“Spiritual warfare” is not a topic reserved for some followers of Jesus who are fascinated with the subject. Spiritual warfare is everyone’s story and the central story of the Bible.
In this article, I hope to help you see that we are all involved in a spiritual war. I will take you to the Old Testament and then to the New, showing you how life as we know it is spiritual war and has been since the beginning of time. Then, I hope to help you understand your involvement in this spiritual war, revealing how relevant this topic is to your life. Finally, I hope to encourage you in the fight.
Before we can embark on this journey, let’s consider how this spiritual war began.
How Did This Spiritual War Start?
Flip to the third chapter of your Bible, and you will hear where spiritual war began.
We’re introduced there to God’s enemy, Satan (Genesis 3:1). He’s not God’s equal, for God is Creator, and he’s part of the creation. Nevertheless, Satan opposes God. There, in Genesis 3, we hear of the first spiritual battle humans experienced.
God had blessed his people (Adam and Eve) and given them one command to obey (Genesis 2:16–17). But God’s enemy, Satan, incited them to question God’s Word and his authority and to disobey him (Genesis 3:1).
Rather than obeying God, Adam and Eve believed the serpent’s lie and rebelled against their true God and king. The serpent deceived Adam and Eve, and they sinned. Their sin brought ruin upon humanity, and sin has enslaved humanity ever since. Although the curse of sin lies heavy on the world, it also has invaded every heart. For each one of us is guilty of the same sin as Adam and Eve: We doubt God’s Word, we side with the deceiver, and we disobey God.
All conflict comes from the sin within us and Satan’s schemes around us—conflict between us and God (Genesis 3:24), conflict between each other (Genesis 4:8), and conflict between us and Satan himself ( Genesis 3:15). The conflict we experience is all part of the great war the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness.
