What is Spiritual Warfare Part 2

In John’s gospel the concept of the “world” is the domain where Satan has influence. While it is true that God created the world because of Satan’s rebellion against God and Adam and Eve’s fall Satan has influence. In the garden of Eden remember what Satan did to Eve. He tempted her and she yielded to that temptation and she sinned and immediately she turned to her husband (who by the way was standing there beside her and could have stepped up at any moment and said no! But he didn’t) and as she yields to the temptation he yields to the temptation also.

At that moment something happens on the planet; the fall occurs. The entire planet that was made in the image of God and that God had said was good even that it was very good, in that precise moment all creation fell. This is why when you plant your garden you plant seed but the weeds grow. Has anyone here ever planted ragweed? Of course not! You don’t plant it, it just grows. Don’t you wish tomatoes would grow just as easily as weeds. Why does this not happen? Because of the fall! God has cursed the earth and he cursed the woman with pain in childbirth, and with being subject to men. Go back and read Genesis chapter 3.

⁸ They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” ¹¹ And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” ¹² The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” ¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” ¹⁴ The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; ¹⁵ And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.” ¹⁶ To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.” ¹⁷ Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. ¹⁸ “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; ¹⁹ By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:8–19 (NASB)

And then God curses man and says by the sweat of your brow you will earn all that you earn.

The world as we know it is the result of Satan’s influence.

Whenever John speaks of the “world” he is speaking of the world’s system, which is fallen in its nature.

This is why Jesus says “while I was with them I protected them and kept them safe in the name you gave me, my prayer is not to take him out of the world but protect them from the evil one” (John 17:12). Please do not misunderstand, our job is not to be working on making a spaceship so we can all get out of the world, but to be constantly vigilant while we live in the world, and although we are in the world we should not allow the world to be in us. We are in it but not of it.

Now in John 17:20-21 we read “my prayer is not for them alone (it is not just of the disciples) I pray also for those who would believe in me through their message (so that’s for us) that all of them may be one Father just as you are in me and I am in you made they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

So Jesus brings together two things.Step one in our warfare plan is to realize that we do have an enemy and it is not one another. Jesus has and continues to pray for our spiritual protection and unity. Our unity is critically important to our ability to engage in spiritual warfare. In his model prayer Jesus taught us to pray for protection from the evil one and in his high priestly prayer Jesus also prayed for our protection from the evil one as well as our spiritual unity. Each of us need to understand our great need for protection, what it means to pray for protection from evil, and how it is accomplished.