Vlog
Spiritual Warfare
Written & ASL by: Jason Roop
I am often fascinated by movies or television shows that show the battle of angels and fallen angels (demons). It’s interesting though that none of those shows and movies accurately depict the victory that has already been won through Christ Jesus. Often the end result is a human triumphing over either one. Fiction at its best! Only Jesus has the power to triumph over such majestic forces, especially over ones that He created!
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. -Ephesians 6:12
Spiritual warfare is prevalent in every Christian’s walk with Jesus. When we struggle with anything physical, emotional, or mental, we should seek the peace and understanding that only Jesus can give. In the book of Daniel, chapter 10, Daniel mourned and prayed over a troublesome vision he had received involving the people of Israel in a war. God sent an angel to visit him and answer his prayers, but it took three weeks for the angel to finally arrive. The angel explained that the prince of the Persian kingdom (a demon) was battling him to prevent the message from getting to Daniel. Finally, Daniel received peace and rest when the angel arrived. This shows us that there is a correlation between the physical realm (where we are) and the spiritual realm (what we can’t see).
This helps us to know that when we experience any type of spiritual battle, we should pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17). We should persevere with prayer until we get an answer!
We should persevere with prayer until we get an answer!
Each person experiences spiritual warfare that is unique to their relationship with God. I have been walking with Jesus for over 20 years and have experienced many spiritual battles that have taken their toll on me physically, emotionally, and mentally, sometimes all at the same time. Recently, I had the privilege of helping behind the scenes at the Deaf Women Conference hosted virtually by Deaf Millennial Project. I cannot speak for everyone, but I did witness a form of spiritual warfare. The warfare was not attacking me personally, but it was unlike anything I had ever seen. I come from a background in Information Technology and have worked with internet/network services, computers, video equipment, etc. I was familiar with all the technology used to stream the conference live. We had the best internet access available to us, connectivity that was tested over and over again. We also had a streaming platform that was the best rated in terms of network reliability. That company had a backup stream for the backup stream! We had a laptop and a backup laptop. There was no way livestreaming could fail. We even had a 5-minute streaming head-start to make adjustments if there was an issue. We tested and practiced all morning. Everything was green and ready to go! As soon as we started the conference, something blocked the stream. We had to reset over and over to get it started. We would experience this every time we changed presenters. Each time, something would block the stream. It got so bad that we started praying. We checked the streaming platform and got an email from the company saying that our internet service was the issue. We tested the service and found no problems. Everything was “green.” We kept praying. Eventually things got going again. But, we could see the “stream” going up and down without explanation.
Spiritual warfare is prevalent in every Christian’s walk with Jesus.
When we struggle with anything physical, emotional, or mental,
we should seek the peace and understanding that only Jesus can give.
When we hit the afternoon session, our topic was about raising money for the VC12 challenge. That’s when prayer increased and the stream improved. It was like we experienced a battle being won. Then we hit the goal of $25k, but it didn’t stop there! After that, the stream experienced no more problems until the end of the conference. Such unexplainable problems that improved with the power of prayer was evidence that there was a spiritual battle happening. It’s almost like the forces of Satan were trying to rip open the internet stream, but the angels of Heaven were putting it back together! It felt like as the prayers increased, Satan and his demons had no choice but to decrease.
The conference was a success because of the power of prayer! Praise to Jesus, forever and ever! All of the hardship was worth it, because over 140 Deaf women came to know Christ through the conference. Proof, once again, that Jesus was and still is victorious!
Tags: