Spiritual warfare is as old as the Garden of Eden. It is in Eden that spiritual warfare was given to Man as means to achieve God’s government policies on earth. It fulfills the function of bringing about God’s government on earth. For this the reason, Man deputed power and authority are intrinsically correlated with heavenly government priorities. Through warfare Man retains the divine given mandate to reign on earth. When Man lost the battle via a strategic confrontation against a cunning and wicked enemy in Eden, we all lost authority and power for dominion on earth. Consequently, people have become power-oriented in a desperate attempt to regain spiritual control over their circumstances. Horoscope reading, the New-Age quest for harmony over the created order, witchcraft and sorcery, Free Masons and the occult movements’ graduation into different stages of power control, as well as the flourishing business of Mediums and Psychics’ parlors, are all delusional expressions to the craving of a power-addicted society.

Yet, our power-oriented society is a testament to both a bitter as well as a demeaning human defeat. From Eden to now, spiritual warfare is far from over. De facto, the field of spiritual warfare is murky and the outcome of the battle unsettling as we made our mind to operate outside the parameters of a unified command center under the leading of the Holy Spirit. Many believers seem to have come up with their own spiritual battle plan and victory map. Unless we are ready to agree that spiritual warfare is strictly covenant’s warfare and the battle strategies divinely ordained, engaging spiritual warfare outside the covenant amounts to picking the wrong battles. Besides the uncoordinated and often conflicting approach to spiritual warfare, a handful of believers are not familiar with the different levels of spiritual battleground where they are supposedly waging war from. What are the various fields where the battle is taking place? How do we win spiritual warfare on each field? It is necessary to proceed to a warfare audit to assess how we spend our resources and where we have been mostly failing in the battle.

Overcoming Three Major Stumbling Blocks In Spiritual Warfare

Beyond sensationalism-driven exorcism, Assessing Spiritual warfare as Hybrid Battle

The major thrust in spiritual warfare has often camped believers around a sensational display of different types of demonic manifestations while conducting interviews on demon-possessed vessels. From this perspective, spiritual warfare begins and ends with an investment in spiritual Kungfu where demonic entities cross the swords against Christian believers. While the confrontational outcome of such perceived battle may be rewarding to the ego of the believer, it is also misleading. It not only lifts up the believer to a level of awe among equals. Believers and non-believers alike become also mesmerized by the performance of “deliverance” sessions to the point of narrowing down spiritual warfare to chasing out demons.

Yet, there is far much more in spiritual battle than verbally assaulting demons to harvest a display of religious sensationalism. From this perspective, Satan is not impressed by “deliverance” sessions. A couple of demons leave out a body screaming in defeat and torment. They just return back with demonic hordes the next day to reinforce their command post. It is often a zero-sum game when fellowship with God and obedience to his Word become subsidiary to public display of power-encounter with the kingdom of darkness.

Jesus came so that all the captives must be set free and to put an end to all forms of human captivity. Satan works through systems and institutions, not just through demon-possessed individuals. The truth of the matter is that, demonic oppression, possession, and obsession are all coordinated attacks aiming at achieving distraction while a lethal ambush is on the way. Satan always launches a hybrid and systemic warfare on many fronts against his enemy target. The enemy tightly controls the high mountains government that influence and shape society. Satan works to influence and control ideologies and philosophical movements, government, the mass media, religious and political institutions, the drug cartels, the mafia, secular humanism, the corruption in big business, the advertisement and fashion industry, and the unjust system of taxation and labor. These are the mountains top drivers of society and culture that Satan exploits to ensnare, entrap, and maintain nations and individuals under his heavy yoke. Spiritual giants govern those mountains and must be displaced for freedom to become effective and not just an empty slogan.

That’s is what Caleb, the legendary spy-leader sent by Moses to gather intelligence about Jericho so well understood. Keenly aware of the challenge in warfare, he specifically requested from Joshua to open a war front on the mountains: “give me this mountain!” (Joshua 14:12). It is not enough to wage spiritual warfare wherever an enemy is moving and plotting against us. Territories we conquered in the past are now lost because we failed to fully occupy and restore heavenly government policies. Spiritual warfare is not over until we fully occupy, govern, run, be watchful, protect, and defend the territory.

That is the reason why heavy investment in exorcism alone does not go full circle in the demands of warfare. Evaluating the success of our spiritual warfare by collecting data on how many demons left a person screaming with loud voice is a recipe for disaster. We might be winning small spiritual battles here and there, but losing the spiritual war altogether. We do not win spiritual warfare by banking on weekly or casual low intensity skirmishes against demons. Satan is never defeated because we scare away some of his demons, but because we stood firm and submitted to God’s authority through his Word. Exorcism is no substitute to walking in obedience with God. In John 5, Jesus healed the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda. The man had been Satan’s prisoner through sickness for 38 years. Jesus told him: “go and sin no more or else something worse might happen to you.” With satirical humor, Jesus was warning him about the reality of sin that brought about this trouble upon his shoulders. Jesus never gave him the assurance that Satan was not going to return to occupy his life because he got delivered. The deliverance was conditional: sin no more, otherwise the worst is yet to come!

