Born in the Battle
It is historical that the “Battle” began long ago… the Devil, the slanderer or accuser, known by many names such as Satan, Asmodeus, Azazel, Belial, Beelzebub, and so on, in its disobedience, pride and envy, seduced other Angels to rise up alongside it in an attempt to overthrow God. In response, the Creator allowed one of His Angels, the Archangel Michael, to lead the Angelic army of Heaven in Battle against the Devil and its followers. Victory was God’s. Once swatted and beaten by the Archangel Michael, Satan was cast down to the earth, along with its cohort of disobedient Angels. These creatures no longer held intentions of Good for anything, they have become Evil, and in as much, contrary to all they had been created for. They will forever be called Demons, filled with hatred for one another and for all humanity. And so, these anti-Christ Angels are now here among us, sometimes seen, sometimes felt, sometimes heard, sometimes smelled, always causing turmoil.
Once here, these demons, unable to beat God, turned their Evil attention to destroy the children of God just as Scripture tells us in the story of Adam and Eve. This was not so much the destruction of the physical part of Man, but specifically the eternal spiritual side that God designed to be with Him in Heaven. This destructive interaction and devastation has continued through every generation since, for the demons seek our eternal destruction. They do so without emotion as they are beings of pure intellect… they do not feel such things as happiness, sadness, and so on. They are much like the “Terminator” in the movie from the same name, they pursue their purpose without hesitation, without emotion, a machine-like design that fully follows a prescribed operation.
But how can they do such? Through cunning and sly manipulation, they often attempt to turn our attention to the moment we find ourselves in, perhaps we are suffering from something and in as much they offer false consolation through some manner of sin, thus taking our eyes off the Lord and the salvation He has offered us. We might take this seeming relief, only to find ourselves worse off than before following the evil voice.
This temporal attack, directed to destroy our destiny to live with God forever, disrupts our connection, our relationship with God, His plan for our eternal life with Him. The temporary physical journey we find ourselves traveling will end. But this is also the place where we have begun our eternal journey home toward the Lord, or in a direction away from Him. God made our purpose in life to return home to Him in Heaven, to receive our reward eternally in Heaven… and the Battle is on for our final destination. Through the Mercy of God, Jesus Christ offers us salvation / reconciliation through our repentance and conversion. In Luke 5:32, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Even after we fall, He is there to pick us up.
With all that said, many of us don’t realize that this “Battle” rages all around us… in the physical, mental, emotional and the spiritual. We see ‘normal’ in our daily struggles, and so we slug our way from “can to can’t”, morning to night, day in and day out.
After the Garden, as I mentioned before, we have become fodder for the Devil. That vile creature and its cohort hunts, tempts, taunts, and hates each of us. But we have victory in Christ Jesus!
Even though we have a tendency toward sin (concupiscence) with that Original Sin from the Garden upon us, we can still make the choice to say no to sin, go to Christ, enter into His victory over our eternal spiritual death. He waits for each of us to call out to Him, Jesus save me!
So daily, we must make the choice not to travel the serpent path, rather we must say yes to Christ and do as He directs. Our Lord Jesus Christ gives us the opportunity to come to Him, or walk away… yet, we can always get back up and return to Jesus… over and over again. Yes! We are offered time and again the chance to receive His Grace, to come to Faith, to say and to believe, “My Lord and my God.” Jn 20:28.
The Battle rages around us, yet many walk on, oblivious…
People, ignorance is not bliss!
But, with eyes open to the Truth, we can enter into the Battle, armored up, by and through the Lord, ready to respond to the temptations, the lies, the false voice in our mind. We cannot beat the Devil with physical weapons, only by Supernatural Spiritual weapons! By Faith and complete trust in God, the victory is at hand by doing as the Lord tells us.
In the following Scripture, Paul has woven it to display the physical weapons/tools of that present day soldier in a manner that is directly related to the Supernatural Spiritual weapons we must use… it’s a call to prepare for spiritual battle! And the preparation means we exercise with these spiritual weapons/tools each day, learn them, use them, have them become a daily habit of putting on Christ.
Ephesians 6:10-18 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil. 12 For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened the belt of truth around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; 16 besides all these, taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the Evil One. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,”.
Simply caught up in the daily moments of distraction, this is where the Demons want us to be. They are in the temporal and are not all-knowing, all-seeing nor omnipotent. We often give them too much credit as well as assigning them power they do not have! They’re just creatures, albeit extremely intelligent compared to humans, they are not God! Our destruction is their desire. If we travel their way, our eternal souls are at risk. We must learn and do Battle as the Lord has explained to us in Scripture.
Walking the path of Righteousness, faithfully believing the reality of God’s promise of Salvation, armoring up as He says to. A Battle plan of Salvation is right before us if we but follow such.
As I said before, ignorance is not bliss… God is bliss!
So what do we do?
- Give yourself completely to God.
- A simple daily statement: “Father, I am Yours’.”
- Learn His ways through simple daily habits. As Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.”
- Learn how to pray, through the Scriptures, the Saints and good books.
- Read Holy Scripture, following an established good program.
- Reflect upon a daily meditation from a good source.
- Go to Church and become an active part of the Christian Community.
- Lay out a battle plan and follow it.
So what do we NEVER do?
- Don’t go to the Occult or anything that has you focus on something other than God the Father, Jesus His Son, and the Holy Spirit.
- Don’t go to the worldly things such as horoscopes / astrology, necromancy, witchcraft and so on.
- Don’t give up.
Here are some sources worth investigating:
- Bible studies such as
- “Lord Teach Me To Pray”, http://lordteachmetopray.com
- “That Man Is You”, https://paradisusdei.org/that-man-is-you/
- Magnificat, https://www.magnificat.net
- Rise Men’s Challenge, https://reallifecatholic.com/rise-challenge/
- Bible in a Year, https://ascensionpress.com/pages/biy-registration
- Peter Kreeft, Prayer for Beginners, https://www.peterkreeft.com/audio/32_prayer-beginners.htm
Contact us for even more resources.
This is a Battle, and you are not alone!