Spiritual Warfare Is More Than Just Rebuking Satan - Rick Rhodes

You have problems with people; you don't use the weapon of resisting. You use the weapon of love. When you have a bad circumstance, don't use the weapon of resisting; you use the weapon of rejoicing. Uh, when there is a satanic attack, then we use the weapon of resisting. And I think, as we understand the weapons and when to use them, that makes a huge difference. Um, and when you don't do that without knowing the truth about who God is.

Well, Rick Rhodes, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Uh, so a little bit of background before we jump into today's topic. So you served on the mission field in Grenada for a number of years. You lived in Thailand for a number of years and taught at IGO. You've spoken in a lot of different places, and the topic we're doing today is requested, I think, a fair bit. I've definitely had people ask me about this and so forth. And that's the topic of spiritual warfare, which is a huge topic. And obviously, we won't cover everything here, but I'd love to get your take on this because I think you teach like a multi-part series on this, and of course, people can look that up if they want to learn more.

But let's just jump right in with the basics. What is spiritual warfare? To me, spiritual warfare is the reality that we're not just physical beings. It's not just what you can see. Uh, one point in Scripture, Paul says, you know, I pray, God, your whole spirit, soul, and body. So he's talking to, you know, to people, to one, so spirit, soul, and body. So I believe that I am a spirit.

I possess a soul, which is mind, will, and emotion. Okay. Uh, and this having a spirit is what sets us as as people apart from all the rest of creation. Okay. Animals have a soul in that they have mind, will, emotions, but they don't have a spirit. They're not eternal beings like we are, uh, and can't connect with God like that with that spirit. So I am a spirit. I have a soul. I live in a body.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. So when I die, this body is going to stay here. My spirit isn't confined to this. Okay. So I am a spirit. I have a soul. I live in a body. And so spiritual warfare just identifies the reality of that, that we're more than just physical beings, more than just what's here. We're not, uh, I think the proper term in philosophy is like a materialist, where it's just all you can see is material creation, and there's nothing else here. Correct. Just that's it. Um, okay. So you have this series, uh, on spiritual warfare, and it's called We Win, which I love that title. Uh, but can you explain what what do you mean by that title?

What are you talking about there? So, you know, first of all, for myself, in, uh, in serving in different countries and facing a lot of warfare, and sometimes you feel over your head and in fighting battles that you don't win and you feel like you're lost or whatever it may be. So just in my own study, as I've come and studied scripture and realized, you know what the truth is about spiritual warfare?

God's the winner. When you open scripture, in the beginning, God, so he was there, he was sovereign in Genesis 1. You come to the end, even so, Lord Jesus, come, you know, amen. God is sovereign. And when we're on God's team, we win.

Too often, spiritual warfare gives the picture that we're going to talk about demons and darkness, and we're going to be afraid, and don't let the children listen to this one because they'll have bad dreams. And the focus isn't on victorious Christians. But when I read scripture, I see that's what it is. So that's why, in developing this series, uh, we have titled it We Win. And let me just talk about this series, and that will give you a picture, uh, of of how I perceive spiritual warfare. So the series has eight messages. Uh, we do about eight 20-minute messages, so it gives good time that people can use them as small groups and and go through the series.

Uh, the first session is is entitled This Is War. And in that session, I define what the battle is. So, uh, four key concepts about spiritual warfare that we need to understand. Uh, and again, we do this so we so we understand what is warfare, so we know how to fight, and so on. So the first concept is this: the number one tool of the enemy is fear. In spiritual warfare, the number one tool of the enemy is fear.

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a power of love and a sound mind. The tool that the enemy uses is fear. You talk to almost any Christian, you say, what's the number one thing that keeps you from evangelizing? Hmm. Fear. Yeah. And for most Christians, it's an unrealistic fear. Like, what's the worst thing that happened to you because of evangelism? Now, I know some people have been persecuted, have been, uh, stabbed, shot, persecuted for witnessing, but most people, including myself, our fear of it isn't because somebody tried to kill me when I witnessed. You know, I had people, you know, holler at me and call me bad names because of my skin color and that type of thing when I witnessed, but that's as bad as it's been.

