Using Spiritual Warfare Techniques on Oneself
I was reading a little bit about spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare is about using God's love to resist evil. It is not about using physical weapons, nor is it about harming anyone or initiating combat. The instruments of spiritual warfare are those of peace, and are described in the Bible as follows:
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Ephesians 6:13-17
Therefore, spiritual warfare involves using the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. These are defensive techniques, not offensive ones.
Although it is possible to use these techniques for defense against (spiritually oriented) attacks from others, it recently occurred to me that we can use these techniques on ourselves as a means of resisting temptation.
In fact, it occurred to me as I was driving down the street. I was waiting for a couple of cars to pass before making my left turn, and a car behind me honked. I was about to feel really annoyed, and then quickly decided to change it to saying "Praise the Lord!" as a spiritual defense. This totally worked! I didn't yield to my temptation to get angry, and it let me say out loud what IS important to me at a time when something that ISN'T could have taken center stage. In fact, it worked so well that I have resolved to use this as a general technique for any situation. For example, if someone is mean to me in the supermarket, I will say "Praise the Lord!"
The only way it works is if I truly think of it as a spiritual defense to an actual attack (the attack being from within myself in the above cases). In contrast, if I was just saying "Praise the Lord!" when something bad happened (without recognizing the phrase as a defense against temptation) there is the danger it could become a mechanical and theologically incorrect response. The phrase needn't even be "Praise the Lord": anything that honors God or Jesus would work; that was just the first thing I could think of in the moment.
A great deal of the temptation and struggles in this world come from within.
If you found this post interesting, you might also like these related posts on this blog:
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Ephesians 6:13-17
Therefore, spiritual warfare involves using the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. These are defensive techniques, not offensive ones.
Although it is possible to use these techniques for defense against (spiritually oriented) attacks from others, it recently occurred to me that we can use these techniques on ourselves as a means of resisting temptation.
In fact, it occurred to me as I was driving down the street. I was waiting for a couple of cars to pass before making my left turn, and a car behind me honked. I was about to feel really annoyed, and then quickly decided to change it to saying "Praise the Lord!" as a spiritual defense. This totally worked! I didn't yield to my temptation to get angry, and it let me say out loud what IS important to me at a time when something that ISN'T could have taken center stage. In fact, it worked so well that I have resolved to use this as a general technique for any situation. For example, if someone is mean to me in the supermarket, I will say "Praise the Lord!"
The only way it works is if I truly think of it as a spiritual defense to an actual attack (the attack being from within myself in the above cases). In contrast, if I was just saying "Praise the Lord!" when something bad happened (without recognizing the phrase as a defense against temptation) there is the danger it could become a mechanical and theologically incorrect response. The phrase needn't even be "Praise the Lord": anything that honors God or Jesus would work; that was just the first thing I could think of in the moment.
A great deal of the temptation and struggles in this world come from within.
If you found this post interesting, you might also like these related posts on this blog:
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