Spiritual Warfare, Part 2

Your Real Identity

Hold to His Teaching

Walk in His Protection

Live in His Blessing

To Win the Spiritual War, You Must Know Your Real Identity*

When you look in the mirror, who do you see?

When you invite Jesus Christ into your life, you are spiritually “born again” into God’s Family. Your identity changes significantly because, as the saying goes, “Family is Everything.”

Christ is the leader (King) of God’s Kingdom, and He has total authority and power from God in heaven and over ALL of creation, including Satan and his forces of evil. Jesus and God the Father love mankind and have given believers “everything we need for life…,” including protection from Satan and his forces of evil. The Apostle Paul calls that protection “the full armor of God!” See Ephesians 6:10-18a.

The armor of God provides you protection from Satan, his forces of evil on earth and in the heavenly realms, and their “schemes.” The following explains how your real identity equips you to defeat them.

It also enables you to receive the full blessings of God as He is “with you,” helping you “succeed at everything you put your hands to.”

However, you have to put on the armor! Therefore, you must know what the armor is, how and why it protects you, and how to use it!

Real Christianity includes the protection of God’s Family from Satan and his forces of evil. Love Always Protects!

HOWEVER, YOU have to put the armor on!!

When you think about yourself, how do you define your identity? Do you define yourself as “My name is… My father and mother are…, I am male/female, my nationality is…, I am a citizen of… I grew up in…, I do…for a living, I have…brothers or sisters, I do… for a living, I am the spouse of…, I am attractive/not so attractive, etc.”

Or, is your identity “I am a child of God – the Father Almighty in Heaven. I am a citizen of the Kingdom of God, a Holy Nation? I am a joint heir with Jesus Christ, King of God’s Kingdom. Christ is my brother. All of God’s children are my brothers and sisters. Jesus Christ is my King. I integrate my spiritual and earthly life as an ambassador for Him as I do whatever He asks me to do with the gifts and talents, etc. God the Father loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life.

As a born again Christian, the latter is how God sees you. He sees the reality of who you are. You are His child! Your real identity and birthright are under attack by Satan and his forces of darkness. As you live life and its ups and downs, seeking the desires of your heart, Christ is with you. Jesus Christ is not only your Savior, He is your King of the government of Kingdom of God. All Power in Heaven and on earth has been given to you.

The Bible says that as His child, you are a citizen of that Kingdom, and therefore He is your King. You are under His protection and are a joint heirs to God’s Covenant Promise and all the rights, blessings, and heritage that come with it. In 1 John 3:1, the Apostle John considers this an awesome reality and is intentional about proclaiming how special it is to be a child of God: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!“

Love Always Protects

My Personal Journey

I became a child of God in 1957 while attending the Billy Sunday Memorial Tabernacle in Sioux City, Iowa. My parents were divorced, and dad had remarried a divorced woman with twin daughters. So, my sister and I started a new journey with them. Dad and my stepmother had decided there must be more to life than the party-style living that led to their divorces. After some searching, they found a church that explained to them what Real Christianity was, and they each decided to invite Christ into their lives as Savior and Lord. Our new family traveled back and forth every Sunday from a small town in eastern Nebraska where we lived.

In the 1960s, I married my wife, Ree Ann (who was born into God’s family shortly before we married). For a while, I went through a somewhat typical phase of rebellion against Christianity. Then, one night, God spoke to me in my mind. He said, “It’s time for you to decide if you are going to serve me or not.” In 1970, we started attending a Bible teaching church. I began living a traditional life as a committed Christian, going to good churches, and reading the Bible and Christian books. During this time, I received sound Bible teaching from my pastors and others in the Christian community.

However, to make life this new life puzzling, I observed the lack of agreement in fundamental Christian denominations over what the Bible says is truth (45,000 Christian denominations, all calming to have the truth, often teaching conflicting “truths”). I was also shocked by some of the behavior I observed in Christianity, including the lack of integrity and love by several Christians in the marketplace, as well as some Christian organizations. I was also amazed at the open tolerance of disobedience to God in Christianity. All of this was troubling to me. But most troubling to me was some of my own behavior!

Something was missing. In 1983, I found myself in a puzzling situation. Despite being an elder at one of the ten fastest growing churches in America, Chairman of the Board of a Denver youth ministry, married to a beautiful woman who I loved very much (and still do), and a co-founder and managing partner of a very successful CPA firm, – I was miserable inside! I wondered why the Lord hadn’t answered my prayers to take away the emotional pain inside of me.

In the early 80s, I cried out to the Lord with questions. “What is going on inside of me? What is going on in Christianity? Why am I in so much emotional pain when everything seems to be going well in my life? Why is there so much “legalism” and lack of love in the Church and in the new Christian family my father and stepmother have made?

Why is there so much confusion in Christianity over what the “truth” is? After all, the Bible says: “The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails – given by One Shepherd” (Ecclesiastes 12:11). “One Shepherd,” Lord. That’s You! What is the truth? I knew He teaches everyone the same truth! He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And, why do I got a lot of double talk when I asked the religious community tough questions. What is going on? What is the problem? What is the truth!

“Bob,” the Lord spoke in my mind, “if you want to know the truth, you won’t find it in any one denomination or church. You need to look for it horizontally, not vertically. This doesn’t mean you should stop going to church. You need to go to church and learn from your pastors and teachers. But your primary teacher must be Me and the Holy Spirit! I will lead you to the truth as they speak, as you read the Bible, and other sources. I will teach you. But, your primary source for learning the truth is the Bible, so make it your reading priority.” So, I did what he asked me to. In other words, He told me to chew up the meat and spit out the bones as I trust Him and the Holy Spirit as the source of truth – given by One Shepherd.

