THE HOLY SPIRIT'S WAR COLLEGE : The 6 Integrated Weapons System Field Manuel

The use of God’s armor is the most consequential and invincible arsenal in spiritual warfare. Yet, it is one of the most misunderstood principle in spiritual battle. We have been left in a spiritual fog because we disconnected God’s armor from God’s intrinsic character as well as God's covenant warfare. In covenant warfare, the battle is the Lord Adonai Tzva'ot - The Warrior and the Commander of warring armies in the heavenlies. The weapons are His. The victory that has been won is His. Rightly so, we must exclusively use God's weapons in order to secure victory in spiritual battle. Therefrom, we cannot separate God’s weapons from who He is. What many failed to grasp is that God's weapons reflect His very own character and divine nature. 

Here is the graveyard of many spiritual war veterans who had tragically ambushed their journey on the spiritual war campaign. In spiritual warfare, you must become the very weapons you are using to fight and live by, lest you exit the battlefield in a shameful and disgraceful surrender.

The tragedy of many believers today is that they want to embark on the warfare campaign without bearing spiritual arms and outfitting themselves with God's coat of arms for battle. Bearing God's arms represents who you are as separate from the enemy, how you fight, what you stand for, and where you belong. That is the reason why God gives us His divine nature by means of spiritual armor to prevail against and subdue all that stands in opposition to who He is. As such, God's armor is not an external casual outfit to adorn oneself and dispose of at will. Spiritual clothing and weapons identify who we are to the spiritual world and to the enemy around us.

In a nutshell, God's armor must become our very own identity and DNA signature. Before the battle, we wear God’s armor, and after the battle, we are still bearing God's weapons. Like a saying: ”Once a Marine, always a Marine!” 

Thus, the 6 integrated divine weapons system represents God’s very nature and character: Truth, Righteousness, Peace, Faith, Salvation, and the Word. God is the God of Righteousness, the God of Truth, the God of Peace, the God of our Salvation, the only Faith pleasing God, and God and His Word are One and unchangeable. But now, how does God's armor work through an integrated six weapons system in the battlefield? We need to enter the Holy Spirit's War College to learn how to fight using God's weapons. 

Spiritual Warfare Is Covenant Warfare

It is a dangerous and perilous mission to disconnect spiritual warfare from the Covenant’s warfare. As such, spiritual warfare is not a boxing tournament against demonic hordes in order to pick up a winner to celebrate. Neither is it meant as Graduate School for students in quest of spiritual powers. 

Becoming compulsively fascinated with demons and addicted to some mythical fantasy dragons and dark creatures lurking in some cosmic atmosphere is a real danger in spiritual battle. Indeed, the endless road to seduction with dark powers is a slippery slope. 

In Covenant warfare we do not choose the enemy. God handpicked the enemy for us. We do not engage in warfare without a clear divine mandate.

As exciting as clashing with demons could be, in spiritual warfare, we fight to restore a Kingdom, not just to embark on a power contest. 

The clear goal of our warfare is to bring back God’s righteous Kingdom on earth. Thus, spiritual warfare fits into heavenly government policies. 

Here is the guiding spiritual warfare doctrine. Unless we defeat the enemies who rule over us, we can never become rulers with God on earth. Unsurprisingly, when Adam failed in his warfare test against Satan, God re-enacted the same covenant warfare with Abraham. God Himself singled out our enemies and provided His own armor to fight those who rebelled against His righteousness and sovereign rule. Therefore, defeat and stalemate in spiritual warfare are clear prognostic that we have been fighting outside the covenant as well as waging the wrong warfare without God's armor. 

In Covenant Warfare, God Himself Defeats Your Enemies

In Exodus, when God came to set his people free from the bondage of Egypt, He clearly taught us who Israel's enemy is and will always be. God's battles rescue the children of the needy, defend the poor, and crush the oppressors of his people. He defeated and judged Pharaoh as the puppet master of the wicked false gods and rulers of the Egyptian pantheon through 10 plagues. In biblical numerology, 10 speaks of completion and fullness. Pharaoh was the incarnation of a relentless tyranny, injustice, and slavery to sin that leads to death against God's people. 

Psalm 89 describes how God rules, scatters his enemies, and wins victory for his covenant nation. God made a covenant with his chosen one and sworn to David to establish his throne forever. God Himself is the One fighting against our enemies for us. Thus, the enemy and the wicked will not oppress David, because God himself will crush David’s foes before him and strike down his adversaries. Matthew 16:18 repeats the same covenant promise: I will build my church - understood as government or ruling body - and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

In Covenant Warfare God Himself Handpicked Your Enemies

Nehemiah 9:8 put in context the purpose of Covenant warfare and clearly identified who God's enemies are. God had chosen Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans to become ruler over nations that govern and oppose His righteous kingdom coming on earth. “You found his heart faithful before You, and made a covenant with him to give him the land of the Canaanite, of the Hittite and the Amorites, of the Perizzite, the Jebusite and the Girgashite – to give it to his descendants. And You have fulfilled your promise, for You are righteous.”

War broke out against wicked spiritual rulers because they rebelled against God' righteous government on earth. Thus, the commencement of spiritual warfare is found when darkness and wickedness covered the nations of the world and a global evil agenda was set up as coercive weapon to govern people and nations by overshadowing and pushing out God's righteousness and Light. Wicked rulers in the spirit world have been fighting against God's goodness reigning on earth. They oppose God as a life-giver by making it permissible by State law to kill God's children via abortion and drugs that cause mass casualties and death. They are architects of free-based values cities whereby immorality, corruption, sexual perversion, bottomless debauchery, violence and chaos become the norms. 

The above mentioned nations represent these major spiritual wicked rulers or aliens, called also fallen principalities that had set up an evil agenda to run the world by contradistinguishing God’s righteous government. They are spiritual political retailers. They design wicked policies and laws to govern nations. They rule nations with the goal of defiling people, while imposing darkness as moral and spiritual code on earth. In Ephesians 6:10-12, Paul briefly referred to these ruling principalities: 

"For we are not fighting against flesh- and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” 

What is specific about the rule and laws of each of these enemy nations? The Hittites principalities rule the nations through designed algorithms of fears, terrorism, and orchestrated social hopelessness. The Girgashites are the rulers of corruption as means of getting rich, while defiling people via the impairment of their integrity and morality. The Amorites spirits are the rulers of iniquity and sin. The Amorites' political club is the brotherhood of sinners and iniquities. They impose child sacrifice, child sexual abuse, pornography, and sexual perversion to people in exchange for economic prosperity and wealth. The Canaanites principalities condone human trafficking, prostitution, and slavery as a means of becoming rich and they place the accumulation of money and materialism as the end goal of life on earth. The Perizzites are rulers of lawlessness and chaos. The Hivites are rulers of relativism and humanism via self-exaltation of the ego. They govern to entice people to become their own god. The Jebusites principalities are architects of the master race theory. They categorize certain race and group of people as genetically inferior people, without any right to exercise authority and power. Therefore, they rule via the suppression of authority and power. To fight against and conquer these wicked rulers, God made available his own armor to wrap his children all around, like a protective clothing to overcome the enemy. What is the meaning and the use of biblical clothing?

The Biblical Clothing Metaphor and Spiritual Warfare

When someone drifts away from the standards of truth and righteousness or is caught up with scandals, moral failure or corruption, this person becomes naked, and exposed to the world. For a disgraced person, public trust and respect become a lost investment. One is only protected and morally clothed as long as one walks in the truth. Sin and iniquities exposed our nakedness. Adam and Eve realized they were naked when they sinned. It speaks about the nakedness of the soul. The garment of light and righteousness had left Adam and Eve after they sinned. They were exposed in face of the spiritual world as defiled, disobedient, corrupt, and unworthy to represent and account for who God is on earth. A person with defiled clothes represents a person who lacks righteousness and truth, and therefore, naked and vulnerable to Satan. Without the protective covering of righteousness and truth, we become an easy target to the kingdom of darkness. 

