Spiritual Warfare: 8 Keys to Master Before Picking Up Weapons

Introduction

In the first two parts of this series, Gilles BONNEVEAU laid out the definitions of spiritual warfare and reminded us that the Christian's true battle isn't facing demons or sorcerers, but resembling Jesus Christ. In this third part, he changes angle. Before returning to the inventory of weapons God gives us, he pauses. Because a weapon in the hands of someone who doesn't know how to use it saves no one. David couldn't wear Saul's armor. A donkey's jawbone was enough for Samson. What makes the difference is what happens before the weapon: your relationship with the Lord, your ability to stay focused, to believe without doubting, to heal your wounds, to discern. This message lays out eight keys to master before drawing the sword.

Message Outline

1. Your relationship with God, the key that commands all the others

• "Yahweh will fight for you, and you shall be still" (Exodus 14:14). He's the one who sets the pace of the battle, he's the one who knows where you stand, he's the one who helps you. Everything you could say about spiritual warfare is worthless if your relationship with him isn't established.
• In the battle, it's God himself who identifies you. Your identity doesn't depend on your position, your successes, or your failures. It depends on him.
• The enemy flees from the presence of those who seek the Lord. BONNEVEAU recalls an image he heard in a testimony: a man kept being attacked every time the enemy knocked at the door, until the day he handed everything over to Jesus. The next time, it was the Lord who opened the door. The enemy never came back.
• This relationship is cultivated in the secret place: time set aside for the Lord to thank him, praise him, entrust things to him, ask him for counsel. Even to bless someone, ask for instruction first, otherwise you risk losing your money and misdirecting your generosity.

2. No distraction: stay focused

• In spiritual warfare, you need to receive divine instruction. Otherwise, you're fighting blind. To receive it, you have to be attentive, and not let yourself be distracted.
• We live in a world saturated with distractions. Phones, social media, all sorts of worries. Work and family responsibilities are real, but when these things flood your thoughts to the point that there's no room left for God, the enemy has already gained ground.
• Satan has a very simple strategy: if you get distracted, he takes you out. Spiritual warfare demands determination. Stay motivated, stay alert, ask the Lord for instruction.

3. No doubt: lean on the one who cannot lie

• Lack of faith cannot give you victory. When you fight, you must lean on God's goodness, on the assurance of his promises, on the certainty that he answers.
• The one you lean on, you cannot doubt him. If you lack wisdom or faith, ask the Lord for it: "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God" (James 1:5).
• Remember: spiritual battles go beyond man against man. They have a spiritual foundation. Nations have clashed and fought one another for millennia, the Persians, the Syrians, the Phoenicians against Israel. Behind the visible scene, there's always an invisible battle. Faith keeps you standing when you understand that God himself has never moved.

4. Deal with your emotional wounds and forgive

• Anger, bitterness, guilt: these are the fruit of unhealed wounds in the heart. And an untreated wound builds a wall between you and God. You become unable to pray with confidence, with faith, with effectiveness.
• Many people carry old wounds, an abused childhood, harassment at work, unresolved injustices. Many have even been wounded in the Church, when that's the last place it should happen. "Let your gentleness be known to all men" (Philippians 4:5).
• The only rampart that truly heals is the love of God. When you know you are loved, your heart is repaired. Entrust your wound to the Lord, don't hide it.
• And above all: forgive. "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors" (Matthew 6:12). It's not easy, but you have no choice. Forgiveness frees you from the pain, the guilt, the suffering. Confess your own sins too: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins" (1 John 1:9).
• Without reconciliation or a purified heart, you won't be able to fight. The core of spiritual warfare is prayer. And a heart clogged with resentment cannot pray freely.

5. Stay disciplined and persevere

• Your battle is everything that comes to take up space and keep you from being a child of God, from welcoming the joy, the peace, the fruits of the Spirit that God has set aside for you. It could be an addiction, a rejection, an intimidation, an injustice, a blockage. Whatever the form, it's a battle.
• BONNEVEAU uses an image drawn from his experience in the railroad world: sidetracks. Where you store a train you want to set aside, somewhere nobody sees it. The enemy tries to send your life onto a sidetrack. Discipline is what gets you off it.
• Persevere. "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). In the face of hardship, no letting up: prayer, motivation, determination until victory.

6. Discern God's voice among the other voices

• "My sheep hear my voice" (John 10:27). But how many voices try to take a seat in your heart? The voice of your flesh, the voice of the world, the voice of the enemy.
• The voice of the world will always criticize you. BONNEVEAU tells the fable of the miller, his son, and the donkey: whatever he does (the son on the donkey, the father on the donkey, both riding, both walking), the village always finds something to complain about. Whatever choice you make, the world will find something to judge. You can't run your life on that voice.
• The voice of the enemy, on the other hand, lies: "God doesn't love you. His promises aren't true. You have nothing, you are nothing." That's a lie, not the truth.
• God's voice, though, is gentle, peaceful, aligned, and it is always consistent with his Word. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16). How will you recognize his voice if you don't read his Word? It brings peace, it lifts up Jesus, it produces the fruits of the Spirit, it always corrects in love. "He won't break a bruised reed. He won't quench a smoking flax" (Isaiah 42:3).
• There are useful battles and useless battles. Without discernment, you fight in a vacuum, you shout "In the name of Jesus!" against enemies that don't exist, while an unconfessed sin is landing blows you don't understand.

7. Listen, meditate, let peace confirm it to you

• Pay attention to your heart. Take time to meditate on Bible verses. There are words that will spring up in your heart at just the right moment, like arrows prepared in advance for a specific battle.
• God can give you a thought, a word of knowledge, a verse to speak out that you can lean on, and you'll watch things settle right in front of you.
• If a direction or a thought brings you deep peace, that's often a sign that God is speaking to you. Paul and Silas in Philippi were beaten and thrown into prison, yet they were at peace. They started singing, and the Lord shook the prison (Acts 16:25-26). There will be difficult situations where you'll still have peace. That's because the Lord is there.

8. Submit to God and take care of your own

• "I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God... Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:1-2). Submission to God comes before every victory.
• But BONNEVEAU insists on one thing God laid on his heart: the battle closest to you is your family. His wife told him one day: "You want to impact the world, you want to see Jesus, you want to earn money to help others, but are you taking care of me? Are you taking care of your children?"
• He sat down, and he acknowledged she was right. God gave you a family first. "For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life?" (Mark 8:36). Taking care of your own is part of the battle.
• Many pastors' kids grew up frustrated because their parents were always at church. Making the people you love happy is a battle in itself. Small things first, and God entrusts the bigger things after.
• The Christian isn't lazy. God has given you talents: start your business, become a good doctor, a good baker, study for your exams. But above all, keep a living relationship with your Father and take care of the ones he's placed by your side.

Key Takeaways

• Victory doesn't come first from weapons, but from your relationship with the Lord. He's the one who fights for you, he's the one who knows you.
• Without focus, without faith, and without a healed heart, no weapon can save you. The prerequisites matter more than the equipment.
• Failing to deal with your wounds and to forgive builds a wall between you and God that even keeps you from praying.
• Discernment is cultivated in the Word: God's voice is gentle, peaceful, aligned with Scripture, and leaves deep peace even in the storm.
• The first battlefield of your spiritual warfare is your home. Making the people you love happy isn't a distraction from serving God, it is serving God.

Personal Application

1. When was the last time you spent real time alone with the Lord, no phone, no screen, just to listen to him and talk to him?
2. Is there an old wound (an injustice, an abuse, a betrayal in the Church), that you've never dared to entrust to the Lord for healing?
3. Is there someone you need to forgive today, even if it's hard? Forgiveness will set you free before it even sets the other person free.
4. Which voices are you running your life by right now: your flesh, the world, the enemy, or the Lord confirmed by his Word?
5. Would your family (spouse, children, parents) say today that you take good care of them, or would they be the first to say God comes before everything else?

Verses Cited

• 1 Samuel 17 (David refuses Saul's armor and faces Goliath with his sling)
• Judges 15:15 (Samson and the donkey's jawbone)
• Exodus 14:14 (Yahweh will fight for you)
• John 10:27 (my sheep hear my voice)
• 2 Timothy 3:16 (all Scripture is given by inspiration of God)
• Matthew 6:12 (forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors)
• 1 John 1:9 (if we confess our sins)
• Colossians 3:13 (bear with one another)
• Romans 12:1-2 (present your bodies a living sacrifice)
• James 4:7 (submit to God, resist the devil)
• James 1:5 (if anyone lacks wisdom)
• Acts 16:25-26 (Paul and Silas praise God in prison at Philippi)
• 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (pray without ceasing)
• Mark 8:36 (what does it profit a man to gain the whole world)
• Isaiah 42:3 (a bruised reed, a smoking flax)
• Philippians 4:5 (let your gentleness be known to all)

Frequently Asked Questions

Why learn to handle spiritual warfare before receiving the weapons?

Because a weapon in the hands of someone who doesn't know how to use it saves no one. Gilles BONNEVEAU recalls that David couldn't use Saul's armor and chose instead his sling and five smooth stones (1 Samuel 17), and that Samson struck down a thousand Philistines with a simple donkey's jawbone (Judges 15). God gives the weapons, but you first have to learn how to fight: focus, faith, a healed heart, discipline, discernment. Without these prerequisites, the sword stays useless in your hand.

How can I know if it's God's voice speaking to me in my battle?

Jesus says: "My sheep hear my voice" (John 10:27). To recognize it amid the voice of your flesh, the voice of the world, and the voice of the enemy, you need three markers. First: God's voice never contradicts his Word (2 Timothy 3:16). Second: it is gentle, peaceful, aligned, and it produces the fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience). Third: when it points you toward a decision, it leaves deep peace in your heart, even when the situation stays hard, like Paul and Silas praising God in prison at Philippi (Acts 16).

How is taking care of my family a form of spiritual warfare?

Because God entrusted your own people to you before he entrusted you with the world. BONNEVEAU tells how his wife confronted him: "You want to impact the world, but are you taking care of me? Are your children happy?" Jesus himself says: "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?" (Mark 8:36). Spiritual warfare starts with small, faithful things: making your wife, your husband, your children happy. Without that, every grand spiritual ambition rings hollow.