Fear. The number one tool of the enemy is fear. So that's a first concept we understand about spiritual warfare. The second concept we understand is the primary battleground in spiritual warfare is the mind. Hmm. Where are most of our battles with fear fought? In the mind. So the primary battleground in spiritual warfare, it's not out there. It's in the mind. That's where we face fear. Okay. The third aspect of spiritual warfare is the number one assignment of the spirits of darkness is to darken the mind. They want to darken the mind. Because when our minds are darkened, when we do not think clearly, we do not believe truth, we've been darkened, that's when we're going to do crazy things.

You know, think about, uh, in our world today with abortion.

Why do we defend a mother murdering a child that's in her womb? But if the baby is out of her womb, then you're in trouble because that's murder. It's—there's a heartbeat before it's born, but that's not murder. After it's born, that is—like, how do we get there? It's a darkening of the mind. And you think about where our world is at with—that's just one example of many—a darkening of the mind. So that's the number one assignment of the spirits of darkness. It's to darken the mind. Because when our minds are darkened, we're going to do all sorts of things that are not in line with how God created us to be. So the number one assignment, spirits of darkness, darken the mind.

And then the fourth concept is the primary issue in spiritual warfare is obedience. Interesting. Paul says, "Don't you know that whoever you yield yourself servants to obey, whose you are, to whom you obey?" The primary issue in spiritual warfare is obedience. Who you obey. Mm-hmm. And that this all ties together. The number one assignment, or the number one tool is fear. Primary battleground is the mind. Number one assignment, spirits of darkness, is to darken the mind. And then the primary issue is obedience. I'm going to obey who I'm listening to. So in my mind, the voice that I'm listening to, whose voice I'm following, that matters. Now, some people say, "So if obedience is the primary issue, uh, is that legalism?"

Okay. Legalism takes obedience and love and separates them, champion obedience. The opposite of legalism is antinomianism, which takes obedience and love, separates them. And that's a word, uh, I think coined by Martin Luther, where there's no need for a moral law or anything. Uh, so antinomian separates, uh, obedience and love champions love. You know, just love. It doesn't matter what you do. Okay. That's a ditch. Both of those are ditches.

In God's word, you never find obedience and love separated. If you love me, keep my commandments. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, but don't do what I say? Obedience matters. We all are obeying somebody. Either we're obeying God or obeying self. We're slaves to self.

So the primary issue in spiritual warfare is obedience. So that's what we lay out just in that first, in the first session. Um, and then the next three sessions, we take one and identify each of the three, in lack of a better term, the three players or people in spiritual warfare. We have God, we have Satan, our enemy, and then it's us. Okay. So session two is titled Our Victorious Leader. And we look at who God is. So three words that describe God. He's omnipotent. He has all power. He's omniscient. He has all knowledge. And he's omnipresent. He's everywhere present. He can see everything.

It's amazing how many people, when we start talking about spiritual warfare, give those three attributes to the devil. I was just about to say, it feels like you just hit on something that is fundamental Orthodox Christianity that is not really talked about when we talk about spiritual warfare. I'm not really sure where we're missing the boat there on that, but it feels like we do give an enormous amount of power to Satan, which is powerful, evil, God, all that. But where's those characteristics of God? Bringing that into the conversation. I think you're, yeah, you're onto something there. So we start with, so after we outline, here's what the battle looks like. Uh, now let's look at God.

We start with him in spiritual warfare. To me, a proper study in spiritual warfare, let's understand the battle, then let's start with God. Look at who he is. So he's all-powerful. He's all-knowing, and he's everywhere present. And that's whose child I am. That's who I'm serving. Wow. Yeah. That's where we start. So we understand that in scripture. Then our third session is on our deceptive enemy.

And the reason we title that a deceptive enemy is because the only weapon our enemy has to people is the lie. The truth is he's a defeated foe. The truth is that as a child of God, I'm his, and there's nothing he can do to take me from him. So his only weapon to us is the lie. Therefore, he uses the weapon of fear. He tries to darken the mind. He tells us lies, and if we believe his lies, that gives him the opportunity to—we're going to, if we believe his lies, then we're not going to agree with truth. We're going to do things that we shouldn't. It's going to take us away. But as long as I know truth and stay, I won't be deceived by him.

