I’ve been reading about spiritual warfare lately. The book I started today is called Understanding the Wounded Heart by Marcus Warner, which I didn’t realize was about spiritual warfare when I ordered it. Two other books I’ve recently read and spent time rereading are The Adversary: The Christian Versus Demon Activity by Mark Bubeck and Warfare Praying, also by Mark Bubeck.

The term and concept of spiritual warfare is based on the passage in Ephesians where Paul states that, “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

The sinful flesh, the world, and the devil and his demons are all elements in which the Christian will encounter warfare and are called to wrestle against. I’m still digesting, but several things have stood out to me so far.

1. The devil is a liar. Unless our minds are routinely bathed in the words of Jesus and the truth of his word our minds become saturated with lies that consciously and subconsciously control our behavior.
   
2. The truth is stronger than lies. Mark Bubeck uses the term “doctrinal prayers”, in which our prayers are not simply crying out to God for help or deliverance but declaring in faith who God is and what we know or have been told is true about Christ and his work.
   
3. Who we are in Christ is an actual thing. Our identity has changed (About that…that “identity” that you’ve somehow found yourself attached to, that bothers you so much, that causes you to fear or dislike yourself and keeps coming back over and over again? Has God ever said that about you? No? Then forget about it). Again in Ephesians, Paul tells his readers that no longer are they strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. We are part of God’s family. The death and resurrection of Jesus joined us to Christ and made us part of his body.
   
   The Christian life is one of daily remembering who we are, of joining in with the fellow saints and singing, “You are my Lord, I have no good apart from you” (Psalm 16:2).