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The spiritual warfare depends on us!

--The majesty of choice

By David Brandt Berg, written June 1987
Fighting the devil through prayer

The main warfare is actually going on here amongst the humans, and the other spirits are merely helping us! The Angels of God and the departed spirits are helping us, and the demons of the Devil are trying to defeat us! So the major battle of the forces of Heaven and Hell is for or against the humans, it's not that it's all that much just between them and in the Spirit World. Helping or hurting US is their main project, and in the process of it, of course, they fight each other.

The warfare in the spirit world is very important, but it all hinges on us and has to do with us! The warfare that my Mother envisioned going on in the heavenlies is the warfare between spirits in the Spirit World for and against us! (Maria: So it all depends on what we do. we're the ones that are deciding things, but we can't carry them out without their help?)

The battles depend largely on our decisions as to which way they go, because the hands of the powers of Heaven are tied according to our decisions! If we make the right decisions and operate by faith, then the forces of good are loosed and empowered to help us and to overcome the forces of evil! But if Man makes the wrong decision and goes the wrong direction, then, in a sense their hands are tied, and the hands of the devils and demons and of Satan are liberated to bring about devastation amongst humanity, just like is happening right now!

It was because of Daniel's prayers that he got the victory, and then Michael was able to come and help him and got the victory over the Prince of Persia.--Dan.10:12-13. And it was because Jacob fought a good fight and persevered that he got the victory, won the blessing and was empowered of the Spirit of God to win!--Gen.32:24-28.

So the battles of Heaven are actually entirely dependent upon us and which way we go! The spirits are not totally independent of us, and just merely fighting amongst themselves in Heaven. There would be no point or purpose in this, because the whole idea is that man is the one who has been given the majesty of choice and decision, and the way man goes, so goes the battle!

If we do the right things and make the right choices and go the right direction, then we have the power to call in the forces of Heaven to assist us and to overcome and overpower the forces of evil. But if we make the wrong choices and go the wrong directions and do the wrong things, then the Enemy has the power to overcome us and defeat us in spite of all Heaven would like to do! !

"Whatever is bound on earth is bound in Heaven; whatever is loosed on earth is loosed in Heaven!"--Mat.16:19. It doesn't say it the other direction at all. What Heaven does is dependent on us! That's the whole idea of the whole game! They are just our spiritual helpers or hinderers, bound or loosed by what we do. (Maria: I guess that's why they're called "ministering spirits", because they're there to help and serve us, we aren't serving them!)--Yes! What they do is entirely dependent upon what we do.--How we work, how we pray, the decisions we make.

We're almost like the commanders of the forces of Heaven, or the forces of Hell! You can work for Heaven or you can work for Hell, and those forces are dependent upon us and our command. (Maria: By "those forces", you mean either good or bad?)--Yes, exactly.

9. We turn the tide of victory or defeat entirely by our choices, believe it or not! That's what God has done: He has put the fate of the World into the hands of Man--up to a point. Of course, very soon God is going to take over before Man has gone too far!

There would be no point even in our existence if the tide of battle was entirely dependent on the Heavenly forces. The tide of battle is entirely dependent on man, that's what Man was put here for. It is dependent on Man and his choices for or against God.

God is in control, but he has set down certain rules of the game, of the battle, just like a football game! You've got to abide by the rules and if you break the rules, then you unleash the powers of Hell to win. If you keep the rules, then you empower the powers of Heaven to win! It's all dependent upon Man and his choice--up to a point, of course. Pretty soon God is just going to completely take over! Right now, God is allowing the Devil to take over, because man has gone the wrong direction.

If we are doing the right thing, going the right direction and making the right choices, we have spiritual weapons which can overcome the enemy completely! He cannot defeat us! He cannot win the victory over us if we are going God's way, because then God's spirits are unleashed against him and he cannot win! But according to the rules of the game, if WE go the wrong way it's just the other way around.

It is not the spiritual powers of good and evil, angels and devils, who are fighting on the field of battle down in the arena while we sit up in the grandstands and the bleachers rooting for our favourite spirits. It is WE who are down in the arena fighting evil men and evil forces, and it is the Angels of God on the one hand, on the right hand, and the demons of the Devil on the other hand, who are rooting for or against us! The tide of the game, or the battle, is decided on the field of battle, not in the grandstands!

If Adam and Eve had made the right choice, it never would have happened, God would have protected them! The Devil wasn't up there fighting with God in Heaven and having a fist fight with the Lord! The Devil was fighting for the control of Man's mind and body and spirit here on earth! God was speaking, trying to influence them, and the Devil was speaking and trying to influence them. Whether they won or lost depended on THEIR choice, and they lost. They made the wrong choice.