So a deceptive enemy, uh, three characteristics of the enemy: he is proud, rebellious, and selfish. Proud, rebellious, and selfish. And I think you can take every temptation or sin, and it'll link somewhere back to one of those three. Proud. Pride is the opposite of reality.

Okay. Oh, that's interesting. I've never heard that one before. Pride's a loss of reality. Wow. Okay. Hmm. Reality is—truth is reality. It's what really is. Mm-hmm. And Jesus is truth. Mm-hmm. Reality. Pride is a loss of reality. Okay. Uh, selfishness is the opposite of love.

Mm-hmm. Love is selfless. You know, God loved us first. He sent his Son to die. God loved us. Satan is selfish. There is no love in him. He is totally the opposite of love. Okay. So God is love. Satan is selfish. You know, God is truth. Satan is proud. And the last one, he's rebellious. He's against all authority, where God is the ultimate authority. And as a Christian, we need to submit to our authorities. Scripture says, you know, obey them to have the rule of you. Submit yourselves for they watch for your souls. As they say, they must give an account that they may do with joy, not with grief, for that's unprofitable for you.

You know, you know, Satan's rebellious, and he wants me to rebel against my authority. He thinks I can do it myself. So those three words describe him. We look at that at session three, and then the fourth session. And often this one can be the most powerful is is our identity in Christ.

And we look at who we are in Christ. In Ephesians 1, Paul gives nine spiritual blessings to us as believers, which are powerful. Just to name a couple, we've been adopted by God. We're his treasure. The three words that I give for us in that session is, I have been planned by God. God had a plan for me in creating me. He created me. I didn't choose to be born. I didn't choose when, all these things. Okay. So I've been planned by God. I've been pursued by God. Only Christianity can say that our God pursued us first. All other religions, it's man trying to please God. It's man trying to reach out. Ooh, that's an important piece.

Yes. So we have a God who pursued us. I've been planned by God. I'm pursued by God, and then I'm purchased by God. You've been bought with the price. Therefore, glorify God. So, uh, I've been purchased by God, so I'm his. So when we understand who we are and who we are, that just brings so much clarity about, uh, about spiritual warfare. Okay. And again, so we've gone through four sessions. One of those four was on our enemy, and that's a pretty good perspective. We do need to know who he is. Like Paul said, let's not be ignorant of his devices.

Mm-hmm. So be careful for pride, rebellion, selfishness. Um, but like Paul said, we are in a battle, and we're not going to war after the flesh, but our enemy is, you know, powers, principalities, spiritual rulers. So we do have an enemy, but we don't champion him as we study spiritual warfare. So, so we're halfway through the series. We've understood the battle. We've understood who our leader is. We understand who our enemy is. We understand who we are. And then in sessions five and six, a title that puts your armor on. And we take Ephesians 6, Mm-hmm, and we're given the armor. And contrary to what we often can think, the armor that Paul presents is primarily defensive.

Hmm. It's all for our protection. Now, there is the sword of the Spirit, but a sword, and again, he's using these pictures, a sword is a very short-ranged weapon. And often it's used to weld off the blows that are coming. So we put on our armor. That's our defensive armor. Okay. And we'll teach what those are through those. Then we come to sessions seven and eight, and those are titled, this is how we fight. Okay. This is how we fight. And in those, I address our spiritual weapons, our offensive weapons.

Paul says this in Second Corinthians 10. He says, for though we walk in the flesh, we don't war after the flesh. And then he says, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are mighty to God through the pulling down of strongholds. So we have weapons.

And one of the reasons why I do a lot of teaching on this subject, and I care a lot about it, is it's very clear in scripture that we are in spiritual warfare. There is a battle, and we do have an armor to put on. And most people are familiar with that. But when it comes to weapons, many people don't know what our weapons are. So, yeah, I'm over here being like, hmm, I'm trying to think if I've heard much even conversation about that. Like, it feels like it's easy to get kind of fixated or pulled off on other things and lose this, lose this piece. Interesting. So, yeah, this piece I got as a young missionary pastor in Grenada.