Winning spiritual warfare must be evaluated by Authority

One golden axiom remains when we genuinely claim to encounter the kingdom of darkness. We are totally disqualified to face Satan until we are under authority. Your religion and your invested academic pedigree do not qualify you to defeat Satan. Religion and academic pedigree have never impressed Satan. As a matter of fact, Satan himself is knowledgeable about the Scriptures. He was busy quoting the Bible to Jesus during his temptation in the wilderness. And in Genesis 3, Satan was dishing out hermeneutics seminars to Eve in Eden with a survey: "Did God really say that?"  What Satan fears most is the authority you are under, not what you know. Authority can never be divorced from accountability via holiness, and integrity. Until we are accountable to God in our character and submitted to his righteousness and his Word, we are no match with the kingdom of darkness. Because we are accountable to God, all that stands against God submits to us.

Jesus was submitted to the Father in all his ways, until he was allowed to come face to face with Satan in the desert and be victorious. The one who walks under open heaven is always a mature obedient son and daughter, not a rebellious child who is shouting spiritual mantra to compel demons to obey his/her voice. Heaven only opens to accredit and give testimony about Jesus as Son of God because of his obedience and accountability to the Father. Obedience qualifies you and gives you legal right and empowerment to rule and reign on this earth, not your disobedience. Chasing demons and performing miracles are not the measure of your sonship with God. Sonship is measured by mature obedience to the Word. Jesus was not swinging swords and javelin and other weapons of shock combat against Satan in the desert and throughout his entire life. One cannot spend an entire lifetime reacting to assaulting demons. Living under divine authority produces more results than screaming against demons every day from 3 am to 6 pm before one goes to work, if one still has some strength left for work. The ultimate spiritual weapon Jesus used to oppose Satan was the Word of God and his submission to the Father through the Word. God’s Word is a weapon when we submit to it. Satan is powerless before the Word of God and in front of an obedient child of God. The Word of the Lord to Zerubbabel in Zachariah 4:6 sums up for us the golden rule in spiritual warfare: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord of Hosts.” Before God’s Spirit, all other created spirits and beings surrender to the power of the Word.

Spiritual Warfare is dominion and power to hinder the plans of the enemy

Since the Fall of Man, the whole creation had been suffering a vacancy of power and authority. And Satan took advantage of this power vacuum to reign chaos, deception, and destruction on the world stage. Satan has power to manipulate weather patterns and bring destruction and chaos in cities. He can manufacture diseases and pandemics against God’s children. So, could believers fight back and win this type of warfare? Creation has not been waiting for Church goers and devout believers, but the manifestation in power and authority of who God’s children really are. They are those from whom the whole creation takes its marching order accordingly. Taking authority and demonstrating God’s power to hinder the plans of the enemy and protect God’s children rightly fit into the agenda of spiritual warfare. That is part of the believers’ responsibility. It is not enough to be angry and yelling at demons around your streets on a weekly basis. You must also stop deadly hurricane and tornadoes, command the rain to fall and stop the drought, prevent diseases from besieging cities. Yes, spiritual warfare is having dominion over the four elements of nature to protect God’s children. We may now identify the field map in spiritual warfare. Where is the warfare taking place?

THREE-FOLD LEVELS OF SPIRITUAL BATTLEFIELD

Spiritual warfare implies a battlefield. There are 3 distinctive battlegrounds to be taken into consideration. This tryptic division of warfare refers to having authority over the Flesh, the World, and the spiritual realm or the Aliens Fallen angels. It follows the map of the three distinct personalities of Man: body/ soul/ and spirit. It reconnects us to the tryptic architectural design of the Temple: outer court/inner court/the holy of holies. The threefold underlying assumption is that, we must conquer or govern the flesh in order to win the war raging in the mind. Then, one must rule knowledge from the outer senses, namely, sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing, in order to have control over the spirit. Our five senses are raw information learning portals that can lead us in defeat when they are not properly mastered. You never win a warfare based on your own sensations and feelings. Senses-knowledge warriors are an easy prey to the enemy. Finally, in spiritual battle, it is spirit versus spirit encounter. Man as a spirit, living in a body and having a soul, engages in battle against highly powerful spirits from another realm. Now, if one is unable to govern flesh and soul, how could a spiritual battle be won at the spirit level? The nature and the outcome of this confrontation must be evaluated on the strategic level to bring the enemy to submit and surrender. It is not a battle of flesh against flesh. Spirits do not bleed; they submit and surrender before a superior power.

Conclusively, the basic nature of spiritual warfare consists on a war on defeating adverse strategies. Victory is measured by how we won by applied strategies, not by the use of brutal force. Satan sets up strategic allies against us in spiritual warfare before he could even engage in a hand-to hand confrontational battle against us. The flesh and the world are Satan’s strategic allies working against us in a battle. The outcome of the battle requires a different type of war room strategic plan and intelligence gathering. If we do not know where the battle takes place, we will be blindly enrolling to a suicide mission.

I.THE FLESH

“ The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.” Romans 8:7

There is an ongoing spiritual warfare taking place within us on the platform of the Flesh. 1 John 5:19 reminds us that, “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one”. When we commit sin, we accomplish the works of Satan who sinned from the beginning. Satan works to lead us to commit sin. When we sin, Satan’s work is accomplished and his mission completed. The fall of Man means that we all have become slaves to sin. Man has a new master from whom he takes the marching order. Satan commissions us all to go and sin. And he operates in us via a strategic ally: the flesh.

The distinctive mark of the flesh is that, it does not submit to God, and stands in permanent rebellion against God’s authority. The flesh is the ego that exalts itself above the will of God, via the licentious abilities at its disposal to fulfill its desires, turning away from God. The flesh is the sinful nature enslaved by the laws of sin. It plays the resistance movement against God’s nature and righteousness. The flesh is the manufacturing warehouse of sin in human nature. Here are the manifestations of the flesh as it has been brewing its fruits and we found it in Galatians 5: 19: “sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.”

The Flesh and Its Role In Spiritual Battle

The flesh is a strong ally to Satan through a signed chart of agreement to promote the agenda of sin. It wants to govern our mind by enticing us to sin via lawlessness. There is a legal battle in human mind. Galatians 5:17 reminds us that, “The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.”

“Sin is lawlessness.” Lawlessness consists of a lifestyle spent and run as though our ideas and desires are superior to God’s. Lawlessness substitutes God’s law with our own desires. Thus, we become our own lawmaker or legislator. It is self-government proclaimed as superior to God’s government. It is rebellion against God’s right to govern us and give us his divine laws. Satan through sin helps us reject God’s authority, laws, and government over us. Sin is a journey to becoming your own god by putting oneself above God’s authority. A sinner is one who has enrolled under Satan’s banner against God’s government. This is the essence of sin. Thus, it stands as a delusional ambition to pretend to do spiritual warfare when we are governed by the flesh and, de facto, working to promote Satan’s wars of rebellion against God. The kingdom of darkness runs on the fuel of sin as it manifests through the channel of fleshly motives and desires. When we become slaves to sin, we are already hired to deliver and promote the evil kingdom.

Overcoming the flesh is the primary step one must take before engaging spiritual battle. The flesh must be conquered or crucified as a platform for sin in order to consider entering a battlefield. Dual loyalty is deadly and costly. Like in the army, discipline is required to enroll in fighting the enemy. A drunkard, an uncontrollable, and pleasure-seeking person is no candidate to the army. Consequently, in spiritual battle, having control over the flesh is a pre-requisite to enrolling in warfare.

Where is the battleground in this type of warfare?

The permanent fight of the flesh against the Spirit is a warfare where Christian believers are concerned, not unbelievers. This warfare is inwardly and expected for all genuine believers. Non-believers do not see the flesh or sin as a problem at all. They are dead to sins. The clear clue that one has made an exit from being a believer to a non-believer is when one has made peace with this internal conflict, normalizing evil as good while justifying the fleshly desires. One is dead like a dead corpse to sin and righteousness. One does no longer respond to the red flag of sin anymore. This level of warfare is taking place within the heart of man and should be waged and won within the inner man’s heart. Here, there is no place of accusing demons and Satan.

How do we assess victory in this battle approach?

Two-fold strategic approach. One, run; walk away, and pursue. “So, flee the evil desires of youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” (2 Timothy 2:22). In this type of warfare, know and learn how to run from evil desires. Running away from evil is not enough to win the battle. One might run, but equally important, one must pursue righteousness, love, faith and walk in the companionship of those who seek the Lord from a pure heart. When righteousness and love are not part of what our heart pursue, we will surely be gripped by evil thought patterns. Righteousness will shield you away from evil desires.

Two, Renew your mind. Since the battle takes place in the mind and heart, we must change focus from evil thoughts and desires to become consumed with doing what is good.

