Spiritual warfare can involve a clash of ideas? Yes—and more!

Pentecostals put a big emphasis on spiritual warfare. Typically what they mean by this practically is lots of prayer, speaking in tongues, decreeing and declaring, binding and loosing, and other spiritual activities.

In Word Faith circles, and perhaps wider, this stems from an understanding of the spiritual realm as being where all the action is. Need healing? Start in the spirit. Need finances? Confess positively and decree it in the spiritual realms. Need breakthrough of any kind? Pray in tongues.

This in turn relies on the New Age idea that only the spirit realm is "real", with the physical realm being an illusion. (I'll go in depth on that side in another article.)

But the Bible presents a clash of ideas as the core understanding of what spiritual warfare is!

So we have these stronghold ideas that take hold of people:

• You are worthless

• You are a god

• You are a good person; you'll make it to heaven

But some ideas we hold, even as Christians, though especially amongst non-Christians, bind us strongly, and can cause all sorts of states such as: depression, confusion, ignorance, and unbelief.

These ideas are demonic in origin:

This is why we need to war against ideas and "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ". Other ideas can take us captive!

Ephesians 6:10-20, the full armour of God

This is actually the core of the main spiritual warfare passage in Ephesians. First, he'll deal with metaphysics ("meta" means beyond, so, beyond the physical—the immaterial):

Now, he's going to deal with the core metaphor of what this struggle looks like practically:

Note the following:

• It's a belt of truth, not prayer. The truth will set you free.

• The breastplate is of righteousness. These are physical righteous deeds, and a state of being that is righteous.

• Your boots are ready with the gospel of peace and reconciliation with God. This idea is core to our faith.

• Now faith in the Word Faith tradition is typically thought of as a force, a power. But here, the idea is that the enemy is firing ideas at you, and you can rebut them with your shield. (Elsewhere, we get the idea that faith is required for Jesus to heal, so we could still connect faith to that—but it's just not present in this particular passage.)

• The helmet is “of salvation”, which is not expounded so hard to say either way what it's referring to.

• The “sword of the Spirit...is the word of God”. This is quite at odds with the instant and universal Pentecostal response that would say attacking in the Spirit is done by prayer.

Jesus gives an example of how this sword can be used offensively in his temptation by the Devil, to rebut his arguments and enticements (Luke 4:1-13).

It's only after that image that Paul adds prayer:

So we ought not to get rid of a focus on prayer in our spiritual warfare, but rather, add to it.

What does this clash of ideas look like?

Paul demonstrates this spiritual warfare throughout his letters, tackling issues such as:

• Re-establishing the shoes of the gospel of peace in Galatians

• Suring up the truth about the reconciliation of Gentiles, not just Jews, in Ephesians 2

• Establishing a "breastplate of righteousness" by instructions on everyday living in Ephesians 4-6:9

• Increasing our "shield of faith" by exalting Jesus in Philippians 2 and Colossians 1

Of course, this is a consistent theme by others too:

• Luke commends the Berean Jews for being "of more noble character" because they not only received the message with eagerness, but examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true—resulting in many salvations (Acts 17:10-12)

• John exhorts confused believers to "test the spirits" by examining what doctrines they teach (1 John 4:1-6)

• Hebrews is basically one big argument, re-establishing key truths, "so that we do not drift away" (Hebrews 2:1).

• Jesus calls out the Pergamum church for holding to teachings of Balaam and the Nicolaitans (Revelation 2:14-16). If they don't repent of that, he'll use the sword out of his mouth against them (the sword of the Spirit? 2:16)!

I've only just skimmed the surface. Once you realise that ideas are powerful strongholds, that hold people away from God—or enable people to come enthusiastically and wholeheartedly to God—then you'll see this type of spiritual warfare is throughout the Bible continually.

In fact, we've already seen yet another very physical concept: the breastplate of righteousness, being the fruit of the Spirit, is part of our spiritual warfare. (The Bible presents a very positive view of both the reality of the physical and spiritual, working together in unison of purpose, though operating with different functions.)

Implications for the classic Pentecostal church service

The implications are immense and wide-ranging. For starters, if we think of the common 90-minute church service, all of its features need rethinking.

If the core of spiritual warfare is dealing with the clash of ideas, then Pentecostals need to, as Jesus said, repent and start teaching the truth. They may preach well, but they rarely teach. They may start in the Spirit and speak on topic—but they must cultivate a respect and grace for teachers who tend to be found amongst more conservative-leaning (with regard to the Spirit) churches. And those teachers need to have the patience and grace to be able to deeply understand their brothers' and sisters' hearts, to lead them into the truth without condemnation.

