For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
—Ephesians 6:12
THE U.S. ARMY EMPHASIZES realistic combat training for a reason. I saw this firsthand in the early 1990s at what was then called the Combat Maneuver Training Center (CMTC) in Hohenfels, Germany. (Today it is called the Joint Multinational Readiness Center, or JMRC.)
We trained “force on force,” meaning the opposing army used the type of weaponry and tactics that peer countries, such as Russia, would use against U.S. forces in war. In this case it was “armor vs. armor” (tank on tank), consisting of three weeks of nonstop, realistic combat training in some of the most unforgiving terrain and weather in the world. After every battle scenario, there would be an After-Action Review (AAR)—a structured review or “debrief” (debriefing) process, analyzing what happened, why it happened, and what unit leaders and those responsible for training could do better.
After one such training session with one of our sister battalions, the commander (a lieutenant colonel) was being debriefed in the AAR building while we waited outside. Those debriefings could be intense. Suddenly a medical team arrived with a stretcher, disappeared inside and, moments later, emerged carrying the commander toward a waiting ambulance.
Of course, we were all wondering what happened. Later we learned that the commander had frozen up during the debrief and become nonresponsive to questions. He just froze in place, staring off into space. Stress, lack of sleep and the burden of command had proved too much for him. The high operational tempo pointed to a weakness in the command structure.
Perhaps if that commander had understood his limitations, how he reacted under stress, and how lack of sleep and long hours of training affected him, he could have avoided freezing up, and maybe even delegated his authority to other trusted staff. His real enemy was lurking inside himself.
Realistic training reveals who we are and how we will react in combat. No military wants to put leaders of soldiers in harm’s way if they don’t know how they will react. The incident with this commander was a good lesson for me. We need to know how we will react during intensive spiritual warfare and even during the collapse of our societal structures and economy. Knowing ourselves is a vital part of preparation in the end times.
Knowing yourself means understanding your strengths, weaknesses, stamina, passions and ambitions. It also involves knowing your mental, spiritual, physical and emotional capabilities.
The best way to look at yourself is through the lens of the Word of God. You can find the help you need there. I have found that reading the book of Proverbs gives me wisdom; the psalms give me hope and courage; the gospels give me strength; and Acts gives me courage and inspiration.
Another good practice is linking up with another spiritual warrior. Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”
We need each other in ways we often do not understand. No one in the military goes it alone. It takes a team. So it is in the making of a spiritual warrior. This is one of the reasons being involved in groups of believers (church or small groups) is vitally important for our spiritual growth and health.
But in addition to knowing ourselves, we must know our enemy.
Who Is the Enemy?
A famous battle and its aftermath highlight why it is important to know your enemy.
At the beginning of American involvement in World War II, U.S. Army General George S. Patton, whose discipline, toughness and self-sacrifice elicited pride among his soldiers, succeeded in battle because he knew the tactics and strategies of his enemy, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.
Rommel, “the Desert Fox,” had decimated U.S. forces in the Battle of Kasserine Pass. The Allied forces at Kasserine were unprepared, improperly trained and lacking in strong leadership. But Patton had gained a great deal of tactical knowledge while training in the deserts of California before going into combat. His staff had already gathered a great deal of intelligence about Rommel, and he was ready. He knew his enemy. And Patton, known affectionately as “Old Blood and Guts,” went on to defeat Rommel in North Africa.
You learn early on in your military career that you cannot defeat an enemy you do not know or understand. Who is the enemy? What are his plans and tactics? How do we defeat him? In order to address these questions, we need a strategy and tactics to implement our plan.
In the Army, the primary officer responsible to the commander at the tactical level (the lowest level for units fighting in the field) for knowing the enemy and his capabilities, tactics, strategies, manpower, equipment, culture and morale is the S2. The S2 in tactical units is usually a captain. In higher operational units (such as a division), the S2 is normally a lieutenant colonel. At the highest levels, intelligence officers go up to lieutenant general (three-star).
Every good commander relies heavily on his or her S2 in order to ensure success on the battlefield. The commander wants to know the enemy’s strength and the best strategies to defeat him. Patton did not defeat Rommel by himself. He had an entire staff dedicated to gathering intelligence about his adversary.
