Spiritual Warfare (1/2)

One of the biggest questions we had before launching to the field, and one of the biggest questions we still get from people preparing to go, is about spiritual warfare. Is it real? What does it look like? How should I respond to it?

We are by no means experts on this topic, but this post is adapted from the simple introduction and training we do as a part of our new staff orientation for people coming to Thailand. The first post is about spiritual realities and warfare, and the cultural lenses we bring into understanding this topic. The second post is about how to prepare against spiritual attack, how to know when spiritual warfare is happening, and best practices for how to engage in it.

Spiritual warfare can look very different in different places and with different people. This post isn’t meant to be all-encompassing, and some people may disagree with our perspective on it. We all have the lens of our own experiences, but for us, we try to reconcile what we experience with the unchanging foundation of the Word of God. Thankfully, Scripture actually has plenty to say about the Enemy, spiritual realities, and spiritual warfare.

The Reality of Spiritual Warfare

The topic of spiritual warfare can bring up a variety of responses – some good, and some bad. 

Some will hear about forces of evil and fear it. 2 Timothy 1:7 tells us that “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control,” so we reject fear and embrace the power we have in Christ.

Others will reject this reality, and some will become engrossed by it. C.S. Lewis says, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves (the devils) are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”

We want to approach this topic sober-minded, with Scripture as the foundation. A lot of our ideas about spiritual warfare have probably been poorly informed by what we see in TV shows and movies.

Ephesians 6:10-20 is one of the clearest passages that describes the reality of spiritual warfare.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. [11] Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. [12] For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. [13] Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. [14] Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, [15] and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. [16] In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; [17] and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, [18] praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, [19] and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, [20] for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

Ephesians 6:10-20

There’s plenty of great commentaries on this passage, so we won’t break it down here. Put simply, Paul tells us that our struggle is not against physical, flesh and blood opponents, but against cosmic powers, spiritual forces of evil, and schemes of the devil. This reality is repeated again and again throughout Scripture – there will be a list of passages at the end for people to consider.

Secondly, Paul tells us that we are to combat these forces by standing firm with the armor of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with perseverance. Thirdly, he connects the response to spiritual warfare with his ministry of proclamation of the gospel.

For leaders on the mission field, it’s essential to help your team understand and be prepared to face spiritual realities and spiritual warfare – for themselves but also for the work of ministry they want to engage in. Too often, we see missionaries who are not well prepared for the field, but even for those who have gone through training and preparation, this category of preparation is missing. There can be theological, cultural, ministry, and character training which is all great, but without being able to engage in spiritual warfare, it’s like being the most well-equipped fish fighting an enemy on dry land.

The Excluded Middle

Another aspect that keeps most Westerners blind to the realities of spiritual warfare has to do with our worldview and ethnocentrism – essentially the idea that we evaluate other cultures through the preconceptions and lens of our own culture’s standards and customs. Paul Hiebert was a leading missiological anthropologist that coined the term, ‘the Excluded Middle,’ that helps us to understand our own biases and why we might be missing some of the spiritual realities that many other cultures understand and live in daily.

The Modern Worldview, which most of us from the West will have, stems from the Enlightenment and is based heavily on empirical science and data. In general, those with the Modern Worldview may accept the ‘high supernatural’ realities like God, angels, and demons, but we assume those reside in the detached ‘heavens.’ Our natural world doesn’t interact much with that reality, meaning there is an Excluded Middle zone where we don’t engage with these spiritual realities on a daily basis.

Hiebert says, “People pray to God for their salvation, but turn to modern medicine for healing and psychology for deliverance from so-called demon possession, because demons exist in the heavens, not on earth. Western missionaries influenced by this dualism affirm the cosmic battle between good and evil, but deny the realities of witchcraft, spirit possession, evil eye, and magic in the cultures where they serve. Consequently they fail to provide biblical answers to the people’s fears of earthly spirits and powers, and fail to deal with the reality of Satan’s work on earth.”

