Spiritual Warfare: The Field Manual

February 16, 2008 categories:  Spiritual Warfare

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”(2 Timothy 3:16)

Perhaps no other task rivals training in terms of importance for an Army preparing for war. Tactics, developed over many years of trial and error, are refined and drilled into the troops until they are second nature.

There is, however, a fundamental problem with this model of preparation for warfare. Armies often train with the tactics developed during the last war, only to find that the new enemy is vastly different and that the tactics must again be modified in order to be effective. For instance, the jungle tactics developed in Vietnam were trained extensively throughout the decades following that war. However, when war in Iraq broke out, the Army discovered that jungle warfare was vastly different from desert warfare, and changed their training regiments accordingly.

The scripture above from 2 Timothy tells us that the scripture is “useful for teaching….and training in righteousness.” The scriptures, as the infallible word of God, form the perfect field manual for our spiritual warfare. Hebrews 4:12 adds, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

The idea that the Word is living and active defeats the afore mentioned problem of tactics needing constant development and refinement in order to be relevant in contemporary conflicts. Because God has faced the same enemy throughout all history, and because his word is alive and able to adapt to every situation, we need only focus on drilling his word into our hearts in order to develop our military proficiency.

A good field manual will have something for every situation that a soldier might find himself stuck in. The solutions found within would be deceptively simple, because soldiers can’t be expected to complete complex, multi-step tasks in the heat of battle. In the Amplified Bible, Hebrews 4:15 says “For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning.”

This scripture shows us that Jesus has faced the same “assaults of temptation” that we are currently facing, and that he is aware of the tactics that the enemy will use in order to divert our attention from the pursuit of Christ. For this reason, and because of the living and adaptable nature of the Word, I believe that the scriptures contain a solution for every problem that we can face in life and in spiritual warfare.

Do you carry your field manual with you into battle? Have you committed to memory those things that will be most beneficial in the heat of battle. If you were a soldier on the front lines of any modern conflict, you would certainly read the field manual and learn how to use your weapon, find appropriate cover in the heat of battle, and call for reinforcements. Let’s develop a similar devotion to our biblical field manual so that we’ll be prepared when the enemy attacks.