In today’s military, it is the duty of S2 officers to plan intelligence collection operations. They have several resources for this job. Satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) capture images. Signal Intelligence Collectors gather enemy radio communications. Common Ground Station (CGS) analysts use radar to track enemy vehicles. And Human Intelligence Collectors question enemy combatants and civilians. The S2 determines which tool is best for the job and makes it happen.1
“The most important mission of combat battalion S2s is to provide their commanders enough timely information to allow them to make critical decisions on the battlefield,” U.S. Army Captain Norman Fuss writes. “While in the field, this mission far outweighs all others. If the S2 succeeds, the battalion is almost always successful; if the S2 fails, the battalion is almost certainly doomed to defeat and the unnecessary loss of American lives.”2
The U.S. military has learned the hard way, in the first battles of many wars, the importance of knowing your enemy. The book America’s First Battles by Charles Heller is required reading at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. It reveals that in nearly every major war, the U.S. has lost the first battle—mostly due to a lack of preparedness, inexperience, and not knowing the enemy and his tactics or strategies.
Chinese general and military strategist Sun Tzu said, “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”3
True. If we do not understand the enemy, how can we have a plan to defeat him? If we have a plan and don’t put that plan into action, that is the surest path to defeat.
Understanding Your Enemy
The powers of darkness at the end will multiply exponentially in strength and numbers. We already see this happening across the globe. We must learn to identify the enemy behind the human powers and initiatives. You may think that most global problems are manmade, but I assure you they are not. We need to learn that our real enemies are not corrupt politicians, terrorists or a host of other human adversaries.
Our friend Dr. Robert Jeffress—senior pastor of the 13,000–member First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, adjunct professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, and host of the Pathway to Victory television show broadcast globally—has some telling observations about the nature of our enemy. He comments:
It was C. S. Lewis who described the world as “enemy-occupied territory.” And I certainly think there is a sense in which we’ve always needed to be prepared. We face some formidable opposition—sometimes in the form of other people who oppose our faith, governments that are opposed to our faith, and our adversary the devil who is always against us, plus the remnants of our own fallen nature that remain with us. All these things mean we are engaged in spiritual warfare day in and day out.4
Jeffress agrees that, just as demons were active during Christ’s first coming, there is scriptural justification for the belief that as the Second Coming of Christ approaches, and Satan realizes his time on earth is limited, an increase in satanic attacks against Christians will occur in the form of persecution and other manifestations.
“So we need to be armed,” Jeffress says. “Your book uses military terminology. The apostle Paul uses the armor of a Roman soldier. But whatever the metaphor, the truth is real. We need to be prepared for battle.”5
The reality is, there are terrifying powers behind the scenes manipulating mankind in order to bring about the final showdown at Armageddon. At the beginning of this chapter, we quoted Ephesians 6:12, indicating that our fight is “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
The Greek word for ruler is arche, meaning something that was in the beginning, a first principle, a substance or primal element. The New American Standard New Testament Greek Lexicon defines it as “the first place, principality, rule, magistracy; of angels and demons.”6
The word Archangel comes from the Greek words “arche” (ruler) and “angelos” (messenger), “signifying archangels’ dual duties: ruling over the other angels, while also delivering messages from God to human beings.”7
In addition, there are dark powers that are rulers over demonic hordes in the invisible realm. Entities on God’s side and Satan’s side have been involved, since his ejection from heaven, in a titanic struggle, and we are caught in the middle.
The principalities Paul mentions are ruling dark lords or powers that possess executive authority, or governmental rule, in this world. They rule kingdoms on earth that stand in opposition to God.
Satan is the chief ruler of this planet, or, as the Bible describes him, “the god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Satan is the foremost influence on the world scene. He is behind the social and geopolitical events hurling us toward the final showdown between Christ and the Antichrist at the Battle of Armageddon.
These dark forces are lining up the geopolitical players for the final end-times battle. The focal point where biblical prophecies will unfold: the Middle East—more specifically, Jerusalem. Ezekiel 37 and 38 lay out for us the last battle and the major players involved, including Iran (ancient Persia) and Turkey (ancient Asia Minor). This scenario is now unfolding before our very eyes.
Iran’s stated vision is to usher in the end of days and their messiah, the Mahdi or “hidden imam,” by destroying Israel and conquering the world for Islam. Iran also believes that the “time before the arrival of the Mahdi will also see a great war in Syria and Iraq that will destroy both countries, accompanied by a great fire and ‘redness in the sky.’”8 Iran has infiltrated most of the Middle East with covert operators and military forces.
At present, Turkey has thousands of troops on the border of Syria and has become a hostile foe to Israel. Turkey has stated so in no uncertain terms: “Whoever is on the side of Israel, let everyone know that we are against them. We do not approve of silence on the state terror that Israel blatantly carries out in Palestine.”9
Iran and Turkey will be key players in the invasion of the Middle East. Turkey will lead Iran, Sudan, Libya and other nations in an invasion of Israel. Ezekiel 38 and 39 pinpoints these countries.
“The contours of the geopolitical landscape as described by the biblical prophets is coming into profound alignment,” says our filmmaker friend Joel Richardson. He goes on to say:
One of the profound signs I see is the rise of an Islamicist, nationalistic, antagonistic, aggressive and imperialistic Turkey. I would argue, based on Ezekiel 38–39, Daniel 8, Zechariah 9 and a handful of other passages, that we’d expect to see Turkey arise in the last days as a significant player and leader of the Middle East—and it could actually be the head of the coming coalition or empire of the Antichrist.
Daniel makes it very clear, if the entirety of his prophecy has end-times fulfillment, that we’d also expect to see a regional Iranian invasion essentially of Iraq, Syria and eventually Israel and the whole of the Middle East. In a lot of ways, that’s in the process of being fulfilled the past few years. We now have over 40,000 Iranian troops in Syria. They’ve also essentially taken over a large part of Lebanon through Hezbollah. As the United States continues to tighten the screws, the potential is for them to lash out in desperate measures like a wounded animal.10
Given what we will face in the end times, it is vitally important that we understand our real enemies and learn how to engage them in battle.
Retired U.S. Army Major General Robert F. Dees connects military intelligence with spiritual discernment:
At my command in Korea, we said, “Readiness never takes a day off on freedom’s frontier.” The point is, readiness never takes a day off for the warrior because we are always at war and we are always the subject of fighting in this eternal struggle. That suggests that it makes sense to be constantly getting ready, being ready and accessing our readiness.
Another important thing is IPB—that’s military lingo for Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield. IPB is a discipline on the intelligence side, so you do everything possible to learn about the enemy. Where is he? How strong is he? How well equipped? What’s his mental state? What’s his intent and capability? What does the terrain look like? What does the space you’re operating in look like, and how will that limit or advantage you?
The analogy to spiritual warfare is using some of these military principles to understand your spiritual adversary, and gaining insight and wisdom about how to deal with that adversary.11
A Closer Look at the Enemy
We have said that we must know and understand the enemy. In fact, we have at least three enemies that must be identified in order to defeat them. Let’s take a look at each one.
Sin
Our first real and lethal enemy is sin. I know it is not fashionable to talk about sin. We talk about “mistakes,” misguided judgment, disease (mental and emotional) and imperfections. But not knowing or understanding sin is a mistake and costly blunder for warriors. Sin is what got mankind in trouble in the first place, separating us from God. Remember the Garden of Eden?
And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Genesis 2:16–17
God told them not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What did they do? Eat the fruit. What happened? They died. And so do we. Notice, they did not die physically for another eight hundred years; but the moment they ate the fruit, they died in relationship to God, to each other, and to the world around them.
Sin kills our relationship to God and to each other. Sin is the reason for war, divorce, murder, hatred and all the other toxic ills of mankind. It is the reason there have been only 268 years of peace over the past 3,400 years of history. Sin is insidious.
At first, sin is a blast. Smoking your first joint, taking your first hit of cocaine, engaging for the first time in illicit sex—these and many other firsts can be the thrill of a lifetime. The problem is, over the years what you thought was fantastic now becomes the master. You cannot escape the addiction. It overpowers you and makes you bend the knee and pay homage to it.