Understandably, Revelation 16:15, states: “Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.” Keeping the truth and preserving your righteousness remain your best invested security predicament against the shameful downfall brought about by evil and wickedness.

The metaphor of biblical clothing speaks about two-pronged meaning. One, biblical clothing or garment relates to one’s right standing before God. One with pure white garment or clean clothing represents one’s righteousness before God. Job 29:14 gives us a picture of this metaphor: “I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my justice was like a robe and a diadem.” 

We must wear justice and righteousness like a clothing that is interwoven with our personality and character to do God's battles. In God’s battles, the overcomers are those who clothed themselves with white garment. 

Revelation 3:5-18, “He that overcome, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life…I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in fire, that you may be rich; and white raiment, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear.”

We do not wake up early in the morning and start firing bullets at the kingdom of darkness without being clothed in righteousness in order to stand against evil. Righteousness however is something that has been imputed to us, it is not our own achievement. A fine white robe is what Jesus bought for us on calvary. 

2 Corinthians 5:21 gave us the assurance: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 

Two, the purpose of biblical clothing is for function. Psalm 104:2 tells us that God wraps himself with light as with a garment. Clothing is part of our protection and the indispensable means of operating in the spiritual realm. For instance, protective gear for medical personnel such as masks, gloves, and gowns are essential component for medical staff on the frontlines of fighting diseases. In case of neglect, the medical personnel will fall victim of the very diseases they have been trained to eradicate. Thus, we must always function with spiritual clothing in order to be effective. In fact, spiritual clothing identifies who we are to the spiritual world around us. 

Ephesians 4: 22-24 put a correlation between our spiritual clothing and our identity. Paul is advising the believers to change the garment of corruption and lies that they used to wear in the past, and be dressed with the new divine given nature, “the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” 

Noteworthy enough, at the king’s wedding banquet found in Matthew 22, the King came in and was appalled there was an intruder who showed up spiritually naked at his banquet. 

Seemingly, the King was not a great fun of inclusion. Righteousness matters to the King! You don’t go to the King to advise Him to include poverty in his prosperity agenda for his children. You do not argue with the King to buy the idea that, having children who are slaves to sin is better than keeping them free from any bondage to oppression. You cannot convince the King that, your filthy rags are as good as the valuable and precious fine robes He purchased for his own. 

The King immediately requested the spiritual nudist club member to be tossed out in the outer darkness “where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

The 6 Lost Weapons Leading Man To Defeat In Warfare

The irony of contemporary warfare is that, we achieve minor victory in battles that results in larger defeat in war; making the outcome of the victory hollow and empty. No war had come to an end until peace, truth, righteousness, justice, judgment  against the wicked, and freedom win out. We wage war to crush oppression and tyranny to end up becoming oppressors. We fight to restore truth and freedom to end up being buried in the graveyard of our own pre-emptive lies and contradictions. We wage "The War on Terror " to end end up becoming terrorists in our own invaded balkans. 

Banking on pre-emptive lies and injustice as weapons to subdue nations and govern peoples is a self-inflicted defeat in warfare. Satan conquers via the weapons of lies, injustice, violence, sin, and iniquities. God governs nations and his children with justice, righteousness, truth, and freedom. 

Battles are lost or won by the very weapons we are using to fight and secure a lasting victory. God gives us his own weapons to win his battles. Understanding God's armor takes us to a double detour.

Surrendering on the battlefield is the most dangerous act in warfare. A surrendering fighter must drop all arms and weapons at hand, raise the arms, and come to the total mercy of the captor. 

In Eden, Man surrendered to Satan by laying down his protective divine armor and became slave to his captor through sin. Sin is Satan's deadly weapon to take us to surrender and be defeated. As long as you bear spiritual arms, the enemy knows he cannot defeat you. Reasonably, before satan defeats you in battle, he must first of all take away your guns. Your spiritual clothing or armor represents a danger to Satan. Please, keep and bear your spiritual arms ! That is the reason why the enemy works hard to take you first on the journey to sin and rebellion against God in order for you to trade away your spiritual weapons of Truth and righteousness for  iniquities.

Rightly so, what we lost in Eden was the divine 6 integrated weapons system from God's armor. 

- We lost righteousness and truth to be defeated by deceptive means. Waging war on the foundation of lies is harvesting the bitter grapes of delusion and shame.

- We walked away from salvation as our protection and security. Going to war without protection and a guarantee of security is gambling on a landslide defeat.

- We traded God's peace for fears, doubts, and anxiety by seeking prosperity and self-promotion via the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you lack faith in your God and yourself,  never embark on a warfare campaign.

- The truth of God's Word as a weapon against the enemy's lies was lost when the enemy made us to believe that when we eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil our eyes will be opened, and we will be like God. 

- When doubts took hold of us, our faith in God's Word become nullified through fears. Faith in God's Word had been traded for a deceptive lie by the serpent. We could not withstand a fight in Eden because we surrendered our weapons.

Without God's protective armor around us, all what we have left is religion as an illusion of protection and security against evil. Religion gives us a hollow authority over adversity. It carries an obsession for a restorative power via rituals as preemptive defense strategy against Satan, alongside warfare victory celebration that ends up in brutal defeat. 

Your religion cannot protect you against evil, your righteousness and truth do ! Man is only restored in power over sinful defeat when the divine weapons of truth, righteousness, salvation, faith, peace, and the Word of God become intrinsically part of us. These divine weapons work in an integrated system. One cannot be righteous without the Word of God that set the standards of right standing for us to walk. One cannot be truthful without being saved. One cannot live by the Word and lack faith to please God. Forget about warfare if you don’t have God’s armor. No spiritual war can be won without God's weapons. 

The restoration of Man unto God is a journey back to bearing spiritual weapons and being identified with God's coat of arms as sign of belonging to God's own. Now, what are the requirements and criteria to enroll in the Holy Spirit's War College ?

5 Enrollment Criteria In the Holy Spirit's War College 

The Holy Spirit's War College is The School for the More Than Conquerors in order to fulfill covenant warfare. You must be anointed to enter this school. David was anointed before he goes to confront Goliath. Samson was anointed as deliverer and judge for Israel. Christ is the anointed One of God.

The School for Overcomers 

They Have Overcome. In this school, those who engage in spiritual warfare have no doubt about the outcome of the battle. They engage in battle knowing already that their victory is in the past tense. They are not waging warfare hoping to win or striving not to lose. They have already overcome in battle.

They triumphed over Satan “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” Revelation 12:11. Satan was defeated by the blood of Jesus at the cross of calvary. It’s a fact. The confession of victory is a statement of God’s truth based on his Word. Thus, they are more than mere conquerors going on the battlefield. They go as conquerors to conquer and be victorious. Despite and in the face of death, famine, persecution, and hardships, those who engage in spiritual warfare have the assurance that, in all these things, they “are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Romans 8:37

The School For Those Who Know About Strategic Warfare 

Do not enroll in this school if you are ignorant about Satan and the enemy's schemes. As goes the saying:"If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." One is required to have knowledge about Satan's strategic warfare and methodologies. In the Holy Spirit's war college, those who are admitted are not ignorant about Satan’s schemes or shifting strategies. “In order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.” 2 Corinthians 2:11

The School For Those Who Have Spiritual Authority 

They have been given authority to “trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy”; and nothing will harm them. Luke 10:19 

The School For The Sober and Vigilant 

In the Holy Spirit's school, you must be alert, sober, and vigilant. “Be alert and sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

The School For Those Trained In Space War 

They engage in warfare knowing their strategic position in the spiritual realm. Like David they do not engage in a hand-to-hand wrestling match against the enemy. They do warfare from a position of superiority over the enemies. 

They are sitting far above principalities, powers, rulers of darkness. They are dead with Christ and God raised them up and seated in the heavenly realms in Christ. “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” Ephesians 2:6

 The Six-Fold Integrated Weapons System of God’s Armor

Ephesians 6: 13-17 describes for us the full armor of God.

“Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the Belt of Truth and the Body armor of God’s Righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all these, hold up the shield of Faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put on Salvation as your Helmet, and take the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”

I.  TAKE THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, THE  WORD OF GOD

In spiritual warfare, the believers in Christ have no other state-of-the-art weapons than the Word and the Spirit. While the five class weapon types are defensive weapons, the Word as weapon is unique because the Word of God is both defensive and offensive weapon as well. In the wilderness, when Satan came to defeat Jesus via a strategic warfare contest, the weapon Jesus used to counter attack the devil was the Word as an offensive weapon. While the other weapons in God's armor describe God’s character and personality-type, the Word as weapon represents God Himself acting and intervening in the person of the Holy Spirit in battlefield. The Word does not work without the Spirit. And the Spirit cannot operate without the Word. Let us break down this understanding about the Word being the Sword of the Holy Spirit. 

One, to praise God on battlefield with His Word is to maneuver a double-edged sword against enemy target. Interestingly enough, Psalm 149:6 describes the praise of God as a double-edged sword. In spiritual warfare, we have “target-praise” warfare through songs or music, and warfare dance unto God. For Psalm 149 recommends us: “Let them praise his name in the dance.” In 2 Chronicles 20, Josaphat the king appointed singers and worshippers to walk ahead of the army, singing and praising God. Thus, the Lord ambushed and routed the king’s enemies. Again, we find in Acts 16 that Paul and Silas praised God in jail and the prison doors opened, putting an end to their captivity. 

Praise derives from the Latin notion of “pretium”, which means, price or to set a great price on. Jesus is the price God paid to set us free from the hands of our slave master. We have been purchased at a highest price from the enemy by divine blood transaction payment. 

Continued praise, worship, thanks, spiritual dances, and proclamation of God’s goodness are divine weapon that deny the enemy the legal right to operate and function against us. Target-praise weapon torments the enemy’s camp by reminding him that Jesus’ blood had spoken for us against him. 

Praise is a very expensive and costly garment given to us to wear and stand against the enemy. No wonder praise is always correlated with sacrifice. 

Two, God’s Word is a destructive weapon against those who fight against His own. The Word is the ultimate weapon as a sword to slay the enemy. There is no other substitute to the Word in spiritual warfare. In 2 Thessalonians 2:8, Satan’s final fate ends with the Word spoken against him. 

“Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming.” 

When the rhema Word is spoken in warfare, the living Word who is Christ comes on the scene, takes control, and executes God's judgment. 

Why so? Christ as the spoken Word of God brings to pass the King's promise to judge the wicked. Unequivocally, when Christ comes to judge the wicked in Revelation 1: 13-16, we witness the vision of a sharp, double-edged sword coming out of the mouth of the Son of Man. When Christ the living Word of God speaks, the Holy Spirit performs his will at the speed of light. 

Hebrews 4:12 gives the same account of how active and sharper the Word is. “For the Word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” God’s does nothing without His Word. 

Again, in Revelation 2:16, Jesus gives a warning to the Church in Pergamum, a city associated with the seat of Satan. He urged the believers to repent from enticement to sin, idolatry, and sexual immorality, lest He “will make war against them with the sword" of his mouth. God's Word as a sword, judges and separates evil from good. Again, Isaiah 11:4 is a reminder that our battle is against evil and wickedness that must be defeated by the Word. “ He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.” 

Fight With Spirit-Filled Word For Victorious Battle

What we speak and what we do must stand in strict correlation with God's Word and His Spirit for us to see an effective outcome in battle. Psalm 119:160 translates this same equation in stating that, God and and His Word are one: “The sum of your word is Truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.” 

In the spirit realm, the Holy Spirit is the One who activates the Word and makes it work for us when we speak. In due time during the battle, the Holy Spirit gives us the right Word to sharply cut and destroy the enemies. We release the outcome of the battle with our mouth by the Word.

