Spiritual Warfare
What Are the “Keys to the Kingdom”?
Category: General
Tags: Church, Jesus, Satan, Spiritual Warfare
Verse: Matthew 16
And I tell you that you are Peter [petros = rock], and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys…
Why Did God Heal or Not?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Faith, healing, Sickness, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Faith & Doubt, The Problem of Evil
In 1996 a 27-year-old man in my church named David was diagnosed with an inoperable brain cancer. The doctors decided to send David to the Mayo Clinic to receive some experimental treatments on the slim…
Does God Still Heal?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Faith, healing, Sickness, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Faith & Doubt, The Problem of Evil
In the ancient world Jesus was known first and foremost as an exorcist and a healer. These two activities are mentioned in every summary of Jesus’s ministry found in the Gospels. It’s common for Western…
Why Doesn’t God Heal When We Ask?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Faith, healing, Sickness, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Faith & Doubt, The Problem of Evil
If we are called to manifest what Jesus manifested and revolt against what Jesus revolted against, and Jesus carried out the kingdom through healing, then why doesn’t God heal those we pray for? One of…
Did Jesus Say That God Causes Blindness?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Blueprint Worldview, God at War, Sickness, Spiritual Warfare, Theodicy, Warfare Worldview
Topics: The Problem of Evil
Verse: John 9
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this…
When to Do Spiritual Warfare
Category: General
Tags: Demonization, Demons, Mental Illness, Prayer, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
If the world is engulfed in spiritual warfare, how do we know when we’re confronting a demon that requires deliverance prayer, or simply confronting a “natural” by-product of the fallen world that requires medical or…
Are you Afraid of Demons?
Category: General
Tags: Demonization, Demons, Fear, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
I remember learning about germs in fourth grade. We were told our world was saturated with tiny invisible creatures that can infect wounds and make us sick. I immediately stopped sharing already-chewed gum with other…
The Demonic Affects Us All!
Category: General
Tags: Christian, Satan, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Many contemporary Western Christians think we only engage in spiritual warfare when we encounter somebody who is exhibiting bizarre, demonically-inspired behavior, such as the demonized people Jesus confronted in the Gospels. Since most Western Christians…
The Purpose of the Church
Category: General
Tags: Church, Kingdom Living, Spiritual Warfare
Concerning the preaching of the Gospel, Paul wrote that God’s intent was that “through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in…
Do Angels and Demons Really Exist?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Angels, Demons, Evil, Free Will, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
While the supremacy of God is never qualified in the Bible, this supremacy is not strictly autocratic. Other “gods” or spiritual entities like angels and demons are not mere puppets of the God of the…
4 Reasons to Wake Up to the Warfare Worldview
Category: General
Tags: Culture, Demons, Evil, Satan, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview, Western Assumptions
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Image by postbear via Flickr A view of the world that grounds the problem of evil in spiritual warfare is not one that many modern people find easy to accept. To many contemporaries, the notion is…
Spiritual Warfare: What is it?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Humility, Jesus, Kingdom Living, Love, Myth of a Christian Religion, Satan, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
The Kingdom is “not of this world,” and neither is its warfare. Jews had always believed that God confronted spiritual opposition in carrying out his will on earth. In the Old Testament, these evil forces…
Our Real Battle is NOT with ISIS or any Other “Enemy”
Category: General
Tags: Evil, Spiritual Warfare, The Real Enemy, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
There’s an old African proverb that says, “When Elephants fight, the grass suffers.” It expresses the important truth that when agents who have a domain of authority go awry, everything under their authority suffers. The…
The Warfare We Have Inherited
Category: General
Tags: Already Not Yet, Eschatology, Jesus, Kingdom, Satan, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Image by Chris Sardegna Jesus’ miracles over nature, as well as his healings, exorcisms and especially his resurrection, were definite acts of war that accomplished and demonstrated his victory over Satan. These acts routed demonic forces…
Evil, St. Augustine, & the “Secret” Higher Harmony
Category: General
Tags: Augustine, Blueprint Worldview, Free Will, God at War, Problem of Evil, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: The Problem of Evil
The problem of evil constitutes the single most difficult challenge to Christian theism. Volumes upon volumes have been written with the express purpose of rationally reconciling the belief in an all-good and all-powerful God with…
The Reality of Satan and the Spiritual Realm
Category: General
Tags: Blueprint Worldview, Evil, Satan, Satan and the Problem of Evil, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict, The Problem of Evil
A theme that underlies Jesus’ entire ministry is the apocalyptic assumption that creation has been seized by a cosmic force and that God is now battling this force to rescue it. Jesus understood himself to…
Is Suffering Part of God’s Secret Plan?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Calvinism, Compassion, Faith, Is God to Blame?, Problem of Evil, Spiritual Warfare, Suffering, Theodicy, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Providence, Predestination and Free Will, The Problem of Evil
In the Christian tradition since Augustine, the most common explanation for the apparent arbitrariness of life and God’s interaction with humanity has been God’s mysterious will—his “secret plan,” as Calvin says. Whether or not a…
Sermon Clip: Mystery of the Miraculous
Category: Sermons and Video Clips
Tags: Greg Boyd, Sermons, Spiritual Warfare, Woodland Hills Church
In this week’s sermon clip, Greg Boyd discusses the supernatural gifts of faith, healing, and miracles Christians receive from the Holy Spirit. He describes what each of these gifts are, as well as how we…
What Does Spiritual Warfare Have To Do with the Cross?
Category: General
Tags: Atonement, Cruciform Theology, Jesus, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Last week, we covered a few posts on the nature of the Atonement and the Christus Victor view. The following continues this theme, specifically looking the motif of spiritual warfare and how it relates to…
In the Face of Blueprint Words
Category: General
Tags: Blueprint Worldview, healing, Henry Kelley, Hope, Jessica Kelley, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview
Many of you know Jessica Kelley through the posts we’ve featured about her on the ReKnew site. She is someone we’ve come to love very much. Jessica lost her five year old son Henry to…