And I'm there, uh, dealing with things that I feel like over my head. And a co-missionary gave me Otto Cone's series called The Pineapple Story. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Classics. Great stuff. And when I heard his teaching, hmm, on the weapons of our warfare, it's like, he's onto something. And so as I dug into that, I found it very helpful in my life. As I began to put it into practice, it works. And so I want to make sure I address it up front here. Uh, as I heard Otto teach this, and it's like, that's right. And what he laid out and what I have studied and found in scripture is that five weapons that were given throughout scripture.

Okay. And they're throughout scripture, they're there. It's not all in one chapter like the armor is in Ephesians 6, you know, 10 to 18. There it all is. Okay. The five weapons that he gives, and this is so important for us to know, we need to understand what weapon we need to use and when do we use it. Okay. So the first weapon he gives is the weapon of rejoicing.

And you use that weapon when you have bad circumstances. So something bad happens. And the scriptural basis for that, First Corinthians or First Thessalonians 5:18, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

The natural man, without the power of God, in a bad circumstance complains, grumbles. It takes the grace of God. It takes supernatural strength to, when something bad happens, to genuinely and honestly say, I'm going to praise God anyways.

That's our first weapon. Bad circumstances, praise God. The second weapon is the weapon of resisting. And this is really the only weapon that people tend to think of with spiritual warfare. Right. And that's the weapon we use that when we have satanic attacks. And how do you know if it's a satanic attack? What's his number one tool? Fear.

Okay. So if I'm dealing with fear, strong, like fear, I need to rebuke the devil. Okay. Uh, or if there's, you know, if there's a strong pool of temptation in in any of those areas that are reflected in the pride, selfishness, or rebellion. Um, but with satanic attacks, you use resisting. And Peter said this, be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion.

So it's not a house cat. He gives a picture of a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he can devour. This isn't a subject that we take lightly. And I don't want to minimize the power of the enemy because he's a roaring lion. He's looking to destroy us. And he's very patient. He's diligent in watching us to learn about our weaknesses and then destroy us. So what's he say to do? Uh, he walks about seeking whom he can devour. Then it says, whom resist steadfastly in the faith.

So we resist him. We use the power of resisting. And when you use the power, the weapon of resisting, you need to do it verbally. Because Satan is a fallen angel. He does not have those three attributes of God that we addressed. He is not all-knowing, omnipresent, or omniscient, all-powerful. He can't read our minds. Now we wrestle with that one because where do we face most of our temptations? In our mind. So it's like he can see our mind. No, he can't read our minds. Somehow, and I don't ask me how to explain how it works, but somehow he can he can shoot these thoughts at our minds. Somehow we're tempted in our mind, but he can't read our minds.

So when only God can do that because only God is all-knowing. Angels can't read our minds. So Satan can't. Okay. No one in scripture does it give him that power that he is omniscient, that he knows everything like God does. So when we resist, you got to do it verbally. You don't have to shout and yell, but you do do it verbally. You can pray to God silently. He can hear your mind. Satan can't. So that's a weapon of resistance. Third weapon is a weapon of love.

And you use that when you have problems with people. But I say unto you, Jesus said, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Do good to those that hate you and despitefully use you.

That's a weapon. Yeah, that's a Christian's weapon. When you've got problems with people, don't use the weapon of resisting. Use the weapon of love. And when you use the weapon of love, that's you're dealing with it God's way. Um, so that's that's a powerful one. And um, we don't have time for all the stories, but uh, we could give stories of personally hearing this and then using it. It's like, wow, it works. Uh, the weapon of love. Then the fourth weapon is the weapon of prayer. And Paul says this at the end of giving the armor. He says, praying always. Mm-hmm. And that reminds us of our dependency on God. So we're going to be quick to pray as we're going throughout the day.

