The third principle of spiritual warfare is that we must use spiritual weapons. When engaging in spiritual warfare, it is not enough to merely keep the heavenly position; we must be able to actively employ the spiritual weapons. Spiritual weapons refer to the “whole armor” mentioned in Ephesians 6:10-17, which includes the girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. All these weapons are spiritual, and when we use them we must be in spirit. We can say that the basic principle of employing the spiritual weapons is that all our activities must be of the spirit. Preaching the gospel, edifying the saints, and administering the church are of the spirit. Whatever kind of activity we are engaged in, every one must be of the spirit and every one must release the spirit. Anything which is not of the spirit, anything which is according to our own view, our own idea, our own wisdom, or our own intelligence, is unavoidably a kind of human scheme and thus a fleshly weapon, not a spiritual weapon. Therefore, when we are fighting, all our activities must be of the spirit, touching the feeling from within our spirit. This also is an extremely basic principle.
The fourth principle of spiritual warfare is to have fighting prayers. After the Apostle mentioned the various kinds of spiritual weapons in Ephesians 6, he straightway said, “Praying at every time in spirit” (Gk.). Spiritual warfare cannot neglect prayer, for spiritual warfare largely depends on prayer. What Satan fears most is the saints’ bended knees before the Lord, or the prayer of the church before God. Even in the Old Testament we can see a few examples of warring prayers. For example, when Daniel prayed, there was action on the throne. But when the answer came down from the throne, it met resistance in the air. Daniel prayed continually. His prayer was a kind of warfare. A person who keeps the position of ascension reigns in heaven. He can also employ spiritual weapons, and the prayer which comes forth from him avails much; it can touch the throne of God and affect the power of Satan. God desires His saints to have such kind of prayer to work together with Him and fight for Him.
In spiritual warfare, besides forsaking the fleshly weapons, keeping the position of ascension, employing the spiritual weapons, and offering fighting prayers, we must also apply the blood, testify the word, and love not our own soul lives (Rev. 12:11). This is also a very important principle in spiritual warfare.
To engage in spiritual warfare through the blood means to apply the blood of the Lord as our covering and to take the Lord’s blood to counter Satan’s accusations and attacks. Since we are still to this very day on the earth and in the body of flesh, we cannot help but have some defilement, corruption, weakness, shortcoming, and other undesirable conditions. When we fight with Satan, the first thing he does is to point out all the weaknesses and shortcomings in our conscience and then to accuse and attack us. Satan’s accusation is not only within; sometimes it is spoken without. Once, when someone was casting out a demon, the demon pointed out his hidden weaknesses and revealed them publicly through the one possessed by him. This kind of incident is even recorded in the Old Testament. Zechariah 3:1-5 speaks of Joshua wearing the filthy garment and Satan coming to oppose and attack him. These are things which the devil will certainly do in spiritual warfare. At such a time we need to know the power and effectiveness of the blood. Thus we can apply the blood to answer all of Satan’s accusations. We can tell him, “Although we have these weaknesses, the Lord’s blood has been shed, and God is satisfied.” Thus we can be strong and of good courage before the enemy and fight with him.
Secondly, we must testify. That is, we must declare what the Lord Jesus has accomplished, the victory of the cross, the attainment of resurrection, and the position of ascension. This is not a matter of preaching, but of testifying and declaring with words.
Satan is indeed a very subtle accuser. Sometimes when we just start to talk about overcoming the world, he immediately accuses us within, saying, “Are you not still loving the world?” The moment he interrupts and asks such a question, we faint inwardly. This is the time we ought to immediately declare the Lord’s victory. We must say, “Although I have not been delivered from the world, yet the Lord Jesus has overcome the world.” Thus we can prevail against his attacks.
Thirdly, we must not love our own lives; we must have no self-love nor self-care. Loving and caring for ourselves will cause us to lose the position of warfare and be unable to fight the battle. Hence, in order to fight the battle, we must not love our soul lives, even unto death.
In conclusion, all spiritual work is a form of spiritual warfare. There is not one time when we rise to work that we do not encounter the attacks of the enemy. In the day when Nehemiah restored the city of Jerusalem, because of the disturbance caused by the enemy, everyone with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon (Neh. 4:17). Likewise, we who serve the Lord today ought to work with one hand, and fight with the other. We ought not to care for our gain or loss, but through the blood, in the position of ascension, declare the Lord’s victory. Then, exercising the various spiritual weapons to deal with Satan, we can overthrow his power and bring in the kingdom of God. We must not neglect any of these principles while we are engaging in spiritual warfare in a practical way.
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