II. THE WORLD

“What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. …Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God?” James 4: 1- 4

The second spiritual battleground is the World. Cosmos is the Greek word translated as “world”. The context helps us clearly understand what it refers to. For instance, in John 3:16, Jesus died for the world means, Jesus died for men and women on earth. In Acts 17:24, God made the cosmos, means, God made the created order. For what is at stake for us here, cosmos refers to an organized system that stands in rebellion against God. That is what 1 John 2: 15-16 tells us: “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions.”

The “world” stands here for the pride of life, the lust of the eyes and the flesh. Pride is the unquestionable celebration of our own achievements and desires, by turning a blind eye on what God has done for us. What rules us through the “world” is the vested knowledge acquired mainly via the senses.

Where is the Battleground in this type of Warfare?

Here, the battlefield is the world as a system of organized rebellion against God and heavenly protocols. The world-spirit attractions collide with heavenly-spirit unchangeable values, making it a spiritual battlefield. In the world-spirit value system, the pursuit of what the world offers as personal gratifications become our priority over God’s values. Craving for worldly pleasures, material comfort, and lusting for material things and possessions are rightly what the world trades with us in exchange of the promotion of its value system. One could be easily lured away by the dazzling attractions of the world via the flashing of big money around us, big cars, and living in luxury by sacrificing divine true and everlasting standards of spiritual riches. When having big money at all cost and by all means become the daily motto, we will justify killing, jealously, destruction, and envy to obtain what we want. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.” John 15:19. The choices we make with regard to the world value system become battleground states, whereby either God is winning and reigning, or Satan and sin go on reigning. The battlefield runs through the choice for value system that governs our life. It is here that one decides where to stand, which camp one is enrolling to achieve and promote a world value system. 

How Do We Assess Victory in this type of warfare?

The warfare is all about winning competing value system raging on the soul and mind for God. Our calling is to be in the world but not of the world. What does it mean? Romans 12:2 tells us not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. 

Victory is measured by how much dissociation we put between the worldly value system and heavenly value standards. In other word, we win the warfare by not intermingling our divine righteousness with the worldly paradigm of success. Victory in this type of warfare is measured on two levels: one, Do Not Conform to this World. Two, Be Transformed from the insight out and Renew Your Mind to Know God’s Will.

III. SPACE WARS - THE RULERS' BATTLEFIELD IN THE HEAVENLY

"Stars wars" or Space War is the best picture to describe this third level of spiritual warfare. In Genesis 26, God promised Abraham to make his descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and give them all these lands. Stars speak of rulership. God's plan is to fill the earth with rulers. Human beings are the legitimate rulers of earth and they must fight to maintain their divine given rulership. However, as aliens on earth, Fallen spirits have been vying to occupy earth and space. They have been also contending for the rulership position both on earth and space. The battle has moved to the space. The third level of spiritual warfare is now the only space where we have a confrontational encounter with Satan and his minions. However, the confrontation does not occur at the level of flesh and blood. It is a battle of spirit against fallen wicked spirits. Now, here is the puzzling and troubling reality. How can a visible man in the flesh fight an invisible spirit without flesh? The onset of the battle is not the visible realm where we watch the enemy’s move and plans. Where do we stand to fight? Before we break down the personality-type of the enemies and his minions, let us come clear about the battlefield position.

Where Is the battleground at this level?

You cannot wage warfare against Satan and his kingdom if your position in the battlefield is not higher than Satan’s. In order to defeat the enemy, you need dominance and control of three war frontiers and battlegrounds: physics/body territorial dominance; air and mind dominance; and space or spirit dominance. What is this all about? Ephesians 6 helps us locate the battlefield: “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.”

Let us settle our mind once and for all. The battlefield has been transported to “the heavenly places”. Thus, believers in Christ must wage spiritual warfare against Satan from the Ultimate High Ground Space Position. They must engage spiritual 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 seated far above principalities, powers, and rulers of darkness. Please, be seated to do warfare! The time of running behind caves is over. You must be seated first in the heavenly realm to wage spiritual warfare. We must wage war from heaven to win it on earth. You must win in the heavenly realm for victory to be manifested on the visible realm. Indeed, war broke in heaven before you saw its manifestation on earth. Consequently, we must use the weapons from heaven to do spiritual battle on earth.Those who are called to spiritual warfare are the one who are dead with Christ in their sins 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. That means, they are no longer deliberately sinning, but born of God or born again. It makes reference to genuine born-again believers. They have been crucified with Christ and made alive through a new birth and standing now on a higher ground. If you are not seated with Christ in the heavenly realm, do not enter warfare against the kingdom of darkness, because you will meet an astounding and humiliating defeat, if ever you survive. Now, let us bring to light the object of Lucifer’s rebellion against God and his collateral hatred for Man that led to this generational warfare.

