What does spiritual warfare entail? How should Christians engage in it? In this video, Pastor David Platt urges Christians to test every teaching against the Word of God and to take every thought captive to obey Christ. Pastor Platt explains that one of the biggest avenues of spiritual warfare involves false teaching. Our minds are prone to gravitating to people who tell us what we want to hear, even if it does not align with scripture. When we trust in Jesus and his Word as the standard of truth, we will be prepared to withstand the lies of the enemy.
- Testing Spirits
- Testing What You Hear
- Testing What You Think
- False Teachings
Watch Full Message of Waging Spiritual War
Two Vital Weapons in Spiritual Warfare
Our enemy in the spiritual war is strong, but our weapons in this spiritual war are stronger. They’re stronger. So the whole point of 1 John 4:1-6 is to make clear that we don’t have to be confused here, we don’t have to be deceived, and ultimately we will not be defeated spiritually if we do these two things. Are you ready? This is the key, 1 John 4: 1-6 teaches us, our enemy in the spiritual war is strong.
Our weapons in the spiritual war are stronger. So number one, we test. So test. We test. That’s the clear command God gives us in verse one. There are spirits from God and spirits from this world, and we need to know which is which, so we test. It’s a word in the original language of New Testament used to describe determining the purity of a metal. Examine something to find out its quality and its origin specifically. Where does it come from? From God or not?
Spiritual Warfare
The Bible is saying, do not believe every spirit. Test everything you hear, including what I’m saying right now. So some of you thought when I said earlier, the overwhelming majority of spiritual teachers in the world are false teachers, including many who profess to be Christian teachers.
Some of you thought, “Well, who are you to say that?” And the answer is, I am nobody. The Bible is telling you to test everything I say, examine everything I say. God is telling you to test me and every other pastor you hear, every Christian or non-Christian book you ever read, every conference you ever attend, test it all because everything you’re hearing is either from God or from the devil, and it’s critical for you to determine which, especially in the church.
It’s why Paul tells Timothy, preach the word. And then he says, “The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” This is so dangerous. We are all prone to listen to what we want to hear, to turn it deaf ear to that which we don’t, to listen to what suits our preferences and our passions and our lifestyles and our loves in such a way that we will turn a deaf ear to the truth.
Understanding Spiritual Warfare
I was reading First Kings this last week about King Ahab surrounding himself with lying prophets who would tell him what he wanted to hear, even when it would lead to his death. And I thought, is this not what we’ve done in our church culture today? We have sought out teachers who will tell us what we want to hear, who will make us feel fine about idolatry to money, sex, comfort, safety, all the while calling it Christianity when it does not square with the Word of God and the teachings of Jesus himself.
I’m pleading with you. More importantly, God is saying to you, test everything you hear and everything you think. So this is where I want to pull in 2 Corinthians 10:4, one of the most quoted verses on spiritual warfare, yet most misinterpreted. So the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 10:4, “The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” And many people stop there and start talking about spiritual strongholds, how we can take them down in this way or that way. All kinds of crazy talk that leaves this text behind.
Where Do We See Spiritual Warfare?
Because the next verse says, “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” Did you hear that? Where does spiritual warfare happen? It happens in our minds where arguments are made, opinions are raised against the Word of God. So how do we fight spiritual warfare, by taking every thought captive to obey Christ.
This is spiritual warfare, examining our thoughts, everything we think. Just think practically. I was having a conversation with somebody this last week and they were saying they’re just feeling beat down in their sins, saying, “I don’t think God loves me. I don’t think God will forgive me for my sin.” And I stopped and I said, “Wait a minute. I want you to take that thought and just ask the question, ‘Is that from God? Where has God said that He does not love you? Where has God said that He will not forgive your sin? That’s not from God, that’s from the devil. So don’t believe it.’.
Spiritual Warfare Around Us
That’s spiritual warfare and it’s happening all the time in all of our lives, in all kinds of ways. You think about it, when Adam and Eve sin in Genesis three, their sins started way before biting into a piece of fruit. They thought, “Maybe God isn’t right. Maybe this tree is good. Maybe I know better than God.” That’s that’s where the battle was lost. So spiritual warfare is a testing of everything we hear, everything we think asking, “Is this from God?” which leads to the question, well, how do you know what’s from God and what’s not?
That leads to the second word here, trust. So test and trust, test and trust, and specifically in 1 John 4, we’re pointed to the exact same place, 2 Corinthians 10:4 pointed us to, Jesus. Trust in the truth about God’s son. Trust in the truth about God’s son by 1 John 4:2. “By this, you know the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.”
This was the primary problem John was addressing in the first century because you had people teaching false things about Jesus. Well, brothers and sisters, 2000 years later, the same problem exists. In generation after generation, Satan seeks to twist and distort people’s understanding of Jesus. If we do not have a right understanding of Jesus, then we will not have a right understanding of life and the world around us, not just the Christian life, but life.
Have a Right View of Jesus
So I want to make a bold statement, but I will make it without reservation. Everything in your life now and forever hinges on how you view Jesus. Everything in your life, every detail of your life now and for all of eternity. Today, this week and forever hinges on how you view Jesus. Your life, your marriage, your parenting, your teenage years, your school, your dating, your work, your spending, your relationships, your emotions, your thoughts, your plans, your dreams, everything in your life hinges on having a right view of Jesus.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
