Ephesians 6
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.
14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

This is for those who have come over to God by power of Christ from a world fallen in Adam. Adam was given stewardship over the world but He fell for the lies of Satan and in eating the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, he received to himself and for all his posterity a standard of righteousness which was separate from God because from there he turned from serving God to serving himself. There was no longer any truth in Adam after that because he died in spirit and from his posterity came various religions, which fabricated every kind of god, to satisfy the peoples rebellion against the righteousness of God. Everything from human sacrifice, to people scarring themselves in worship, roaming nude and sexual perversion is what has defined religion for billions of people over the ages. As for the atheist they do all these things too but for different reasons because their spiritual disposition is no different.

Prov 8:36
34 “Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at my doorposts.
35 “For he who finds me finds life And obtains favor from the LORD.
36 “But he who sins against me injures himself; All those who hate me love death.”

The first lesson in spiritual warfare is knowing God’s Law because in that is the real standard of righteousness by which we are to live. Now this can only happen if God has initiated a spiritual rebirth in you and the only way you can be know this, is if your life witnesses in itself a perseverance in seeking the Lord Jesus Christ through every trial and joyous moment (Jn3:3,16). Unlike other religions, Christianity is not about how you dress and what you eat, it is about how you think and act, just as I have cited below. As Jesus has said in Mat 22:36-40 the Moral Law hangs on two commandments, that we are to love God above all and second love our neighbour just as we love ourselves.

Exo 20:14
“You shall not commit adultery.

Job 31:1
I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman.

Mat 5
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’;
28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Spiritual Warfare is such a thing that it requires you to know the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ and that is something you can only receive from the Holy Spirit because only God can help you receive the truth about Jesus in your heart by drowning out the world’s nasty lies about Him, even when those hypocrites claim to be coming from a disposition of meaning well. The fact of the matter remains that if you don’t know the truth about Jesus (Jn14:6), you really don’t know right from wrong.

Mat 16
15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

John 6
43 Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves.
44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.

For most people right and wrong concerning what you can do and what you cannot do is dependent on the masses. If everybody is into piracy, then piracy is ok because everybody is doing it. If everybody supports a woman’s choice to murder the baby in her womb, then it is ok to support abortion but today a woman wants to kill her own baby because responsibility is not fun. It is an established fact that life begins at conception because if conception does not happen, the life of the egg/sperm ceases by itself. If a person dies as a foetus that person dies for real and none of us would exist today if we died as unborn babies. Tomorrow somebody might want to kill you, would you support that too, after all it is that person’s choice. Such is the ludicrous nature of the righteousness the world knows and the best thing is they take pride in this horse shit. Take the manner in which the media covers gay pride and gay parades in the US, they receive 70% of media coverage, when they are only about 3% of that nation’s population. Do you know why this is, it is because the world in sick and this is what we are up against, people who want to reduce civil society to absolute anarchy because their appetites are destructive from Adam.

Isaiah 64
5 You meet him who rejoices in doing righteousness, Who remembers You in Your ways. Behold, You were angry, for we sinned, We continued in them a long time; And shall we be saved?
6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

An eminent theologian A. W. Pink has said, the world is not governed by faith but by its senses because they all live to please themselves. Unfortunately, thought has nothing to do with pleasing the senses, so even by their own standard of righteousness what the world knows to be right is very different from what they feel like doing. Such is their plight in their broken communion with God.

Jeremiah 17
5 Thus says the LORD, “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from the LORD.
6 “For he will be like a bush in the desert And will not see when prosperity comes, But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, A land of salt without inhabitant.
7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD.
8 “For he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit.
9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?
10 “I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds.

We live in a world that hates responsibility but we who are in Christ should understand that Adam was given stewardship over the world (Gen1:28), which he failed at when he fell to disobedience. We need to look at the world from the perspective of people living on rent (Mark 12:1-12), the unbelievers are nothing but defaulters who want the world for themselves while remaining ungrateful to God. They are nothing but a bunch of squatters who hate taking responsibility for their environment. We cannot respect them for their humanity because if these are out to destroy themselves, must they also take the earth with them? Must we respect their feelings when they have no capacity to care for what is right in the sight of God? Please do not misunderstand me, I am in no way advocating any sort of ethnic cleansing because unlike Islam (Saudi flag), Christianity is not propagated under the edge of the sword. Our sword is the Word of God (absolute truth), which pierces the hearts of men (Heb 4:12).

Gen 1
27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

Rom 5
17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

If you are uncomfortable with all this am saying, please know I am not spewing hatred. I am merely telling you things as they are. Have you ever wondered why the world finds the truth in general to be bitter? This by itself should tell you that there is no truth is most people’s religion, even if they take immense pride in it. It is as the Apostle Paul says we are not to be ashamed of the Gospel for the sake of the people because we cannot compromise the truth about God just to make people feel comfortable. To them a living righteous God does not exist but that mind-set need not prevail in us who know God.

Romans 1
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”

Romans 3
3 What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it?
4 May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, “That You may be justified in Your words, And prevail when You are judged.”
5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.)
6 May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world?

Spiritual Warfare is therefore resisting people in their unrighteousness (Ps1:1), which may involve not participating in their religious lies or robbery or bearing false witness against another or using a false measure to make a pay out or sexual immorality. You see, unbelievers have no capacity to trust God, they can at best trust in numbers (people), so what pricks them most when we resist them in their unrighteousness is a sense that awakens them to the existence of God, to whom they suddenly find themselves morally accountable, which they absolutely hate and since these have never practiced living in the truth, they never get the point until they stop living for themselves and start living for God. It is only when they turn to God that they really wake up and smell the coffee.

John 12
23 And Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
25 “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.
26 “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.

