There is a little book that was written 600 years before Christ by a Chinese philosopher named Sun Szu.  He was so effective in battler that they began to call him The Sun Warrior.  It is said that in all of his battles, he never lost a single one.  This got me to thinking.

There is another book called The Bible.  The Bible also talks about warfare and battle. The New Testament talks about spiritual warfare and reminds us of some ways to defend ourselves in battle.  Spiritual Warfare is a very tricky matter.  Many of us are so blinded by Satan that we do not even realize we are in warfare.  Our very souls have already been captured by the enemy.  I see at least 6 principles we need to understand when we are engaging for battle in spiritual matters. 

(1) There is an invisible world that is just as real as the visible world.  We tend to accept as reality only those things that we can see, hear, touch, smell or taste.  We are a lot like Thomas who said, “unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were and place my hand into His side, I will not believe it.”   But when we begin to talk about that which is invisible, things that cannot be seen, heard, tasted or touched we begin to think those things are not real.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  While we live in this visible world, at the same time we also live in an invisible spiritual world.  

(2) Our invisible world has eternal consequences.  In the invisible world there is a conflict going on; a battle of the ages between good and evil, light and darkness, God and Satan.  There are satanic forces and there are heavenly forces and you and I are smack dab in the middle of the whole thing.

(3)  Our enemy is formidable and He has a plan for your life and mine.  We often use the phrase that God has a plan for our lives.  He does but let me also assure you that Satan does as well.   His plan is twofold [1] he has a plan to destroy us.  He is described in the book of John as the thief who comes to kill, steal and destroy.  It is his goal to destroy our spirit.  If you are a believer, he cannot destroy you however he can [2] discredit you.  He can discredit churches.  He can use people to create problems and division in churches so that when the world looks in on us their only question they are asking is “why would I want anything to do with the church?  Look at how they treat each other!” 

(4)  We must respect the enemy but we should not fear him.  We have to be aware of Satan’s tactics if we’re going to win the war.  He is called our adversary,     a liar and the accuser.  He attacks the church by using false religions, false pastors and false doctrine.  He attacks God’s people by persecuting believers, promoting division in the church and promoting pride.

(5)  He is powerful but He is also limited.  We should not underestimate the power of Satan but neither should we overestimate his power. 

(6)  We do not fight for victory; we fight from victory.  It’s like watching a prerecorded football game and  we already know the final score.  We are watching with complete confidence that our team is going to win.  Because we have already seen the end of the game.  As Christians we should read the last page of the book.  Revelation tells us that we will win in the end.  I am glad I have that victory in the future but am equally glad I have it today.