Enemy-occupied territory—that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Page 46
Hello Readers, hope all’s well. It’s time for another Do Not Fear the End Times post. Today’s post is about something I read recently that got me thinking. So I’m writing about it now. And today’s post will also be a set-up leading into Friday’s topic.
Many (but not enough) Christians understand that as a believer, they’re enlisted as a soldier in Christ’s army. The war is against Satan and his kingdom. I wrote a whole post on that topic in Part 16.
How should we fight this war? Through spiritual warfare, yes, but what about our tactics in general? Well that’s where the reading I mentioned comes in.
Mere Christianity
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis is an excellent book on the Christian faith. It’s considered to be an great summary of the principles of the faith. He also wrote it so it’s easy to understand. It’s a classic, so you might already know the book. I’m only reading it for the first time now, and so far it’s great.
In one part where he writes about good and evil, he mentions how the world is under Satan’s power. I wrote about that all the way back in Part 7 of this series, and also in Part 12. Then Lewis writes something that really got me thinking:
Enemy-occupied territory—that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage. When you go to church you are really listening-in to the secret wireless from our friends: that is why the enemy is so anxious to prevent us from going. He does it by playing on our conceit and laziness and intellectual snobbery.
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Page 46
Behind enemy lines, waging a “great campaign of sabotage.” What a great way to look at our situation! Of course it makes a lot of sense. One thing about looking at our situation this way is that it gives us hope. There are some uplifting implications from what Lewis is saying.
First, we can fight back. I often speak on that here, most recently in Part 15 and Part 16.
Second, we have allies. We have the rightful king, Jesus, guiding us, protecting us, helping us, and empowering us. We have allies throughout the greater Christian community, and the church in general. We aren’t alone in this fight. So we don’t need to fight alone, and we’re much less effective when we do.
Third, Satan knows that the rightful King of Kings is the true Power. Satan and his minions are scared of Jesus (again, check out Part 15). So they try to stop us from engaging with our faith and fulfilling our own personal missions. They can do this in a variety of ways, by exploiting our weaknesses. They might tempt our slothful nature to get us to skip prayers, for example.
The fact that they try to stop us engaging with our faith proves that our faith is dangerous … to them. Our faith protects against their trickery and schemes. This should only encourage us and give us hope: Our faith is a potent weapon against them.
And one more implication I see is that we only have to hold out until Jesus returns. The Second Coming of Christ is the end of Satan’s rule, like I wrote about in Part 7. It’s painful to live in this fallen world of sin and injustice. It’s painful to live separated from God. But we only need to hold out a little longer.
The End Times will be worse than anything we’ve seen before. But we know from God’s Word that every day that goes by during these End Times gets us one day closer to His return. He’s coming back, and when He does, all the pain is over. Our test is being able to endure to the end. This calls for spiritual fortitude.
We need the strength of faith to stand firm against all deceptions, especially the great deception. When brother turns against brother, when the great falling away happens and most Christians abandon the faith, we need to have enough faith to be the last ones standing. We need to have the strength of faith to never turn our backs on Christ, no matter what persecution or torture we endure here on earth. Any suffering we have here is only temporary; keep the faith and stay focused on heaven.
It takes spiritual fortitude to keep the faith till the bitter end, when former friends and family members abandon Christianity for the great deception. I wrote about these things in Part 9, see that for more.
So I think C.S. Lewis’ idea that we’re waging a guerilla war against Satan is a great one. Even the idea, if you think through all the implications, gives a great deal of hope. We’re not powerless, we’re not fighting alone, and our King will return soon.
So that’s great. I’m sure that you, like me, are excited to do your part in the great campaign of sabotage against Satan’s kingdom. So how do we get started?
The Battle Plans
How do we wage this great campaign of sabotage? How do we undermine Satan’s kingdom? How do we sabotage his plans and those of his minions, the demons?
The answer is simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. We’ve already been given the battle plans, the strategy for our guerilla war: The Gospels. We need to live out the Gospels, which are like a manual for fighting Satan. The entire New Testament is our battle plan, and we need to follow it. That’s easier said than done, which is why I said the answer is simple but not easy.
But the reason living the Gospels works as part of this campaign of sabotage is that it keeps our flesh-oriented natures in check. It stops us from doing what we want to do all the time. It stops us from putting ourselves first—making ourselves gods—and commands us to think of others.
When we stop and do these things, when we turn the other cheek, when we don’t judge, when we sow peace, it messes with Satan’s plans. He wants us to sow to the flesh rather than the spirit. He wants us to indulge our lusts and appetites. He wants us to hate and fight. He wants us to be selfish. All these things further his goals for us, and we expand his kingdom by doing evil.
When we follow the teaching of the Gospels, we aren’t playing by his playbook anymore. It wrecks all his plans for us. If we can teach others to do the same, it wrecks even more of his plans. Grand sabotage.
We can attack the works of Satan and disrupt his kingdom by living as Christians. If our actions are pure and Virtuous, we can create good in the world. We can spread good around, and counteract the evil inflicted by Satan. It starts at the individual level, getting yourself right first. Then you can start chipping away at Satan’s world at the local level, by helping your community.
Love: A Powerful Weapon
We can start undermining his works of misery, hate, and fear. The most powerful way to do that is by showing Christian love and patience. Love is the strongest counter against Satan and his works, because all his works rely on hate and fear. It’s wielding a more powerful weapon, empowered by Christ, against the deceptive fear wielded by the enemy.
Love is the first fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22), and perhaps the most potent one. Satan and his demons tend to target love first, due to its power. As I explained in Part 13, the division and strife we see today is a part of Satan’s plan. Satan wants us to hate and fight each other. He doesn’t want us unified.
