Spiritual Warfare 101: Fighting a Battle Already Won

Justin Peters once wrote “Few areas of the Christian life are more misunderstood than that of spiritual warfare.” From bad Hollywood depictions to even worse theology, we’ve all fallen victim to the hyper-sensationalism typically affiliated with spiritual warfare. When you hear the expression “spiritual warfare” perhaps something specific comes to mind for you – things like praying hedges of protection over our homes, breaking generational curses in our families, exorcising demons, mapping the spiritual realm, and rebuking demonic activity in the name of Jesus. We assume these are thoroughly biblical, necessary practices that we overlook to our own peril. However, is this an accurate assessment of what Scripture says about spiritual warfare? Are these practices necessary or prescribed? This series will set out to answer this question, correct the errant theologies that are not based on Scripture, and recenter the Word of God as the primary source of intel in our battle against the enemy.

All of the lessons and the corresponding notes can be found below.

Spiritual Warfare 101, Part 1 - Introduction to Spiritual Warfare

Dr. Stanley Gale writes, “God’s Word supplies us with a reconnaissance report on our enemy and intelligence on his tactics.” Simply put, if we don’t have the word, we can’t understand the warfare. In part 1 of our series in spiritual warfare, our goal will be to recentralize the Word in our study and introduce our topic from a corrected vantage point. In other words, what we will see is that How we view the Word will shape how we understand the warfare. We will then apply this point by allowing Scripture to help us define spiritual warfare, answering the how, what and why of the war that rages around us.

Spiritual Warfare 101, Part 2 - Christus Victor: A Battle Already Won

Christ’s victory is shared with us – his triumph is our triumph; his strength is our strength; and with him we are seated in the heavenly places. However, knowing Christ won the battle, we must answer the question of whether or not his victory for us means that we possess his full authority. As we build on what we talked about last week, what we will learn is that What the Word says about the warfare is that the war has already been won. Christ’s victory in his life and in his death reveal his dominion over the rulers and the authorities and his power over the devil. Do we share this authority?