Asymmetric Spiritual Warfare

Asymmetric Spiritual Warfare

Spiritual Warfare #4 Pastor Tom Mitchell

Ultraviolet radiation (UV radiation) is a form of energy traveling through space that you can’t see, but it can be life threatening.

So we use sunscreen to protect our skin from these invisible UV rays. Aside from the hazards of heat, these invisible UV rays poses the danger of sunburn, which can permanently damage the skin and cause skin cancer, precancerous changes in the skin. Exposure to these invisible UV rays from the sun are a known risk factor for the development of both melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers.

We are in a series called the Invisible War. We believe Satan rules this invisible world and wants to bring about the opposite of what God has in mind. God wants to draw us closer to Himself; Satan wants to draw us away. God wants to strengthen our faith; Satan wants to weaken it. God wants to cleanse our character; Satan wants to corrupt it. God wants to increase our love for people: Satan wants to create bitterness and resentment. God wants us to experience eternal life; Satan wants us to experience eternal death. So life is about the battle between God and Satan.

We have already looked in detail at the origin of Satan and how he tempted Adam and Eve. In Gen 3 is the first time we see Satan at work but it is not the last. The Bible also mentions Satan at work in:

1 Chron 21:1 “Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. (NIV)

Zec 3:1 “… And there beside Joshua (High Priest) stood Satan, ready to bring an accusation against him. (GNT)

Mt 4:3 “The devil came to Jesus to tempt him, saying, “If you are the Son of God, tell these rocks to become bread.” (NCV)

Lu 22:31 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to test all of you as a farmer sifts his wheat”. (NCV)

Jn 13:2 “… The Devil had already put into the heart of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, the thought of betraying Jesus.(GNT)

Ac 5:3 Peter said, “Ananias, why did you let Satan rule your thoughts to lie to the Holy Spirit…… (NCV)

Satan is waging an invisible war against God and his people. That why the Bible says: “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” (I Pet 5:8 NLT)

How many of you are familiar with term asymmetric warfare? It’s a concept that has surfaced in the recent years as a result of the war on terrorism. The word asymmetric refers to something that is out of balance. In warfare it describes a situation where the combatants are not equal. Here’s a working definition: Asymmetric warfare is a military term to describe warfare in which the two forces are mismatched in their military capabilities.

Asymmetric warfare happens when a large army goes to war against a much smaller force. From the American point of view, our recent wars have been examples of symmetric warfare. In contrast to resent wars is World War II where you had the large Allied armies on one side and large German, Italian and Japanese armies on the other side. They fought traditional battles for territory across the islands of the Pacific and across North Africa and Europe.

In the 21st century, a new sort of warfare has come to the forefront in which conventional armies face loosely-organized terrorist cells. Here are three clear examples of asymmetric warfare.

-On Oct. 3, 2000, the USS Cole, an American battleship equipped with the latest and most sophisticated technology, came to the harbor of Aden, Yemen, for what was meant to a routine fuel stop. At 11:18 AM two men in a rubber boat approached the ship. They blew a 40-by-40 foot hole in the side of the ship, killing 17 American sailors and injuring 39 others. The irony was that this battleship, designed to protect a carrier battle group against all threats, was powerless to stop two men in a rubber boat.

-On Sept 11, 2001 Osama bin Laden struck a blow against the heart of what he regarded as the visible symbol of corrupt Western capitalism. With a handful of men he attacked the World Trade Center. He did not launch some sort of frontal assault. He trained the men to commandeer commercial aircraft and fly them into the Twin Towers. His plan involved staggered attacks with the shock of the first tower being hit guaranteeing that the whole world will be watching when the second tower was struck. It worked even better than Osama bin Laden could have dreamed. And almost 3000 people died that day.

-On Jan 29, 2006 ABC anchorman Bob Woodruff and his cameraman were seriously injured in Iraq by an IED, an Improvised Explosive Device. These deadly homemade roadside bombs have accounted for nearly one-third of all US battlefield deaths in Iraq and now also in Afghanistan.

When the president reminds us that “the terrorists cannot defeat us,” he is certainly correct in the traditional military sense of the world. We saw what happened in 1991 and again in 2003 in the two gulf wars. No nation on earth can match the US in sheer military might. And yet capturing Baghdad was not like capturing Berlin in 1945. Asymmetric warfare continues, and the end is not yet in sight.