We need to resist the division that’s being pushed on us. We have to love everyone as Christ loves them and be good to each other. Don’t get sucked into the pointless conflict that Satan is leading the world into. Forgive and love others instead of playing into Satan’s agenda of division.
We need to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44). Jesus Himself commanded it. Of course it’s incredibly hard to do … that’s why we need to do it. Satan wants us to get angry and fight back. He wants us to fail this commandment, he wants to see violence, discord, and strife.
But Jesus wants us to show love. When we show love to our enemies, they’re taken aback. It disrupts the whole cycle of endless fighting when someone chooses not to retaliate. When someone chooses not to indulge their flesh and take payback. When someone chooses to leave payback to God, to Whom it belongs, instead of seeking it themselves (Romans 12:19).
This is the way to stop that pointless cycle of conflict for good. Satan wants the fighting to keep going. Jesus taught us the truth, that we can’t fight fire with fire. Showing love is the way to stop the foolishness.
So we can sabotage Satan’s plans by showing love when he wants us to hate. He wants us to get triggered and play into the division. He wants us to give in to our hate, something that exists in everyone (it’s one fruit of the flesh, Galatians 5:20). Let’s show love when it’s hard to, and when it’s easy to hate. Satan is expecting us to take the easy route. Surprise him, and show him we’re better than that.
Contacting HQ
Spiritually engaging with our faith in general is how we power up and get orders from HQ. Lewis mentions going to church. That’s one way, assuming the preacher is inspired and walks in the spirit.
Prayer, fasting, charity, reading Christian books. Pondering the things of heaven, pondering Christ. These are some other ways we can stir the Holy Spirit living inside us. It’s important to do that because once we learn how to follow the wisdom and guidance of the Holy Spirit, then we have a way to get our orders from HQ. We’re not directionless in this grand campaign of sabotage.
We rely on the discernment of the Holy Spirit to alert us to the works of the enemy. I wrote about this in Part 8 of my Cast Down Jezebel miniseries. The Holy Spirit can alert us to a demon active in our lives or the lives of others.
And guidance from the Holy Spirit tells us which direction we should go in our lives. It’s the wisdom of God’s Holy Spirit that shows us what specific things we can do to glorify God, and how to live out His specific plan for us.
This is also something Satan doesn’t want. He doesn’t want us to walk in our purpose, living God’s will for our lives. Satan wants to distract us with dead ends and pitfalls, such as addiction. So Satan will try to keep us trapped in pitfalls like that while stopping us from engaging with our faith. That way, we won’t see any way out of the situation and we won’t have the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to find a way out either.
So it’s very important to Satan that he stops us from engaging with God and our faith. Church is only one thing he’ll try to stop us from doing. There are many more things besides that.
Free the Captives
And this last thing I wrote about last week, in Part 16. An excellent way to wage this great campaign of sabotage is to bring people to Christ. Get them away from Satan and bring them over to Christ’s side.
That makes a mess of Satan’s plans—his plans for you, and his plans for others. The more people you can bring to Christ, the more you can magnify the sabotage. When they are healed by Christ and begin walking their own spiritual path with Him, then they can do the same and rescue more people from Satan’s grip. It builds up with a cumulative, multiplying effect.
Free the captives! They deserve to be free, and we always need more rebels to undermine the kingdom of Satan. So never stop evangelizing. Never stop doing your best to lead people to Christ and sabotaging Satan’s plans for them. Every win counts. God loves everyone and these POWs in Satan’s kingdom deserve to be saved! And each win subtracts from Satan’s kingdom while adding to Christ’s army.
I’ll finish by quoting what I wrote last week:
“[…] Remember: None of these people are the enemy. They’re POWs captured by the enemy power. They deserve compassion and sympathy, and they can also be broken free of that evil power.
On top of that, it causes severe damage to Satan’s kingdom and his plans when one of his most effective workers converts to Christ. If a veteran witch can see the light, her whole coven will suffer from her absence. They’ll become much less effective overnight. Meanwhile, her talents will be put to work for Christ. It’s a win-win!
To cause the most damage to Satan’s kingdom, win souls. That’s all he wants anyway, all he’s ever looking for. Win souls, convert souls.“
This War Will End One Day
As I said, I think waging “a great campaign of sabotage” behind enemy lines is an excellent way to view our situation. This world is under Satan’s power for now, and we can never forget that. It’s hostile territory, no matter how pleasant it seems at times. Spiritual Babylon surrounds us on all sides.
A guerilla sabotage campaign is the best way to fight against powerful world systems. But this fight takes spiritual fortitude and perseverance. The enemy is extremely powerful and all around us.
Every great guerilla victory in history happened because the rebels never gave up. In spite of all their losses, setbacks, and the hardships they had to live through, the rebels who never gave up eventually toppled the oppressive regimes they opposed. These campaigns can win, but it takes time, effort, and a lot of pain and loss.
Sometimes it can feel like we’re isolated, but that’s not our situation at all.
We have friends in high places—literally. We have the Holy Spirit relaying messages from HQ. We have the battle plans and strategy to follow, the Gospels and the New Testament. And we have the Christian community, other rebels working to undermine Satan’s kingdom. Every person we can win over to our side bolsters our ranks.
And our King, the rightful King of Kings, is coming back soon. We don’t know when, no one knows that. But we do know that He’s coming back. When that happens, our bitter struggle will be rewarded. When He comes back we finally win this war. This war will be over one day, we can count on it.
But until that day, we have a duty to wage this great campaign of sabotage, doing what we can to undermine Satan’s works. And there’s actually much that we can do, as I’ve said. And that’s where I’m going to stop for now, as this is leading into the topic for Friday’s post. On Friday I’m going to talk more about our duty to undermine Satan’s kingdom. So stay tuned!
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Until next time, be strong and do good!
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