That's a weapon of prayer. When God brings somebody to your mind, you pray for them. There was a a a a brother in Nepal that I've been there and teaching a leadership seminary, met him or and it's like a great guy. And months later, I had a dream about him. I was like, wow, it's terrible. And I woke up and just prayed for him, prayed for him. And then when I went to my office the next day, I thought, oh, I'm just going to check in and see how this brother's doing. So I sent him an email. I said, how are you doing? I had a dream about you last night and felt burdened to pray for you.

It was a few days till I heard from him. And when I heard from him, here he was going through a very intense struggle. And it's like, you know what? God was prompting me through this dream to pray for this brother that he can make through that weapon of prayer. Uh, we use that. Then the fifth one is the weapon of meditation. And you find this throughout scripture. In Psalm 1, it talks about uh, about meditating. In Deuteronomy, he says, meditate on the word of God. Uh, and that's a meditation. As we put truth, the word of God in our mind, we can meditate on. And that enables us to focus on what is true, what is right.

So those are the weapons that we use in spiritual warfare. And it's important to know those weapons and to know when to use them. Mm-hmm. So when we're thinking about something like spiritual warfare, there are so many different opinions and perspectives on this, right? It's almost like conjured up a life of its own at some point, and you start getting into crazy land a little bit, it seems like sometimes, like all these ideas. I'm not even sure how to quite ask this, but one of the things that I feel like I've run into a lot is this, what I call, I don't know if there's a better way of saying it, but you know, a demon behind every bush, you know, they're out to grab you.

Any little thing, they'll get their talons in you. And are we are we looking at the wrong thing here? Like, are we getting way too fixated on the evil side of things? Are we giving Satan too much uh, authority? Or is there something to that? Yeah. You know, I'm not even entirely sure how to say it because it's kind of hard to package all this up. But you know, you hear this stuff, right? So I believe in looking at spiritual warfare, like many things, there's two distinct ditches that we get into. Okay. Uh, and that first ditch is, like you're saying, there's a demon behind every bush. Mm-hmm. So if, you know, if I believe that anything bad that happens, the devil's behind it, and and God's plan for me is a perfect life and everything's going to be good.

And there's groups of Christians out there that think like that. Okay. We think we should still be in the Garden of Eden, and we forget that. No, we sin. There are consequences for sin. And one day we're going to be in heaven. We're going to get back to being what it should be. But until then, uh, we're going to have some, we're going to suffer because of our consequences and our choices. Um, so for somebody with this ditch of a demon behind every bush, you're driving to work and you have a flat tire. You're like, see, the devil didn't want me to go to work, you know, or maybe even I'm driving to church or I'm going to go witness and I have a flat tire.

We're like, see, the devil's behind that. And what do you do? You get out and you rebuke the devil. And guess what happens? Most times your tire's still flat. So you got to get the spare out. You got to change it, right? Mm-hmm.

Anything bad, we rebuke the devil. Sometimes the devil's behind it. Sometimes not. I've been speaking. Projector just doesn't work. It's crazy. Okay. We'll just pray. And if the devil's behind us, we rebuke him. And if not, we're just going to go on without it. Sometimes it works. Like, wow, the devil was behind it. Other times, no, I'm just going to have to preach without the projector. Okay. So when people, when people have this belief of a demon behind every bad thing, and often they champion one weapon, the weapon of resisting. Yeah, that's a good point. It doesn't always work. Okay. So I've got a, I've got a bad circumstance. I use the weapon of resisting because as a Christian, I shouldn't have any bad circumstances.

I don't find a place in scripture for that. Hmm. And then what can happen is we can look on at somebody in that ditch and we're like, see, there's no such thing to spiritual warfare. And then we flip to the other ditch. And this tends to be where most of of our churches end up is this ditch of, well, spiritual warfare that's kind of blown up too much. Let's just, let's just do our thing. And we be, we live in ignorance of the spiritual warfare that's going on around us. We live in ignorance of the battle. And, and that's also not right. Like Paul said, we do have an enemy and it isn't flesh and blood.

And he said, there are weapons and we need to learn how to use these. So, so we need to balance those out. And, and to me, the reality is we don't champion the demon, the devil. We don't champion the powers of darkness. Uh, but we just understand we do have an enemy, but we do have a victorious leader. And here's how, here's how we can live in victory. Uh, when we understand our weapons, we know when to use them. It gets confusing when we have problems with people. Mm-hmm. And we use the weapon of resisting.