The side you are on in this spiritual warfare depends on who your life is accountable to. If you more concerned about what the people think of you then you are on the losing side but if you live your life in faith believing that your life is accountable to Jesus Christ, then though you may be knocked down many a times (2Cor4:6-9), you will never be knocked out (Ps37:23-24) because the salvation the Lord Jesus has purchased for you by His blood is unlosable (Eph 6:17).

Romans 10
8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”–that is, the word of faith which we are preaching,
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

To conclude, for as long as people deny God His rightful place (first) in their lives, these people will only see their neighbour as the means to serve themselves in their lawlessness (covetousness, adultery, robbery and bearing false witness from vested interest). Contrary to what the world is inclined to believe, the goal of spiritual warfare is peace and this can only be found in Christ (Is 9:6). Have you ever wondered how a world filled 7 billion people, who are only out for themselves, how does such a world not collapse to anarchy? It is by the power of God, who restrains people from actioning their evil desires. Yet these will not escape judgment for their evil motives (Prov 16:2) because as much as there is hope for the godly, the wicked will not escape God’s justice (Heb 1:8-13).

It was once implied to me in a conversation that Adam fell because he was innocent and knew nothing of sin. Well, such is the view of many Antinomians, who fail to see the extent to which reprobate man has fallen short of the glory of God. The thing is, when there is a nature to sin then it is not sinning that make a person a sinner, for the thought needs to occur to him first and then the desire to materialize it and this is what makes a person a sinner for the act of sin would not be birthed if the nature to sin did not exist. A famous theologian once said that Satan is just the midwife but it is our will and lust which is father and mother to our sinful actions.

Romans 5
17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

There is a difference between Adam in his unfallen state and the believer who goes over to the other side of the grave. Adam had the capacity to fall because he was given a condition that could bring about his spiritual death, which was eating the forbidden fruit. As for the believer on the other side of the grave, His promise is eternal life in Christ (Titus 1:1-2), which means he no longer has the capacity to fall because then the promise would not be eternal. When Adam was created, his nature was not corrupt, so he was better off than the reprobate man in his resistance towards sin. As Jesus has said that even the thought of entertaining a sin is a sin committed in the heart (Mat 5:28) and as James 2:10 says that he who stumbles even on a single point of the commandments becomes guilty on stumbling on them all.

Hence the same verse Gen 3:6 in which Eve saw the forbidden fruit was good, is the same verse in which she also ate of it and gave Adam and he ate of it too. That was the time their eyes were opened meaning they received a righteousness of their own i.e. having a standard separate from God concerning what is right and what is wrong. Everything changed for them instantly, their view concerning even themselves was different from what God had concerning them because by themselves they turned ashamed of their nakedness (Gen 3:11). This sin has been passed through Adams loins to all his posterity and so now man determines what he is to believe concerning God. This is the Spiritual death permeating through the generations of Adam where reprobate man’s nature discerns the Law (James 4:11) of his maker thus bringing himself under His justice (Romans 2:12).

When man was created, God breathed life into him (Gen 2:7) and this was the Holy Spirit for His Spirit refers to that which God breathed and giving life. So the death of Adam and Eve in their disobedience was actually in their Spirit. The reprobate man therefore does not know the righteousness of God until he is touched by the Holy Spirit and it is for this reason that, in the entire Bible the only person of whom it is said that he can sin without even knowing it (Numbers 22:34) is the biologically alive man, for sin comes naturally to him.

John 20
.21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

Notice from John 20:22 that Jesus breathed on his disciples and said receive the Holy Spirit. If you were to read the Nicene Creed, which is a statement of faith of the early Church, you would find in reference to the Holy Spirit and He is the giver of life. It is for this reason that the Bible too is referred to as God breathed or Spirit inspired, because it gives life to those whom God foreknows (foreloves), it is the believers sustenance (Mat 4:4). It is important to see here that Christ is the fulfillment of Gen 3:15, because through the accomplishment of Christ work on the cross, Spiritual life was made available to the believer, that life which was lost in Adam. This was the very undoing of Satan’s deceit, for in his very attempt to thwart the redemptive work of Christ; he was dealt a fatal blow.

Phil 4:13
13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Romans 8:10
10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

Just as Eve’s sin was the moment she saw the fruit was good to eat, in the same way the sacrifice of Christ is received by the believer at the very moment he believes the Word. The very moment from the Father’s call to the believer to come unto Christ (John 6:44), sees the Holy Spirit impute the Seed/His Word into believer, which becomes the very beginning of the believer seeing a righteousness develop in him that is not his own but of God’s (John 1:13). So begins the process where the believer dies to his flesh and becomes alive in His Spirit (Romans 6:4) and he then steps forward to witness Christ in the sacrament of Baptism. The same thing is with the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, unless the believer is imputed by the Holy Spirit to receive in faith Christ’ redemptive sacrifice, the Holy Eucharist is only as much as bread and wine as Baptism is of water.

Romans 6:4
4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

The dying to oneself is brought about through repentance (Luke 13:3), where man acknowledges that his righteousness was nothing but filthy rags (Is 64:6) before God i.e. he doesn’t justify himself before Christ but acknowledges himself as a sinner before his Savior and Almighty God.

Romans 3
22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;

Romans 1
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”

Do you remember the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15? The Father sees him, the repentant son from a far and runs out to welcome him while he is still on his way i.e. the believer is joyously acknowledge before God in his repentance (Luke 15:10) while is still far off being led by the Holy Spirit into sanctification (Exodus 31:13). You notice he puts His ring on his finger, which is probably symbolic to the repentant son receiving the righteousness of God. This righteousness is not of men but of faith in Jesus Christ.

Romans 3
22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe;