The Reality of Spiritual Warfare

# 63 – Today's Du-votional comes from 1Sa 4:8-10, "Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness. 9 "Be strong and conduct yourselves like men, you Philistines, that you do not become servants of the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Conduct yourselves like men, and fight!" 10 So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and every man fled to his tent. There was a very great slaughter, and there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers. (1 Sam 4:8-10) The ark of the covenant has arrived in the camp of the Israelites. The Philistines have heard of what God had done with the mighty Egyptians, yet they do not run! They decide to fight, and to the amazement of all, they win! How can this be! Remember, the Philistines represent the devil, his demons, the world, and our flesh. With this in mind we can see the reality of spiritual battles that you and I face. They are intense! The Philistines (the devil and his demons) rev up for battle with words like, “Be strong and fight!” And they do! Learn from this. The devil does not give up easily! And if Jesus were not in us, fighting for us, we would not have a chance! Think about it. Even when Jesus was casting out demons, there were signs of struggle with the convulsions and audible sounds of those being delivered. But even though there were struggles, Jesus never lost a battle. He never lost because HE was perfectly yielded to the Father. Our own victories in spiritual warfare are directly related to the degree of our own yieldedness to the Lord. He must fight for us, because our own flesh is no match for the evil one. Eph 6:11,12 reminds us to “ Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. These Israelites were not totally surrendered....they lost. How about you?