Chapter One

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesiana 6:12

"I resist you in the name of Jesus and command you to go!" Claudia said with a quavering voice. To her amazement, the hideous black leopard turned and ran. Startled, she awoke from the bad dream and sat up in bed.

"I realized the Lord was teaching me in my dream to do spiritual warfare-that the name of Jesus really has power," shared this trim brunette. "I had accepted Jesus as my Savior and Lord, and had received the Holy Spirit But then my mind was bombarded with fear and condemnation. I loved God more than anything, yet the enemy made me think I had blasphemed the Holy Spirit and would never be able to please God."

Claudia had never received any teaching on how to deal with fear. She had heard some comments about "spiritual warfare," but she had no clue as to what that meant. She thought she simply had to endure this struggle in exchange for her salvation. Then she had her dream.

"In the dream I was constantly being pursued by a huge black leopard. I pushed it out the door and it came in the window. Everywhere I went it followed me. I was terrified. Then I felt the Lord say to me, 'Claudia, resist the leopard in the name of Jesus.' In my dream I stopped running, turned and faced the leopard, and commanded it to leave in Jesus' name. I was happily surprised to see it flee!"

Claudia's friend Jean took her to a woman who ministers in deliverance, because there was witchcraft in Claudia's family background, and she had used drugs in college. The Lord broke these and many related bondages.

Jean became Claudia's prayer partner and began to train her in scriptural truths. "Now," Claudia says, "I know a Christian can truly be victorious over the spiritual forces of evil that Paul talks about in Ephesians."

DO WE NEED TO HGHT THE DEVIL?

My subject was prayer. My audience, three dozen pastors' wives. I had been asked to teach a weekend workshop at a rustic lodge hidden away in the Georgia pines. But after the first session, in which I briefly discussed spiritual warfare, the leader who had invited me knocked on my door.

"Quin, you've offended some of our women here," she said apologetically. "Several of them have Ph.D.'s, and they don't believe Christians need to fight the devil in our day and age. Please tone down your message."

I'd only shared some basic guidelines on intercession and how to pray the Word of God as a means of opposing the enemy. Then I had explained that Satan-not another person-is our enemy, and we need to be on guard against his tactics. I was stunned to think a group of pastors' wives would find such teaching offensive. But I agreed to adapt my material.

The apostle Paul's many references to spiritual warfare clearly indicate that he considered warring against the powers of darkness to be normal activity for Christians. But my experience at the retreat offers a graphic example of a common attitude among many Christians today.

"Spiritual warfare? Those two words don't go together!" a friend exclaimed upon hearing of plans for this book.

"Don't you even believe the devil exists?" we might ask these people.

Well, yes, they do- "theologically speaking." But the tendency is to think of Satan not as a personality or a being who affects us directly, but simply as a pervasive influence of evil in the world.

"There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils," writes C.S. Lewis. "One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them."

Some of the pastors' wives at that retreat had apparently fallen into the first error. They either didn't believe in Satan's existence, or they mistakenly felt there was nothing they should be doing about it.

"Maybe the next time one of these women faces a direct attack from the enemy in her life, she'll think about what I said," I told my prayer partner at the retreat.

"Well, you gave them the Word of God," my friend assured me. "And his Word never returns void."

The next afternoon as we were packing my car to leave, a young pastor's wife ran up to me.

"I just want you to know that your first lesson really opened my eyes," she said exuberantly "I'm going home to apply some of those spiritual warfare methods, and I know things are going to change! I now realize my rebellious teenage son is not the enemy. I intend to use Scripture as a weapon to fight the devil, just as you showed us."

A WARFARE HANDBOOK

You will find this book to be a practical handbook aimed at helping women understand the why and the how of spiritual warfare, based on biblical examples and contemporary experiences. In these pages we will address such questions as:

What is "spiritual warfare"?

Who is the enemy, and who started the war?

Is warfare only for specialists?

Is there a cost to ignoring this war?

Is there a scriptural mandate for spiritual warfare?

What weapons are we to use?

Is every mishap from Satan?

If Jesus won the victory, why do we have to fight?

Isn't it enough simply to pray and leave the outcome in God's hands?

What about the battle in the mind?

How can we distinguish between God's voice and the enemy's voice?

What should we do when we become battle-weary?

How is Satan working in women's lives today?

How do we become vulnerable to his work?

How can we feel secure against his attacks?

As we share answers to these questions and recount experiences to illustrate them, you will gain insight and confidence about fighting your own spiritual battles. Also, you'll be able to encourage and strengthen a friend who may be suffering an enemy attack.

Why a spiritual warfare book for women? We believe spiritual warfare is of special interest to women for these reasons:

Women tend to be more sensitive to the spiritual realm than men-including the area of occult activity. This sensitivity should be guided by the Holy Spirit.

Women can become competent spiritual warriors-especially for those they love-because of their loyalty in relationships.

Today's women face unique difficulties that need to be addressed in the context of spiritual warfare: single parenting, careers, the "Super Mom" syndrome, the influence of the media, coping with addicted children and spouses, abortion, cultural pressures of a materialistic society; the list goes on.

We feel these problems can be better addressed by prayer and waging spiritual warfare against Satan's schemes, rather than by relying solely on protests or demonstrations to achieve social and political change.

DEBORAH'S EXAMPLE

The biblical Deborah challenges us to lay aside some of our own worthy interests and activities to deal with the spiritual battles at hand.

We read of Deborah, a prophetess and judge in Israel, in the fourth chapter of Judges. She held court under a palm tree between Bethel and Ramah at a time when Israel was suffering bitter oppression under Jabin, a Canaanite king who had defeated Israel and occupied its land.

