Yesterday at Cross Point we launched a new series entitled “Unseen.” It’s a series all about the assault on your heart by the one who knows who you could become and fears it.
Here’s a little confession. I’ve never done a series on spiritual warfare. While I’ve always believed in it, I have to be honest and say I’ve been scared of actually teaching on it. It’s just so hard to wrap your mind around.
CS Lewis once wrote…
We’re often guilty of two equal and opposite errors. One is to disbelieve in the existence of Satan. The other is an excessive, unhealthy, obsession with him. With either, he is delighted.
So which way do you lean?
Do you tend to go through the routine of your day without thinking about the fact that there is a spiritual battle happening around you or do you tend to think Satan is behind every bush?
Would love to hear your thoughts.
And if your interested in following along in this series you can do so RIGHT HERE.
I think I do. It’s not that I don’t know it’s going on, it’s that I often ignore it or push it off as being something else. Looking forward to watching this series online!
Well, I was raised to believe he is behind every bush and every bad behavior known to mankind. I’m pretty sure I got the devil cast out of me on a regular basis as a child. So when I grew up I threw him out with the rest of the spiritual bathwater. Didn’t give spiritual warfare another thought until literally just a few weeks ago. I’m beginning to understand the battle going on around me is for his glory and for my heart, and the more I press in to God and his plan and will, the more the battle intensifies. But I love what you said: we already know how it ends.
Good for you, Pete…
He is there, but he has lost the battle already.. so I am aware, but not afraid.. I can stand firm, or flee from him, in Jesus’ name I can stop him.. so it is really nothing to be obsessed with or afraid of..
Thanks be to God!!!
May He bless you..
you are a good and faithful servant ( I think anyways!!)
I must say I go through the day not thinking about spiritual warfare. I need to get better at knowing which voices are Evil and which ones are from God. I will be watching this through iTunes, and I can’t wait to get started on the first message.
I bet it’s going to be a great series. Just an FYI though, looks like your media team is 2 weeks behind updating the itunes audio/video podcasts…and there isn’t really a way to follow along on that link you gave yet. Sorry.
Danny,
The messages are actually there. Something went wrong with the dates, seems to be an algorithm issues on our backend. We are adjusting now. Thanks for alerting us. If you have been following along you have not missed anything.
Hi Brewster – I like Danny am struggling to find it on the itunes Video link. I’ve scanned the list and can’t see anything with a title of “Unseen”…
Keen to view this series as it’s a topic of great interest to me.
Could you check again please. Thanks..
Ian
Sydney, Australia
Got it now – thanks Krystin.
Great message Pete, looking forward to the next few weeks. Excited to explore Jesus 40 days in the desert and developing strategies to combat Satan and his cronies.
Thankful that God put this on your heart to preach! Well done Pete and be praying for you (and your family) that God puts a hedge of protection around you as you study and prepare your messages.
Ian
I absolutely beleive that we are surrounded by spiritual warfare and I pray against it on a regular basis especially when it comes to my children. I do not go around consumed by it because I know that God has already won this battle but I also have to be aware of when I am under attack and lean into God’s promises for protection. I will be following this series online and look forward to hearing and using it to increase my faith.
You are doing great work for God Pete!
Awesome Pete! My husband has taught this subject to our College/Young Adult group. He said it freaked him out because we so often go throughout our day without realizing that there is very much an invisible spiritual battle going on. Or like you said, some believe Satan is constantly around every corner! They think about him a lot! Dan and I will pray for you and for the church as you all go through this. I know I am guilty of going through my life and not giving a second thought to the spiritual battle.
we’ll have to share with you some day about the time kota was being bullied by evil forces. no lie. it’s a trip. this is why he is so excited for this series. its\’s very close to him.
and you shared so brilliantly yesterday. thank you for that!
I have always believed in it, but since my husband and I started engaging in a more missional lifestyle a couple years ago I have experienced it firsthand. We’re in an adoption/orphan care small group and we talk often about the clear and tangible work of the Enemy. Adoption is spiritual warfare. We’ve seen all kinds of unexplainable attacks come up on us and other families when we start to go out on a limb in faith, especially to rescue orphans. Satan’s already got his thumb on the fatherless and we are working to snatch them back and he’ll fight tooth and nail to keep that from happening.
