"That They Might Learn War"
By Ron Wood
I had been entering the newly dedicated prayer room daily at the same time, enjoying its privacy for a regular appointment with God. We had organized this room under the vision of my friend, Wes Pine, a deacon in my church who was promoted to glory the next year. The prayer room’s purpose was intercession: to methodically engage in systematic prayer for the salvation of souls and the help of hurting people. One-hour prayer shifts were filled up with church volunteers.
On one particular day, I moved in prayer beyond petition, beyond the list of names of people with their needs, presenting their needs to the Lord. I began to engage in aggressive prayer for the advance of Christ’s kingdom. I was asking the Lord for power to impact our region and power to reach the world with the gospel. Knowing of our area’s booming economy and the international businesses based there, I began to vocalize a prayer of faith for extraordinary financial release.
My words were something like this: "Lord, open the windows of heaven on your people. Let the wealth of the nations be entrusted into the hands of the righteous for the sake of the gospel. Lord, I claim millions of dollars from this region for the kingdom of God." Then, in my limited understanding, yet intuitively knowing that the devil is greedy and hates it when God’s people have abundance, I began to prophesy against evil powers controlling the flow of money, diverting it to the wicked, or stifling its release to the work of God.
Suddenly, it was like our small prayer room had become a war room. My prayers had struck something (or someone) and had gotten its attention. Perhaps my praying had been done more in the flesh than in the prompting of the Lord, but for whatever reason, for the next moment, I was more conscious of evil’s presence in that room than I was of the Lord’s anointing. Something seemed to almost materialize in front of me. Something angry and menacing, that didn’t want to be discovered and certainly didn’t want to be challenged. And now it was glaring at me.
How can I describe this event? The closest thing I can relate it to is this experience: when I was eighteen years old, I was preaching a revival on an island in the Bahamas. As I went swimming one afternoon off a pier, a six-foot shark came right up to me. It scared me witless! For a moment, I forgot that I was created to have dominion. I just wanted to get out of the water as fast as I could!
Shortly after this episode in the prayer room, religious people formed a conspiracy against me. It was an attack on my ministry by people who previously had loved us and welcomed us. Their malicious foment caused a great deal of distress to my family and discord in our church. It was like the forces of hell had been unleashed against me. This proved costly in the end to the work of God in that city and to us personally. A battle had begun that I was not properly prepared for and for which I was not equipped to handle.
Since then, I have held on to that prayer request for access to hidden riches. I have prayed what I have prayed and have said what I have said and I will not take it back. I figure, if you’ve paid the price to get in the game, you might as well stick it out until the end. I am watching to see what the Lord will do.
I believe extravagant wealth is now being transferred into the hands of those who will empower apostles and prophets in these last days, especially those who will team up to remember the poor and to reach out with the gospel. I have seen faith’s claim vindicated too often to doubt that it will happen again.
Since then, I have also found a safe place from which I can go to war, a place where I can stand in faith and invoke heaven’s claim for souls, for salvation’s blessings, for the privilege of taking the riches of Christ to the poor of the earth.
I have found that safe place in covenant relationships surrounded by a faith-filled community under-girded by an apostolic foundation. And most especially, I have found it in the cross of Christ. There, on the cross, Jesus suffered the worst the devil could do to Him (see Psalms 22) and the Father still vindicated Him and raised Him up (see Phillipians 2). The cross is our hiding place. The cross is my hiding place. There, the life of Jesus and the love of the Father and the fruit of the Spirit permeate our character.
You and I are in Christ, relationally by virtue of new birth, and actually in the timeless realm of the Spirit. We are in Christ both in His humiliation and in His exaltation. "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." (Colossians 3:3 NASB)
From this perspective of warfare involving prayer, with its awesome opportunities and with its inherent dangers, I have new thoughts and viewpoints on the reality of cosmic warfare as it relates to praying believers. I have now come to include a "warfare paradigm" to my previous understanding of the "building" and "farming" paradigm regarding the end-time role of apostles and prophets. Therefore, we must learn war.
Usually a wise military commander won’t send troops into a key conflict who have not been battled tested. Jesus said we are not to engage in war until we have first counted the cost. The lesson is, "Don’t prematurely engage the enemy if you don’t have what it takes to win." Included in this mental preparation is a realization that some battles require more stamina and resolve, besides just equipment, than others.
A key element to winning a higher percentage of battles is preparedness. "Too little, too late" is the sad lament of experienced generals who bemoan politicians who wouldn’t see the enemy coming, who doubted his true evil intent, or who failed to get ready for the looming war. In Great Britain, Winston Churchill had a thing or two to tell Neville Chamberlin after the Nazi’s true ambitions were uncovered publicly and led to World War II.
A large part of Christian discipleship, when effectively accomplished by careful teachers, is preparation for spiritual war. One duty of fathers is to prepare sons who can contend with their enemy at the gate (see Psalms 127). This is part of our mandate as ministers of God, "to equip the saints" (see Ephesians 4:11-12). In fact, the culmination of Christian doctrine practical equipping for life and ministry, according to the letter to the Ephesian church, is the ability to "stand therefore" in the midst of spiritual wrestling and war against cosmic forces of evil.