The battle is for the control of our minds and hearts and spirits, bodies as well, which will follow, and just like they did in the Garden of Eden, it was through the words that they spoke that they tried to influence Adam and Eve. It's a battle, a wrestling match for spiritual control, and it's largely done through WORDS and communication, influences. You can call it "words", but they don't always speak in words, they also give pictures and thoughts. The Lord gives warnings and good thoughts, and the Enemy gives temptations. So there's a battle of the mind, a battle of the spirit, a battle of the heart, which winds up in the battle of the body!

So there's a tremendous battle going on in Heaven, yes, but the battle is over us! God and His Angels are trying to conquer US, the Devil and his demons are trying to conquer us, and the whole thing is dependent on us and our decisions and the way we go. It's not like some totally independent warfare going on in Heaven that has nothing to do with us, it has everything to do with us! The whole thing is about us and for or against us and over us, it's all dependent on us! That's what the whole Creation is about. That's why God created Man, to make choices and decisions, for or against Him!

We are the ones who control the tide of battle! We are the ones who decide whether God or the Devil is going to win! God has left the choice up to us up to a certain point where He finally steps in and cries, "Foul! Penalty! Stop the game!" And because the other side is doing wrong, they forfeit the game and we win, because we made the right choices, we listened to the right voices, we obeyed the right commands, we did the right things.

And the battle is not for or against our salvation, that is already settled! That's completely settled by the Lord, we're saved. The battle is for the souls of men and their actions and their deeds and their words and attentions and all that sort of thing, and which way goes the world.

So far, as far as i can see, as far as the world is concerned, it looks pretty much like the Church has lost and the world has won! But that's the way the Lord knew it would be, because He said, "strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto LIFE, and few there be that find it. But broad is the way and wide is the gate that leadeth unto destruction, and many there be that go in thereat!"--Mat.7:13,14. So the Lord knows that the vast majority of Mankind are wrong and going the wrong way and He's giving an illustration to all the forces of Heaven and Hell what happens if Man is given his choice!

The whole war is dependent on us and our choices! That's the way God has set down the rules of the game. If we listen to His signals and we play according to HIS rules, then our side wins and we win individually and collectively and the other side loses, because their ability to fight and to win or lose is entirely dependent on us and which way we go, which way man goes. And as far as I can see right now, it looks like the Devil is winning the world. But of course, as we know, the Lord and we will win in the long run. God will win with His minority over the Devil's majority!

It proves that man cannot really be trusted with choice! Man has to be ruled by a rod of iron, by force! Only a few glorious heroes are able to be trusted with choice and will choose to follow the Lord and not the Enemy. Praise the Lord!

The war is not decided by just one battle either, there are a lot of battles!--Some we lose and some we win, and we just hope we win most of 'm and don't lose too many! We don't win'm all, but thank God, we win most of'm!--Amen?--Are you winning or losing?


Copyright © 1998 by The Family International

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James Arendt
James Arendt

My name is James Arendt. I was raised in the Hegewisch neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, served in the USAF from 1970 to 1974, and became a full-time missionary for Christ living 40 years in Japan, 3.5 years in Russia, and a few months in other countries such as Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, South Korea, Taiwan and mainland China where I also served the King of Kings, Jesus, as an Ambassador for His Kingdom. My full bio.

On September 24, 2023, I had an accident and broke the bone of the tip of my left elbow. A boy ran in front of my motorbike less than 2 meters from me as I was leaving home. I stopped suddenly and my front tire slid on the sandy concrete road which caused me to fall. I did not hit the boy. On October 18th I had surgery done on my elbow. The doctor put in titanium rods to hold my bones together. The entire procedure including an entire week in the hospital was roughly $4000 USD. This was done in the Philippines where my wife and I have been living since June this year.


X-rays of bone before and after surgery that inserted titanium rods to reinforce my broken bone.

Before and after one week in the hospital.

Undergoing therapy to bend my arm again.
I'm now undergoing therapy to be able to bend my arm again.

It would be a super blessing to us if any of the visitors of this website can help us cover this expense!

You don't need a PayPay account to send me a donation! Just click on the donate button and you will see an option to send through your debit or credit card.


Or if you have a PayPal account, just log into it and send to my PayPal ID:
james.arendt@jamesjpn.net


Comments (2)

Topic: spiritual_warfare.html
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Larcenia Cromwell (BALTIMORE) says...
The message is a power house. Thanks!!!! for allowing God to use you in a maighty way.
17th January 2018 10:27pm
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