Coaching notes and specific directions for being aggressive in fighting the devil
Once we recognize the enemy, we must prepare for battle.
All human experience involves some measure of conflict or struggle. Some are natural: muscles grow from overload, emotional resilience is strengthened by navigating challenges, our brains literally grow when tackling complex problems. Plants and trees struggle to rise from the soil. Some are the product of humankind’s sinful nature: class and political struggle is a painful reminder of our willingness to listen to the enemy rather than Christ.
On that note, the most painful and crucial struggle is that between good and evil. The consequences are eternal. Our souls’ destiny is the outcome. Nothing is more important.
Therefore, don’t be shy – study war. Specifically spiritual warfare.
War was declared by Satan for a purpose: to turn our attention from God,
On a human level, we can take inspiration from the deep expertise of Von Clausewitz and Sun Tzu. Much that is true concerning temporal military might can be applied to the realm of the spirit/Spirit.
Politics — defined loosely as the art of getting what you what – is always at the core. On the spiritual level, we must be mindful that war was declared by Satan for a purpose: to turn our attention from God. God came in human form to destroy the work of Satan and to set the prisoners free.
The most powerful defence is offence. Very simply: knowing Christ.
On this note, the most powerful defence is offence. Very simply: knowing Christ and allowing him to have total control – the all areas backstage pass – of our lives. Being in His will will, of course, attract Satan’s attention. This is why it is vital for every true believer to don spiritual armour, as deftly described in Ephesians 6. And be constantly on guard.
Be alert and pray without ceasing, because Satan’s war is fought and monitored by him 24/7 – and intently. Satan reconnoitres continuously, seeking out our weaknesses. Satan isn’t bellicose by nature. He’s more apt to feign innocence or indifference. He might, at first, even affect benevolent concern for our understanding of, and the fairness of, our rights and entitlements: “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
Satan can disguise war as trivial teasing
Just as it is in human warfare, with Satan there will be casualties, shortcomings and pain. By God’s grace they will be erased. But it is not given to us to know how beforehand. Nor when. And that’s just the way it is. And that’s okay. And the war lies ahead of us anyway, whether we’re nervous in the service or not.
So be committed to winning and be prepared to win. Here is some encouragement for the battle.
- Satan can disguise war as trivial teasing – poking disrespectful fun and inconsiderate horsing around.
- Fight righteously, according to God’s endowment to you of your own moral lights and in happy dependence on God’s endowment to you of all your resources.
- Be prepared to suffer and to be sorrowful in the cause of the fight, and to console the suffering and sorrow of others.
- Never surrender.
- Seek and promote truth, beauty and righteousness.
- Proactively practice – and teach to children – the virtues generally identified for our benefit by the church, notably humility, patience and compassion, but all the others too.
Have a personal code of courtesy and politesse.
- Eschew the sins generally identified for our benefit by the church – notably pride, greed, and sloth, but all the others too.
- Be alarmed if you find yourself compromising the standards respected by your elders and your betters. Or sneering at “archaic” devices (e.g. catechetical teaching, rote memorization, repetition) that maybe work better for others than for you.
- Have a personal code of courtesy and politesse – not hesitating to be unusual in adherence to it. Thoughtfulness and gentility are anathema to Satan. Sincere caring and genuine generosity are time-honoured among the weapons of God Himself, and God is glad to see them actively used in a Christian’s armoury.
- Use God’s gifts reverently. Employ reason and scientific method, or any better method if you can be confident it’s better. Be at liberty to use all insights and technologies judiciously. Dedicate time appropriately. Be open to and indeed seek inspiration. And in all these things be responsible to God.
- Cultivate, in yourself and in others, such skills as may well serve God, and then use them and foster, encourage, and celebrate their use as nearly thus as possible.
- Foster, encourage, and celebrate anonymity in charity, and encourage its celebration.
- Disparage and discourage conspicuous consumption and accumulation, and celebrate their disparagement and discouragement.
- Foster, encourage and celebrate gallantry and valour, and encourage their celebration.
- Disparage and discourage glamour and cowardice and encourage their disparagement and discouragement.
- Foster, encourage and celebrate responsible refinement of taste and encourage its celebration.