It gets confusing when bad circumstances and we use the weapon of resisting. The bad circumstances stay there. Okay. There are times when it is a direct attack from the enemy and we need to use the weapon of resisting. And again, I could tell you stories, stories of that. Uh, we just stopped at church service in Grenada. I think of a specific time.

Prayed. Like there just was an unrest there and it was just, pause. We're going to rebuke the devil. We don't have to yell. We don't have to loud. We just rebuke Satan in the name of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We command him to flee from this place so we can hear the word of God. And it was amazing the change that happened. There are times when we need to use that. Uh, but when we have a bad circumstance, what did Paul and Silas do in prison when they had a bad circumstance? They're beaten for the faith. They're thrown in prison.

And it says at midnight, they began to praise. They began to sing and to praise God. They used the weapon of rejoicing in bad circumstances. And look what happened. And when we as Christians understand, okay, God is sovereign. This bad circumstance isn't too much for him. And God, I'm just going to praise you anyways. Does Satan want us to praise God? Never. So what if, what if he's behind every bad circumstance that happens to me today?

And I choose, instead of resisting him, I choose to praise God. Isn't that still a win? Like when he, so if the bad, if the flat tire's from the devil or not, if I praise God, he lost. And if there is a spirit of fear with a bad circumstance, maybe the enemy's behind this, I'll go ahead and resist him. But then I'm going to go ahead and praise God and fix the tire, you know, turn on the projector, whatever I need to do. But we need to understand that. I think when we don't have a good understanding of the weapons, that's where we can end up to fall in these two ditches. And I almost feel like, uh, what do I do now?

Oh, it's the devil's fault or something. Yeah. You know, like you feel almost trapped or something. Yes. Yeah. Hmm. That, and I think that's a really important piece because then it's like, ah, I think that's the part I've struggled with is almost like it's giving too much attention sometimes to Satan, or maybe presuming he has all this power over our lives. And it's like, and maybe there's points where that's true, but I love how you're saying, well, what if we just turn that around and use it for rejoicing? Yes. You know, um, that's turning the focus back to God, right? Yes. Yeah. Well, okay. So this is another one that's maybe a bit out there and, and, and so forth.

But when people get fixated on the demon behind every bush, whatever, and oh, it's the occult and all these, I don't know, secret societies or the deep state or whatever, and it's Satan controlling worldly empires, and you could start going down some kind of wild places really fast. Um, it's almost like Satan is out there just pulling all the strings and everything else is puppets. Um, are we barking up the wrong tree? Like, is that a way of avoiding issues in our own lives personally that maybe we should deal with, or we're just getting our attention is pulled the wrong direction? It just feels like I've seen this and I'm not, I'm not sure this is the right direction to go.

I agree. We are barking up the wrong tree when we do that. Our job is not to study the enemy. Uh, that's a good point. We, we need to know, okay, so who is he? Uh, he's proud, selfish, rebellious. Mm-hmm. Um, but our job isn't to study him. Our job, and, and even the different groups that he works through, we don't need to be fear about all this. No, our job is to study truth and to stand on truth. Because if I know who God is and I know what his word says and I know who I am in Christ, I can walk in victory. And what's Satan going to do to me? He's going to lie to me.

But if I know truth, I won't believe it. I won't make an agreement with it. And that's key. Uh, and, and what can happen when Paul said that for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty to God through the pulling down of strongholds. How do strongholds come? Strongholds, I believe, come from when we make an agreement with the enemy.

So when the enemy says, Rick, you're a loser, you're no good, you'll never amount to anything. Mm-hmm. And unfortunately, uh, there are way too many people who have had that said to them by an authority in their life or whatever. And is it true that you're no good, that you'll never amount to anything? No. But what happens when you agree with that?

