Spiritual warfare and our “primal identity”

You know you’re getting to a certain age when you are not familiar with a single one of the top Halloween costumes for this year. At the top of the list is Bob, a shrunken-headed ghost from the recent Beetlejuice sequel. Next comes viral breakdancer Raygun with the green and yellow tracksuit worn during the Australian’s controversial Olympics performance. In third place is CatNip, the cat-like monster from the video game series “Poppy Playtime.”’

You have to get to No. 11, “Chipotle burrito,” to find something I recognize. Sadly, Godzilla, one of my childhood favorites, has fallen to No. 25 on the list.

Here’s a Halloween theme with which I am unfortunately very familiar: the subject of spiritual warfare. Halloween always brings questions regarding Satan and the demonic. Long after the candy is consumed and the costumes are forgotten, these issues will be relevant to every heart and soul.

Spiritual battles are an inevitable part of life on this fallen planet. After Jesus defeated Satan in the wilderness, the devil “departed from him until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13). Like Jesus, “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).

If you’re like most of us, you win some of these battles and lose some. All the while, your soul longs for a way to sustain victory in the spiritual battles we face.

I discovered a step in this direction recently in a familiar story that impacted me in a new way.

“He is the living God, enduring forever”

In Daniel 6, the Babylonian king’s corrupt counselors persuaded him to issue a decree that the entire nation must pray only to him (v. 7). Daniel’s response, whereby “he got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously” (v. 10, my emphasis) cost him the lions’ den but led to God’s greater glory and the prophet’s greater service.

Note the words I italicized: Daniel was already in this habit and discipline, so when the test came, he could fall back on what he already knew and did.

Even King Darius knew that Daniel served God “continually” (vv. 16, 20). Daniel’s influence on the king was so profound that while Daniel spent the night in the lions’ den, the king spent it “fasting” as “sleep fled from him” (v. 18).

Of course, Daniel had no idea this was happening. When we are faithful to God, others see our faithfulness even when we are unaware of our influence. Oswald Chambers was right: the river touches shores the source never sees.

The result, as we know, was that Daniel was spared, his enemies were destroyed, and Darius made a new decree that “in all my royal dominion,” people were to pray not to him but to “the God of Daniel” (v. 26). This “pagan” king then testified:

He is the living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end. He delivers and rescues; he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, he who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions (vv. 26–27).

Wouldn’t you love to have Daniels’ faith and spiritual power? Here’s the question: What motivated him to serve God so “continually” that he turned to him at the peril of his life?

“The farther away you are from the devil”

Years ago, I learned from Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline that the various spiritual disciplines do not earn God’s favor—they position us to experience his best. Like Daniel’s prayer life, they are the key to the spiritual power we need to defeat the Enemy.

But keeping these various disciplines can be a real challenge, especially in a culture that not only does not reward such faithfulness—it finds biblical truth and spirituality dangerous and actively opposes it.

The key is being able to say with the psalmist, “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97). The more we love God’s law, the more we will study it and be transformed by it. The writer could say this because he had come to delight in biblical truth: “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (v. 103). He could therefore pray, “Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way” (v. 104).

As we study God’s word, pray, worship, and experience other spiritual disciplines, we come to love the God whose word we study, to whom we pray, and whom we worship. Then our love for God empowers the disciplines by which we know him and make him known.

We act into feeling and, eventually, we experience feelings that empower our actions and godliness that defeats Satan is the result. As Billy Graham noted: “Stay close to Christ—because the closer you are to him the farther away you are from the devil.”

Claiming your “primal identity”

But what do we do when we don’t want to pray, read Scripture, or practice other spiritual disciplines in our daily lives? What do we do when we don’t love God enough to love his word and want to obey his will?

When David was fleeing from King Saul in the wilderness of Judea, he could nonetheless tell God, “My mouth will praise you with joyful lips” (Psalm 63:5). This is because he remembered what God had done for him in the past: “You have been my help” (v. 7a). He thought of what God will do for him in the future: “In the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy” (v. 7b). And he focused on what God was doing for him in the present: “My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me” (v. 8).

When we remember all that God has done, will do, and is doing in our lives, we are encouraged to love him in response to his love.

Henri Nouwen said of us, “You are not what others, or even you, think about yourself. You are not what you do. You are not what you have.” Rather, your “primal identity” is the “beloved daughter or son of a personal Creator.” He therefore encouraged us:

Try to choose to remain true to the truth of who you really are. Look in the mirror each day and claim your true identity. Act ahead of your feelings and trust that one day your feelings will match your convictions. Choose now and continue to choose this incredible truth.

When we know how deeply we are loved, we are empowered to love the One who loves us. This love then empowers our desire to read and obey his word. Reading and obeying his word equips us to resist temptation and defeat the Enemy.

Such a lifestyle offers sustained victory by which we can declare daily,

“We are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).

So here’s the question: Will you “remain true to the truth of who you really are” today?

 

Denison Forum