- Foster, encourage and celebrate the raising of levels of wisdom and facility, in selves and in others.
- Have a strategy and an aim: a clear and realistic strategy, and a full but simple aim that can be promulgated and understood readily. Strive to maintain the aim, even though any strategy is bound to require reconsideration expeditiously, in due course and even nimbly as soon as you make contact with the enemy. Communicate the strategy and the aim on a current and “need to know” basis to friendly forces in the field.
- Let your campaigns be consciously and generally subject mutatis mutandis to “management” – i.e. (and pro tem according to Gulick’s 1937 elaboration of that word) Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting, and Budgeting.
- Let your battles similarly be consciously and generally subject to “management”.
If your victory yields glory or spoils, dedicate them to God.
- Use siege, surprise, undermining, blockade of supply lines, communications dominance, attacking in waves, counterattacking, environmental and media control, propaganda, “Left Out of Battle” echelons, deployable reserves, logistical and administrative strength, continual training, rotation, succession planning, reconnaissance, and even on some occasions diversions.
- Entrapment is beyond the talents of most of us. The devil is notoriously wily, cautious, and risk-avoidant – and even when backed into disadvantage he has hard-to-combat toxicities.
- Be agile: design for manoeuvrability.
- Cultivate high morale, in selves and in others.
- Seek, cultivate, and fight alongside allies, taking care not to disappoint them.
- When you are a benefactor, don’t let the beneficiaries see you counting the cost.
- Seek comradeship – and fight the enemy in collaboration – with other corps or equivalent formations, and with other arms of the Christian service.
- Have a fifth column, using subversion, espionage, sabotage.
- Use scouts and Forward Observation Officers.
- Don’t retreat – or allow yourself to be distracted – from awareness and concern for the world’s distress, including what seems remote to you. Follow the news, not neglecting the sad bits, and pray for the inspiration of those who are in a position to address the distress. This is long-range warfare, taken to where the devil hoped you didn’t care, or couldn’t reach, or had no access to clout.
- Practice hospitality – especially when it’s given to those who are the “other” and especially in these times of many migratory stresses around the globe. And especially when it seems to be “costly hospitality” and you, or your country, don’t appear to stand to benefit from it – at least not immediately.
- Practice self control and be conspicuously courteous, especially while driving and parking. Don’t take the bait.
- Forgive debt gratuitously, Jubilee style. Maybe with spontaneity. Maybe with cultural context. Without incurring emotions such as shame, guilt or obligation
- Let children learn all they can and don’t leave them to the system, which is actually hobbling and crippling them. And let what they learn be masterfully taught.
In all things, keep our wits about us and be on the watch.
As Kenny Rogers sang,
“You’ve got to
Know when to hold ’em,
Know when to fold ’em
Know when to walk away,
Know when to run.”
While war against this enemy should be total war, high among its aims and constraints should be avoidance of innocent or friendly casualties, though some may be inevitable.
When the battle is in your hand, know how to exploit your situation and secure your victory.
“Glorify God, and enjoy Him forever” (with a nod of acknowledgement here to the Westminster divines), remembering that (a) God is a spirit, and (b) God is love. So do (subjectively and using the following word as a verb) love love (the latter word as an object itself and using the word as a noun). And here include as embraced by the concept of love (the noun, and an object) these three usages of that noun “love”: loving, and being loved, and fostering love. And also enjoy love eternally (i.e. into eternity, when time qua time comes to an end). Foster, encourage, and celebrate that glorification and enjoyment.
Generally: foster, encourage and celebrate – in others as in ourselves – the adherence to the virtues and precepts mentioned here and others of equal merit, and disparage and discourage non-adherence.
If you triumph, remember the admonition, “This too shall pass.” In a cautionary fable we are told that in ancient Rome a victor, accoutered as such and riding a chariot in formal procession, typically had behind him a slave, whispering repeatedly to him, “Respice post te. Hominem te memento,” i.e. “Look behind you! Remember that you are but a man!”
If your victory yields glory or spoils, dedicate them to God.
Forget not all God’s benefits.
Authors: Ian Mitchell and Rev. Andy Cornell
Photo Credit: RDNE Stock Project via Pexels, public domain