He continued instructing me, “Do a word search in the Bible of every verse with the word ‘truth’ in it.” There were no easy-to-use computer software or search engines available to me in those days, so I got out a Bible concordance we had lying around the house. Hours later, I had looked up all the references! Through that process, the Lord gave me some powerful insights, and I put them together in an unpublished Bible study called The Truth Will Set You Free. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was just getting started learning the answers to my questions.

During this search, I found Bible verses that changed my life forever! Some are very straightforward but controversial enough to make many religious leaders squirm and avoid them. Here’s an example: “When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). All truth. That’s a mind-blowing statement, I thought. And the Lord says it repeatedly in John 14- 16. But, the Lord had just answered my prayer and shown me the gateway to truth.

I decided to believe Scripture, and I asked the Holy Spirit to lead me to the truth. First, the Holy Spirit counseled me that I needed to make some changes in my own life. I agreed and declared that I would change some of my behavior and began shedding beliefs and behaviors I picked up in the world and some churches. At that very moment, it was as if my life turned upside down, and as they say, “all hell broke loose.” I found myself in the middle of something I had never experienced – intense spiritual attacks in my mind by the forces of darkness! I was under attack, my business was under attack, and my family was under attack. At first, I had no idea what was going on!

The enemy didn’t like my new declaration to be intentional about obeying God, learning the truth and applying it in my life. Additionally, he didn’t like my plans to use my life and business to help build the Kingdom of God. The problem was that I had no understanding concerning this spiritual war with Satan, and therefore I was defenseless. I also had no clue what was going on. At that time in my life, 26 years after becoming a born again Christian, I had never heard a sermon about spiritual warfare and how to defend myself! And in the 30 years since then, I have only heard two or three. Some churches do a better job than others in this area, but as a whole, the Body of Christ is in a state of confusion – decimated and dysfunctional from the schemes of Satan and his forces of darkness.

I met a layperson, a very spiritually savvy lady about 70 years old, who I hired to do some transcribing for me. When I went to pick up the typed material, she asked, “Bob, what is going on in your life? You have a lot of fear in your voice.” I shared some of my story with her. “You are being attacked by Satan,” she said. “Do you know anything about spiritual war?” I admitted that I didn’t know anything about it. “You need prayer,” she responded. She began to teach me about the war with the forces of darkness, and she and her friend prayed for me. I followed that up with a deep dive study about spiritual warfare.

This encounter birthed my awareness of the common spiritual war happening in everyone’s mind, something we all experience daily. But most, like I was, are dangerously unaware of this reality, unskilled in recognizing it, and unsuccessful in defending against it. For 25 years, I was on a journey to unlearn the world’s lies and what some churches had taught me, learn the truth (reality) of how to walk in God’s power in life, and understand how and why this spiritual war against the forces of darkness works. During this time, the Holy Spirit helped me put together truths from Scripture, like assembling pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle. What the Bible calls “the renewing of your mind.” During this time, my earthling father gave me an important key when he simply said, “Keep your eyes on Jesus!”

Then I wrote my book, Stand Firm With God’s Power in Business! Every Christian needs to understand how to protect themselves and their family from the forces of darkness and how to walk in God’s power and blessings. And as I explained in the introduction, the Lord began to lead me to people who could teach me about this war.

Now, I trust God and understand my real identity as a child of God and how to trust His power in my day-to-day life. Although I don’t understand it all, I know how to use that knowledge and the Word of God (the Bible) when Satan and his forces of darkness attack my life or my mind. The foundation of what I learned begins with being “born again” into God’s family, obeying God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, and believing His promise to Abraham’s descendants.

What is Your True Identity?

I recommend you sit down with another believer(s) and discuss your true identity. What are all the ways the Bible describes a “born again” believer, a child of God the Father? Following are seven ways the Bible describes your true identity. There are more.

You are a child of the Most High God, who created the universe and you! John 3, 1John 3:1 Galatians 3:26
You are Abraham’s descendant and an heir according to the promise to bless his descendants! Read Galatians 3
You are a citizen of a Holy Nation, the Kingdom of God! 1 Peter 2:9
You are chosen by God! 1 Peter 2:9
You are a “new creation” with a new sinless nature! See Psalm 139.
You are an Ambassador of Jesus Christ, the King, and the Kingdom of God! He is “with you” and has “all authority in heaven and on earth.” Matthew 28:18-20
You are loved by God the Father and the Lord Jesus, and they are with you. Please read John 3.

How does your new identity help you defeat Satan and his forces of evil? How does it help you succeed in life and business? You have to know and hold to the truth in Scripture to understand how and why it works! If you haven’t done so, I highly recommend you read the Bible by starting with the New Testament. It has examples of those who hold to God’s instructions and those who don’t, and contains a lot of wisdom for succeeding in life.

How Did Christ Defeat Satan?

Read Luke 4:1-14. Ask yourself, how did Christ defeat Satan?

“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them, he was hungry.

“The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.’ Jesus answered, ‘It is written: “Man shall not live on bread alone.”‘

“The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, ‘I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.’ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”

“The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ‘If you are the Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw yourself down from here. For it is written:

“He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

“When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.”