In all of this, it helps to remember that the goal of the lesser power is not to utterly defeat the larger power.

Rarely will that happen. Instead, the lesser power intends to harass the larger power until, wearied by an opponent that he cannot seem to find, the greater power gives up the struggle. Time, in that sense, is on the side of the lesser power. Few of us have the stomach for a war that never seems to end. If the lesser power can cause enough destruction to divide and discourage the greater power, the lesser power can win even though he is badly outnumbered.

One writer summarized the matter this way: The ideal war is one which NO ONE realizes war is being waged, which is mostly invisible, not because its actions are camouflaged, but because they look like something else.

I thought of all these things and realized that this is a true picture of our everyday invisible spiritual warfare. Satan rarely attacks us head-on. He comes at us from unusual angles, playing on our minds, slowing us down, throwing one roadblock after another in our way, causing us to doubt and then to fear and finally to give in to discouragement.

There are seasons in life for all of us when nothing comes easy. The clothes washer breaks, the car won’t start, our expenses mount up, our friends seem suddenly too busy to talk to us, a project at work misfires, a friend grows distant, our children frustrate us, our parents frustrate us, and our spouse seems impatient and uncaring. In those moments we are facing true asymmetric spiritual warfare because we are being hit in many places at once, and as things pile up, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain our spiritual stability.

Hear this: Satan Doesn’t Fight Fair! He does not observe the traditional rules of warfare. This is part of what Paul meant when he spoke about the “schemes of the devil” in Eph. 6:11. The word “schemes” might also be translated as “traps” or “tricks” or “tactics. Satan doesn’t fight fair.

The Bible says that Satan is a liar, a deceiver, an accuser, a tempter, a provoker of sin through anger, pride, worry, discouragement, and/or immorality. He does all this to get us to disobey Jesus. So we must:

1) Adopt a Warfare Mentality. Adopting a warfare mentality means understanding that we are always at war, that a battle is raging all around us. In many of the wars the soldiers saw the enemy. But in modern warfare you may not see or recognize the enemy. In the spiritual battle we fight a enemy that is invisible to us, and for that reason it is easy to forget that there is a battle.

2) Raise the Spiritual Alert Level. Since 9/11 those of us living in the United States have become very familiar with the color-coded terror alert system. We’re not safe just because we think we are. Overconfidence leads us to many mistakes, something Peter found out the hard way when he denied Christ less than five hours after he had pledged that his loyalty (Luke 22:31-34). Beware of thinking that you have conquered some sin or that you are beyond certain temptations.

Scotch Presbyterian Robert Murray McCheyne said, “I have begun to realize that the seeds of every known sin still linger in my heart.” Beware of spiritual presumption. The traditional reading of 1 Corinthians 10:12 offers this warning: “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” Here is a more colorful rendering of the same verse: “Don’t be so naive and self-confident. You’re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it’s useless. Cultivate God-confidence”( Msg).

3) Settle in for the Long Haul. This may be the most important principle of all. Shortly after 9/11, the president told us that the war against terror would not be won easily or quickly. It would take years of determination and the willingness to endure setbacks and further attacks. So far those words have proven 100% true. Until Jesus returns there won’t be any final victories in asymmetric warfare.

Between now and then there will be more battles, some defeats and some victories. But mostly the spiritual struggle will continue. Therefore, we must not be surprised at sudden attacks, or discouraging events, or personal disappointments, or financial setbacks, or friends who let us down, or days when nothing seems to go right. All of this is the reality of the invisible spiritual war.

Remember: The power of Jesus and his Holy Spirit is more than enough to defeat Satan, but victory will not come easily. I Jn 4:4 says: “My dear children, you belong to God and have defeated them; because God’s Spirit, who is in you, is greater than the devil, who is in the world. (NCV)

So we have been called to a battle against a vicious, scheming, invisible enemy. We are called to battle not only for our own sakes, not only for our own families, but for the sake of others around us. We must warn those around us that life is a battle, and that the enemy has us in his crosshairs. We must warn one another to be aware of the Satan’s schemes, so that we can be armed and defended against the devil's attacks. And we must pray for one another, because our only true defender is Jesus Himself.