The name Jabin means "cunning," and the Canaanite word comes from a root word meaning "to humiliate or bring under subjection." Deborah must have heard daily reports of Jabin's cruel treatment. His army general, Sisera, constantly terrorized the people with his nine hundred chariots of iron, while Israel's army had almost no weapons for their defense. No doubt Deborah became increasingly incensed over the situation and joined the Israelite people in crying out to the Lord for deliverance.

We modern Deborahs need to feel that same indignation about Satan's work. By prayer and spiritual warfare, we can take a stand against the enemy's oppression in our own world.

The enemy works in many ways today-some more subtle than others. It seems his iron chariots come in all sizes! Perhaps you recognize yourself in one or more of these everyday attacks, which a friend calls "household sins":

Strife and disharmony too often disrupt your family relationships.

Someone you love has been unjustly treated by another Christian; you take up the defense and find yourself becoming bitter and cynical.

Your anger seems to erupt at the slightest provocation.

You suffer with guilt because you don't feel you're a very successful Christian.

You struggle with envy when comparing your own circumstances with your friends' seemingly carefree lives.

Insecurity and anxiety over the future frequently overwhelm you.

Your prayer life is inconsistent, and you often fell that your prayers bounce back in your face.

BUT I DON'T WANT TO FIGHT!

A friend once said to me, "Quin, I never wanted to have to fight the devil. I just wanted to remain a normal Christian, go to church, mind my own business, and not cause trouble!" But when her son got into drugs, she learned spiritual warfare out of necessity.

Thousands of women feel they've just been tending to "business as usual," trying their best to live a good Christian life. Suddenly an iron chariot comes roaring through their household, church, business, or community, thrusting them into confrontation with the enemy. And they cry out, "Help!"

You may be facing a battle similar to the ones that women have shared with us:

Your pregnant, unwed daughter is convinced that getting an abortion is the answer to her dilemma.

You learn your child is on drugs, and the "dealer" has been attending the church youth group.

You discover a cache of pornographic literature in your husband's closet.

A child threatens or attempts suicide after hearing about a classmate who killed himself.

A teenage acquaintance confides that she was sexually abused by her father, who is a deacon in the church.

Your church is broken into and vandalized by Satan worshipers.

An adult porn shop opens in your neighborhood, and local authorities seem totally indifferent.

Your Christian teenager goes into rebellion, gets caught up in rock music, and run away from home to join a Satanist group.

Your colleague at work divorces her abusive husband, then moves in with an older woman who is a lesbian.

A widow you and your husband befriended convinces him that it is God's will for him to divorce you and marry her.

Such situations actually confront many Christian women today-women whose eyes are opening to the spiritual battle they are already in, even though they feel unprepared. No longer do they need to be persuaded that a war is on. They are looking for guidance as to how to fight the battle!

DEBORAH ACTED ON GOD'S PROMISE

We can learn more from Deborah about how to deal with spiritual enemies. After suffering twenty long years of Jabin's oppression, the people of Israel began to beseech God for deliverance. He responded by instructing Deborah to say to Barak, the general of Israel's army: "The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: 'Go take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead the way to Mount Tabor. I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands" (Jgs 4:6-7).

Barak, who had faced this formidable enemy before, was fearful-and with good cause. A weak volunteer army with no chariots and few weapons was no match for Sisera's well-trained army of a hundred thousand men.

But Barak was assessing the situation strictly from a logistics point of view. Facts and truth are not always the same! The truth was that God had promised victory in spite of the odds, if Israel would obey him. Deborah-who was called "a mother in Israel" (Jgs 5:7)-was wi11ing to stake the nation's future on that promise. What courage it took to give such bold instructions to Israel's army general! But she acted on God's truth, not on circumstantial facts.

Barak agreed to go, but only if Deborah went with him. After all, she was the one with the word from God. So, to see her people liberated, Deborah assumed the role of a military commander to accompany Barak in leading the troops to battle. It was a necessary but unpleasant task (see Jgs 4:8-10).

GOD'S STRATEGY

Deborah received specific orders from God about the placement of Israel's troops. They were to march to Mount Tabor. As they approached the Kishon River, Sisera received intelligence reports as to Israel's movements. He gathered his army and went out against Israel, unaware that he was actually cooperating with God's plan.

This was the greatest display of Sisera's military might Barak and Deborah had ever seen. He had mobilized all his soldiers, weapons, and chariots to annihilate Israel's weak army. Barak, surveying the situation from his vantage point on the mountain, may have had second thoughts about going against Sisera. But Deborah was not deterred by this show of strength. She knew it was Sisera's last show!

As Sisera's army came close to the Kishon River, Bible scholars suggest that God caused a freak rainstorm, which blinded the soldiers and caused the river to flood, sweeping the iron chariots downstream (see Jgs 5:4, 20-22). The name Kishon is from a root word meaning "to ensnare."

Scripture records the outcome: "Then Deborah said to Barak, 'Go! This is the day the Lord has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the Lord gone ahead of you?' So Barak went down Mount Tabor, followed by ten thousand men. At Barak's advance, the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot.... All the troops of Sisera fell by the sword; not a man was left" (Jgs 4:14-16).

One version of the text says, "Then the Lord threw the enemy into a panic, ... not one man was left alive" (Jgs 4:15-16, TLB).

Sisera took refuge in the tent of Jael, a Canaanite woman whom he thought he could trust. But Jael, choosing to align herself with the people of God, was not content to be a passive bystander in this war. Using household tools at hand-a mallet and a tent stake-she killed the enemy commander. End of Sisera. End of those dreaded iron chariots.

Amazing, isn't it? Two women were the key players in this drama, in which God enabled a weak army outnumbered ten to one, to win a resounding victory. Seven penetrating words end the story: "Then the land had peace forty years" (Jgs 5:31).

Continues...