I’m so excited that you are finally tackling this topic, Pete. I think I live in a healthy awareness rather than toward one extreme or the other. I thought yesterday’s message was great! I freely will discuss warfare and “evil lurking”.. and that satan has power in this “world”. It gets me some interesting looks but that’s okay with me. The only thing that I would have added to the message yesterday would have been more of a “why”. Satan and his demon team may not be able to steal our salvation; and the victory may have already been won… but satan is JEALOUS… and he wants to DESTROY our TESTIMONIES. He wants to make us out to be hypocrits and duplicitous (sp)… to thwart more salvation stories. So many Christians think of our salvation selfishly… as in “great I am saved”. But when the I becomes a passion for “WE” and “NATIONS” – fishing for men… satan has much more to gain by attacking our temptations at the weakest spot.
Thank you for this series!
More recently I have been reminded that the turmoil and strife in relationships was brought on through spiritual warfare as these relationships were founded in God. God was using these individuals, but minute instances were taken by the devil and used to split them open. I am typically not one to base every bad thing on the devil, but it’s been interesting to step back and view the last few months through a spiritual warfare lens.
And I love that two ministers of the largest churches in Nashville are addressing spiritual warfare at the same time…praying for y’all during this season, as I am sure you’re both under it as well.
Thanks Pete. Yes there is Evil all around us and unfortunately it does drive a lot of things in our lives and the lives of those around us if we let it. We are so blessed to have this series to bring it into the spotlight. God Bless
I can’t wait for the series, i feel the battle raging around me and my family everyday, it is so tough to not listen and get bad information and do the wrong things. I know God is with us during this battle and is fighting for us and with us, thank you Pete for doing this.
At different times in my life I’ve bounced back & forth between the two. But for a long time now, I think I’ve found a good place in the middle.
I know Satan is out there, but I also know that he is not everywhere. I know that he works against those who God has called & especially those he (God) has called to do great things. This mind set drives me to focus more on the power of God in my life & the fact that without submitting to God’s power not only will I not be effective in what God has called me to do, but that I will also be an easy target for the evil forces that work against us (the universal body of Christ).
Honestly, in my daily spiritual battles, I am usually much more concerned about battling my own flesh, and seeking God’s guidance for His will in my life.
Yes, there have been times I felt led to pray specifically against deceptive powers of darkness, but not on a daily basis.
I grew up in and chose a faith that is more cerebral/controlled/unemotional. I still have a tendency to approach faith this way. However, I had two experiences in my mid-twenties that convinced me of the existence of spiritual warfare and it’s power. It didn’t make me obsess over it but rather more aware and respectful of the battle that occurs around us at any given time. If anything, it keeps me from being flippant in my understanding/dealings with spiritual warfare. Even though I believe completely in God’s victory over evil, I fear the consequences of engaging intentionally in spiritual warfare and thus do it rarely. Honestly, I’m just scared of where that road could take me – not out of God’s eternal protection but could really mean hell on earth.
I would fall into the “I don’t really think about it’ category, and yet if I look back over the past 14 months, there is evidence that I am in a spiritual battle.
I am a bit leery of the subject, as I am sure Satan gets blamed for many things that we should take responsibility for. That being said; as I am sure he is behind many things that he doesn’t get the blame for, but should.
I will certianly listen to the series and will be interested in hearing the difference between spiritual battle and where personal responsibility comes into play…hope that make sense. Sometimes seems to be a very thin line.
I look forward to following the series.
Satan is around us every day, he knows our weaknesses and feeds on them. In our days of darkness and sadness he preys on what he can see are our doubts and fears. He puts more negative thoughts and ideas in our hearts and mind because he does not want us to be happy and have faith that God is with us at all times. He is only as strong as we allow him to be. We must never let him get a stronghold on our faith for that is what he wants.
Pastor Pete,
I would encourage you to read Frank Peritti ( probably spelled it wrong)( if you have not already) This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness those 2 books ( even though fictional ) made the spiritual world real to me!
I am so excited to see the Church addressing this issue so many times it is just not discussed. I pray the blood of Jesus over my house and my family daily. I have had incidences in my Life where I KNEW it was a Spiritual Attack but just Knowing it is not enough. I have taught my children how very POWERFUL the name of Jesus is and to call on that name whenever they are scared…uncomfortable… feel things are not right or… just need help!!
I can see our Church starting to Mature in the Lord and it is GREAT!
Betty
This is an interesting topic. As a child I remember the spiritual warfare aspect of the baptist doctrine being fairly well wrapped around my tiny mind. I can’t say for sure if the influence was more persuasive at home or in Sunday school class. I had a certain grasp of the dark side.
This could have been a manifestation of the feeling of being out of control children often experience. There were no actual manifestations, so to speak.
As I grew these fears naturally became more material and had more substance – often an actual fleshy component I am sorry to say.
As an adult I’ve had a limited number of strange experiences. Let’s say five. On these occassions I might have felt a threatening atmousphere, or one full of premonition. Not in the sense of an omen of fortune or a regular superstition; but more as a kind of communication with myself that all is not well. I’m more and more convinced these thoughts or sensory perceptions, the mental shivers, if you like, are due to both my subjective opinion that there is something genuinely odd or out of step occuring in my immediate enviroment; a kind of emotional fault, and also the way I personally process this information on an axis of good and evil.
Influenced not only by countless movies, novels, TV shows and dramas, but in addition, by my quite liberal religious inclinations. Sometimes when we homo sapians attribute something to an evil source I think we want conformation that it is wrong. And in the past I have needed this conformation.
When I read the Bible right-through after a long break from Church I read the Old Testament first and this helped settle some of my misplaced ideas about the very nature of Good and Evil and their intimate communion with our human lives – or otherwise. Job, for example, may have deduced he was a very bad man, much slain as he was by multiple tragedy.
Indeed, his friends seem to wager alongside, and in alignment with the heavenly bet which has taken place between almighty God and His adversary – who is sure through predestination God’s loyal emmissory had been placed in his hands.
These were the kinds of worries which preoccupied me marginally as a teen. My Donnie Darko moment. And before this as an adolescent given equally over to passions and hyperbole with that peculiar mixture of sentimentality and feverish, heightened sense of good and bad I believe is common to many children.
I read a poem yesterday, entitled “Abou Ben Adhem” by the English poet, Leigh Hunt (1784-59). I can’t reproduce it due to copyright but you may be able to find it on the internet. As a peevish ten year-old, this was exactly the issue which kept me from sleeping at night: “Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)” It’s a great poem and easy to remember.
Sorry this is so huge! As you can see, I’ve struggled. Wishing you all the best with your new series.
In our church in Glasgow we are ebcoiuraged to go through the course ” seven steps to freedom in Christ” which touches on spiritual warfare. I know christians who when they get up physicaly act ou puting on the whole armour of God as protectiopn for the day! I think it is good to have an awareness that Satan is lurking about and that is importat to have a good bible grounding in the Bible and knowing the scriptures to add protection.
Pete, you nailed it here: “the one who knows who you could become and fears it.” Indeed, if we live up to our potential in Christ, the prince of this world has much to fear.
Conversely, when we allow ourselves to cheapen grace with no thought to the cosmic ramifications, we undermine the kingdom and are literally traitors to the banner of Christ under which we claim to march.
We are right not to focus too much on the realm of darkness, but what if, once in while, God would “pull back the stage curtain” (as Wm. Barclay puts it) and allow us insight to the spiritual battle underway on our behalf.
What if our work was as important as Daniel’s? So important that when one angel is waylaid by a demon in one province, God sends an archangel to make short work of things so our help can come along side us?