General David McKiernan, Commander of all U.S. ground forces in Iraq, said from Kuwait on March 6, "War is a human endeavor. We equip the soldier, we don’t man the equipment." Likewise, God could be saying to us today, "We equip the man, we don’t man the equipment." What kind of men and women is the church producing?
This was a word of wisdom regarding the way we fulfill our equipping role in the Church. In Christ, we equip believers to wage war on Satan’s works. That effort requires men and women who are willing to leave their comfort zones and are able to go to war. The man (or woman) in the ranks is THE deciding factor in the effectiveness of the equipment they carry. In other words, if integrity, courage, steadfast character, godliness, genuine faith, a learned and practiced ability to march in rank, and mental preparation to endure tough times is not first thoroughly accomplished in a person, all the tools or techniques in the world will do no good in the day of battle.
While our major area of equipping is to empower believers to share the gospel and serve others by their gifts of grace, an area often neglected but just as vital is to equip believers to wisely handle spiritual warfare. This arena of spiritual battle has two main dimensions: identifying and expelling evil spirits (see Mark 16:16), and praying concerted strategic prayers so as to unseat territorial spirits that have cities and nations living in their oppressive shadow.
Private battles occur in solitary settings. Few people will know about it when you help a brother or sister to overcome a spirit of rejection. But public battles on the occult level are for higher stakes and the casualties of war can be higher as well. If the Church in your city unseats a territorial spirit that promotes racial hatred, gangland killings, and the drug trade, the whole region will light up with the beneficial effects of the gospel!
Corporate battles are fought from strongholds and from high altitudes. Before David entered Jerusalem, he first conquered Zion, and made it his headquarters. He turned it into a place where worship was extravagant. In Zion, David established a culture where worship was the normal atmosphere. He began to rule in the place where his enemies had formerly ruled. Praise built a new altar. When Gideon tore down his father’s altar to Baal, God told him to build an altar to the Lord on top of that stronghold.
It isn’t enough to drive the devil away: God’s presence has to be invoked into the vacuum. Idolatry (idol worship, adoration of or giving credit to false gods) has to be replaced with worship of the One True God. We do this anytime and in anyplace we worship the Lord. Worship is warfare! God wants men to pray everywhere by lifting up holy hands. Our worship becomes a means of expanding the territory where God rules. It unseats false princes who have deluded people into giving them the worship due only the Holy God of the Bible.
Generals wage war from strongholds, not from positions of weakness. That’s why a local church must be walking in righteousness and unity and the power of the Spirit in order to affect their city with the gospel. Is your church a divided camp, or a stronghold? The only way a church can become a stronghold of faith is for the flock to be walking in covenant love, committed to obey God’s word. We may need to repent and search our hearts and confess our sins before we try to take the streets!
Evil is real. The age of innocence is over. In fact, it never existed except as a fantasy. It is naïve to think that other people are just like you–fearing God, law-abiding, charitable, tolerant, patient, honoring the rights of others. No, some people are bad to the bone. God ordained civil authority to deal with wrong-doers like murderers and thieves.
There are people on earth who deserve judgment, not mercy. They have passed beyond the point of being able to be redeemed. They have stiffened their neck, hardened their heart, and chosen an evil way. Such people, over time, take on the nature of evil. Instead of being a person who sins, they have become sin.
As Christians living in the state of war with evil, we are required to grow in faith, character, and responsibility until we are able to withstand and in some cases, overthrow the rule of evil in individual lives or in regions where God anoints us to act. We ask for this kind of victory in the war every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, "Thy kingdom come, The will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." In heaven, God’s will is always fully done. That is why it’s called heaven!
In prayer, we interpose ourselves between the Lord and His enemies. Did you know God has enemies? He certainly does! As the late John Wimber, professor at Fuller Theological Seminary and founder of the Vineyard churches used to say, "Jesus never met a demon that He liked!" One respected theologian (whose name escapes me) said, "The kingdom of God is where God works out His will against his enemies."
Think about that: there is a sphere where God’s will is NOT being done, and there is another realm where God’s will IS being done. What characterizes the sphere where God has His way? Romans 15:17 says that it is righteousness, peace, and joy. These three elements are clear evidences of the present-day rule of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. On the other hand, where there is a pattern of broken relationships, of continuous turmoil and unrest, anxiety, betrayal, and hopelessness, we know that another spiritual power is exerting primary influence–the prince of the power of the air, the devil.
On the earth, we have the humanistic system of human beings exercising their free wills, able to choose right or wrong as free moral agents with the power of self-determination. Plus, there are wicked angels, dark demonic princes, who also have a free will. These fallen angels and evil spirits can express their wicked desires by harassing people. They are in the middle heaven (the atmosphere) between us and God. From this area, they influence the world. They want to keep people away from the light of God. They enjoy hurting people, causing suffering, and gleefully deceive people into choosing a chaotic life and a hellish fate. They hate God and they hate any person who loves God. They are our enemies.
