Spiritual Warfare

In my studying, I'm learning how we have to use defensive warfare when Satan attacks us, and we are initiating offensive warfare when we are claiming new territory for God, such as sharing the gospel with others.  I'm currently studying the parallels between natural warfare and spiritual warfare.

In natural war, soldiers go through much training.  They learn all they can about the enemy, they learn how to use their weapons to their full advantage, they use intelligence officers to gather more information to give themselves the advantage.

In spiritual war, many Christian soldiers face the war without any training.  They don't take the time to read their Bible (our greatest source of intelligence), they don't spend the time talking to their Chief Officer about the battle plan for the day, they aren't even aware of their spiritual weapons and have no idea how to use them.  If you are a Christian, you are entering this war every day, like it or not.  Would you ever enter a natural battlefield without the proper training?  Why throw yourself into the spiritual battlefield without the proper training?

Read your Bible, know what it says, memorize scripture that will be useful to defend yourself with (just as Jesus did when He was tempted), talk to the Father about any worries you have and cast all your fears upon Him.  He is our Great Commander and He won't lead us astray. 

I want to share this one section from my studies:

A great general in the natural world once told his troops, "We are not going to dig foxholes and wait for the enemy to come shooting at us. We are going to move ahead, and move fast." (A foxhole is a hole in the ground in which a soldier can hide). The general said, "When you dig a foxhole, you dig a grave. When you are in that foxhole and fire at the enemy, he knows your exact location...We will keep moving and the enemy will always hit where we have been and not where we are." This general did not believe in defense. His theory was that if the enemy was constantly under attack, there would not be any need to defend. He realized that the force moving in offensive warfare had advantage over the defending forces. He said, "We will fight on our terms and we will win."

In spiritual warfare, he who understands the objective of warfare as the defeat of the enemy will not easily be reduced to a defensive position. To gain total victory, offensive fronts are required.