Man Is At The Center Of Satan's Rebellion 

Man is at the Center of Satan’s Coup and Rebellion. Satan hates Man because of the image of God in Man. Satan’s secret longing is found nowhere but in Isaiah 14: 14-15: “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.” Lucifer knew well he could never become Elohim, but rather he wanted to bear the image and the likeness of God. There was only one created being in the image of God. Man is the only being made in the image and the likeness of God, a little elohim.

When Lucifer rebelled against God, he turned into Satan. Because Lucifer walked on the stones of fire, he had the revelation of a coming Man on earth, the little elohim, who will bear the image and likeness of God, and for whom earth was created. Let us bridge the culture gap to properly grasp the notion of walking on stones of fire. When Jacob or Abraham had a divine encounter at a specific location in time, they laid down stones or built an altar to remember and celebrate the divine given revelation. The stone here represented the foundation of a divine revelation knowledge to be passed on. The Church is built upon the revelation of a divine living stone. The 12 foundation stones represent each a divine living revelation. 

Equally noteworthy is that, Peter the apostle, is credited with emphasizing the meaning of building stones, found in 1 Peter 2:4: “Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” Here is the correlation with Lucifer walking on stones of fire. God uses living stones to build his spiritual house or family. Lucifer had knowledge about the revelation that God had planned to build a spiritual family through Adam. Shockingly enough, Lucifer despite his position and rank, was not part of this family. Therefore, he mounted a coup to sabotage God’s coming spiritual family. Lucifer walking on the stones of fire simply refers to the fact that he had access to divine revelation knowledge.

Lucifer became enraged and had covetous eyes for this unique position beyond his power grab. Psalm 8:4 picks up the echo of this voice of protest and resentment in the spiritual realm: “what is man, that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you visit him?” Therefore, in his wrath, Satan resented against Man being the apple of God’s eyes. As a matter of fact, we never heard Lucifer giving a good report about Man. He sees Man as unworthy, sinful, and covered with filth to even share the merit of having God’s favors. Satan’s relentless opposition to Man seems to be such an incurable cancer to the point whereby Revelation 12:10 cast him as “the accuser of our brethren”, “who accused them before our God day and night.” Finally, this hatred entered into collusion with God’s will. Satan had an inferiority complex syndrome to submit to Man. That’s the substance of his infamous rebellion!

SATAN’S REBELLION AND COSMIC CHAOS

No doubt, Satan’s rebellion echoed around the angelic order. At that time, angels stationed on the other planets with mission to watch over the functioning order of the earth left their posts as watchers to follow Lucifer and the earth fell into chaos. Jude 1:6 made mention of the fate of those angels who failed to keep their own domain or first estate: “and the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling – these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.” Noticeably, Jeremiah 4:23- 26 describes the cyclic chaos that resulted from this Luciferian chain reaction of rebellion. Notice that everything on earth, from cities to plants, and animals, were already in place awaiting the coming of Man. “I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by his fierce anger.”

That is the state of chaos and disharmony we find on earth as described in Genesis 1:2. And Satan has been working hard to repeat the same mess on earth. He wants earth form himself, not for God's family. It gives us a picture of the outcome of Satan’s retaliatory maneuver to sabotage God’s family coming to reign on earth from Eden. The accurate translation from the Hebrew text reads as this: “and the earth became without form, and void; and darkness fell upon the face of the deep.” Now, this entire picture makes sense to us. God did not create a cosmic chaos, neither did He come on earth to discover a cataclysmic big bang theory floating around before He could proceed to the creation of Man. The big bang theory is a confession of deep ignorance and pop science presented as scientific results. Rather, earth became without form, fell into chaos because of Lucifer’s rebellion. That is why in Genesis 1: 3, God began putting earth back in harmony for his children to come and reign over it. The Spirit of Lord began to move on the surface of the deep to brood over it and bring back light for life to return. Lucifer’s rebellion did not abort God’s family plans. We can now make a quick evaluation of the nature of the enemy’s strength before we could even consider how warfare is conducted.

Common and Cheap Misrepresentations About Satan Are Costly and Deadly

Satan is Wiser than all created beasts and has deceptive powers.

Forget about your Halloween’s spooky scary comic characters and bloody skeletons. Ezekiel 28 taught us that, Lucifer as a guardian cherub was in Eden. He functioned under both a divine knowledge and wisdom anointing. He was not imparted with patchy knowledge. He had a full measure of wisdom and knowledge, and even claimed to be wiser than Daniel. Therefore, Lucifer had far more knowledge and wisdom than a limited fleshly human being. In Ezekiel and the book of Daniel, Lucifer is personified as the Prince of Tyre. He had wisdom and understanding to run trade and commerce to increase wealth on earth. As such, he controlled and managed world trade and commerce through applied wisdom and knowledge.

Ezekiel 28:3 plainly admits that Satan is far more knowledgeable about many secrets than human beings. That is the reason Genesis 3:1 warns us about his great abilities and unmatchable skills. Satan is cunning, crafty, subtle. “Now the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild beasts that the Lord God had made.” Satan is referred to as “the most subtle of all the wild creatures”, or “the snake was wiser than all the beasts”, or the most skilled in evil than all the beasts. These qualifications of the serpent being subtle stand in correlation with his malicious wisdom as opposed to virtuous perception. The serpent has inverted, perverted, and twisted knowledge for evil as opposed to good knowledge given to Adam and Eve to operate on earth. Satan has great deceptive powers and knowledge.

In 2 Corinthians 2: 20-11, Paul warns about Satan’s strength and powers. Satan works with “designs”. He operates through strategy, with an agenda. Ephesians 6 speaks of the devil’s “schemes”. The notion of “schemes” means, methods. Satan works methodically and with orchestrated and coordinated strategies to overtake his opponents. As such, his closest qualifications are one of a trickster. Satan always disguised his nature and game plans. In religion and mythology, a trickster refers to a character who demonstrates a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge, while orchestrating it to play fool of others, disobey normal rules and defy conventional behavior.

Beauty And Precious Stones Belong To God’s Children, Not For Self-Idolatry

Besides his scientific anointing, Lucifer is introduced as the seal or the trademark of perfection and beauty according to heavenly standards. Ezekiel 28:13 gives us a token of proof about this extraordinary most beautiful and perfect creature from the heavenly realm. Lucifer was adorned as covering with 10 precious stones: the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, the carbuncle, and gold. No other creature had such unique robe. Notice that in heaven, beauty and perfection correlate and conform with the King’s values and trademark.The precious stones that made Lucifer an exceptional beauty concealed a deep divine agenda. Those precious stones were exactly the same one we found adorning the High Priest’s breastplate and representing the 12 tribes of Israel. That’s where the wrong perception came about assimilating Satan to a high priest of some higher learning. And contemporary superstition ascribes mystical powers and magical virtues to various precious stones, partly because of the obsessive hallucination for hidden knowledge in the occult.Yet, Lucifer was a naïve reporter and publication machine about God’s secret agenda for his family. The same stones adorning Lucifer led him to self-idolatry and pride. Mistakenly, Lucifer took the divine stones for self-validation, forgetting that his beautiful covering and gifts were part of God’s hidden code about what He was going to do for his children. Not only is each stone found on the High Priest’s breastplate; it is numerically tied to Jacob’s posterity as well as making reference to the 12 apostolic gifts.

WEARING GEMSTONE FOR SELF-ADULATION AND PRIDE IS THE RIDE TO YOUR DOWNFALL

Whenever we find God bestowing gifts and prosperity to someone, it is always to meet the needs of his children. Wherever we turn God’s gifts and wealth for self-aggrandizement we must expect a defeating and bitter fall. Unsurprisingly, Lucifer was given wisdom and understanding not for his personal use but always in relation to Man. In Eden, Lucifer was supposed to be contented with his tutoring mission: teaching Man to bring about God’s government on earth via full wisdom and knowledge, while helping Man to manage prosperity and wealth from Eden. Unfortunately, he turned his mission and gifts upside down. Satan is now the manager of deadly wealth and prosperity, tainted with corruption, violence, and iniquities.

Satan Knows How to Manufacture Diseases and Misfortunes Against Human

Satan’s power is not good-oriented because he opposed the sovereign Good. Job 1: 1-12 reminds us that Satan could only act within divine prescribed limits to his operations and abilities. Satan asked from God to attack Job’s fortunes, but God did not allow him to lay hand on Job’s life or to kill him. In Job 2:8, Satan smote Job with sore boils, leading to a spreading skin disease all over the body. Satan can negatively affect your health. In 2 Corinthians 12:7, Satan’s messenger was permitted to afflict Paul the apostle in order to produce humility and dependence on God and not exalt himself. Satan in this case is God’s lackey to produce holiness in men. Whether we like it or not, Satan is still part of God’s orchestrated salvation economy. Satan works despite his will to fulfill God’s purpose on earth and God can even use his enemies and those who fight against Him to advance the manifold purpose of his wisdom.

Satan Has Power Over Matter to Destroy, Kill, and Cause Wars and Conflicts

Satan’s power works opposite to God’s nature and character. He has a perverted knowledge to destroy, afflict, kill, and steal. That’s Satan’s nature. Satan has knowledge to manipulate weather patterns by using the four elements (air, water, fire, and earth) to bring destruction and death on earth. In Job 1: 15-19, Satan manipulated fire from heaven to burn to death Job’s sheep and servants. Then, Satan used a mighty wind to knock down the house where Job’s children were partying at, killing them all.