As often as we focus on healing for physical issues, we need to focus on healing from mental issues: confusion, ignorance, depression, and the embrace of demonic ideas that lead away from God. This is not going to look like casting out of demons, but establishing truth like Paul and others did, renewing our minds by that truth, and diligently examining Scriptures like the noble Bereans. When the truth comes, it's like light that drives away the darkness.

When we worship, we must worship "in the Spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). Many Christians are blessed through worshipping with doctrinally-rich hymns, which helps teach us the truth, as well as provides rich ground for adoration of God. Pentecostal worship tends to focus around the emotional side of the relationship—which is fine, but not the only thing. The deep truths of who God is, expressed through hymns, should encourage us into deeper relationship and satisfaction in him.

Implications for evangelism

When we witness, there is this idea that to argue with people is fruitless—that's not where the battle lies. But knowing that ideas bind people's hearts and minds, we absolutely ought to engage with their ideas:

The "knowledge of God's glory" is seen through our good deeds (they will know you by your love—part of that breastplate of righteousness) as well as through our ideas of who God is, what he demands, and the gospel of peace ("displayed in...Christ"). This light will lift their blindness.

Nabeel Qureshi, former Muslim, testifies to this—owing his conversion to the Holy Spirit's use of a Christian's intellectual arguments. Countless others share this testimony. Christianity as a way of thinking needed to make sense before he could embrace it. Few people embrace nonsense!

But still, many will object: "we don't preach according to the wisdom of this age—we preach Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:18-25)!"

OK. However, when we discuss Christ crucified, we do so intellectually, and from godly wisdom: not worldly wisdom. That's the clash. It's not intellect vs the Spirit. It's godly wisdom vs worldly wisdom:

The message of the cross is not foolish because it's an idea or an argument. The message of the cross is foolish because the God we champion died! Our hero died! That makes no sense. The Jews wanted a saviour to re-establish the glory days of David and Solomon and therefore were looking to physically beat the Romans. They were bitterly disappointed in Jesus. The Greeks were happy to receive new ideas that helped them live their lives better—the latest self-help guide to be a better you—as long as it didn't involve giving yourself up to God. Denying yourself. This was the very antithesis of the power and control they were seeking. Total foolishness. Paul doesn't deny the use of argument full stop—he continuously argues!

But Pentecostals draw their guns out even quicker!

“My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.” (1 Corinthians 2:4–5, NIV)

"See! Witnessing is all about signs, wonders and miracles!"

And look, I'd have to agree that when God tells us something about a stranger, and we tell them, it points out that there's a God in heaven who cares about them, who's alive and well. When God heals someone supernaturally, they know they've been touched by God.

But it's just so much more. When you show kindness to people, that's a fruit of the Spirit. They see God in you. When you share a meal with someone, that's a picture into God's friendship. When you provide for the poor, that's a picture of God's provision.

This is your breastplate of righteousness, that beams light into people, by way of reflection from the Son, as we imitate the Son. Spiritual warfare is so much more than just seeing God's miraculous power for healing and provision. We want to get to a place where people can see God's character too, and God's amazing love, grace, peace, patience, and a whole lot more.

When we preach the Gospel to people, that too has power. Consider a person convicted of their sin, searching for hope. They've tried drugs, they've tried alcohol, they've tried relationships. These just don't give them what they are seeking. But the Gospel opens them up to a way of overcoming the world, the sin and the devil. It opens them to the way, the truth and the life. Isn't this spiritual warfare too—turning one spirit (or spiritual person) from darkness to light?

Now, as for wisdom, I again insist that it's not about spirit vs wisdom. It's godly wisdom vs ungodly wisdom. Read the very next part:

"We do...speak a message of wisdom". We do. Paul did. Paul continually talks intellectually throughout his letters! The message of the cross is foolishness to many people, but not to those whom God is drawing to himself. Paul preached relatively simple ideas—so simple they seemed foolish to some. But he backed them up with demonstrations of the Spirit, in signs and wonders and righteous deeds.

That's how it all fits together. When we preach, since godly wisdom doesn't point to the cleverness of our speech, and points to God, we don't back it up with more clever argumentation and statistics of how big our church is. Since it's all about God, we back it up with demonstrations of God. But without the arguments in the first place, it's difficult to understand what we're talking about. So signs without words are confusing, and words without signs point in the wrong direction (to human wisdom). The biblical answer is: words AND signs.

The connection with the mission of the church

There are at least two aspects to word-based spiritual warfare: proclaiming and demonstrating the holiness of God, as well as the Word of God.

There is spiritual-gifts-based spiritual warfare: proclaiming and demonstrating the power of the Spirit.

There is also the fruit of the Spirit, described as a breastplate of righteousness.

Now all these things point out aspects of God. They witness to or reflect God: which is the mission of the church—to be a witness; to be God's ambassadors—his representatives on earth.

This might be easier to show in a diagram.

Here we see that witnessing to and about God is multifaceted (because, strangely enough, God is multifaceted!). We show off God in many ways. That's both our mission, and our 'warfare'. This is why it fits to say all this together in "The Great Commission":

“He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”” (Mark 16:15–18, NIV)

And:

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”” (Matthew 28:19–20, NIV)

Even though we've talked about elsewhere the Mark passage probably isn't Scriptural—but it probably was an addition by an early church member who saw all this occur, or could verify it with eyewitnesses like Luke did. The point is: this is what the church did. All aspects were on show: so-called "spiritual" gifts (gifts of administration and the like are also given by the Spirit—read about those spiritual gifts here), teaching, discipling, saving, and more. This is our spiritual warfare.

Implications for church unity

Once you've tasted the Spirit's work and miracle working power, you don't want to go back. I'm talking about Pentecostals. You know God is bigger than any demon and any problem—why would you settle for less? Furthermore, they see non-Pentecostals so often resorting to leaning on their own strength rather than God, that they're put off by what they do. So Pentecostals tend not to view conservative churches very highly.

However, this idea that spiritual warfare includes a clash of ideas, useful for freeing people from depression, confusion and ignorance has the capacity to be a bridge to some other groups of Christians. That's because tackling ideas as spiritual warfare speaks the Pentecostal's language. It makes sense to them. One of those groups it can build a bridge to are charismatics.

Now charismatics I define as those Christians from conservative denominations who, without leaving their beliefs (or churches necessarily), come to believe in continuation of spiritual gifts for today. This means they may practice speaking in tongues, hearing from God, and generally are much more attuned to the Spirit. Nevertheless, much of their belief system remains Baptist, Anglican, Catholic or other denomination.

The bridge works both ways. As charismatics tend to be from conservative backgrounds, they tend to be much better teachers of the Word. So if Pentecostals are now open to the idea that good teaching can ward away demonically-inspired ideas, charismatics can probably fill that teaching gap quite easily. In a similar but opposite way, as Pentecostals tend to know the spirit well, they can better guide charismatic teachers into what to teach on. Something more relevant, as they are more attuned to what the Spirit is doing and saying.

Of course, much grace is needed. Non-Pentecostal teachers may argue for things that Pentecostals don't at first agree with. Sticking to the Bible will be a good start, but knowing each other will help even more. Pentecostals may teach things that charismatics don't agree with too, and some of that may be just due to the excitability of the moment rather than a well-formed conviction grounded in the Word. Choosing to graciously teach a better way of thinking, well before considering rebuking, is the way to go.

Summary

It's not like we have the Great Commission in one part of the Bible, and then over in another place, Paul sets up the real work: spiritual warfare. In fact, spiritual warfare is discussed in broad terms and includes a breastplate of righteousness: our good works and being; the belt of truth and the sword...the Word of God: teaching that dismantles the strongholds of demonic ideas; and the Gospel of peace: preaching a truthful message of hope that breaks through a persons hopelessness, despair and conviction of heart. Rather than replacing prayer, these work alongside a strong emphasis of "all kinds of prayer".

This fits well with our survey of The Mission of the Church where we examined our role as witnesses, ambassadors, and reflectors of God to others. Showing the miraculous power of God points to some key aspects of God, but so does bearing the fruit of the Spirit. Likewise, preaching the truth and the Gospel point to "the way, the truth, and the life", Jesus Christ. Upholding sacraments like baptism give physical pictures to spiritual truths about God. There's more to God than healing and provision, as good as they are, and we should point to all aspects of him.

This may well be a key bridge that can bring together charismatics (e.g. Baptist and Anglican charismatics) and Pentecostals because those brothers and sisters are gifted in the area of teaching and pulling down demonic ideas. But Pentecostals will have to be gracious to what is unfamiliar to them (exegetical teaching), and teachers will need to be gracious about what Pente's say they believe, allowing them time to digest new teaching.