Spiritual Warfare — Research Resources

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Articles

• Spiritual Warfare — What It’s About by Robert Longman Jr. A balanced article.
  

  ‘Spiritual warfare’ is the struggle to have life in this material world reflect as much as possible God’s loving governance.

  It is a ‘war’ because there are forces working vigorously to thwart what God is doing. God is in charge, but there is an enemy that is in full-scale revolt, and it has powerful influence all around. As with the unseen God, the forces behind the revolt are unseen, non-physical, and supernatural. They lust after power in the world of visible, material beings. Just because the battle is unseen doesn’t mean it isn’t going on. It is. In every nook and cranny of our earthly existence. In deciding to follow Christ, the believer accepts the rulership of Christ in his/her life (that’s what’s meant when Jesus is called ‘Lord’ — His authority and rule). This New You yields the throne of the self to Jesus, but the Old You doesn’t like it one bit.

  The struggle against the Devil and all his empty promises is at its heart a ‘second Person’ matter, a work of Christ Himself. The Holy Spirit leads us in our part of the struggle.

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Books

• 99 Answers to Questions About Angels, Demons & Spiritual Warfare by B.J. Oropeza. A balanced treatment of topics some Christians sensationalize. Highly recommended.
  

  ESP, afterlife experiences, gurus and battles with supernatural forces. What is the reality behind these spiritual phenomena?

  How can we know what is fact and what is fiction? If the Bible is right and there are both good and evil spiritual beings, how do we tell the difference?
  – Source: Book description

Books — Online

• War on the Saints by Jessie Penn-Lewis with Evan Roberts. Jessie Penn-Lewis was one of the key figures involved in the Great Welsh Revival of 1904, and a close friend of Evan Roberts, the ‘leader’ of the revival. Odd fact: unlike other so-called ‘unabridged’ version, this version is truly unabridged — as explained here.

  Basically, the book has at various times been edited by various people who did not agree with Jessie Penn-Lewis’ contention that Christians can be ‘possessed’ by demons. It is a topic on which Christians can, and indeed do disagree, but it should not result in what essentially amounted — in the ‘abridged’ editions — to censorship by editing the original text.

  Note: the website that hosts the text of this book includes a ‘disclaimer’ titled, “We do not believe in women preachers.” However, the publishers of Apologetics Index believe that the Bible nowhere forbids any woman from serving God in any capacity He calls and prepares for her to fulfill.

  This ground-breaking work is by authors who learnt from the excesses of the Great Welsh Revival of 1904. The book’s premise is that there are counterfeit spiritual manifestations as well as godly, and that the Christian can be deceived, affected and manipulated by demons. This book is thus on spiritual discernment, spiritual warfare, spiritual gifts and revival.

  This is essential reading for every Christian, as the same things that are happening today at Toronto and Brownsville happened in 1904 in Wales. “There is nothing new under the sun’. However, Jessie Penn-Lewis and Evan Roberts write that they learned many of these spiritual manifestations are NOT FROM GOD.

  “The Hour of Revival is a time of crisis and few go through it without deception by the enemy. Bluntly, the Revival Hour is the occasion for evil spirits to fool the most spiritual believers into becoming deceived & possessed by evil spirits in their outer being through unwittingly accepting Satan’s counterfeits. The aftermath of the Revival in Wales, which was a true work of God, revealed many “honest souls’ swept off their feet by evil supernatural powers. This is a glimpse into the mixed manifestations which have come upon the Church, as where revival has broken forth, within a very brief period of time the counterfeit stream has mingled with the true; and true and false have been accepted together.”
  – Source: Book description of the printed version of War on the Saints at Amazon.com