On December 7, 1941, it was a lazy Sunday morning in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. People were sleeping in or going to church, completely unaware that six Japanese aircraft carriers and 420 Japanese planes were zeroing in on the Navy’s Pacific fleet. The enemy leveled a surprise attack on the sleep-eyed sailors, killing a total of 2,403 and injuring another 1,000. According to an article by history.com, “Because American military leaders were not expecting an attack so close to home, the naval facilities at Pearl Harbor were relatively undefended… To the Japanese, Pearl Harbor was an irresistibly easy target.”
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the man who planned the Pearl Harbor attack, said, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” (From the diary of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto) He was correct. The United States answered back with 2 atomic bombs dropped onto strategic cities in Japan, killing a total of approximately 120,000 people.
If only we could see the enemy’s stealthy attack on us as individuals, our families, our churches, and our nation! In our last blog for the Religion Mountain, we sought to awaken the body of Christ to the spiritual war that is taking place. Once awakened, this sleeping giant has the power to rise up. But how? What basic training do we need in order to move into our posts and take back the territory that the enemy has stolen?
Once you begin to seek the Lord and go deep with Him, you will find that each of the following points has a depth and width and breadth that you may never exhaust exploring. But as a crash course in basic spiritual warfare, these will serve as a solid starting point:
- Spend time alone with the Lord, praying and reading His Word.
- Speak His Word aloud to replace all the things in your mind that are contrary to His Word.
- Have an authentic encounter with the Lord, where healing flows into every part of your being.
- Get involved with a group of intercessors, preferably one where the gifts of the Spirit are free to flow.
The first step in basic training for spiritual warfare is to spend time alone with the Lord.
You cannot learn well without training, and the best person to learn from is THE Leader. He says that if we seek Him with all our hearts, we will find Him (Deuteronomy 4:29). He says that if we need wisdom, we simply need to ask Him and expect Him to give it to us (James 1:5-8). So, we pray and ask Him to tell us all we need to know for all we will encounter on the spiritual battlefield. Then we sit quietly before Him and open His Word and let His Spirit speak to us, teach us, guide us. We have an insider’s advantage in this spiritual war because we have the opportunity to sit before the King and kings and let Him teach us each step along the way.
Secondly, we need to replace all the things in our hearts and minds that are contrary to the Word of God and instead put in His Word.
For example, if we are used to thinking, “I can’t do anything right,” we replace it with “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength (Philippians 4:13).” Instead of “I am forgotten,” we replace it with “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.” (Mathew 10:29-31). When we speak ALOUD His Word, the words of the enemy are drowned out. When we resist the devil, he flees (James 4:7).
Third, we may find that in our search to get close to the Lord, we may be in need of inner healing for traumas and wounds that have occurred during our lifetimes.
Sometimes traumas “block” our ability to move forward in healing and breakthrough in our lives. These traumas can sometimes keep us spinning in cycles, unable to grasp the seemingly elusive healing we need. In this case, going to a session with Sozo or Heartsync can bring deep inner healing that serves as a springboard to deeper intimacy with God. I experienced a Sozo healing ministry session that rocked me, as I heard the Lord personally for the very first time. This was a game-changer for me and set my feet on the path of seeking Him more deeply and wholeheartedly than I was able to before that encounter.
Finally, when entering the reality of the spiritual battle, the best place to be is within a group of prayer intercessors, especially one in which the gifts of the Spirit are free to flow. Soldiers go to battle within a group of other trained soldiers. A strategic part of training for spiritual warfare involves coming before the Lord together with others who are also in the spiritual battle and interceding together to push forward victory in the Spirit. Where two or more agree, it shall be done (Matthew 18:19). There is power in finding this type of intercessory group. Nissi Nation is one such community of intercessors, and they have a daily prayer call for intercessors.
Once we have awakened to the reality that there is an unseen spiritual war taking place, we must rise to our posts. Basic training for spiritual warfare requires intentionality of seeking Him, speaking His Word over your life, encountering Him deeply, and joining with others who are doing the same. THIS is the strategy for walking in victory no matter what the enemy does.