Uh, okay, you made an agreement with the enemy. I'm no good. I'll never amount to anything. That affects how you live. That affects your view of yourself. Uh, and who are you agreeing with? You're not agreeing with God. No, God has a plan for me. God's got a purpose for me. Uh, when you're agreeing with the enemy and you continue to live out of that, there's a stronghold there. Uh, so what happens then is, and, and this is how spiritual warfare in a sense gets played out in a deeper level then is if I've believed a lie and I've made an agreement with there, rebuking the devil doesn't take care of that. I can rebuke the devil all I want.

You know, I rebuke you, Satan, you get out of my life and stop bothering me. But if I do that all the while agreeing with him, I'm no good, I'll never amount to anything, or whatever the lie may be that I'm believing. If I continue to agree with that, uh, I've made an agreement, like as I'm shaking his hands and rebuking him and saying, okay, God, why don't you get him out of my life? Well, I'm saying, God, you're wrong. I'm saying he's right. So what we need to do is we need to acknowledge the lie that we've been believing about ourself, maybe about somebody else or about life or about God. Okay.

How can you be good, God, when my mother-in-law died of cancer? You know, whatever it may be, a hard thing. And we can say, how can God be good? Well, God said he's good. If I start to believe that God isn't good, I'm saying, God, you are wrong. Satan is right. Mm-hmm. How am I going to live victoriously if I don't believe God's good? So, so what, so as we, as this is how spiritual warfare works itself out. When I make an agreement with the enemy of a lie, that's his only power is a lie. Uh, and I continue to live in that. I create a, there's a stronghold in my life. And the way we tear them down is by acknowledging the lie, confess it as sin.

I've been saying, God, you're wrong. Mm-hmm. Satan's right. No, Satan is wrong. It is not true. God is good. I will agree with you. Or God, you do have plans for me. Confess the lie as sin and then replace it with truth. What is the truth in this situation? Mm-hmm. What is the truth about me? What's the truth about God or whatever it may be?

And then agree with truth. That's how we tear down strongholds. And Satan will attack that again. No, see, Rick, you're no good. Okay, stop. What did God say? God says he has a plan. Okay. And continue to agree with truth. That's how we tear down strongholds.

Paul says in that same passage, he says, and taking into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. It really matters what we think in our mind. Again, the primary battleground spiritual warfare is the mind. So we've got to win that battle in our mind. Am I going to believe Satan's lies? If I do, I can't walk in victory. And, and it's simply a matter of, of what I believe. If, if I'm agreeing with him, uh, these thoughts, I'm not taking captive. So I'm, I'm listening to the temptation, whatever it may be. Uh, I'm not going to walk in victory. I'm not going to walk in freedom. I'm not going to have a piece of God.

Uh, so I've got to take those thoughts captive, make sure they're in obedience of Christ. And I'm going to, it matters what I think. I'm going to agree with truth. That's why it's the, the, the over, the overall theme is no truth, agree with truth. Mm-hmm. That to me is how, how spiritual warfare is fought out. It's not just going around and rebuking demons. It's continuing to agree with God. God, I'm going to agree with you. I'm going to agree with truth.

And it could be easy to lose that if we get all tangled up in, oh, this horrible thing is happening here in the occult, this and all that. And, and like you were saying, like almost like just getting fixated on the devil instead of saying, wait, what's truth and focusing on God? Yeah. Yeah. That, yeah. Keep the balance or like keep the things in proper order. And sometimes people wrestle. So how do I know if, if, if it's of the devil or, you know, God, you know what? You don't have to figure that out.

We don't have to worry about that. Okay. If Satan's behind it, like if there's a strong, if there's a spirit of fear, uh, if some, if it's a lie, that's from the devil. Okay. I'll rebuke him. Uh, but then I'm going to agree with truth. Hmm. And I'm going to do what God has said. So it's not like we have to figure out, is this of God or not? No. Uh, I'm what's true? I'm going to agree with truth. And if it's a bad circumstance, you know, so if it's a bad circumstance, the devil's trying to stop me. I'm going to keep agreeing with truth. I'm going to do what God wants me to do.