In contrast, those with a Tribal Worldview see spirits throughout their reality on a daily basis, whether ancestors or witchcraft or in nature. “They help those who serve or placate them. They harm those who oppose their wishes or who neglect them or refuse to honor them. Humans must placate them to avoid terrible disasters.”

Lastly, Hiebert gives the Biblical Worldview, where God is Sovereign over all created things, whether good or evil, and the battleground between these good and evil forces is within individuals, social systems, and cultural systems.

For those engaging in cross-cultural ministry, it’s critical to understand the worldview lens that we bring with us, the lens that exist in the place we’re doing ministry, and what the Biblical perspective is. This applies to almost every category of overseas life and ministry, but is crucial in our understanding of spiritual realities and warfare. Whenever we encounter something in Thailand that we don’t know how to categorize or process, like about spirits or witch doctors, we have to try and understand these experiences through those three lenses, especially the biblical one. It’s hard to engage in warfare when we’re uninformed!

Our Initial Experience with Spiritual Warfare

I (Jenn) want to share a little bit about our own experience with spiritual warfare in Thailand and how we learned about this topic. We first visited Thailand in 2009 on a short term trip while we were still in college. 

Our church background was very conservative – at the time I had very little understanding of the Holy Spirit or spiritual gifts, and I don’t think I knew anything about the spiritual realm or spiritual warfare.

On that short term trip, we slammed headfirst into the realities of spiritual warfare and how unprepared we were to deal with it. 

On the first day of our trip, a girl on our team woke up screaming and crying because she was having nightmares. And everywhere she looked, with her open eyes, she would see evil spirits.

Another teammate nonchalantly rang a temple bell that is used to call spirits and was terrified to find that he couldn’t pray after that.

For the first time, we heard many testimonies from both long-term workers and Thai believers of demons being cast out, stories of healing, stories of spirits (ผี) and their prevalence in Thai culture and society. One experienced missionary told us, “ask any Thai person on the street about an evil spirit that causes sleep paralysis, and every single Thai person that you meet will either have had a personal experience with it or know someone who has.” And that’s just one of many different evil spirits.

When we entered temples during prayer walks, some people would get headaches and nausea, and begin to tremble and shake. Others would be hit by anger, despair, or doubts in God. 

Thankfully, the leaders on our trip had more experience with the Holy Spirit and spiritual warfare, and began to guide us through key passages like Ephesians 1 and 6. They encouraged us to not fear but to trust in the promise that Christ has authority over all rule, authority, power, and dominion (Eph 1:21)!

As we continued to pray and seek God for help, the Holy Spirit met us powerfully, and He began to pour out spiritual gifts over us. Multiple people on our team began praying in tongues, even though they had never heard anyone pray in tongues before! Other believers that we connected with prayed prophetic words over us. I remember having some of the richest times of prayer in my life as we begged God to fight for us and to help the Thai people. 

When we got back from that trip, we were hungry to learn more. We began to seek God in increased prayer, asking the Spirit to fill us and to help us. We met with people from different church backgrounds and studied the Word to see what Scripture said about these things we had never experienced before. At times we veered overly into the experiential where we became fixated on power encounters or the spiritual gifts, and needed to course-correct back to what was biblical.

The work of missions is spiritual in nature, and our enemy is not flesh and blood but the powers of darkness. We believe that if we want to see Thai people freed from evil and the Kingdom of God come to Thailand, we must be able to walk in the Spirit to war in the spiritual realms. And we don’t have to fear because we are guaranteed victory in Christ, who has authority over all things, and who is with us even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20)!

Questions for Reflection

1. Have you had an experience with spiritual warfare? What was it like and how did you respond?
2. What is your biblical perspective on spiritual warfare? What passages of Scripture are behind that perspective?
3. What are your thoughts on the Excluded Middle worldview? Do you think you have this worldview or not? Why or why not?
4. What is the worldview of the culture that you’re serving in?
5. What kind of emotions does the topic of spiritual warfare bring up in you? (e.g. fear, skepticism, curiosity?) What’s an appropriate response to these emotions?

Read more in Part 2.