Satan used human conflicts to orchestrate killing and spread violence. In Job 1: 15-19, the Sabbeans and the Chaldeans were used by Satan to attack, steal, and kill Job’s servants and his animals. A war chess game player is who Satan is as an architect of chaos and conflicts among nations and cities to bring killing and destruction. And because of his war making machine, nations of the earth submit to him. In Revelation 13, Satan or the dragon gave his power, his seat, and his great authority to the Beast. This transfer of power and authority granted to the Beast gives power “to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.” Satan has influence over the airwave to control mankind to carry his bidding. Ephesians 2:2 speaks about the “ruler of the powers of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.”

Satan Controls the Political Arena

In 1Timothy 3:7, Satan is depicted as a federal head type of figure, seeking to trap the elders. He can twist men’s behavior to come into agreement with his agenda. Satan has power to influence the political realm and the legal system. Politics and government are the arena of collusion and control between good versus evil. In Revelation 2:10, John tells us that Satan was in the process of influencing Symrna’s legal proceedings by sending many Christian into prison. In 1 Chronicles 21: 1, “Satan rose up against Israel and caused David to take a census of the people of Israel.” Satan deliberately pushed David into sin in order to bring calamities and death on the nation. Consequently, Israel experienced a devastation and a severe plague along with 70.000 deaths as a result of David’s sin.

As a Covering Cherub, Lucifer is Not a Military-type Class Warrior

Most of the time when we find Satan in power contention or in power-encounter with another spirit being of might, we realize that he has no weapon and had never been able to withstand a military confrontation. The reason is simple. He does not belong to the heavenly army combatant class. He is not a warrior per se. Angels are organized with specific mission and duties. While we have angels working as messengers in the post office like Gabriel, we have warriors in the rank of Michael the archangel commander. Lucifer was an anointed guardian cherub, covering the mercy seat. He was not as many believe a gifted musician; he was rather the music itself. The musical instruments were built inside him to broadcast the divine revelation in frequencies and melodies. Frequency is the speed of the vibration. It determines the pitch of the sound. With musical sounds where there is regular waveform, frequency becomes meaningful. In Ezekiel 28:13, we find musical pipes and tabrets built inside Lucifer: “the workmanship of thy tabrets and thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.”

Nevertheless, Satan has great knowledge and perverted wisdom to organize military type confrontations and conflicts. But his strength and method of warfare heavily rely on his wisdom and highly skilled strategies to defeat his opponents. Satan always conquered through strategies.

THE FALLEN ANGELS

As far as spiritual warfare is concerned, Paul the apostle never opened the door to misunderstanding. He even briefly mentioned about the system of order in Satan’s kingdom. It is a strategic and deadly strike force against human beings. A regiment is a body of troops in most armies, organized for tactical control into battalions, squadrons, companies, etc... Legions are trained soldiers, a strategic force. In Mark 5, Jesus encountered in the region of the Gerasenes a man possessed by a strategic legion of evil spirits posted to control his life. The Latin notion of “regimen” refers to a system of order, or rule system. Satan has a deadly regiment under his command. Paul called them the spiritual powers, the rulers of darkness, the wicked principalities operating in the unseen realm who had been already defeated, disarmed, and captives.

“For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.” Colossians 1:16.

Ephesians 6:10-12 “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power…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.”

Principalities

The term “principalities” comes from the Greek word “Arche”, that means, chief, ruler, prince. As princes, principalities control nations through the influence of laws and principles. A principle is a law by which a nation or individuals live by. Laws have to be enforced to teach people to abide by certain principles. Ephesians 2:2 refers to this system of principle: “you used to live and follow the laws or principles of this world; therefore, you became disobedient.” Principalities are known as angels of the nations. In Daniel 10:11-20, Daniel’s answered prayers met a resistance by the principality or prince of Persia.

Powers

“Powers” refer to the Greek term “dunamis” and refer to spirits who possess authority and have authority to influence human affairs on earth. Demonic powers are deputies who carry out verdicts and assignments to be executed on earth. They act like law enforcement agents on people and nations. Power is the ability to make someone do what otherwise they would not have chosen freely to do.

Authorities

Authorities, in Greek, ἐξουσία (Exousia) refer to God-given rights or the positional power causing both angels and demons to move. Satanic authorities speak about spiritual potentates who have moral influence over mankind. They are spiritual authorities that work to achieve rebellion and disobedience against God in mankind. These are the spiritual potentates Ephesians 3:10-11 are making mention of: God’s intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose. Colossians 1: 13-14 tells us that we have been rescued from the exousia - authorities of darkness and brought into the kingdom of Christ, in whom we have redemption. Again, in Colossians 2:15, Christ has “disarmed the powers and exousia (authorities) and made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

Rulers of darkness

Rulers of darkness – Kosmokrateros – refer to world rulers in the spirit realm. They operate to blind the world and peoples over specific provinces, territories, or State through the promotion of false religion and occult practices, such as numerology, fortune telling, astrology, witchcraft, etc… Spiritual wickedness in high places are the ones causing lawlessness and wickedness, drugs, suicide, gender confusion in the land, etc...