In 1 Samuel 17, David's words spoken against Goliath the Philistine sealed the outcome of the warfare. 

"You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head."

At the speed of light, with sonic booms and frequencies, things begin to take shape as in creation. The Holy Spirit took control of the Word to accomplish God’s will through the mouth of a shepherd boy. That is why it is important to be in the Word, familiarize with the Word, walk with the Word, spend time with the Word so that it becomes part of us. It is not on the day of battles that one learns how to use his/her weapons. Pray and fight with Spirit-filled Word to see victory in battle. Fight with Scriptural based and rhema Word, not with your own  words or feeling. 

II. PUT THE BODY ARMOR OF GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS 

Righteousness is God's weapon to defeat evil. Justice is God's weapon to defeat wicked and evil peoples. 

Spiritual warfare is strictly salvation warfare. Before we step into the battlefield one question is paramount important: are there people we are fighting to set free and restore justice for? Are there people who are going to benefit from our righteousness? What evil or wickedness are we about to judge and bring to an end? Who is going to be saved when the war is over ?

God’s battles are always conducted in order to save, rescue, and bring freedom and justice to his children from the hands of the wicked. 

Righteousness, justice, freedom, and salvation walk together in strict correlation in spiritual warfare.   Isaiah 59:17 gives us the clear picture of God’s battles as salvation battle. As God appears in battlefield, so must all those who wage spiritual warfare. 

God “put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle.” 

In order to do spiritual warfare, your righteousness must precede you on the battlefield before you confront the enemy. Waging spiritual warfare based on mixed greed and corruption motives, along dubious ethical assumptions is a recipe for failure and defeat. We cannot carry an evil agenda to defeat an evil mountain system. We cannot wear Satan's clothes to fight against Satan. We will certainly become a loud echo chamber of iniquities and evil rather than a force for righteousness and freedom. 

Psalm 85:13 is more specific about God's move: "Righteousness goes as a herald before Him, preparing the way for his steps." Simply put, seek first to be righteous before you wage spiritual warfare, lest you become caught up by your own evil while you fight against the enemy ! 

In spiritual battle, salvation must govern the principles of our warfare. We battle to establish and achieve righteousness on earth. Satan works to maintain and control a nation of slaves under his relentless tyranny, while God wants to achieve salvation and freedom for nations and individuals on earth. Spiritual battle sets people free. 

Thus, righteousness is God's weapon to put an end to wickedness, establish justice on earth, and bring salvation for mankind. 

God reveals his righteousness by saving sinners. Psalm 98:2-3 points out that “The Lord has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations…All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.” 

Demonstrating righteousness in warfare fulfills the purpose of bringing salvation to people and leading them to God. That’s why in Isaiah 53:11, the Righteous One, the suffering Servant through his suffering “will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.” God is righteous in his character because He does not want any to perish but to have eternal and abundant life. 

Spiritual warfare is a judgment against wickedness. 

Righteousness is correlated to God’s judgment. “O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; For the righteous God tries the hearts and minds.” Psalm 7: 9. In Psalm 103:6, “The Lord performs righteous deeds and judgments for all who are oppressed.” 

Spiritual Warfare Is Warfare on Behalf of the Poor

God reveals his righteousness by protecting the poor and the afflicted. In Psalm 12:5,“because the poor are plundered and the needy groan, I will now arise,” says the Lord. “I will protect them from those who malign them.” Spiritual warfare fulfills the mandate of protecting the poor and the afflicted from the hands of the wicked. 

Spiritual Warfare Restores Justice

God’s battles bring justice on earth and restore a prosperous and justice-loving peoples on earth. 

Isaiah 1:17 tells us: "Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause." 

Spiritual warfare fits into God’s government agenda to restore back prosperity as a demonstration of righteousness for the poor through justice and peace.  

“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your Kingdom.” Therefore, righteousness is a weapon to put an end to wickedness and establish justice on earth. 

