Stop Being a Spectator: A Man’s Guide to Spiritual Combat

• Do you ever feel like life is inexplicably harder than it should be?
• The truth is, you might be fighting the wrong battle.
• In this episode of the SMC Podcast, we dive deep into the reality of spiritual warfare and why men are called to be warriors, not spectators.
• Satan's greatest victory is convincing you that he isn't real, leaving you passive, distracted, and spiritually castrated.
• Stop fighting your boss, your spouse, or your circumstances.
• Tune in to learn how to identify your true enemy, put on the full armor of God, and become spiritually dangerous to the kingdom of darkness.

🎯 Get information on upcoming training events

🔥 Join The Forge, our free online community

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Estimates they might have becoming spiritually into it. Men are not designed to retreat or give up the ground. The world doesn't need more path to men. The church doesn't need more patent men. Men are going back to their families alive and on fire for music. Totally equipped to walk in pure and open. Welcome to the SMC Podcast. Men, welcome to the SMC Podcast. Have you ever noticed that sometimes life feels harder than it should? You know what God has called you to do. You want to be a better husband, a better father, leader, disciple, you want to pray more, you want to read your Bible, you want to walk in freedom. And yet there's always resistance, distraction, temptation, confusion, fear, discouragement. It's almost as if something is actively opposing your progress. What if I told you that's exactly what's happening? The Bible teaches that every Christian man is living in the middle of a war. It's not a physical war, it's not a political war, it's a spiritual battle. The problem is that most men never realize it. They spend their lives fighting symptoms while ignoring the source. They fight their wife, their boss, they fight circumstances, they fight people on social media. Meanwhile, the real enemy remains hidden in plain sight. As a former special forces officer, I learned that one of the most dangerous situations on any battlefield is failing to identify the enemy. You cannot defeat an enemy you refuse to acknowledge. You cannot prepare for an attack you don't anticipate, and you cannot win a war you don't know you're in. In this episode, we're going to answer four critical questions. Who's the enemy? What's his mission? How does he attack? And what has God given us to overcome him? Because men who understand the battlefield fight differently. And men who understand the victory of Christ fight with confidence and boldness. So let's get into it. Satan's greatest victories often happen when he convinces people he isn't real or he doesn't exist. I'm sure you've met people like this. His goal is to keep you powerless, passive, distracted, divided, and spiritually castrated. And so the mission for this season of podcasts is to train your hands for war and your fingers for battle so that you can concentrate the effects of spiritual combat power at the most advantageous place and time to produce decisive results against the enemy and his schemes. And that is one of the principles of war called Mass. Mass is concentrating the effects of combat power at the most advantageous place and time to produce decisive results against the enemy. And so over the next eight episodes, we're going to discuss what spiritual warfare really is, the authority we have to conduct war, Satan's weapon system against modern man, winning the battle for your mind, deliverance, the weapons available to us, and how to become spiritually dangerous to the kingdom of darkness. As men, we were never called to be spectators. We were called to be warriors, warriors submitted to Christ, warriors who understand their authority, warriors who know how to pray, warriors who know how to stand firm in the faith, who know how to advance the kingdom of God on earth. So let's talk about the enemy's mission. It's revealed in John 10 10. And Jesus says the thief, a reference to our adversary, the devil, our enemy, does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come, Jesus says, that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. When you look at it in the Greek, it's the on upon over life. It's like a life beyond anything an unbeliever could live or attain. Because you're actually enjoying the freedom on this side of heaven that Jesus purchased for you on the cross. And you've got to tap into that. And so the mission is to have you thinking that the kingdom of God is something you're going to get to one day when you die. And you're just a wretched man who is enslaved to sin. You're a sinner, say by grace, and one day when you get to heaven, you'll be free from all of that and experience freedom. And that is a lie from the pit of hell. And it shackles you from being able to advance the kingdom of heaven on earth as a new creation, as a true warrior. And so the enemy's mission is to kill, to steal, and destroy you from actually fulfilling the works that God prepared beforehand for you. Those are mentioned in Ephesians 2.10, by the way. We are his workmanship. You became God's workmanship the moment you were born again through faith in Christ Jesus, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand. God prepared a mission and attached logistics, everything you would need to fulfill that mission. He prepared all of this before you even were knitted together in your mother's womb and you came into this world. And so now that you've been born again through faith in Christ Jesus, you've become a son of God, He has works, a plan for your life that He had prepared beforehand for you to walk in. And that's going to require faith because the righteous, which you have now become through faith in Christ, walk by faith, not by side. You cannot rely on your own understanding as you used to before you became a new creation. So hopefully you were filled with his spirit and you're beginning to learn the spirit's ways with him. And as we learn the enemy's real mission, we have to learn his tactics. And his tactics are revealed in 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 8. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a lion seeking whom he may devour. Now I'm going to tell you a little bit about the lion. I had a friend I knew years and years and years ago. I don't, I don't even know if he's any longer with us, but he and his dad, his dad was a big game hunter, and they hunted a lot of big game over in Africa. We were at a uh communion service one night and uh we were eating at the table and we were all in our dress blue uniforms. I looked over at him and he had this scar right here, and it was right on his neck, and I'm like, bro, what happened to you? And he's like, dude, I got nailed by a lion. I'm like, what? He goes, yeah, my dad took me on a lion hunt over in Africa. Well, what happened is his dad was with the lead party and the porters that are with him. And so he was out in front, and this lion uh saw the lead party coming, and he just prowled around, I mean, very stealthily moved around into a vantage point where he could attack the middle column where the sun was. And so that lion set in wait. He waited. And I mean, this lion was smart because he didn't take on the lead element in the the hunting party. He took on the one that the sun was in with the porters and the baggage and the and all the things that they had with them, and he waited. And that lion had positioned himself about 40 yards um from the column. And it it, I mean, this thing just came out and just pounced, like attacked uh this buddy of mine. What happened was that he said, Henry, the only thing I knew when this happened was I just saw this lion in mid-air and I saw his his paw like this, like he was gonna swat me. It happened so fast. And he said, I grabbed my rifle. All I knew is I fired around. I uh it was bolt action. He was able to get off, I think, two rounds. Now he was in the Marine Corps, he's a Marine Corps veteran. Uh, so he he had good familiarity with this with his rifle, and he was able to get off two rounds. He woke up laying on his back against a tree. He had got swatted by the lion, and the lion's paw just took him out right here, and it missed his carotid otter by millimeters, guys. And so he was on his back in the middle of Africa, and they had to get him out of there, but he missed his carotid artery. And that tells you like the a lion prowling around seeking whom he may devour. Our adversary is just like that lion. He is going to lie in wait. He's going to use camouflage to conceal himself. Remember, I said one of his greatest victories is convincing people that he doesn't exist. And he is going to set the trap. And as you come, you get attacked. It's super important to understand that traps get set and you're able to discern prior to this happening. Let's take a look now at the world's value system revealed in 1 John chapter 2, verse 16. For all that is in the world, notice the world. Now, this is the world's value system. Okay. Remember, it says Satan is the ruler of this world. He's not the ruler of this earth. The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it. And he's given the earth to the sons of men for us with a mandate to steward the earth and the animals. Okay, this goes all the way back to Genesis. And that mandate was never stolen from us, it's always been ours. The enemy, our adversary, has convinced people that it was lost. So we wouldn't pursue it or fulfill it. And so when we're talking about all that is in the world, the world is not a bad place. We're talking about the kingdom that Satan has authority over. It's the kingdom of darkness. So all that is in the world, okay, what's under the enemy's control is the lust of the flesh, those are bodily desires, the lust of the eyes, the whatever's pleasing to our eyes, and the pride of life, okay, thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. Okay, this is not of the father, but is of the world. And so when we take a look at those things, understanding the lust of the flesh, understanding the lust of the eyes, and understanding the boastful pride of life, these things are not of the father. All right. When people manifest that kind of fruit talk and have a culture based on that, that's all the world. Okay. Not the earth, not the wonderful place God has made for us, but the world. And so now we look at the enemy's task organization. So the enemy's task organization is what our adversary has available to use against us. And we find this in Ephesians chapter six, verse twelve. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, right? But against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenlies or heavenly places, as the King James Version states. Now I want you to think about this concept of principalities, because when we look at Daniel chapter 10, verse 13, and this is an angel talking to Daniel after he prayed. And when Daniel prayed, this angel was dispatched to get information to Daniel on earth. So he's being dispatched from the throne room of God, the third heaven, and he's coming down to meet Daniel with a message. And so in Daniel chapter 10, verse 13, it says here, but the prince of the kingdom of Persia. Now, what is a kingdom? A kingdom is a territory that's ruled by someone in authority. Okay, so it could be a king, a lord, or a prince. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days. And we know that the prince of the kingdom of Persia, this is a prince that's been given a territory in the kingdom of Persia over in the Middle East. He tried to block or prevent this angel from delivering the message to Daniel. So this is a war that's raging on that has implications that affect us here on this earth as sons of God. And so this entity withstood me 21 days, it says, and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, this is Michael the archangel, came to help me because I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia. Notice Gabriel in this case, he's tied up and he can't get to Daniel. And so Michael gets dispatched to actually help overcome these kings of Persia and be able to get this information to Daniel. So you have to understand there are things taking place in the spiritual realm that our natural eyes can't see. But if the scales come off our eyes and we're able to see things in the spirit, we're actually able to peer into this. And I think about the case with the prophet Elisha and his servant Gehazi. And what had happened in that particular case, Elisha was getting prophetic intelligence from the spirit to the king of Israel. And so the king of Israel knew where the king of Assyria was going to have his army. And he was one step ahead of him the whole time. And the king kept being defeated. So what happened in that particular case? And found out that no, they were loyal. It was the man of God, Elisha, who is getting prophetic intel and giving it to the king of Israel. And so the king of Syria takes his army and surrounds the area where Elisha is to take him out. And that was Dothan. He and Gehazi are there. Gehazi wakes up, he sees this army, and they're surrounded. And he's concerned, brings it to Elisha's attention, and Elisha says, Hey, uh there are more that are with us than of them. And he prays for God to open up the eyes of his servant to see what the prophet is seeing. And as he does, he sees the heavenly armies. He sees these chariots of fire. He sees that there are more of them. And then what does Elisha do? He releases fire and blind, he just releases those armies through a prophetic declaration to exact havoc and wreak havoc on the king of Syria's troops. And so seeing into the spirit, it's a it's a realm, a dimension, and God can actually open up our eyes to be able to see what's going on at times. Guys, I really recommend that you pray and ask God, wow, like this is so cool, Lord. Would you enable me to see what's going on so that I can be in a better command position to direct things to affect the course of history of my life and my family's history? I mean, that's pretty cool. Um, and God can do that for you today. So, man, you should you should ask him for that. I mean, being able to see in the spirit is like operating with night vision. I mean, there are things that you cannot see without it. And if you put on a pair of nods and you can see the enemy, I mean, listen, you could take a seventh or eighth grader with an AR-15 and a pair of nods and a laser, and he could basically hold a whole platoon at bay at night. I mean, one kid. And so that's how advantageous seeing in the spirit can be. So ask the Lord for that, by the way. The other thing that we have in this fight is armor. We've been given armor, and that's mentioned now in verses 13 through 18. So it says, Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand the evil day, and having done all to stand. So we have this command to stand firm and not give up territory that we've taken. Verse 14 says, Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end, with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. So I want to talk a little bit about spiritual warfare. And in light of the passage we just read in Ephesians 6, I remember one time I needed to hear from God within five days for life-changing decisions that would impact my kids. And I began to seek God and press in for Him to speak to me. And then the attack came. It was about 0200 in the morning. I was sound asleep and suddenly awoke to this eerie presence in the room. I felt dark, cold, and I heard this voice say to me, You can't really hear God. I felt chills run through my body. I hopped out of bed to my knees and I turned the the light on my nightstand on and opened my Bible. And I was searching for this passage, and and I knew the passage. It's John 10, 27 and 28. It's my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And so I'm trying to, you know, I mean, it's I just woke up, I hear this voice, I know it's evil, I can feel this evil presence. And I'm like flipping through my Bible. I'm like, oh, I gotta find this. And I I look and I'm like, you know, I wind up, not in in John 1027, I wind up in Matthew 1027, and I began to read aloud. Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light, and whatever you hear preach on the housetops, and then verse 28 and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but Rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. There was wind on that passage right there. I mean, God spoke to me amidst the accusation, you can't hear God. And then I remembered, I was like, oh my gosh, it's not Matthew. It's it's John 1027. So I I then turned to John 10 27, and in the midst of that, it says, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. And I began to reason, I mean, out loud now. So I'm speaking what I've heard in the dark, like on the rooftops now. It's just crazy. I'm one of the Lord's sheep because I've believed in him. And Galatians 3 26 says, I'm a son of God through faith in Christ Jesus. So I'm one of his sheep. And Jesus said right here that his sheep hear his voice. And I'm like, and Jesus is not a liar. And the moment I said these things, I spoke these things, that voice, that demonic voice was silenced. And the evil presence left the room. I could tell it retreated because this peace came in. And guys, that's pretty basic warfare, but it worked because the enemy cannot stand up to the word or the name of Jesus. And so the pattern for this whole thing is set in Matthew chapter four. And in Matthew chapter four, you see Jesus being led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And the devil comes to him and he tempts him. And Jesus uses Scripture to combat and counter every accusation and temptation that the enemy threw his way. And the enemy could not continually stand up. And Jesus didn't give up any ground whatsoever at all. And I just simply took that model, what worked for Jesus that night, unknowingly, but I went right to that word and I was like, man, I'm a son of God through faith in Christ Jesus, so I'm one of his sheep. And if I'm one of his sheep, Jesus said his sheep can hear his voice, and I know Jesus is no liar. And so Jesus speaks the truth, and he is the truth and the way and the life. And so I'm like, no, he says I can hear his voice. And I'm one of his sons, so I'm one of his sheep. And bottom line, just the declaration and the holding like fast to that truth cause the enemy to flee. And I'm telling you, that same principle and those tactics will work for you. So, gentlemen, if there is one thing I want you to remember from this episode, it's this. You are not crazy. You're not imagining resistance. There really is an enemy. There really is a war that's raging on, and there really is a battle being fought for your mind and your family, your calling and your future. But here's the good news. You're not fighting for victory. You're fighting from victory. Because Jesus Christ has already secured that on the cross. Jesus Christ has already defeated sin. He has already defeated death. He has already disarmed principalities and powers. The enemy still attacks, still accuses, the enemy still deceives, but he does so as a defeated enemy. And that means your responsibility is not to fear him. Your responsibility is to stand, to stand in truth, to stand in righteousness, to stand in faith, and stand in your identity as the son of God. Stand in the authority Jesus has given you. And when the enemy whispers lies, answer him with truth. And when he brings accusation, answer him with scripture. And when he attacks your identity, remind him what God says about you. And that's exactly what Jesus did in the wilderness. That's exactly what worked in the story I shared today. The enemy said, You can't hear God, but God's word said, My sheep hear my voice. The enemy brought accusation. God's word brought truth. And the darkness had to flee. Gentlemen, spiritual warfare is often less complicated than people make it. The battle is real, and so is the enemy, but so is the authority of Jesus Christ. And over the next several episodes, we're going to go deeper into understanding that authority, understanding the battlefield, and learning how to become dangerous to the kingdom of darkness. So until next time, keep your eyes on Christ, keep your sword sharp, and stand your ground.