The Battle for Your Heart: Winning the Spiritual War by Listening to Jesus

The War is Real

The War Is Real   —   but People Are Not the Enemy

Winning the Battle for the Heart by Listening to Jesus

There is a war going on.

But before anybody starts digging a bunker in the backyard,

this is not a war fought with:

bombs,

guns,

missiles,

tanks,

or armies of human beings.

Paul makes that distinction remarkably clear when he tells us:

“We do not wrestle against flesh and blood.”^(a)

He describes a spiritual struggle against:

principalities,

powers,

rulers of darkness,

and spiritual forces of wickedness.

Then Paul tells us to put on:

The Armor of God

Not steel body armor.

Not camouflage.

Not something ordered overnight with free shipping.

But:

truth,

righteousness,

peace,

faith,

salvation,

prayer,

and finally:

“the sword of the Spirit,      which is the Word of God.”^(b)

And fortunately,

the Armor of God is one-size-fits-all.

No measurements.

No alterations.

No instruction manual.

And no trip to the sporting-goods store.

The Battlefield Is Much Closer Than We Think

This is:

Biblical Spiritual Warfare.

And its battlefield is much closer than some distant country.

The battlefield is the human heart,      mind,      and soul.

Every day,

we make choices about whom      —

or what     —

we will serve.

Will we serve God?

Or will we serve:

money,

pride,

ego,

vanity,

pleasure,

fear,

resentment,

power,

and the endless parade of shiny objects competing for our attention?^(c)

Jesus reduces the choice to something wonderfully simple:

“No one can serve two masters.”^(d)

Eventually,

something gets first place in our heart.

And unfortunately,

our egos are remarkably enthusiastic applicants for the position of:

“Top Dog.”

Mine has submitted the application more than once.

We Are One Body Under One Commander

Paul gives us a beautiful picture of our place in this spiritual struggle:

the Body of Christ.^(e)

He writes:

“Just as a body,      though one,      has many parts,      but all its many parts form one body,      so it is with Christ.”

Then Paul tells us that God has placed every part:

“just where He wanted them to be.”^(f)

Think about your own body.

The human body contains trillions of living cells.

One little cell standing by itself is not terribly impressive.

It is not going to:

mow the lawn,

write a book,

build a church,

or save the world.

In fact,

if one of my cells ever successfully changes my mind about which football game I should watch,

I am going to have an entirely different theological problem to investigate.

But put trillions of specialized cells together     —

working as one body     —

and something extraordinary happens.

So it is with the Body of Christ.

You do not have to be the whole Body of Christ.

What a relief!

You only need to be the part God created and called:

you

to be.

One person may teach.

Another may comfort.

Another may heal.

Another may encourage.

Another may receive wisdom.

Another may be called to help someone whom everyone else has forgotten.

Different assignments.

Different gifts.

Different parts.

One Body.      One Spirit.      One Christ.

That means we can stop worrying because someone else's assignment looks more impressive than ours.

A hand does not spend all day wishing it were a kidney.

At least I hope mine doesn't.

Our responsibility is not to invent our own assignment.

Our responsibility is to become still enough to listen for Christ's direction      —

and then have enough faith to obey it.

A Branch Does Not Give Orders to the Vine

Jesus gives us an even simpler picture:

“I am the vine;      you are the branches.”^(g)

Then He says something that should stop every fiercely independent Christian in his tracks:

“Apart from me you can do nothing.”^(h)

Nothing.

Nada.

Zilch.

That is not exactly the slogan most likely to appear on a motivational poster.

Jesus does not say:

“Apart from Me you'll be slightly less efficient.”

He says:

we can do nothing.

A branch receives its life from the vine.

It does not manufacture life independently

and occasionally send the vine a thank-you card.

Nor does the branch wake up one morning,

stretch out its leaves,

and announce:

“I've been thinking about this,      Vine.      From now on,      I'll be handling things.”

That would be a very confident branch.

And a very temporary one.

This is where Centering Prayer becomes so important.

If Christ is the Vine

and we are the branches,

then our strength does not originate with us.

We must remain connected to Him.

We listen.

We discern.

We obey.

We serve.

Only then can we:

bear fruit.

We can't do it alone.

We won't succeed unless we are favored by,      and receive the help of Jesus.

And thankfully,

Jesus never asked the branches to produce a five-year strategic fruit-production plan.

He simply told them:

remain in Me.

Do Not Fight a Spiritual War With the Wrong Weapons

We're not talking here about bringing a knife to a gunfight.

Paul says:

“we don't act like the people of this world or fight our battles with the weapons of this world.”⁽ⁱ⁾

Instead,

God's power tears down:

strongholds,

arguments,

pride,

and thoughts that prevent people from knowing and obeying Christ.

This is essential.

If the real battle is spiritual,

then attacking human beings completely misses the target.

People are not the enemy.

Jesus commanded us to love people.

Therefore,

Biblical Spiritual Warfare cannot become an excuse for:

hatred,

cruelty,

vengeance,

or violence against another human being.

If we begin hating the very people Jesus commanded us to love,

something has gone terribly wrong with the battle plan.