Replace your name for Daniel’s…
“‘Relax, Daniel,’ he continued, ‘don’t be afraid. From the moment you decided to humble yourself to receive understanding, your prayer was heard, and I set out to come to you. But I was waylaid by the angel-prince of the kingdom of Persia and was delayed for a good three weeks. But then Michael, one of the chief angel-princes, intervened to help me. I left him there with the prince of the kingdom of Persia. And now I’m here to help you understand what will eventually happen to your people. The vision has to do with what’s ahead.’ Daniel 10:13 MSG
When we are aware that angels are kicking butt and taking names so that we can accomplish what God wants done, we might have an easier time of flipping off Satan when he tries getting in our heads.
I’m aware, but I’m certainly not constantly obsessing over the thought of it. It is something I think about during prayer quite a bit. It’s amazing how we get so used to hearing the lies of the enemy, but I think coming to grips with the fact that it is spiritual warfare should bring us to our knees a little more often, and to the Scriptures (Jesus answering Satan in the wilderness with Scripture).
I wonder if that statistic on people who don’t believe in Satan is directly proportional to the general Biblical illiteracy that plagues my generation today.
-Tyler
One thing I know for sure in my spiritual walk so far, is that the enemy is relentless.
Distractions, distractions, distractions. Not to mention the never ending degrees of lust.
Ephesians 6:10-12, the armour of God, it seems to be taken so lightly. If we could only grasp how important that teaching is.
To keep a Kingdom view takes tremendous focus. (1 Peter 5:8)
I could see where some pastors (or anyone for that mater) could feel nervous or anxious about communicating the topic of spiritual warfare.
Think about all the times God has proven Himself over and over again to strengthen our faith.
These truths are no different than any of the other ones.
Praying for you Pete.
For His Glory.
We have never been so aware of spiritual warfare as we have in the last 2 years, since we adopted our daughter. Satan was thinking that she was his. We’re claiming her for the Lord. But it is NASTY. I have never prayed so many covering prayers in my life, but we can see His faithfulness daily – hourly, even. Satan is real, he is out there, and he is some ticked off that she is our family. I’d say ‘game ON’, but this is no game. It’s life & death.
Wow, this is just wild, Pete. Totally wild.
God has kept bringing me back to the scriptures outlined in Eph 6 concerning the Armor of God. And the very man who sent an invitation out to me to meet Jesus over 8 years ago, baptized me, addressed this very topic through his book called “Armor of God” (Robert Frazier).
It has been a book I’ve struggled to get through, though it’s very small. Why? Why when I know the truth of this life actually being amidst a spiritual battle, because I myself used to be on the exact opposite end of the spectrum of where I am now as a maturing believer? I firmly believe it’s because I’m not making it a priority to put on the armor He’s given me to put on every morning. It’s a discipline, and that’s is the one area the enemy loves to toy with…for if we are undisciplined, we are easily lured away in very subtle manners even in the light (it’s not always in the darkness).
Thanks for bringing this topic to the light to your congregation…and to the world…Pete. It needs to be addressed over and over again in this life and in The Church, for if we forget…we are doomed to miss out on so much more God has in store for us all and The Church as a whole.
I know it’s going on, but I really don’t think about it. Now, I take that back. I do think about spiritual warefare when I feel doubts about God’s promises.
Excellent sermon on Sunday! I recently left a church because they had become soft on the basic tenants of the faith, and I would have never heard a sermon on spiritual warfare preached there. I did, though, hear people say that Satan and demons don’t exist – which is exactly what Satan wants people to think!
Now, as to your anti-feline comments made from the pulpit, my Persian was so disgusted that she barfed a furball the size of Texas!
Hey Pete,
I absolutely love the topic of this series. I believe God has called us to be aware of the spiritual battle at hand, but to be careful in not allowing it to bind our hearts into a constant state of worry, that will progressively take us away from precious time with Him.
I myself tend to push spiritual warfare behind me in thinking, “Well, the battle has already been won.” But what I have fail to realize is that “I’m still human!”. And although the same power that conquered the grave lives within me… My pride/ignorance/comfort can be the very thing that Satan will use against me.
LOVE THIS SERIES.
Excited to watch.
Jarrid