The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.
Galatians 5:17 NLT
Sin wreaks havoc in this world all the time. We think we need more education, better politics, new governmental systems, better technology, upgraded computers and smartphones, yoga, visions, mysterious revelations, and a host of other nonsense. I know well-educated people who are stone-cold sinners. Sadly, all education does for some people is make them better and smarter at failing God.
Sin, simply stated, is the violation of God’s law. Adam and Eve sinned by not obeying His command concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The truth is, there is only one cure for sin. It is the blood of Jesus.
Jesus died on the cross (another tree) in order to bring us forgiveness of sins and restore our relationship with God. It is not how good a life you have lived, whether you keep the Ten Commandments, or if you gather to yourself all the good deeds in the world. First things first. Without accepting Christ’s atonement for your sins, you cannot be a warrior of God. Period.
It is so simple that we want to complicate it. But here it is in plain and simple English in the Bible: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
The Flesh
The flesh is our second lethal enemy. The flesh, according to the Bible, is not our body, but that part of us that is at war with God. “It is the rebellious, unruly and obstinate part of our inner self that is operative all the time,”12 writes Monsignor Charles Pope, pastor of Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian in Washington, D.C.
Most believers call this our sin nature. We are born with it. Don’t believe me? Go watch a two-year-old throw a temper tantrum because he did not get his way and you will see it firsthand. The Bible clearly defines the flesh in Galatians 5:19–21 (NASB):
Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
How do you defeat this sin nature? You don’t. Don’t worry—everyone tries and fails all the time. You cannot defeat the flesh with willpower, a plan, a discipleship program, or even self-discipleship. Victory comes only when you turn yourself over to the Holy Spirit every day. “‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty” (Zechariah 4:6).
There are plenty of self-help books available online or at bookstores. They are able to help make a better you (which, frankly, is not much!), but they never get to the root problem of sin, our sinful nature, or the war within.
Self-help is an “oxymoron” (apparently contradictory terms appearing together) in the sense that you cannot help something that is beyond your ability. The only real and abiding help available to you is through the Holy Spirit. Why did God allow the sin nature to stay with us after salvation? After all, He could have just obliterated it when we made our confession of Christ as Lord. But He chose to leave it within us.
For the past two thousand years, scholars have argued over whether believers retain the sin nature after being saved. We believe the act of becoming holy is both instantaneous in God’s eyes, and a lifelong process, so the struggle with sin is real. Why else would Paul write in Galatians 5:16–17:
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.
I think the real reason the sin nature is still in us on this earth is so that we can develop into strong people of God by making daily choices to avoid sin, to refuse to compromise truth, and to follow hard after Christ. Without these daily choices, there is no struggle, no warfare. With them, we face the daily challenge of choosing to please God with our lives.
I have heard many people say they would not have committed the sin Adam and Eve did, but would have chosen instead to eat of the fruit of the tree of life. I believe we have the same choices every day—whether we will follow God or self. We wake up and make choices, good or bad. What will I do today? Where will I go? How will I behave? Am I okay with going ahead and cutting some corners on my taxes or in that business decision? It will really help me financially.
Knowing we are at war makes a big difference in how we live. If we believe that life is something to drift through without worrying about how things turn out, then we will live a carefree, me-centered existence. Or if we live by our own wits, we will get through as best we can. Don’t be fooled. Most people live as if there are no rules, no consequences, no judgment. After all, if you believe in evolution and all this is accidental, why not live as though there is no tomorrow? That is why the psalmist states, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1).
The Devil
Our third real and lethal end-times enemy is the devil.
It is interesting to note that who you think your enemy is may not, in fact, be your real enemy at all. You may think your co-worker, spouse, relative or friend is wrecking your life or causing you misery. But your real enemy is the darkness behind the person, causing him or her to inflict pain in your life.
Some sophisticated people mock Christians who believe in a personal devil. There is darkness and evil in the world, however, in the form of an entity called Satan.
His name was Lucifer, according to the Bible, meaning “light-bearer” or “morning star.” The Bible says this about him in Ezekiel 28:12–15:
“You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: carnelian, chrysolite and emerald, topaz, onyx and jasper, lapis lazuli, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.”
God created a perfect, jeweled, beautiful angelic being. We cannot answer why or what caused wickedness to be found in him. We know that he rebelled against God (as we saw in the last chapter) and took one-third of the angels with him in the rebellion (see Revelation 12:4). Talk about Star Wars! We know that pride lifted up Lucifer’s heart and that he wanted to be higher than God. Look at this description in Isaiah 14:12–15:
How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit.
After successfully tempting Adam and Eve, God gave Lucifer control of the earth to administer and oversee. This is evident in Scripture with the temptation of Christ in the wilderness:
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
Matthew 4:8–10
Jesus rebuked the devil but never disputed his claim of ownership of the earth.
Satan is a powerful personal enemy, then, whom we cannot defeat on our own. But Jesus Christ defeated him at the cross and at the resurrection. He told the apostle John, “I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades” (Revelation 1:18).
For now, however, this planet is still under Satan’s full sway. And Revelation 12:11 offers the key to defeating this enemy: “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death” (KJV).
I know what will not defeat Satan: church social programs, special lighting, fog machines, hip music, social media, politics, more education. No, the ultimate weapons God has given us to defeat the enemy are the blood of the Lamb, the word of our own testimony, and a willingness to give up our lives (see Revelation 12:11).
The Word of God used rightly—“correctly [handling] the word of truth,” 2 Timothy 2:15—is another powerful weapon in our arsenal. Memorizing and quoting Scripture out loud can have a more devastating effect on our enemy than an M1A2 Abrams battle tank on the battlefield.
Another powerful weapon to use every day is singing songs of faith. Singing praise to God is another form of “the word of our testimony” and one of the most effective ways of ridding your soul of the enemy’s oppression and despair.
But even the most lethal equipment does no good unless we train to use it and focus its lethality on our enemies. It does no good to have a rifle or grenade launcher if we do not arm it and fire it at the enemy. So use the truth of the Gospel, the shed blood of Jesus on Calvary, the power of His resurrection, your own testimony of what Christ has done for you, the Word of God, and His praise in your mouth to defeat both internal and external enemies.
The society we live in is not our friend, nor is it a friend of Jesus Christ and His Gospel.
We have more to learn from David about defeating our enemy.
The year: about 1063 BC. The place: the Valley of Elah, fifteen miles southwest of Jerusalem. The armies: Israel under Saul against the Philistines, led by the warrior Goliath, about nine feet tall and wearing about 150 pounds of armor. When the army of Israel was challenged by the giant, no one in the ranks had the courage to face the brash, blasphemous warrior from Gath. Why was it that no one in the vast Israeli army could come up with a solution to defeat this adversary?
In the natural, it was impossible. All those experienced warriors under King Saul took counsel from their fears. After all, who in his right mind would stand up to this monster of a man who was obviously controlled by some fearsome dark forces? No, human knowledge and experience were not going to defeat the giant. David, the young shepherd, had been diligent every day in feeding, caring for and defending his flock against the lion and the bear. But even those were not enough to defeat the forces of darkness.
But David came with something else that nobody had. He had faith in God.
David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”
1 Samuel 17:45–47
David knew himself and his enemy. He knew that he could not defeat Goliath by himself. God would have to intervene.
Knowing yourself and your enemy is important, but it is also important to know your God. Every time you endeavor to follow hard after God and suit up for battle, there will be obstacles and obstructions—but He will make a way.
In review, let’s look at the military and Christian processes of “knowing your enemy” and how you can apply what you have learned in this chapter.
MILITARY PROCESS OF KNOWING THE ENEMY
BELIEVER’S PROCESS OF KNOWING THE ENEMY
Acquiring knowledge for its own sake will not benefit you or make you into a warrior. Countless thousands of Bible studies are taking place every day, but how much of that information is applied to change lives? Meditate, analyze, process and then apply these truths to your life—every day.
STRATEGIC SPIRITUAL EXERCISES
Here are some practical takeaways and exercises to help you defeat your enemies: