When I talk about what spiritual warfare looks like

When I talk about spiritual warfare, I don’t talk about looking for demons running behind the curtains. In the mind is where the warfare takes place. People will go ahead and talk about evil forces in heavenly places but as high as you need to worry about, with warfare, is your head. Anything above your head, you don’t need to worry.

What does spiritual warfare look like in five words

There are five words of warfare, and if you understand these five words, you understand everything you need to worry about warfare.

So I’m going to give them to you, and it’s really simple. The first word to know about in spiritual warfare to help you understand what it looks like is ‘devil’. The name devil is the Greek word diablos. It’s a compound of two words, and the first part of the word is ‘dia’, which carries the idea of penetration. The second part of the word, blos, connects with the idea of throwing.

When you compound the two words together, guess what? The word devil is not a name; it is a job description. It describes one who repetitiously hurls allegations, lies, and slander. The devil’s target is the mind. That’s what he’s trying to find access to. So spiritual warfare looks like repeated attempts by the devil to access your mind. He may try to speak to you himself, or he may use authority figures to tear you down.

Spiritual warfare can look like a road being paved

Now we come to the second word to help describe what spiritual warfare looks like, and this word is found in Ephesians 6:11:

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

This scripture tells us that we need to take our stand against the wiles of the devil. Well, the word wiles is the Greek word methodeia. This is also a compound word, and the first part of the word is ‘Meta’, meaning with. The second part of the word is ‘hodeuos’ and is the word for a road. When you compound the two words together, it means the devil operates with a road. He doesn’t have a lot of different avenues of attack.

The devil’s attack is done in one way via a particular road, and roads go somewhere. So if the devil is travelling on a road, if he’s headed somewhere, where is he headed? He’s headed toward the mind. If the devil can seize the mind,
beat a hole into the brain, he can confuse how you think. Then he can take you hostage. So spiritual warfare can look like the devil trying to confuse you and take your mind captive.

Spiritual Warfare can look like a scrambled mind

This leads us to word number three, which is the word ‘devices’. You find this in Second Corinthians, chapter two, verse 11. Where Paul says, we are not ignorant of Satan’s devices. The word devices in the Greek is the word ‘noé mata’. It’s a derivative of the word ‘nous’, which is the word for the mind. When the word ‘nous’ becomes noé mata, it means a mind that is confused or scrambled. The mind in this state is so confused that it can’t see what is right.

So in these first three words, we find what spiritual warfare looks like. It looks like a devil travelling down a road to your brain to beat a hole into so he can control what is the central control centre of your life. Now, somebody might say, well, no, no, my spirit is my central control centre. Well, certainly it should be, but your brain lies between your body and your spirit, and your brain controls a lot of what goes on. The devil knows that, and God knows that, and that’s why God wants your mind renewed to His Word.

Spiritual warfare can look like the devil paving its way into your mind, filling you with lie after lie after lie. These lies may come in the form of false emotions or something your parents said to you. It may be that people have said negative things to you, it’s in your head, and you’re beginning to believe those things. When your mind stays really scrambled, it becomes a stronghold, which is word number four.

Spiritual warfare can look like a prison

The word stronghold is found in Second Corinthians, chapter ten, and it has two meanings. The word stronghold describes a castle, as in a structure with tall walls that are intended to keep people on the outside out. The same word, stronghold, can be translated as ‘prison’. A prison keeps you on the inside so you can’t break free.

When a person has a mental stronghold, their mind is so confused that they begin to believe that a lie is the truth. They become so encapsulated in that lie that even when people try to speak common sense to them, it’s like they’ve got walls. Others can’t get through to them, and these people sit behind imaginary bars wishing they could be free. They are free. Jesus purchased their freedom, but they have a mental illusion that they’re not what they should be, or they’re defective in some way.

Spiritual warfare can look like people living behind imaginary bars because they have a stronghold in their heads.

Living in a stronghold for an extended period is oppression. The word oppression is found in Acts chapter ten, verse 38:

how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth…who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed. The word oppressed is the word for a tyrant. A better translation would be all who were being tyrannised by the devil. When the devil has built a well-fortified lie in your head. He then tries to move in like a tyrant to tyrannise your emotions and dictate what you’re going to feel and believe. He wants to dictate what your life is going to be like. This is spiritual warfare.

The only way you can be set free from a stronghold like I’m describing is if you do what Paul says in Second Corinthians chapter ten, you’ve got to take every thought captive. When you’ve got a stronghold in your mind, it’s difficult to take every thought captive because you’ve been listening to the wrong voice for so long now. You have to make a decision to shut your ear to what you’ve been hearing and open your other ear to hear what God has to say about you.