Spiritual Warfare - Lesson 9

Gerry’s experiences in the Philippines and seminary have shaped his view of the spirit world. Spiritual warfare is basically the battle between us and the forces of darkness. The three dimensions of spiritual warfare are the world, the flesh and the devil. Specific passages describe the spiritual nature of these battles and help us understand how we experience them practically.

Jesus deals with demons with a single command, telling them to get out of the person. Demons are personal spiritual beings that are opposed to the kingdom of God. God has given believers the authority to deal with demons.

Note: some flaws exist in the audio; parts of words are skipped. We are working to fix this, and if necessary will re-record the lecture.

A biblical worldview describes reality differently than a worldview based on naturalism or eastern religion. Throughout the Bible, we see a conflict between Yahweh and other gods.

Demons are spirits that are real and personal. There are differences of opinion about what the Bible teaches regarding Satan's origin, whether or not disciples of Jesus can be possessed by demons, and how we should deal with demons.

In Mark 1, one of the first recorded events is a demon recognizing that Jesus is God. The pattern for Jesus dealing with a demon is that Jesus sees the person who is possessed by a demon, makes a simple command for him to come out, there is a short struggle and the demon comes out.

Jesus has opened up a way for people to come out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light. Satan and the demons are created beings. Christ is above them in authority and they must obey Him. Colossians 2 lists seven things God has done for us as a result of bringing us out of the kingdom of darkness and as a result, we should not allow demons to accuse us.

We live in either the kingdom of darkness or the kingdom of light. In the kingdom of light, God's kingdom, demons have no authority and we have authority to command the demons. The model in Scripture for responding to demons is to tell the demon to "get away." There are practical ways in which we can resist Satan and demons.

If we are in the kingdom of light, we have authority over demons. We are instructed to resist the devil. Satan uses deception, accusation and temptation to attack believers.

Gerry's stories of encounters with the demonic gives us insight into the application of biblical principles for interacting with the kingdom of darkness.