At that point,

we might want to check whether we accidentally picked up somebody else's orders.

Paul says explicitly:

“We do not wrestle against flesh and blood.”

Our weapons are spiritual

because the struggle is spiritual.

Truth fights lies.

Righteousness fights corruption.

Peace fights hostility.

Faith fights fear.

Salvation fights despair.

Prayer keeps us connected with God.

And finally,

Paul gives us the offensive weapon in the Armor of God:

“the sword of the Spirit,      which is the Word of God.”^(j)

So when we encounter evil,

we do not reach first for our anger.

We reach for Christ.

Which is good,

because my anger has never demonstrated particularly impressive swordsmanship.

Even the Fishermen Needed Directions

The disciples learned this lesson in a wonderfully practical way.

They were fishermen.

They knew how to fish.

Yet they spent the entire night fishing

and caught:

nothing.

That had to hurt.

These were not tourists who rented a boat for two hours,

brought sandwiches,

and hoped someone would take their picture holding a fish.

These were experienced fishermen.

Then Jesus told them:

“Cast the net on the right side of the ship,      and ye shall find...”^(k)

They listened.

They obeyed.

And suddenly they had so many fish

they could not pull the net into the boat.

Same fishermen.

Same boat.

Same net.

Same water.

Different result.

Why?

This time they listened to Jesus.

Apparently,

the difference between an empty net

and a net overflowing with fish

was only a few feet     —

and listening to the right Person.

That story contains a powerful lesson about spiritual warfare.

If we cannot even successfully become:

“fishers of men”^(l)

without Christ telling us where to cast the net,

why would we imagine that we can defeat spiritual evil by ourselves?

We need Jesus.

We need His direction.

We need His power.

And we need to listen before we charge enthusiastically in the wrong direction.

There is nothing quite like running courageously into battle

only to discover that everybody else      —

including Jesus      —

went the other way.

The Armor Protects Us While Christ Leads Us

Paul's Armor of God is fascinating

because almost everything he describes is protective.

Truth.

Righteousness.

Peace.

Faith.

Salvation.^(m)

These protect us while we stand against temptation and evil.

Think about the shield of faith.

A shield does not chase an enemy around the countryside.

It protects the person carrying it.

The helmet of salvation protects us.

The breastplate of righteousness protects us.

Truth surrounds us.

The Gospel prepares our feet in peace.

Then comes the sword of the Spirit:

the Word of God.

So,      Biblical Spiritual Warfare is not about becoming spiritually aggressive people.

It is about becoming:

spiritually informed,      spiritually grounded,      and spiritually led people.

People who cannot easily be moved by fear.

People who recognize lies.

People who refuse hatred.

People who choose peace.

People who trust God.

People who listen before acting.

People who remain connected to Christ.

The objective is not to become the loudest Christian in the room.

It is to become one of the Christians who is listening.

And sometimes,

the person listening may be the person best prepared for the battle.

The Battle Is a Choice

From Genesis onward,

Scripture repeatedly presents human beings with choices.

Eve faced a choice in the garden. (n)

Job faced a choice in catastrophic suffering. (o)

Jesus faced temptation in the wilderness and chose obedience each time. (p)

Daniel faced fear during an overwhelming spiritual vision and remained. (q)

Paul lived with what he called a:      “messenger of Satan”      and discovered Christ telling him:

“My grace is sufficient for you,      for my power is made perfect in weakness.”^(r)

Peter faced fear and denied Jesus three times.

Yet Peter's failure was not the end of his story.

After the resurrection,      Jesus gave Peter a chance to make up for the three wrongs.

Jesus asked Peter whether he loved Him three times.

and then gave him a mission:^(s)

“Feed my lambs.”

“Take care of my sheep.”

“Feed my sheep.”

Peter probably understood by number three.

Jesus did not say:

“Peter,      spend the rest of your life beating yourself up over what happened before the rooster crowed.”

He put Peter back to work right away.

Judas faced another choice.      He chose thirty pieces of silver over faithfulness to Jesus.

Again and again,

Scripture brings us to the same crossroads:

What will you choose?

And ultimately:

Whom will you serve?

God does not need us standing permanently at the crossroads

studying the signposts.

Eventually,

we have to choose a road

and start walking.

The Tempter's Favorite Battlefield      —      Our Attention

We sometimes imagine temptation as something spectacular and obvious.

But temptation does not usually arrive holding a giant sign saying:

“WARNING:      TERRIBLE SPIRITUAL DECISION AHEAD.”

That would certainly make discernment easier.

“Oh,      look!      A disastrous spiritual decision.      I think I'll skip that one.”

Unfortunately,

temptation is rarely that considerate.

Sometimes it looks quite respectable.

Money is not automatically evil.

Success is not automatically evil.

Pleasure is not automatically evil.

Medicine is not automatically evil.

Possessions are not automatically evil.

But any created thing can become disordered when we allow it to become our master.

Paul warns about people becoming:

“lovers of themselves,      lovers of money...      lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”^(t)

Jesus makes the issue even clearer when He says we cannot serve both:

God and money.

