There is a lot of talk about how spiritual warfare is a battle to the death. Something out of Star Wars.
It’s you or it’s me.
What’s it gonna be?
I notice that many men who think they are discussing spiritual warfare talk a lot about sword play. As though the sword is the only weapon used in spiritual warfare.
Gotta a problem? Get a sword!
In general society where spiritual warfare is discussed it is something between a game and a fantasy.
Yes, in real life there are dragons. But they are a type of soul.
Not something that flies in and has to be warded off by clever footwork and sharp steel.
In truth, I’ve yet to find anyone who discusses spiritual warfare from an actual spiritual point-of-view.
Here is all you have to remember:
- All healing prayer is spiritual warfare.
- All spiritual warfare is an opportunity for healing.
The ultimate goal of spiritual warfare is healing for the one infected by evil.
Failing that, the goal of spiritual warfare is containment.
Creating barriers around the soul of the infected one so that his ability to harm others and himself is significantly diminished.
Think of yourself as a healer. Your goal is to heal. If you can’t do that, then you want to contain the effect and spread of the disease as best you can.
I had a vision a while ago. I had been praying very seriously and for a long period of time over the problem of child sex trafficking. During this week, I was praying about the widespread use of children for internet pornography in the Philippines.
I won’t go into the story of the visions during the week, but they ended with me feeding the wolves that surrounded me (the perpetrators) little dog biscuits that were, it turned out, a form of what we receive at Communion: the flesh and blood of our Lord.
After these visions finished and I spent some time studying them in order to understand what the message in them was, I came to realize that Jesus died in the way that he did in order to create in the world a means of soothing evil impulses in a person’s soul. As he was nailed to and hung on the cross, he was infused with the absolute understanding of evil. His body, in turn, became the literal antidote to it.
Communion was “invented,” so to speak, in order to combat evil on Earth.
We tend to use it, instead, as some sort of hors d’oeuvre that we share with friends and family when we are all together.
We do our best, in fact, to keep the Eucharist as far away from evil as we can.
Only the good get to receive it.
Except that’s not its purpose.
Fine that we use it as a celebration of our community.
But all the sacraments are designed to combat and contain evil.
Keep it in check.
Our ultimate purpose is not to annihilate evil. It is to transform it.
Or, perhaps a better way of putting this is, it is to reclaim the person. The soul.
There is no waste in the Kingdom of God.
Certainly not souls and their energy.
However confusing this may be, there are certain soul types that have been singled out by God. Once the last person on Earth with these types of souls no longer inhabit their bodies, these souls will never appear on Earth again.
The “names” of these people have been erased from the Book of Life.
So when you are watching a cowboy movie, or whatever, don’t put yourself in the role of the good guy out to clean the town of all the bad guys.
Think more about how you can train yourself to perform miracles, to find your inner knowledge about healing, and to apply the understanding that all but one sin can be repented for and forgiven.
We are healers.
Not gun slingers.
And we have a list of weapons that I will begin to write about.
Some you will recognize. Some you will not understand.
But all should be put into use and practiced until you know how they fit into your spiritual work.
The finest thing you can do as a spiritual warrior is to find a way to bring the person you are in battle with to a liturgical church and have him receive Communion.
And just let Jesus Christ do the rest.