III. PUT THE BELT OF TRUTH

Spiritual Warfare Restores God's Truth on Earth

Truth is God's weapon to defeat lies. Truth is not something that one just tells. Truth is who you are, what you stand for, and who you represent. It is a robe to function with. It is a cloth that we wear as part of us to manifest God's government and rule on earth. If one does not stand for and represent truth, waging spiritual warfare based on pre-emptive lies is taking a ride to destruction and a shameful defeat. That's why Ephesians 6:14 tells us to put truth on as a belt to carry everything we do. “Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness.” 

The purpose of a belt on a military gear does not to play the role of a fancy decorative knot, but to carry weapons such as guns, grenades, or a knife. The belt of Truth that we wear carries God's character and heavenly protocol standards.

Here is the bedrock proof of victorious warfare. Spiritual warfare waged in truth always leads to the highways of peace, freedom, and righteousness for nations and individuals. Truth is a Person who takes a journey with us to manifest God’s character and kingdom protocols. In John 14, 16-17, Jesus prayed the Father to send the Spirit of Truth to dwell with the believers to enable them to manifest God’s character and come to know who God is. David repeats the same petition in Psalm 43:3 :“Send out your light and your Truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling!” Lies, iniquities, and evil do not take us to the Father. They manifest the character of the father of lies, Satan. What we owe to one another is the manifestation of Truth that leads to peace, not deceit and wickedness. 

IV.  PUT ON THE SHOES OF PEACE - THE GOOD NEWS BRINGS PEACE WITH GOD 

Spiritual Warfare Restores Peace with God

Biblical notion of peace - shalom - translated as peace, refers to the core meaning of making amend or making restitution to being restored and becoming complete. When Adam fell, he lost peace, meaning he lost God. There is no peace outside of God. To regain peace, Man must make amend or repent to becoming whole again. Restored fellowship with God is the true foundation of being whole again. 

Judges 6:24 mentions that one of the names of God is Yahweh Shalom – the Lord is our Peace. Our steps must take us to God to dwell in Him as our true peace. Stepping away from Him is taking the road to rebellion and evil, consequently losing peace. Psalm 34:14 bears this hidden revelation: “Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” Finding peace could never be divorced from repentance from our sins. Seeking peace and pursuing it is another way of telling people to seek God and pursue God.

Now, peace is intimately correlated with the Good News. Welcoming or proclaiming God’s Word as Good News, is taking a journey back home to God. It is a U-turn to peace, not rebellion. 

Here is the missing link with spiritual warfare. When we are  restored into fellowship with God through genuine repentance, we put on the shoes of the Good News of salvation so that those who stand in rebellion against God return to Him through the forgiveness of their sins and dwell in peace. 

Taking the Gospel to people who had rebelled against God is waging warfare to provoke forced migration from the kingdom of darkness to God’s kingdom. That is why persecution, hatred, and opposition always stand on the way of those  who bring the Good News. Satan will resist and fight the setting free of God's people held in captivity in his ranks. Preaching the Good News of salvation to free the captives and the unsaved is waging war against the kingdom of darkness. 

Taking the Gospel to sinners is a war declaration. It is a way of telling Satan: “You cannot have these peoples, give them back, they must return home to their Father !” To put on the shoes of the Gospel is going to war in order to bring back all who belong to the Father. 

Only the sons take up those shoes. That’s what Matthew 5:9 subtlety insinuates: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Those who are sons of God lead many to righteousness through repentance of sins and those who are sons of Satan take many to wickedness and evil.

V.  HOLD UP THE SHIELD OF FAITH TO STOP THE FIERY ARROWS 

The picture of “fiery arrows” refers to Rome’s invented Hellfire missile. Rome launched fiery arrows with pitch-soaked cotton material on their tips to set ablaze and destroy enemy target. This is the picture of Satan’s artillery once it hits its target. De facto, on the spiritual realm, Satan’s fiery missiles come suddenly and unexpected. It is a warfare of annihilation intended to bring a swift victory. We do not know when and how satanic fiery arrows strike us. One thing is clear: they send us on a death trip. 