Who are the enemies of God? To understand this, you have to first acknowledge the reality of the unseen universe. Human beings in this cosmos are in the minority. We have flesh and blood and souls. When regenerated in the New Birth, we can also live in the spirit. We come alive toward God and become aware of His presence. Humans are a unique part of God’s creation in that we can live in both the material world and we can interact with the spiritual world.
Angels are non-corporeal, that is, without bodies. In the spiritual realm, there are fallen, corrupt, perverse angels who joined with Lucifer (also known as Satan or the devil) in his revolt. They also exercise free will. They chose to rebel against God. The reality of our universe is that it is not a neutral playing field. Invisible agents of evil are plotting to harm every human being. In this hierarchy of evil, some angelic beings are more sinister, more powerful, and are also jealously territorial. The story of Daniel in the Bible shows this quite clearly (read Daniel chapter ten). These dark princes are not nice.
Always expect a snake to act like a snake. Evil is by its nature cunning, full of guile and treachery, playing by unfair rules, selfish and controlling, without mercy or love. Jesus said we could recognize the offspring of Satan by the murder in their hearts. To hate without a cause, to inflict pain without showing compassion, to judge and kill based on skin color or religion or ethnic origin-- all these things are evidence of the devil’s way of thinking and feeling. These thoughts, feelings, and deeds are inspired by evil powers that smother an individual or a culture, blanketing their attitudes until these patterns become an unconscious way of life and normal behavior.
God drives out the powers of darkness individually and corporately. Individual deliverance occurs as people repent of sins, cease worshiping idols, and begin following the Son of God in His kingdom. Corporately, people groups can be demonized until whole cultures are "colored" with the paint of evil beliefs and behaviors. People infected with demonic influences due to occult sins, or abusive insults to their souls, or persistent willful sin, may require and benefit from the additional ministry of targeted deliverance. This was a common practice in the Early Church. There should be no area of your life where you are not in charge, due to the grace and power of Jesus in your life.
God also out the darkness from territories or nations through the Gospel as believers establish colonies of heaven under apostolic mandates, erecting fortresses of light and love which spread radiance over a whole region through worship, prayer, acts of mercy and declaration of the truth. Preaching the gospel and getting people saved is the beginning of this great work of transforming nations.
Believers coming into covenant and walking in righteousness under the Lord’s authority create this "radiant lighthouse effect."
How can worshippers learn war? Aren’t we supposed to love everyone? The chant of the hippies in the seventies was, "make love, not war." Aren’t Christians supposed to love everyone? Didn’t Jesus teach us to love our enemies? Yes He did… but loving people doesn’t mean making peace with the devil that controls them.
The truth is, lovers of God will become warriors against evil. Intimacy in adoration of God and increasing sensitivity to His voice enables us to become strong in faith. Biblically, we are all sons of God (both men and women), nestled up close to the Father’s heart, enjoying hearing His voice, basking in His covenant love, all the while increasing in the gift of faith. That gift of faith enables us to war in worship, to break down enemy barriers with the proclaimed word of God, and to endure suffering in the line of duty.
These quotes from the Bible show that God wants His people to be able to go to war when He calls us to do so. "That the generations of the sons of Israel might be taught war" (Judges 3:2) "He trains my hands for battle… girded me with strength for battle" (Psalms 18:34-39) "Prophets by faith conquered kingdoms… became mighty in war" (Hebrews 11:32-34) Sons of Israel learn war. Kings (and in the New Testament, apostles) learn war. And prophets learn war.
Collage of Iraq by Paul Chinn
9/11 Multimedia by Paul Chinnhttp://www.paulchinn.com/Video/sept11.WMV
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Touched by Grace is a 501-c-3 corporation dedicated to extending the gospel of Christ by humanitarian relief, by biblical training materials and overseas seminars, and by strategic investment in the work of key Christian leaders serving on the frontiers of God's kingdom.
That They Might Learn War © 2003 by Ron Wood. All rights reserved. You may freely distribute this article with no changes as long as this byline and all associated information remains complete and unchanged. Bible quotations are from the New American Standard Bible Updated Version (NASB).
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Biographical Information
Ron and his wife, Lana, lead the international work of Touched By Grace Inc. They were pastors for thirty years before founding Touched by Grace as a missionary organization. Their assignment in the Lord is to help equip emerging apostles and prophets in the developing church, especially in Third World nations. Ron has served with the U.S. Strategic Prayer Network as a State Coordinator. He is a writer with over 200 published articles. Lana has been a pastor and church leader and is the third generation in her family to serve the gospel. Ron and Lana are a team called by God to take the riches of Christ to the poor of the earth. They share God’s Word with a prophetic anointing. Their headquarters is on the east coast of the United States where they worship at The Rock of Wilmington in North Carolina, led by apostle Ron McGee.
