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By Dr. Mary Craig
Spiritual warfare is the term we use for fighting the enemies of our Covenant Lord. To be a friend of the world is to be the enemy of God. The flesh is at war against the Spirit. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. God opposes all that is antichrist, that which opposes or counterfeits Christ.
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
2 Corinthians 10.3-5
Jesus Christ came to destroy the works of the devil. He came to overcome and conquer all that separates us from His Father. He came to bring reconciliation, peace with God through the Blood of the Cross. He came to save us, to do what is necessary and sufficient for us to get back to the Father, to the Source of all Life and Blessing, that we might live in the light of God's glory.
We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. We are fighting Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Belial, Leviathan, Asmodeus, Abaddon, and "the gang." We are fighting sin, self, and the world system. We are breaking lies with truth. We are tearing down strongholds in the mind and replacing them with the strongholds of God, with His laws and ways.
Spiritual warfare encompasses three dimensions. The first is ground level. At this level we fight sin, self, the world system, and if applicable, your ordinary demons in battles bringing healing and deliverance to the Body of Christ. The second is mid-range. At this level we fight occult powers, entities influencing witches and warlocks, those casting spells, curses, charms, vexes, hexes, and so forth. We fight demonic entities "in the high places" and "in the soil." The third level is cosmic. At this level we fight demonic entities influencing ethnic groups, territories, governments, and the like. We do this to "break the barriers" to the gospel as the harvest of souls to be saved comes in.
Recently, I sought God for revelation and illumination. I wanted to know about the anointing for cosmic warfare. Now Jesus Christ is The Anointed One. Being the Anointed One, He lifts burdens and breaks yokes. He forgives sin and breaks the yoke of bondage.
God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him. (Acts 10.38)
We are at war. We have a clearly defined enemy. We have declared war against that enemy. We know that this war has escalated in these last days. We know that we must have experience with the weapons of our warfare. We know that our battle is not against flesh and blood. We also know that the anointing breaks the yoke, and we are anointed!
So when we war against cosmic level demonic entities, what is the anointing that overcomes? The Holy Spirit's answer to me came simply, yet the profound impact of the truth is transforming.
God so loved the world (the cosmos) that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3.16)
The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. (Romans 5.5)
God's love for the cosmos comes into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. That love prevails against the very gates of hell. Faith works by love. (Galatians 5.6) Perfect love casts out fear. (1 John 4)
We fight antichrist spirits, whoredoms and error, and the like. False prophets have gone out into the world. We are to try the spirits. And how do we know? What fruit do we look for? Read 1 John 4 and you will see that it is love.
Satan and the entities of darkness hate. They work by fear. Our faith overcomes. He that is within us is greater than he that is in the world. Faith works by love. God loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. We ought to love one another. We have been given the Holy Spirit, His Spirit, that we might testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. We, by the Spirit, abide in Christ and He in us.
So what's stopping us from walking in the anointing of God's love? Quite directly, it is our desire for self-preservation. We need to be in control. We fear losing control, losing our "self," losing power over our own lives. In trying to preserve our own life, we fall in the corruption of sin. The iniquity of our little hearts bent toward evil brings inner woundedness. We put up barriers, strongholds, fortresses of protection. We set ourselves up for rejection and don't even know it. We have something to prove, things to justify, issues of worth. We have something to preserve, things to control, issues of self-preservation and self-defense. We have something to promote, ourselves.
We can overcome this need/desire to prove, preserve, and promote ourselves and walk in the anointing for cosmic warfare by following the two dimensions of God's command:
Love God. Love others.
The first dimension is to love God. We do this as we embrace God's love for us. We love because He first loves us.
God's love overcomes our fears. Fear drives our need for self-preservation, our need to prove and to promote ourselves. We are trying to preserve our own life. God's love and our fear, reverence, awe, and worship of Him overcome our own fears.
God's love overcomes our need to be in control. The need to prove, to promote, and to preserve our own life drives the desires of lust and pride. We become like Lucifer, wanting to exalt ourselves to the position of god, wanting to be in control. We learn subtle ways of manipulation. We slip into counterfeit spiritual authority and witchcraft. God's love overcomes lust and pride by the outworking of a new nature, a new creation worked within. God's love works within us as we embrace His love for us.
God's love preserves our life. We are kept by the very power of god, a power generated by His love. (1 Peter 1)
God's love overcomes rejection, the woundedness and corruption of sin. (John 3)
God's love is the provision and the promise. (Romans 8)
God's holy love removes all that would separate us from Him, for union is the objective. (Ephesians 2)
God's love sustains life by the supply of the Spirit. (Romans 8)
God is God. He is above only and below no one. He is transcendent, radiant in His glory. He speaks and acts all His good pleasure. He gives. He loves. He cares. He carries. We thank Him in every circumstance for He is in every circumstance of our lives. He has not left us as orphans, fatherless. He is comfort, our Comforter. He infuses us with fortitude, strengthening our souls, our hearts.
Let me tell you now of God's love.
God sets us free.
God heals.
God binds up our wounds.
God cleanses our consciences by the Blood of Christ.
God clothes us with the rich covering of Christ's righteousness.
God creates in us a new heart, enabling us to love.
Love. How little we know of it, what it looks like. The word has become trite, and the devil would trivialize it and make it common, making it less than its intended glory.
Love smiles at another's blessing.
Love mourns with another's misery.
Love connects one soul to soul.
Love from God pours into you until it presses through your pores to reach another.
Love prays for another's well being, for another's well being is your own.
Love looks deep within the soul to its beauty hiding beneath the barrier, the reef, the coral reef, rough and jagged.
Love looks to the pool, not the rule.
Love descends into the depth in order to climb the height.
Love goes down that others may rise.
Love reaches with its eyes to draw out the frozen, the fearful, the forlorn, and the forgotten.
Love carries its brother, for to carry another is to carry oneself.
Love is the energy that connects.
God's love is pure, peaceable, powerful, more powerful than death itself. God loves us and has reached out to connect with us -- in words, with eyes, with touch, with the fragrance of the gospel. Love is the energy of union. God's love is pure, holy, clean, harmless.
Satan counterfeits and smears. He profanes the sacred in his hatred of God. Look at what he especially hates, and then consider what of God must be so for Satan to hate it so much. Examine God's Word. Embrace God's love for you and you will love.
Satan's hatred is overcome by God's love for the cosmos. By embracing God and receiving His love, we release the power of God's love into our world. His love enables us to love others as He has commanded. This is the second dimension of cosmic warfare.
The energy of God's love poured forth into our hearts, shed abroad in us, transforms. It transforms us. It conforms us into the image of Jesus Christ. It enables us to take on, not only the Name, but the Nature of Jesus Christ. The love of God embraced by us is then released into our world as we love others. It is a tangible anointing, the tangible energy of God's holy love as He embraces His own. His touch of love transforms tangibly, a tangible transformation wrought by the touch of a God whose energy emanates from His holy love for us.
God loves us tangibly. Therefore, the anointing which you have received of God abides in you. (1 John 2.27) Abide in Him. Behold Him and become what you behold. God has bestowed upon us His great love, a love that enables us to be called the sons of God. (1 John 3.1)
We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loves not his brother abides in death. (1 John 3.14)
Embrace the love of God. As you do, you will begin to love others. You will lay down your life for the brethren. You will have "bowels of compassion" within you as did Jesus and will not shut out others in their need. You will love not merely in word, but in deed and in truth. Believe on the Son, Jesus Christ. Embrace the love of God for you. Love one another. You have a place in God. You have a purpose, to abide in Christ. You have a love that is pure and that brings to you a pure love. You have nothing to prove, nothing to promote, nothing to preserve. So pull down the barriers and let God love you. Soak in it.
Cry out "Abba, Father!" Walk in the anointing for cosmic warfare. Walk in love.
Mary's response to a question about the article
The anointing for any warfare is love. The first dimension of warfare concernus ourselves, sin in our lives. The second concerns things like witchcraft and occult souces. The third concerns warfare for territories, nations, governments, etc. The first and second do overlap, because we are dealing with sin, really. John 14.30
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