or we don't understand it or we don't want to see it, but it's something that we gotta be ready for and looking for.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

All throughout the day, every day, and I think that's again why the church is important. It's a reminder, you know, why we need one another, what we're what we're battling in. And here's the good thing about God we fail, we struggle, we don't put on the armor one day. He's still there to pick us up. Yeah, and we start back over and we get back into it.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

Yep. That's good. Well, if you guys have more questions like these about the Bible, about spiritual things, um, we would love to answer those for you guys. Send them to questions at firstmore.com through your email, and we'll see you guys next Friday.