Spiritual Warfare

"Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you." -Phillipians 4:8-9

I've attended several churches that were well-populated with people who believed strongly in spiritual warfare, that there are demonic influences present in the day-to-day environment which could bring harm upon one's household, finances, connection with God, etc. These people were often engaged in activities to keep certain influences from infiltrating their households or to rid themselves of demonic attacks. In other words, negative supernatural influences (demonic activity) were blamed for negative natural occurrences. A number of preventative actions could also be taken on the part of the believer to either prevent these attacks or stop them once they began.

Having been weaned in a charismatic environment, spiritual warfare appealed to me for quite some time, probably because it offered a simple, supernatural explanation for the naturally-occurring problems of life which defied explanation. What I've noticed since I left the charismatic environment is that the "attacks of the enemy" which I had often in others' lives and periodically in my own have become significantly less frequent.

This reduction in "demonic activity" is upon leaving the charismatic movement is incredibly curious, especially in light of the fact that I haven't done anything to ward off these "attacks" other than try to focus on developing my relationship with God.

After reading the thoughts of some other individuals on the matter of spiritual warfare, I have come to the conclusion that spiritual warfare teaching has the paradoxical, unintended consequence of actually allowing more room for demonic activity to occur. One problem of spiritual warfare teaching is that it continually emphasizes the fact that almost anything un-Christian can bring about some sort of demonic oppression. This leaves people in the position of living in perpetual fear that some action on their part will bring about demonic oppression. This leads to all sorts of unnecessary exercises to ward off these potential attacks.

In the end, people base many of their decisions off of fear of the demonic rather than faith in God. I believe it is far more healthy to cultivate a strong faith-based relationship with God and put all the fear of demonic influence on the backburner. One can be discerning about partaking of certain music, film, spiritual influences, etc. for the sake of maintaining a strong relationship with God. However, fear should not drive these decisions because it subverts our ability to trust God with our lives.

As a counterpoint, some charismatics would most likely argue that these attacks of the enemy are a sign that they are in God's will. "The devil won't attack you if you're walking away from God." Or so the reasoning goes. My experience generally indicates the opposite. Our destruction and oppression is far more swift when we walk away from God because we are less perceptive of impending danger and generally so wrapped up in our own selfishness that we can't take the advice of others who may see our traps along the road. Those who walk faithfully with God will certainly undergo tests of faith, but those are hardly a justification for the level of demonic activity which is spurned by the unhealthy fear of negative spiritual activity.

In short, I believe that spiritual warfare teaching does far more harm than good because it promotes fear of supernatural entities which we cannot control instead of fostering our faith in a loving God.

"There is no fear in love: but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and hte one who fears is not perfected in love." -1 John 4:18