Bible Study and Insights

Spiritual Warfare

Seeing as this appears to be the most relevant topic for today's day and age, this will be the first topic I cover from Divine Moments.

The book sites two scripture references, which I will give in the KJV and then discuss my thoughts on how they relate to the topic of spiritual warfare. (The bolding is just there to help break up the text better visually.)

Matthew 4:1-11 (Underlined words represent the red letters.)

"Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kindgoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him."

        In the third verse, the "tempter" is mentioned. Although it's probably clear from the rest of the scripture here, I think it's important to note that Satan is the tempter. Everyone always says "the Devil made me do it," but in reality, all he's doing is tempting a person into doing something. He makes it seem pleasing. And to the flesh it probably is. I think that it's important to keep this in mind, especially these days, and to guard oneself from temptation.

As the tempting continues, Satan ups the ante, making each offer more tempting than the last. However, Jesus is strong and he deflects the temptation by quoting scripture at Satan. Evil cannot stand to be in the presence of truth. He eventually can no longer take it and leaves.

Jesus could very easily have turned the stones into bread. However, he wasn't supposed to because of the fast. I'm sure he was very tempted to change them, but he remained strong. He could very easily have proven himself to all of Israel and to Satan himself by throwing himself off the pinnacle of the temple. However, he knew that his fate was to die as a sacrifice for sin, and so he refused and told Satan off. As his last ditch effort, Satan went so far as to offer all the kingdoms of the earth to Jesus. (Which, for those who think this is odd, was in his power as he is the ruler of the world even today. Although God created the earth, Satan is the one who holds power and rule over it and will do so until the battle in which he is defeated.) At this one, I feel like Jesus just simply got mad. I kinda imagine his thought process going something like, "Wow, look at all those kingdoms wait WHAT did he just say?!" But that's just my own personal thoughts on that.

The takeaway was that every single time he was tempted, Jesus fought back with scripture. Even when Satan tried to use scripture against Jesus, perverting the intent behind the words to mean what he wanted it to mean, like we see far too often behind pulpits today, Jesus simply deflects.

Ephesians 6:11-18 (Underlined words indicate the armor of God, and bolded words are emphasized for the context.)

"Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;"

        The various articles of armor listed here are all important, which is why I included the full passage which addresses the armor of God specifically; however the only ones I shall mention are the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit, as those are the most relevant to our discussion of spiritual warfare.

 The shield of faith is important because as long as you have and maintain your faith, you have everything. You are rich in the Spirit if you can stand strong in your faith. Personally, that's the kind of rich I aspire to be. (Although the money kind wouldn't be turned down! 😉)

The sword of the Spirit, the word of God, is none other than the Bible. As it says in Hebrews 4:12a "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword," For those who are confused by the description of "quick" (I know I was for a long time!), "quick" means "alive." Compare this to the green inside of tree branches being called the "quick," or how when you trim your nail too far and it hurt you've "cut to the quick." Something that is alive is powerful, and this says that the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword! I don't know about you, but I want that on my side.

We've already seen that evil cannot stand truth, and God's word is truth incarnate. The gospel of John starts with these words:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

If we arm ourselves with scripture, it will be much harder for us to fall into temptation and much harder for the enemy to separate us from our faith.

God clearly wants us to read his word; he says so on numerous occasions. However, reading the Bible is not something we should do just because we "have" to. I will freely admit that I struggle in reading my Bible and in being in the Word. However, that struggle has also shown me just how powerful it really is: When I'm not regularly in my Bible, I have terrible days. I struggle with depressive and apathetic moods, and I've even had mental breakdowns. When I am in my Bible regularly, however, even if all I'm doing is reading a chapter a day, I feel so much more at peace. I'm not saying I don't still struggle; it wouldn't be life if there weren't struggles. But when I'm in my Bible, I feel a greater sense of calm. I feel that things are easier to manage, and things are less likely to send me into a tailspin.

TL;DR: Reading the Bible and staying consistent with being in God's word is vital to learning how to maintain peaceful living and for fighting off temptation.