And it takes away that pressure that I've got to figure all this out. No, agree with truth. Agree with truth. Don't believe a lie. Is that true? Sometimes we need others to speak into our life, say, no, that's not true. Sometimes we'll just get it right out of the word of God. Uh, but that's where it's at. Not fixating on the different things the enemy's using. Mm-hmm. So we've covered a lot of pieces here. What is to take this whole package, right? And practically for our listeners, what's something they can do right now? Mm-hmm. No truth. Uh, so stay in the word of God. No truth. And specifically about who God is.

Mm-hmm. What I find alarming is it's amazing how many, can I say mature Christians, Christians who have been raised in a Christian home in the church, when a bad circumstance comes along, they'll say this, I'm really struggling with believing that God is good because of, you know, this hard time we're going through.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. We are just questioning God's character because of a bad circumstance. Mm-hmm. I think we need to spend more time studying God's character so that we are so confident in who he is that when a bad circumstance comes, it's like, no, God hasn't left me. God hasn't forsaken me. That's how Joseph was faithful to God. Is sovereign. God is with me. God is working for my good. You see it in Joseph's story.

You know, was he questioning God's goodness? I don't think so. Uh, so to me, practically speaking, know the truth about who God is. Know who the enemy is, but you don't need to study him. We just know who he is. Know who you are in Christ and then just stand on these truths. Stand on the truth. Uh, make sure we know our armor. And Ephesians 6 lays it out very easy for us to get put on that armor. And, and then again, know our weapons and use them. That's practically to me how we can do this. Don't get distracted either. I think it's, it seems like that's a thread that's kind of running through here, right?

Like what are you focused on? Yeah. You know? Yeah. Any, any study in spiritual warfare, if it champions the enemy, if it makes you fearful, that's the wrong focus. Yeah. It should give us confidence. It should bring him out a degree of soberness. He's a roaring lion seeking whom he will devour. But then in a sense of peace in that God, I'm yours. Mm-hmm. I've been pursued by you. I've been purchased by you. I'm yours. And I'm going to continue to agree with you. Mm-hmm.

So as we wrap it up and tie all the pieces together, uh, is there any last things you want to leave with the audience? Yes. Again, just study truth. No truth. Mm-hmm. And pay attention to weapons. Uh, many people, the weapons may be a new concept. Uh, and think about it this way. When you go hunting, it matters what you're hunting, what weapon you use.

So I can grab my boys' pellet gun and go in our backyard or in our woods and shoot a squirrel, uh, because they're eating my bird seed. Uh, when I want to get deer, go deer hunting. If I grab the pellet gun, it'll never work, right? Uh, it matters the weapon. So it does for us. You have problems with people. You don't use the weapon of resisting. You use the weapon of love. When you have a bad circumstance, don't use the weapon of resisting. You use the weapon of rejoicing. Uh, when there is a satanic attack, when, when he is attacking the enemy, then we use the weapon of resisting. And I think as we understand the weapons and when to use them, um, that makes a huge difference.

Um, and, and when you don't do that without knowing the truth about who God is, when I know who God is, okay, God, I can rejoice right now, even if I'm in a very bad circumstance. You know, so get in the word of God, know him, champion truth, uh, know what your weapons are, know how to use them. And you don't have to live in fear. And you can live in peace and in victory. And that's how I believe what, what God intended for us to do. God has not given us a spirit of fear. Number one tool of the enemy is fear. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and a sound mind.

Mm-hmm. You know how much struggle today is, how many issues are with in our minds and, and all these times. Where do we get that? By knowing truth and agreeing on truth. Mm-hmm. That's a powerful piece to end it with as we, yeah, look at topics like this. It is pretty easy to get fearful and focused on the wrong things. And I really appreciate you taking the time to share this. And I'm really hoping this will help the audience have a good perspective and, and approach these things with hope at yes who God is. Yes. You know, who God is and, um, and not, not be fearful. So thanks for coming on and sharing today.

You're welcome. Thanks for listening to this episode with Rick Rhodes on the topic of spiritual warfare. If you found this interesting, you might want to check out this episode we did with Kyle Stalspus on the spiritual value of risk and failure. We also regularly publish essays, which you can find on our website. You can subscribe through email or find them in audio form as a podcast. This and everything we've made over the years can be found on our website at anabaptistperspectives.org. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you in the next episode.