Righteousness, praying and fasting are not enough to protect us against fiery weapons from the dark world. When confronted with this type of weapon, one becomes powerless with no other protective armor, but faith in God to lead us to victory. Biblical insight has provided enough evidence about this type of deadly weapon and demonstrated how faith comes to play in our favor.     

Your Faith Renders the enemy’s weapons powerless. 

When you have faith that pleases God, God Himself becomes a shield around you. Faith is the first line of defense to ward off or deflect the enemy’s deadly fiery arrows. In Daniel 3:16-18, king Nebuchadnezzar summoned three unsubordinated Hebrew boys who had objected his blasphemous decree to be thrown into a fiery furnace. These three boys’ unwavering stance gave us a clue to what faith produces when confronted with deadly fiery arrows: “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand.” 

Confronted with an unescapable coming death, what remains is putting our faith in God as a strong shield or tower to protect us. Being worrisome and restless run contrary to faith. One must find inner peace and rest in God alone to fight on our behalf. 

In Acts 28, Paul is suddenly bitten by a poisonous deadly snake on the island of Malta on his journey to Rome. While many were expecting Paul’s sudden death, the apostle did not let out a whimper. He rather shook off the deadly viper into a fire. Paul’s faith in God was enough to protect him from such untimely death. He knew so well that the Holy Spirit had not led him to Malta to meet his sudden death. Thus, Paul did not bother to offer a prayer for his own healing. No poisonous snake can do him harm. Rather, Paul put the snake on a barbecue grill. Again in 1 Samuel 30:6, we found the account about the Amalekites who raided Ziklag, taking away David and his soldiers’ wives and children as war captives. Deeply grieved and greatly distressed, David’s soldiers spoke of stoning him to death. Nevertheless, confronted with the outcome of a certain death befallen him, David “found strength in the Lord his God.” David has no other protection against death but putting his faith in God alone to deliver him. 

It should not come as a surprise to us that Jesus himself relied on faith to protect Him when confronted with Satanic deadly fiery weapons. In John 8:59, angry mob of Jewish religious leaders picked up stones to throw at Jesus. But Jesus was hidden by his Father’s mighty hands and went out of the temple area. Luke 4:29 tells us that the people in the synagogue were enraged at Jesus’ teaching. They drove Him out of the town, and led Him to the brow of the hill, in order to throw Him over the cliff. But Jesus passed through the crow and went on His way. 

VI. PUT ON SALVATION AS YOUR HELMET

Spiritual Warfare Restores God's Salvation

The purpose of spiritual warfare could not be divorced from salvation. God wages battle on our behalf to keep us out of the hands of the wicked one. The Son of Man came for all to be saved from sin and wickedness and escape spiritual death. 

“For the Lord your God is He who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.” Deuteronomy 20:4.

A helmet is a defensive head-gear indispensable for soldiers to protect their heads against enemy’s weapons lurking all around. Head injuries are the costliest injuries in warfare casualties. Salvation is both the costliest spiritual asset as well as the most critical security provision given to mankind. Rightly, Peter 1:5 assimilates the term “protection” to a garrison. A military garrison serves the purpose of reinforcing a military presence around an environment in order to protect and secure it from attacks. A permanent military outpost around a city is an assurance of protection. 

Thus, salvation is God’s greatest gift to mankind. He sent us a permanent sentry and a wall of protection around those who believe and receive Christ. When we receive Jesus, God conceals and mounts a protective spiritual outpost around us against the enemy. With His own blood, Jesus purchased our salvation and redeemed us from the hands of our enemies. 

Once we received the greatest gift of salvation, the greatest battle has been won. Now, being protected, hidden in Christ, and preserved to the last coming day of the Lord is what salvation works to achieve for us. 

“And I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” John 10: 28-29 

Go into God's battles, as a more than conqueror, to conquer and be victorious !

Narcisse Jean Alcide Nana