You have not visited this chapter.
Search for:

The real world war

Meaning of the Kingdom of God

The centurion was a man under authority, a junior officer, not someone who knew the detailed planning of his superiors, but a man who was very clear of the mission of the organisation that was his life and work: the Roman Empire. The purpose of the Empire was to provide security and increasing wellbeing for its citizens; plus continually to extend its boundaries, bringing more and more people into the Pax Romana (which lasted from 27 BC to 180 AD). The analogy for us is clear; we do not know the Lord’s plans for the consummation of the kingdom of God, but we are convinced that each of us has a part to play in the fulfilment of those plans.

The Bible is quite clear that we are at war with the forces of evil:

God said to the serpent, “…And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

There is no doubt of the outcome of this war, the crushing of the devil’s head, but we may sustain injuries, as Jesus did, from the devil’s attacks in the meantime.

Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. (Mark 1:23-26)

The demons know what Jesus can do through his words to them.

Jesus replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven…” (Luke 10:18)

Jesus said this after he had sent out the 72 disciples with a very specific set of orders to exercise authority over diseases and tell the population under enemy occupation that the kingdom of God was at hand (Luke 10:1-11), i.e. that the front line of God’s advancing army would soon get to them.

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. (Romans 16:20)

God’s promise to us is the same as at the beginning.

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil… (Hebrews 2:14)

Jesus’ death on the cross was the battle that turned the war. The devil thought he was getting rid of Jesus by having him executed as a common criminal. Little did the devil realise that Jesus would be born in everyone who puts their trust in him – satan now faces a whole army of Little Christs^[14] (to use C.S. Lewis’ term from Mere Christianity).

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. (1 John 3:8)

We can also say that one reason that the Son of God lives in us:

Do you not realise that Christ Jesus is in you— unless, of course, you fail the test? (2 Corinthians 13:5)

and manifests his presence through us is to win this war completely.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12)

The Bible, without going into great detail, reveals an unseen world all around us where there is a war going on. The forces of evil are continually, actively opposing God’s purpose for his creation. Why God allows this, why he has let evil in, is a big question, but let’s just look at the consequences for us, finite, vulnerable beings caught up in a war zone. We have three choices:

Enrol in God’s Army
Align ourselves with the enemy
Keep our heads down, hoping that the conflict will not affect us.

This latter choice is the one preferred by most in our society, including most Christians, but we have to realise that this will prolong the conflict, and does not guarantee that we won’t be badly affected by being in a war zone.

It is important to keep reminding ourselves of the essential message of Ephesians 6:12 – no human being is our enemy. Every member of the human race is to be loved into the Kingdom. Our only conflict is with the non-human forces that oppose us, even if these forces are using human agents.

Although the Book of Revelation draws a picture of the cosmic conflict as a physical war with opposing forces striking each other in a battle for supremacy, the actual battleground is in the hearts and minds of the human race. The forces at war are as real as those that faced each other on the beaches of Normandy in 1944 – the territory that is so hotly disputed is inside you and me.

To understand this, we need to start in Genesis 1 and 2, before the enemy had any impact on planet earth or on the human race. Genesis 1 tells us what was in God’s mind when he created humankind:

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Genesis 1:26-28)

God’s purpose for humankind described here^[15] was:

To carry his image, to reflect his nature, to re-present him and to make him visible in his creation
To have dominion over the rest of creation, to have the power and the responsibility for all he had made.
To multiply in numbers to fulfil 1 and 2.

We need to move on to Genesis 2 to see how God intended us to fulfil number 2. First, he took a particular part of his creation and put the first man into it.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it… Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. (Genesis2:15,19-20)

The man was created to take responsibility for the Garden by his labour, but also he would be able to command the other inhabitants – that was why he needed to give them names. We have had three dogs, and we gave them each a different name: Zora, Peggy and Sophie. If you have a dog, you will know that you need to speak out the dog’s name to get it to do what you want. Most of us dog owners only manage a very limited control over our animals, but this gives us a flavour of what was possible for Adam and Eve. We have seen that the centurion recognised that Jesus was not subject to any limitations when he spoke out a command:

“…But say the word, and my servant will be healed.” (Luke 7:7)

The amazing thing was that the centurion discerned the reason why Jesus would have no problem commanding healing into his servant..

“For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go’, and he goes; and that one, ‘Come’, and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this’, and he does it.” (Luke 7:8)

Jesus, in contrast to Adam, Eve, the centurion and the rest of us, never submitted to any other authority except his Father.

This how things went wrong in the beginning:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. (Genesis 3:1-6)

This first encounter with the enemy tells us a number of things:

satan was embodied in a reptile, which says something about his lack of inherent power
his only weapon is his voice
his strategy is
- to sow doubt in the minds of the human beings as to what God has said
- to question God’s motives
- to ‘sell’ his offering playing on basic human desires:
  - to be like God, but not to be dependent on him^[16]
  - to be able to make decisions based on knowledge (and not out of relationship)
  - having our physical needs satisfied
  - aesthetic pleasures
  - to have intellectual capabilities to be able to make decisions that will be successful

We can see that the devil is not powerful, but he is ‘more crafty’. The reason that we find difficulty in getting the created order to obey our spoken commands is that we have enslaved ourselves to God’s enemy.

Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey— whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? (Romans 6:16)

So, we have messed things up by no longer being under God’s authority. Was the human race condemned to eternal impotency when Adam and Eve made their fateful decision? Is there any way back to the place where God could trust us to exercise his authority in the world he had created for us?

All the answers to the hard question of life, the universe and everything are to be found in the person of Jesus. We know he paid the price for our rebellion; he made it possible for the human race to get back to their condition before the Fall (and so much more). He allows us to benefit from his obedience to the Father, through our faith in him. He comes to live in us, so we can see what the first disciples saw of his authority. This is why we do see miracles; the world, the flesh and the devil (to use a phrase from the Book of Common Prayer) can come under our spoken authority.

As we look through church history, and around the world today, we realise that there are people who seem to be able to operate with a measure of Jesus’ authority over injuries and sicknesses. The Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches focus on some of these people and designate them ‘saints’, but it is clear that God does not draw a line between sainthood and the rest of us. The Bible uses the word ‘saint’ (Greek hagios) to refer to all Christians, and thus all who are following Jesus have the potential to speak out healing into everyone (Christian and non-Christian). So, what is it about those whom we think of as ‘saints’ that gives them greater effectiveness when ministering in power? Church hierarchies tend to judge people by their apparent holiness, but the Bible is very clear about where the power to change the world comes from: faith.

…for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. (1 John 5:4)

When we use the Bible to investigate the extent of the power of the devil, we come to the conclusion that he is limited in that he has to work through willing human beings. For example, in the temptations of Jesus, when the devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world, he said to Jesus:

“I will give you all their authority and splendour, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to…” (Luke 4:6)

Jesus did not deny this, so we can assume that there is at least some truth in it. The kingdoms of the world have been given over to the devil by us, we do this each time we choose to obey him rather than God.

As with any war, what the Commander-in-Chief requires is that his forces listen to his commands and obey them.

Therefore…

I believe God said to me that Luke 7:8 was a sign of revival, and that this means that when we see his church ministering with a faith like the centurion’s, then we will know that revival is at hand. This is what Jesus told the 72:

“…Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’” (Luke 10:9)

When we operate under Jesus’ authority, we are pushing back the front line, taking enemy territory:

Jesus replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.” (Luke 10:18)

Churches and individuals sometimes undertake what is sometimes called ‘spiritual warfare’. This often includes meetings where those involved believe they are engaging the devil in a battle with the weapon of prayer. Paul writes that he does not want to fight ‘like a man beating the air’ (1 Corinthians 9:26), meaning that we need to be sure that we are at close quarters with the enemy before expending significant effort. There are examples of spiritual warfare in the New Testament but these are of a different nature; Jesus (and also Paul in Acts 16:18) directly confronted and defeated the servants of the enemy when they manifested their presence in a human being, but he did not go looking for them. He took the battle into the enemy’s territory as he ministered to those under the influence of the devil in word and through the power of the Holy Spirit; and that is how he calls us to follow him.

The need for secure communications in warfare is evident. I worked in the 1990’s for the Royal Navy on the systems used to send orders to submarines. The messages sent are very highly encrypted to ensure that any potential enemy can neither read them nor alter them. God continues to speak to his people, but he needs us to exercise the gift of discernment and to use King’s Regulations to check^[17] out what we receive. There is considerable evidence that our enemy cannot hear what God is saying to us, but he may be able to work out what our Commander’s plans are from what we say and do. For example, it appears that the devil was unaware of the arrival of the Messiah on planet Earth until the Magi spoke to Herod. The devil characteristically over-reacted by getting Herod to kill all the baby boys in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16). The devil’s plans were thwarted when God’s officer Joseph received his orders in a dream to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt (Matthew 2:13).

Our churches should be like castles, places of safety where we can be secure from enemy attacks. James Wade received a vison of a shield wall, as employed by the Roman Army. Each shield was held by a soldier and was locked to those on each side. The only break was a gap where raiding parties went out to engage with the enemy and to rescue those outside. The vital point is that the defence relied on the unity of purpose of all the individuals. It is worth reviewing how the devil overcame the resistance of the first human beings, see page 43. Churches need to be very careful when using the things that led Adam and Eve astray:

Anything that fosters doubt in the revealed word of God
Any idea that is not based on the total goodness of God and his love for his people
Any approach that somehow reduces our dependence on the love of God and his absolute power to bless us
Any kind of bribe that meets people’s physical needs (although we are to be extravagantly generous, but with ‘no strings attached’)
Trying to appeal to people just through artistic appreciation, whether in the visual arts, literature or music (although striving after excellence in these fields should be part of our offering to God)
Anything that boosts people’s intellectual capabilities, but does not take them closer to the source of all truth.

Some churches over the centuries have been so aware of the dangers posed by the original temptations that they, for example, removed all ornamentation and worshiped without musical instruments. A better approach is to be aware of how we can let the enemy’s forces through the shield wall, but embrace all the good things God has for us, and use them in our worship of him.

Discussion Points

What evidence can you see of the devil’s activity in the world? Can you guess at other places where this may be hidden?
Get a copy of The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis. Read to the group the Preface and Letter I. How realistic do you think is Lewis’ portrait of the forces of the enemy?
What are the key factors in being effective officers in Jesus’ army? How can we ensure our churches are castles of the kingdom of God, both defensively and offensively? Here are a few Bible verses that may be useful:

…how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. (Acts 10:38)

Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. (Ephesians 6:11)

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. (1 Peter 5:8-9)