What Type of Warfare Do We Wage Against Satan?

Warfare against Satan must be evaluated on the strategic level. Since the enemy operates mostly on a strategic encounter built upon an informed twisted knowledge and wisdom, we must win through applied strategies. Adam did not lose to Satan because the enemy used a sword or a bullet against him. He lost and fell down, surrendering his power and authority via a strategic confrontation. It is a warfare based of good knowledge and wisdom against evil knowledge and wisdom turned upside down. That is the reason we have been told to STAND FIRM against all the strategies of the devil. Satan’s method of attacks is based on strategies and a warfare of deception. Ephesians 6:11 draws the map of this type of warfare for us: “Put on the full armor of God, so that you may be able to stand up against the schemes and the strategies and the deceits of the devil.” Wars are mostly won or lost at the strategic level because the enemy’s power is in his great inverted knowledge and malicious wisdom. That’s why believers must know how to stand firm against all the strategic games of the enemy.

How To Fight?

James 4:7 “SUBMIT YOURSELVES therefore to GOD.” Obedience and submission in the army are the principles upon which a successful military campaign is conducted. Without submission to God, we can never fight against Satan. We must obey God and His Word to wage warfare against Satan.

Then, “RESIST THE DEVIL, AND HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU”

How Do We Measure Victory Against Satan?

Two cases study of Strategic Spiritual Warfare 

Spiritual Battles are Strategic Warfare. Victory is measured by applied strategies, not by brutal force. God is preeminently strategic in battles and had instructed his children to become so. In 1 Samuel 17, Goliath the Philistine is the epitome of brutal power-encounter and a behemoth "war game monger. God brought forth a disruptive warfare strategy, totally opposite to the terms of the Philistines. He brought forth David, a young boy armed with a stick and few sling stones. Goliath was taken aback and had never been trained to encounter a young boy in battle. Goliath’s military superiority relies on closed hand-to-hand wrestling match. David the shepherd takes down his enemies from far without physical confrontation. Goliath’s superiority complex was dashed into the dustbin. He was wondering now whether Israel thinks of him as a dog to the point of sending a boy and a stick to defeat him. He came to the conclusion that he was not even worthy being met with a military armor, but with a stick and few stones. Goliath was already defeated and wounded in his pride, arrogance, and self-confidence. The game was over even before it began.

In Joshua 6, Jericho is barred behind impregnable fortified walls from any marching army. God’s strategic battle plan consisted on instructing Joshua to march around the city, circling it once for 6 days. And on the 7^th day, they shall march around the city 7 times and blow the trumpets of rams’ horns with a great shout. Now, many failed to find a correlation between the Jericho’s walls falling and the sound of shofar along the shouting voices. First, war tunes stimulate or demoralize an army. In 2 Kings 7, God used the soundwaves of 4 lepers marching into the Syrian camp to echo the mighty sound of a marching army to defeat the enemy. Fears have frequencies.

Sound waves could have destructive power. God instructed Joshua to put a frequency to knock down the walls. Suffice here to say that everything is made up of atoms, which are frequencies of energy. Atoms are subatomic particles, and subatomic particles are made up of superstrings that are packets of energy spinning at a frequency. That is why 1 Corinthians 1:28 reminds us that God has chosen things which are not (the invisible) in order to bring things which are (the visible). All things that we see in creation and call reality are simply spoken frequencies that manifest into visible energy spinning at a frequency when the creator voiced them out. Sound waves could bubble up leading to implosion by releasing shock waves. The fact that rocks or walls respond to musical sound is not unique to the occurrence of Joshua’s strategic invasion of Jericho. Plutarch mentioned that the razing of Athens’ city walls in 404 BC took place along the sounds of aulos. Euripides recalled that “the city walls of Thebes rose to the phorminx and its tower from Amphion’s lyre.” Vibrations are simply travelling waves with speed combined to the mass per unit. C being a characteristic speed, E being the effective Young modulus, and ρ the mass per unit volume, we simply get: c = ( E / ρ)1/2 .Sonochemical process uses sound wave to break down complex and toxic molecules into carbon dioxide and water. God is the inventor of Quantum Physics.

Deuteronomy 20:4 is our banner in warfare : "For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory"

Narcisse Jean Alcide Nana