Pastor's New Book Offers Biblical Battle Gear for Spiritual Warriors
by Allie Martin
October 16, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Pastor and author Robert Jeffress says many Christians do not have a balanced view of spiritual warfare. In his new book, The Divine Defense: Six Simple Strategies for Winning Your Greatest Battles (Waterbrook Press, 2006), he seeks to examine spiritual warfare from a biblical perspective. Jeffress, pastor of the 9,500-member First Baptist Church of Wichita Falls, Texas, says his book uses the "spiritual armor" described in the sixth chapter of Ephesians to outline strategies for believers who are engaged in spiritual battles. Interest in spiritual warfare, he notes, is at an all time high.
"We look around our world today," the Christian author says, "and we realize a lot of the things that are happening, the random violence -- for example, the killing of those five schoolgirls in Pennsylvania -- and when you look at those things, you're saying there has to be more to this than simple mental illness." And rightly so, he contends, as there is a spiritual dimension to this sort of violence and evil.
"You know, the Bible says that Satan is a murderer," Jeffress points out. "Well, think about it," he says. "If Satan is a murderer, how does Satan, who is a spirit being, murder human beings? Well, he uses other humans to accomplish his purpose. We have an enemy who has a deep-held blueprint for our destruction."
The sixth chapter of Ephesians tells believers not to be unaware of the schemes and the methods of the evil one, the Texas pastor notes. He says Satan's "blueprint" for Christians' destruction "is a very specific plan to take us out, to destroy our faith, our family, and our future; and anyone who is unaware of that reality is destined to become spiritual roadkill."
Many Christians either pay too much attention to spiritual warfare or they ignore it entirely, Jeffress says. But the good news, he adds, is that "even though our enemy is formidable, he's also defeatable," so long as believers are properly prepared with a biblical blueprint for facing his tactics.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
