Spiritual warfare

Spiritual warfare

 

Spiritual warfare is an invisible war. Many people living in the world live with their own religion, and there may also be people who do not have a religion. However, among them, a significant portion of people have Christianity as their religion. If you ask these people about spiritual warfare, they will almost always say that it is Satan or an evil spirit. 

Spiritual war, like physical war, is a state in which you will not be able to fight if you do not know how to identify enemies. If you do not know who you are in a spiritual war and who you are fighting against, you will lose the war. 

When a person is born, passes through infancy and enters adolescence, he or she begins to develop self-consciousness. So, people come into contact with their identity. If you do not know your identity, you cannot engage in spiritual warfare. The self that everyone appears at birth is the physical self. This physical self is a collection of approximately seven characteristics. These are the nature of the body, blood relations, experience and knowledge, thoughts and ideologies, religiosity, self-righteousness, and the desire to dominate. These may develop or shrink as we grow, but overall they do not change. However, because this physical self is in hostile opposition to God, it ignores the spirit trapped in the body or rejects the very existence of the spirit. So they also reject the words of the Bible. 

Only when we are clearly aware of the existence of spirit can we properly stand on our own identity. The Bible speaks of humans as beings in which body and spirit are combined. However, the spirit is trapped in a body called dust. So the spirit does not know God and is in darkness. To use a metaphor, it is like a person who commits a crime while living in the world and is in prison. So, it is like a person living freely in the world, but having the clothes and everything they used to wear in the world taken away, wearing a prison uniform with a number on it, and living in prison for a certain period of time. In prison, a person's identity will be the number on his or her prison uniform. The spirit trapped in the human body is likewise trapped in the body by sinning in the kingdom of God, and is wearing the clothing of a soul. 

In order for someone imprisoned to realize their former identity, they will have to remember their parents, think about the house they lived in, and think about the family they lived with. Likewise, humans also get a glimpse of what spiritual identity is only when they are interested in the spirit. When that happens, identity confusion arises. In the Bible, the secrets of heaven are explained through the parable of the sower. Just as a farmer tills the soil, sows the seeds, waters them, and cultivates them while the sprouts of life grow, one can come to realize the spirit trapped in the body through countless meditations and reading the words of the Bible. 

In the Bible, it is said that the fundamental reason why the spirit was trapped in the body was because the spirit wanted to become like God. That is greed and idol. That is why the Bible says that this is a sin against God. Sin means opposing God and turning away from Him. The Bible says in Genesis 2:17 that sinners against God must die twice. “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die..” The English translation of the Bible says, “you shall surely die.” The Hebrew Bible says, “Die and die.” Those who realize that they must die twice like this are those who realize that they are sinners who have left the kingdom of God and are trapped in the dust, and have a desire to repent. They realize that they have no choice but to die to God, and a desire to ask God for forgiveness arises. This is repentance. So we participate in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

 In the first death, the saint must die to sin. This is water baptism. Romans 6:3-7 talks about baptism and sin. 『Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.』Since humans cannot die on their own, God uses His Son Jesus Christ to redeem those who repent by dying on the cross. This is a method of making people believe that Jesus not only died on behalf of humans, but also died with him, so that sinners can also die and be forgiven of their sins. So, those who become saints have already been judged. The White Throne Judgment will be received by all those who are in the law. 

The second death is the death of the soul. This is a baptism of fire. The saints take off their former clothes and burn them in the fire. The soul is like a leather garment that becomes a human being when the body and spirit meet. This is the clothing that God gave to the first man, Adam. However, since these are clothes that come from the flesh, believers must take off those clothes and change into clothes that come from heaven. This is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is called the garment of Christ. Those who change into the clothes of Christ wear new clothes (spiritual bodies), so their spirit receives light and comes to life. In 1 Corinthians 15:43-44, Apostle Paul explains the spiritual body. The spiritual body can be said to be the body of a resurrected person. Saints also have a body, so they just don't recognize it. If he does not believe that he is the resurrected one, then he has not changed his clothes. When a saint believes in the resurrection, a temple is built in the saint's heart. This is called the kingdom of God (heaven) in the world. The kingdom of God in the hearts of believers is also called the third heaven. That is why Christ enters the temple in the hearts of believers. This is the Second Coming. Those who do not believe in the second coming of Christ will not find heaven in their hearts.

So, in the body, the self-identity revealed from the body and the spiritual self-identity born from heaven through the Holy Spirit become mixed. Here, the saints became able to identify their enemies. The “true me” is a spiritual identity born from heaven, and my enemy is none other than an identity born from the flesh. This is where most Christians get mistaken. Since they cannot identify their enemies, they do not know what Jesus means when he says to deny oneself. The object of self-denial is the physical self, and the subject that must be denied is the spiritual self. These two fight until their bodies die.

 

Humans are born into the world, but unfortunately, the world is like a prison for the spirit. There are people in this world who manage prisons. There is a prison warden, and there will also be subordinates. They can control prisoners by law, punish them by law when they commit illegal acts, and even make them do labor. To use a spiritual analogy, we could say that these people are public officials who play a villainous role against sinners. Spiritually, the prison leader is Satan, and those under him are angels who play villainous roles. That is why it is expressed as a dark spirit (devil, etc.). Everyone just does their part. 

However, God stamps those who “die twice to the flesh” acknowledging their innocence even before they leave the world (prison). They (saints) are no longer sinners. The guards who played the role of the villain do not and cannot interfere with them any more. We only live in the world because of our bodies. In 1 John 3:9, “Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” In 1 John 5:18, “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.』 However, even if you are free from the bondage of a sinner, it is not Satan or a dark spirit that torments you, but the fleshly self that torments your spirit. That is why there is a constant battle with oneself. 

People get results according to their thoughts. What we say with our mouths becomes the standard for judgment, and what we say with our thoughts is the result of spiritual warfare. So, everyone falls and stands up in battle, but there is someone who will help those who realize this identity to win. That person is God. For those who are established in the temple in the hearts of believers, Christ will return to help and remind them through the Word. Those who realize their spiritual identity must be strengthened by the word of life every day to gain spiritual strength.