FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT

Yeshua came to destroy the works of the Devil, providing us with the sword of the spirit to fight a global war against malicious demons (1 John 3:8; Eph. 6:10-18). Yeshua and His disciples once sailed across Lake Galilee to the region of the Gerasenes (headlong rush). When Jesus stepped ashore, He was welcomed by a screaming, naked, wild-looking man who was possessed by a legion (6000 soldiers in the Roman army) of demons. The disciples had seen Yeshua cast out many demons before but nothing like this one. Once expelled, the demons entered unclean pigs that then rushed headlong into a lake and drowned. Pigs were sacrificial animals that were offered to their deities. The town’s people valued their pigs more than the saving of a lost soul, so they asked Yeshua to leave. Yeshua not only delivered the man from demons, but also anointed the naked man with His own shirt and sent him to evangelize Decapolis (10 cities) (Luke 8:26-39). 

Many Ekklesias were established only after a fierce spiritual warfare. In Cyprus, it was a sorcerer named Bar Yeshua (Acts 13:6-12). At Corinth, it was the erotic spirit of Venus and Delphi, leading folk into immorality and idolatry (1 Cor. 6:9; 10:19-21). At Ephesus, it was the spirit of Diana, the goddess of fertility (Acts 19:23-35). In Philippi, the Python spirit of Apollo, who was worshipped at Pytho (Acts 16:16). At Antioch, it was the legalistic spirit of Messianic Judaizers, who insisted on circumcision for Gentiles and fulfilling other Mosaic laws (Acts 15:1-2). In Smyrna, it was the synagogue of Satan (Rev. 2:9). In Pergamos, it was the compromising spirit of Balaam and the Nicolaitans who divided the Ekklesia into speaking brothers and listening brothers (Rev. 2:6, 14-15). In Thyatira, it was the spirit of Jezebel (Rev. 2:20) and so on. In each place, the territorial spirit was given marching orders, only then the Ekklesias sprouted and fructified.

There are many ways you can fight a good fight (1 Tim.6:12; 2 Tim.4:7). As the apostles did, you, too, must plunder the Temple and the synagogues, take out their devotees and turn them into performers. You can do so by following Paul’s example: walk into the Governor’s house in Cyprus, render Elymas the sorcerer blind, and plant an Ekklesia. Jonah’s style requires walking and prophesying over the city until it comes to repentance. You can also try Joshua’s method: silently prayer walk around the city, until the demonic walls come crumbling down. You could try Elijah’s method: invite all the sorcerers, then call down fire from heaven and slaughter them. 

City lovers could, like Ezekiel get a map of the city and lay a siege lying on one side for 390 days while eating bread cooked on human or cow dung (Eze. Chap 4). Try Jeremiah’s mantra. Every time you pass by religious strongholds like centers of idolatry, so you shall say to them, “The gods who have not made the heavens and the earth, they shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens” (Jer. 10:11). Or, like David, you can go forth in the name of the Lord, confront Goliath, the strongman, give your best shot with a sling and finish him off with the sword of the Spirit. Paul’s approach would be to trample the head of the Satan under your feet (Rom. 16:20). The more adventurous could try John the Baptist’s method: call pharisaical Christians “a brood of vipers”, bring them to repentance, dunk them in a river and then share with them a tasty meal of locusts laced with wild honey.

However, the most difficult arena of warfare remains the mind, the site of battle between the flesh and the Spirit. Yeshua has given us the authority and the assignment to depopulate Hell and to populate heaven by demolishing the gates of mental ghettos, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty for the pulling down strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2Cor. 10:3-5)

If you are planning on taking on the Devil with mere words, then you are grossly mistaken. Paul says, “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in display of the Spirit and of power, (1Cor. 2:4). Yeshua said, “If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and steal his possessions, unless he first ties up the strong man? (Matt. 12:28,29)

• Whether you know it or not and whether you like it or not, the Ekklesia is at war with demonic forces. 
• No point in preaching from Paul’s Epistles if you have no intention of replicating his model.
• You are deluded if you are expecting to enter heaven empty handed, without offering your bodies and lost souls as living sacrifice (Rom. 12:1; 15:16).
• Jews were not allowed to come to the Temple empty handed (Deut. 16:16). High Priest entered the Holy of Holies to offer gifts and sacrifices (Heb. 8:3). Even Yeshua did not enter heaven empty handed but with His own blood offered as the full and final sacrifice (Heb. 9:12; 10:10). 
• “Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see if ye can find a single person who seeks the truth, and I will forgive the city” (Jer. 5:1).
• “I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none” (Ezek. 22:30).
• “Your one man puts to flight a thousand, since it is the Lord your God who fights for you, just as He promised you” (Josh. 23:10).
• “How could one Gentile chase a thousand of you, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless your Rock had sold you, and the Lord had given you up?” (Deut. 32:30).

Copyright © 2023 Dr. Victor Choudhrie

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