Jeff Pate
08-18-2008, 01:15 PM
True Spiritual Warfare
I write this article under the assumption that the reader understands the foundational truths of how God’s kingdom works as the Lord taught in His parable of the sower and the seed (Matthew 13, Mark 4, Luke 8). One of the greatest passages in the Bible describes this truth… from Joshua 1:8: This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate therein day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.
Creation came from God’s word. Salvation came from God’s word. Faith came from God’s word. Healing came from God’s word. Peace, joy, deliverance, and all the fruit of the Spirit came from God’s word. Everything that has ever existed has come from God’s word—words that proceeded out of the mouth of God.
Therefore, if you’re lacking in any of the promises of God, the solution isn’t to “pray about it,” but to go to God’s word and plant the seeds that will produce these things in your life. After you’ve planted seeds, then your prayer and meditation function as fertilizer to the seeds. You may want to stop here and read my teaching “Prayer in the Absence of Truth” (http://www.bovministries.net/Prayer_In_Absence_of_Truth.html)if you haven’t read it yet.
God has designed His word to bring life and accomplish His thoughts of good to bring us an expected result as the Bible says, So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Therefore, the “formula” for prosperity and success in the kingdom of God is to take the incorruptible seed of God’s word and like a farmer, plant the seed in your heart, meditating on its truths day and night, so that it would not depart from your mouth, and that you would do all that is written therein. Like the farmer expects that his seeds will produce, you too must expect God’s word to produce good things in your life. This is faith.
The Word Becomes Flesh
[I]While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. [Genesis 8:22]
Because God is just and holy, and all his works are righteous (Psalm 145:17), He adheres to His own laws concerning His influence in the world. God spoke the seed of His word and the earth was created; and with Jesus, we know that He was the Word [that] was made flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth. [John 1:14]
All the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning Jesus were seeds spoken by God (through prophets) into the earth (to people), culminating with the word spoken through the angel Gabriel to the virgin Mary. The seed (sperma) for Jesus’ birth was in the world, but a person could only be conceived in the womb of a woman. Therefore, Mary’s words, Behold the handmaiden of the Lord, be it unto me according to your word, [Luke 1:38] granted consent for the conception of the Son of God in her womb. Jesus was the word made flesh, and everything in this world adheres to the same principle: it begins as a thought, then is spoken or communicated as a word and it becomes flesh or alive. This is an absolute truth and cannot be bypassed.
So then, we understand that EVERYTHING in this world comes from the seed of words. In fact, the Bible says, Death and life are in the power of tongue, and they who love it will eat the fruit thereof. [Proverbs 18:11]
Jesus said, The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. [John 6:63]
Words are spiritual in the sense that not only are they of the “invisible realm” (you cannot see words—even written words are only symbols or pictures of what words mean) but they can bring forth death and life. God’s words bring forth life to them that find them (Proverbs 4:22) and death to them who resist them through unbelief (John 3:18; Hebrews 4:2).
But have we understood that since God has established the world in this way—that our enemies must also abide by these same laws? (And I don’t say “laws” referring to standards of conduct or rules of behavior, but “laws” that are absolute truths that never change and are indestructible.) God dispatches His word into the hearts and minds of people to give them life. The Bible says, He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from all their destructions. [Psalm 107:20]
Likewise, Satan our enemy also sends words, which bring life and death, but his words are intended to bring “life” to that which causes death, and “death” to God’s life (John 10:10). For example, cancer is death, but it is a virus and is alive. Therefore, cancer is alive, but brings forth death, and the same is true with the words of our enemy.
Herein is a great truth—the truth I want to share with you because while hopefully most of us (although having yet to grasp it completely) understand the laws of seed time and harvest with respect to God’s word in order for it to be prosperous in our lives, I believe we have not been taught how these same laws apply to our enemy’s strategies against us—and that this is the reason his weapons of death are prospering against us.
The truth of spiritual warfare does not exist against principalities, demons, and devils themselves, but against the words that they form against us. While much of the church teaches that spiritual warfare is waged in the heavens, through prayer and intercession against demonic principalities and strongholds, we see from the Word of God that this is not so, which is why we are seeing so much defeat in the lives of God’s people. Most are defeated NOT because of ignorance of the war, but are defeated for lack of knowledge about the defensive and offensive weapons with which to engage in combat. Additionally, we are not meeting our enemy on the same playing field. While we are fighting somewhere in the spirit realm, the enemy ambushes us in the realm of thoughts and words. Therefore, the true battlefield is located right between our ears.
The Common Defense
People familiar with sports have probably heard this quote, “The best offense is a good defense.” While this may be occasionally true, I believe the word of God teaches that in order to be successful we must have both a good offense and defense.
Concerning our warfare as Christians, I believe that one of the most over-quoted and least understood verses of the Bible comes from Isaiah 54:17 that says, No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their righteousness is of me, says the LORD.
Okay, I want you to ponder the verse from Isaiah 54:17 for a minute… think about what God is saying and compare it to the lives of many of the servants of the LORD. Isn’t it obvious that weapons like sin, sickness, untimely death, depression, fear, discouragement, unbelief, and wickedness are prospering against the servants of the LORD?
I’ve observed that most people quote the first statement No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper alone, believing this will occur if you believe it or confess it enough. Certainly exercising faith and confession is helpful, but God has given us instructions on how to cultivate this truth and make it effective in our lives.
Now hold onto your hats and stay with me because I’m about to drop a bomb on you. By itself the statement No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper is NOT TRUE. The statement is a TRUTH (because God spoke it) but it is NOT TRUE because by itself, it is not complete. There is a difference between TRUTH and what is TRUE.
For example, it’s TRUE that the Jews believed Jesus had a devil, but it wasn’t the TRUTH. Do you see what I mean? The Bible says that God is the TRUTH, but also that we must let God be true [Romans 3:4] in order for His truth to benefit us.
I’ll give you another example. The Bible says that Jesus is the Savior of all men and is not willing that any should perish [TRUTH from 1 Timothy 4:10 and 2 Peter 3:9], but are all men saved? The Bible also says that By his stripes you were healed [TRUTH from 1 Peter 2:24] but is everyone healed? We see that in spite of God’s word being truth, His word is not coming to pass to the extent He desires. Weapons ARE CERTAINLY prospering against the servants of the LORD. Why is this?
Weapons are prospering against God’s servants because we are not doing what the Word of God says. The statement No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper alone is NOT true. However, the Lord did not make this statement without elaborating how we can accomplish and be successful in protecting against the enemy’s weapons from prospering against us. Again, since God can only use His Word to benefit and prosper us, then the only weapons that Satan can use against us are WORDS. And this is what the Scripture from Isaiah 54:17 is teaching us.
I’m going to digress for a minute because I want you also to think about the nature of a seed… Jesus said, Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. [John 12:24]
A seed needs a place of conception—a container in which to first activate the life in it, and then grow and be prosperous. A seed by itself, without being planted in the ground will remain a seed. However, once the seed is planted in the ground, elements in the ground activate the life in the seed to produce what the seed is intended to produce.
Let us consider the statement No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper to be a seed of God intended to bring forth (give birth to) this truth—that NO weapon of the enemy shall prosper against you. However, the life in this seed cannot be activated and grow without a womb, which is contained in the heart and mind of a person. However, we know by observation that in spite of a person’s faith and confession of this truth, that it isn’t as much a reality as it should (or could) be, and even more so for those who don’t believe this to be so.
The reason weapons are prospering against us is because we are allowing them to be conceived in us. Yes, some may believe that no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper, but by itself, it’s like believing that a birth control pill or condom will prevent a woman from getting pregnant. The only way to positively assure that a woman does not get pregnant is to simply not have sexual intercourse with a man. Thus, the only way to prevent conception is to avoid the act that produces conception. While we understand this (at least we should) in the natural, we should also apply this in the spiritual. Words are to life and death, as sperm is to conceiving a child.
Before I continue teaching the rest of the passage, I would like to suggest that we see and read the verse from Isaiah 54:17 another way. If we understand that every gift from God is delivered through righteousness, I believe that by re-ordering this passage we would see how God’s statement about righteousness could come first, and then everything else would spring from this revelation. If you haven’t read my teaching on Righteousness (http://www.bovministries.net/Righteousness.html), I would suggest that you do so.
I know I may lose some of you here, but I ask you to bear with me because I believe this teaching will help you immensely. Think about the math property that says if 3 + 4 = 7, then 4 + 3 also = 7, and conversely, 7 = 4 + 3. Just because the order is different, it neither changes the meaning nor the results.
Here’s how I would order this verse: “This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their righteousness is of me, says the LORD. No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper (because) every tongue (or word) that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn.”
Do you see how righteousness is our foundation—our inheritance? The Bible says that Jesus was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). It is because we have God’s righteousness that we can be successful in this war. As you will see that much of our enemy’s attacks against us involve our conduct, accusing us of being unworthy due to our actions. This is why a revelation of God’s righteousness—that we have—is vital to being confident in using the weapons God has provided us—Words.
Our stance first is therefore upon the truth of the righteousness that we have—not because of our actions, but because of what Jesus has done. If you’re not absolutely convinced that you are righteous in the sight of God through Jesus, then the devil’s weapons will prosper against you, because you will agree with his assessment of your conduct, and submit to his accusations. The Christian is not worthy of his own accord to receive any promise of God, but when he rests and stands upon the truth of God’s righteousness, the entire kingdom of God is at his disposal.
We remember what the Lord said to Joshua about prosperity and success—that it came from taking the Word of God, and meditating therein day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein (Joshua 1:8). From its appearance, this passage suggests that by simply having a good “offense” of pouring the Word into your heart will result in success and prosperity. Is our defense missing from this passage?
Absolutely not—it’s not missing, but it is hidden within the passage to mean that by having the absolute truths of God’s word always in your mouth, and by pondering these truths daily, it will result in you doing all of the word of God, which results in having a good defense as well. Therefore, we can conclude that having a good offense in this case will produce a good defense. In fact, Jesus used the written word of God to defend himself against the temptations of the devil.
Let’s compare my rendering of this passage to what the Bible says concerning the weapons of our warfare (or how we fight our enemy) in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6: For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; and having a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
Before this recent revelation, I never included verse 6 with this teaching on our warfare, believing that disobedience and obedience had something to do with a standard of conduct. However, when the Lord showed me that this verse parallels what He spoke through Isaiah, I got excited. The weapons that we use against the enemy’s weapons have more to do with you having a readiness to revenge or condemn ALL THINGS that are disobedient to what God’s word teaches, and this readiness will come when you have been obedient to Joshua 1:8 concerning the word of God.
If we look closely at what this passage is saying, we would discover that the expected result of our warfare is to the pulling down of strongholds, which infers that something already exists in the realm of our thinking that is keeping us in bondage or preventing us from walking in victory. Strongholds are exactly what the word implies—a strong hold upon the way you think and consequently in the way you live because the Scripture says, As he thinks in his heart, so is he. [Proverbs 23:7]
Part 2 to follow later...
I write this article under the assumption that the reader understands the foundational truths of how God’s kingdom works as the Lord taught in His parable of the sower and the seed (Matthew 13, Mark 4, Luke 8). One of the greatest passages in the Bible describes this truth… from Joshua 1:8: This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate therein day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.
Creation came from God’s word. Salvation came from God’s word. Faith came from God’s word. Healing came from God’s word. Peace, joy, deliverance, and all the fruit of the Spirit came from God’s word. Everything that has ever existed has come from God’s word—words that proceeded out of the mouth of God.
Therefore, if you’re lacking in any of the promises of God, the solution isn’t to “pray about it,” but to go to God’s word and plant the seeds that will produce these things in your life. After you’ve planted seeds, then your prayer and meditation function as fertilizer to the seeds. You may want to stop here and read my teaching “Prayer in the Absence of Truth” (http://www.bovministries.net/Prayer_In_Absence_of_Truth.html)if you haven’t read it yet.
God has designed His word to bring life and accomplish His thoughts of good to bring us an expected result as the Bible says, So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Therefore, the “formula” for prosperity and success in the kingdom of God is to take the incorruptible seed of God’s word and like a farmer, plant the seed in your heart, meditating on its truths day and night, so that it would not depart from your mouth, and that you would do all that is written therein. Like the farmer expects that his seeds will produce, you too must expect God’s word to produce good things in your life. This is faith.
The Word Becomes Flesh
[I]While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. [Genesis 8:22]
Because God is just and holy, and all his works are righteous (Psalm 145:17), He adheres to His own laws concerning His influence in the world. God spoke the seed of His word and the earth was created; and with Jesus, we know that He was the Word [that] was made flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth. [John 1:14]
All the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning Jesus were seeds spoken by God (through prophets) into the earth (to people), culminating with the word spoken through the angel Gabriel to the virgin Mary. The seed (sperma) for Jesus’ birth was in the world, but a person could only be conceived in the womb of a woman. Therefore, Mary’s words, Behold the handmaiden of the Lord, be it unto me according to your word, [Luke 1:38] granted consent for the conception of the Son of God in her womb. Jesus was the word made flesh, and everything in this world adheres to the same principle: it begins as a thought, then is spoken or communicated as a word and it becomes flesh or alive. This is an absolute truth and cannot be bypassed.
So then, we understand that EVERYTHING in this world comes from the seed of words. In fact, the Bible says, Death and life are in the power of tongue, and they who love it will eat the fruit thereof. [Proverbs 18:11]
Jesus said, The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. [John 6:63]
Words are spiritual in the sense that not only are they of the “invisible realm” (you cannot see words—even written words are only symbols or pictures of what words mean) but they can bring forth death and life. God’s words bring forth life to them that find them (Proverbs 4:22) and death to them who resist them through unbelief (John 3:18; Hebrews 4:2).
But have we understood that since God has established the world in this way—that our enemies must also abide by these same laws? (And I don’t say “laws” referring to standards of conduct or rules of behavior, but “laws” that are absolute truths that never change and are indestructible.) God dispatches His word into the hearts and minds of people to give them life. The Bible says, He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from all their destructions. [Psalm 107:20]
Likewise, Satan our enemy also sends words, which bring life and death, but his words are intended to bring “life” to that which causes death, and “death” to God’s life (John 10:10). For example, cancer is death, but it is a virus and is alive. Therefore, cancer is alive, but brings forth death, and the same is true with the words of our enemy.
Herein is a great truth—the truth I want to share with you because while hopefully most of us (although having yet to grasp it completely) understand the laws of seed time and harvest with respect to God’s word in order for it to be prosperous in our lives, I believe we have not been taught how these same laws apply to our enemy’s strategies against us—and that this is the reason his weapons of death are prospering against us.
The truth of spiritual warfare does not exist against principalities, demons, and devils themselves, but against the words that they form against us. While much of the church teaches that spiritual warfare is waged in the heavens, through prayer and intercession against demonic principalities and strongholds, we see from the Word of God that this is not so, which is why we are seeing so much defeat in the lives of God’s people. Most are defeated NOT because of ignorance of the war, but are defeated for lack of knowledge about the defensive and offensive weapons with which to engage in combat. Additionally, we are not meeting our enemy on the same playing field. While we are fighting somewhere in the spirit realm, the enemy ambushes us in the realm of thoughts and words. Therefore, the true battlefield is located right between our ears.
The Common Defense
People familiar with sports have probably heard this quote, “The best offense is a good defense.” While this may be occasionally true, I believe the word of God teaches that in order to be successful we must have both a good offense and defense.
Concerning our warfare as Christians, I believe that one of the most over-quoted and least understood verses of the Bible comes from Isaiah 54:17 that says, No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their righteousness is of me, says the LORD.
Okay, I want you to ponder the verse from Isaiah 54:17 for a minute… think about what God is saying and compare it to the lives of many of the servants of the LORD. Isn’t it obvious that weapons like sin, sickness, untimely death, depression, fear, discouragement, unbelief, and wickedness are prospering against the servants of the LORD?
I’ve observed that most people quote the first statement No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper alone, believing this will occur if you believe it or confess it enough. Certainly exercising faith and confession is helpful, but God has given us instructions on how to cultivate this truth and make it effective in our lives.
Now hold onto your hats and stay with me because I’m about to drop a bomb on you. By itself the statement No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper is NOT TRUE. The statement is a TRUTH (because God spoke it) but it is NOT TRUE because by itself, it is not complete. There is a difference between TRUTH and what is TRUE.
For example, it’s TRUE that the Jews believed Jesus had a devil, but it wasn’t the TRUTH. Do you see what I mean? The Bible says that God is the TRUTH, but also that we must let God be true [Romans 3:4] in order for His truth to benefit us.
I’ll give you another example. The Bible says that Jesus is the Savior of all men and is not willing that any should perish [TRUTH from 1 Timothy 4:10 and 2 Peter 3:9], but are all men saved? The Bible also says that By his stripes you were healed [TRUTH from 1 Peter 2:24] but is everyone healed? We see that in spite of God’s word being truth, His word is not coming to pass to the extent He desires. Weapons ARE CERTAINLY prospering against the servants of the LORD. Why is this?
Weapons are prospering against God’s servants because we are not doing what the Word of God says. The statement No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper alone is NOT true. However, the Lord did not make this statement without elaborating how we can accomplish and be successful in protecting against the enemy’s weapons from prospering against us. Again, since God can only use His Word to benefit and prosper us, then the only weapons that Satan can use against us are WORDS. And this is what the Scripture from Isaiah 54:17 is teaching us.
I’m going to digress for a minute because I want you also to think about the nature of a seed… Jesus said, Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. [John 12:24]
A seed needs a place of conception—a container in which to first activate the life in it, and then grow and be prosperous. A seed by itself, without being planted in the ground will remain a seed. However, once the seed is planted in the ground, elements in the ground activate the life in the seed to produce what the seed is intended to produce.
Let us consider the statement No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper to be a seed of God intended to bring forth (give birth to) this truth—that NO weapon of the enemy shall prosper against you. However, the life in this seed cannot be activated and grow without a womb, which is contained in the heart and mind of a person. However, we know by observation that in spite of a person’s faith and confession of this truth, that it isn’t as much a reality as it should (or could) be, and even more so for those who don’t believe this to be so.
The reason weapons are prospering against us is because we are allowing them to be conceived in us. Yes, some may believe that no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper, but by itself, it’s like believing that a birth control pill or condom will prevent a woman from getting pregnant. The only way to positively assure that a woman does not get pregnant is to simply not have sexual intercourse with a man. Thus, the only way to prevent conception is to avoid the act that produces conception. While we understand this (at least we should) in the natural, we should also apply this in the spiritual. Words are to life and death, as sperm is to conceiving a child.
Before I continue teaching the rest of the passage, I would like to suggest that we see and read the verse from Isaiah 54:17 another way. If we understand that every gift from God is delivered through righteousness, I believe that by re-ordering this passage we would see how God’s statement about righteousness could come first, and then everything else would spring from this revelation. If you haven’t read my teaching on Righteousness (http://www.bovministries.net/Righteousness.html), I would suggest that you do so.
I know I may lose some of you here, but I ask you to bear with me because I believe this teaching will help you immensely. Think about the math property that says if 3 + 4 = 7, then 4 + 3 also = 7, and conversely, 7 = 4 + 3. Just because the order is different, it neither changes the meaning nor the results.
Here’s how I would order this verse: “This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their righteousness is of me, says the LORD. No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper (because) every tongue (or word) that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn.”
Do you see how righteousness is our foundation—our inheritance? The Bible says that Jesus was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). It is because we have God’s righteousness that we can be successful in this war. As you will see that much of our enemy’s attacks against us involve our conduct, accusing us of being unworthy due to our actions. This is why a revelation of God’s righteousness—that we have—is vital to being confident in using the weapons God has provided us—Words.
Our stance first is therefore upon the truth of the righteousness that we have—not because of our actions, but because of what Jesus has done. If you’re not absolutely convinced that you are righteous in the sight of God through Jesus, then the devil’s weapons will prosper against you, because you will agree with his assessment of your conduct, and submit to his accusations. The Christian is not worthy of his own accord to receive any promise of God, but when he rests and stands upon the truth of God’s righteousness, the entire kingdom of God is at his disposal.
We remember what the Lord said to Joshua about prosperity and success—that it came from taking the Word of God, and meditating therein day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein (Joshua 1:8). From its appearance, this passage suggests that by simply having a good “offense” of pouring the Word into your heart will result in success and prosperity. Is our defense missing from this passage?
Absolutely not—it’s not missing, but it is hidden within the passage to mean that by having the absolute truths of God’s word always in your mouth, and by pondering these truths daily, it will result in you doing all of the word of God, which results in having a good defense as well. Therefore, we can conclude that having a good offense in this case will produce a good defense. In fact, Jesus used the written word of God to defend himself against the temptations of the devil.
Let’s compare my rendering of this passage to what the Bible says concerning the weapons of our warfare (or how we fight our enemy) in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6: For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; and having a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
Before this recent revelation, I never included verse 6 with this teaching on our warfare, believing that disobedience and obedience had something to do with a standard of conduct. However, when the Lord showed me that this verse parallels what He spoke through Isaiah, I got excited. The weapons that we use against the enemy’s weapons have more to do with you having a readiness to revenge or condemn ALL THINGS that are disobedient to what God’s word teaches, and this readiness will come when you have been obedient to Joshua 1:8 concerning the word of God.
If we look closely at what this passage is saying, we would discover that the expected result of our warfare is to the pulling down of strongholds, which infers that something already exists in the realm of our thinking that is keeping us in bondage or preventing us from walking in victory. Strongholds are exactly what the word implies—a strong hold upon the way you think and consequently in the way you live because the Scripture says, As he thinks in his heart, so is he. [Proverbs 23:7]
Part 2 to follow later...