Day 23

Spiritual Warfare

Deception is a powerful weapon. In sports, it is essential for defeating your opponent. Think about it.

In football, the defense disguises their coverages and blitzes.

The quarterback looks in one direction and then throws in another.

In volleyball, you have the fake spike.

In basketball, you have the pump fake, fake pass and the head fake.

Deception works.

Deception is effective in war as well. In WWII there was a massive disinformation campaign by the Allies to deceive the Nazis into believing things that weren’t true. The Allies deceived the Nazis into believing they were invading Europe at Calais instead of Normandy. As a result, the Nazis placed their strongest general and most powerful army 200 miles away from the Normandy Invasion. This deception was crucial for securing victory for the Allies.

When you get your enemy to believe something that isn’t true, you control them.

The Bible is clear: we have an enemy who wants to destroy us. His key weapon is deception. Jesus described Satan as, "a liar and the father of lies" (John 8:44). From the very beginning, Satan used deception to lead people away from life and toward death. He knows if he gets us to believe things that aren’t true, he can control us. The Bible gives us specific instructions about how to win this battle.

Today’s Challenge: 

1. Read 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 three times. Then set your timer for 60 seconds and focus on key words or phrases that stuck out to you in your reading. 
2. Answer the reflection questions.

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” - 2 Corinthians 10:3-5

Reflection Questions: 

1. What resonated with you from the passage? 
2. Why do you think the verse says to take every thought captive? What are some of the thoughts that regularly come to mind that you need to take captive? 
3. Paul talks about arguments and pretensions raised against the knowledge of God (i.e. lies). What do you think are some of the thoughts or "arguments" that have become strongholds in your mind that need to be deconstructed? Common ones are often related to negative self-talk (ie. I am worthless, God is done with me, I will never break free, etc.).

How do we win this war? Look at the last line…. "take captive every thought." Remember the word "captive" is from the word meaning "at spear point." We take every thought into custody and make sure it's leading us toward obedience to Christ.

The reality of spiritual warfare underscores the importance of soaking our minds regularly in the Word of God. If you have not established the habit of daily Bible reading and prayer, it is a must to win the battle of the mind.