Anything that becomes more important than God,      can begin pulling our attention away from Him.

And perhaps one of the tempter's greatest victories is not convincing us to openly reject God.

Perhaps it is something much quieter.

Just keep us:

busy,

distracted,

worried,

offended,

angry,

chasing money,

feeding our egos,

and running our minds at full speed.

Anything     —

anything at all     —

except becoming still before God.

Our phones alone can accomplish a remarkable portion of that assignment before breakfast.

One notification becomes another.

Then an email.

Then the news.

Then a video.

Then another video.

And forty-five minutes later,

we know almost everything about somebody else's life...

and still have not asked God what He wants us to do with ours.

This Is Why Centering Prayer Matters

Centering Prayer interrupts the noise.

We deliberately turn away from the commotion

and toward God.

We become still.

We listen for:

“the still small voice.”^(u)

And we remember that Scripture says:

“God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts.”^(v)

Then we ask:

“Jesus,   what do You want me to do?”

And then comes the difficult part

for those of us who are accustomed to doing all the talking:

we do not immediately answer the question for Him.

This does not mean blindly accepting every thought that wanders through our minds

as a command from God.

Discernment remains essential.

We measure what we perceive against:

Jesus' teachings,

His truth,

His righteousness,

His peace,

His command to love,

Scripture,

and the fruit produced in our lives.

After all,

my mind can produce some remarkably creative ideas all by itself.

Not every thought deserves a halo.

Centering Prayer is not surrendering our judgment.

It is:

surrendering our will to God

while seeking His will with:

humility,

wisdom,

Scripture,

and discernment.

That distinction matters enormously.

We Do Not Fight Alone

Daniel describes:

“ten thousand times ten thousand”^(w)

spirits standing before God.

For those of us,      like me,      who are arithmetically challenged,

that's 100 million spirits.

Revelation also gives us astonishing imagery of:

heavenly armies following Christ.^(x)

Whatever mysteries surround those passages,

their imagery certainly does not present God's Kingdom as weak.

So why would I want to fight a spiritual battle alone?

Especially when some of my previous battle plans consisted of worrying about something for six hours

and then discovering that worrying accomplished exactly:      nothing.

I am one tiny part of the Body.

Christ is the Head.

I am a branch.

Christ is the Vine.

I am a servant.

Christ is the King.

My strength is not found in convincing myself that I am spiritually powerful.

My strength is found in remaining connected to Jesus.

That completely changes spiritual warfare.

Instead of waking up every morning thinking:

“How am I going to defeat evil today?”      —      which is an awfully ambitious assignment before the first cup of coffee      —

I can ask something much simpler:

“Jesus,      how may I serve You today?”

And then:

I wait.

The Victory Begins With Listening

This,

to me,

is the heart of Biblical Spiritual Warfare.

The great battle is not about destroying other human beings.

It is about whom we choose to serve.

The tempter pulls us toward:

fear,

pride,

selfishness,

division,

deception,

resentment,

and worldly masters.

Christ calls us toward:

truth,

righteousness,

faith,

peace,

love,

forgiveness,

service,

and eternal life.

And standing between those two directions

is a choice God has given us.

Every morning,

I make mine.

I choose God.

I choose to become still.

I choose to listen.

I choose to serve.

I choose to remain a branch connected to the Vine

rather than pretending I can manufacture God's fruit by myself.

I choose to be one small part of the Body of Christ

and trust Jesus to direct the entire Body.

I do not need to command the army.

I do not need to run the Kingdom.

I do not even need to explain to the Vine how grapes should be grown.

That is an enormous weight off my shoulders.

I simply need to listen,      trust,      obey,      and serve.

And so my day begins with the same simple prayer:

“Jesus,      how may I serve You today?”

Then comes perhaps the most important part of Centering Prayer.

I stop talking.

I become still.

And I wait patiently for His answer.

And if you are anything like me,

that last part may be the greatest spiritual battle of all.

Because sometimes the hardest thing in the world is not fighting.

It’s becoming quiet enough to listen.

Footnotes

(a) Ephesians 6:12
(b) Ephesians 6:17
(c) 2 Timothy 3:2–4
(d) Luke 16:13
(e) 1 Corinthians 12:12
(f) 1 Corinthians 12:18
(g) John 15:1
(h) John 15:4–5
(i) 2 Corinthians 10:1–5
(j) Ephesians 6:17
(k) John 21:1–6
(l) Matthew 4:19
(m) Ephesians 6:10–18
(n) Genesis 3:4–7
(o) Job 1–2
(p) Matthew 4:1–11
(q) Daniel 10:5–14
(r) 2 Corinthians 12:6–10
(s) Matthew 26:34; John 21:15–17
(t) 2 Timothy 3:2–4
(u) 1 Kings 19:12
(v) Galatians 4:6
(w) Daniel 7:10
(x) Revelation 19:14

Questions for prayer:
          What do these passages reveal about God?
          What response does it ask of me?
          Is the impression I receive consistent with the character and teaching of Jesus?
          What loving and faithful action should follow?

Daily prayer:

How may I serve You this day?”