Spiritual Warfare

“When we are born into this world we are born in the devil; in him. We are born being his property, being his resource; he uses us to reflect himself, to live, to create in the way that he can which leads to destruction… When Adam and Eve were created all that they knew was the living God. They did not know Him like we can know Him, but that's what they knew. They did not know what it was like to be without Him. But when people are born into this world now, everyone is born knowing the devil; they don't know it, but they know the devil. They do not know the living God. So the devil took those who were in God … he took Adam and Eve thru a destructive act. But the living God now takes people from the devil through a creative act. That is the war that's going on. It is a war of resources. You are the resource and the Lord is waging this war through creating new life; creating new life that people choose to be a part of. Adam and Eve chose to follow the devil; to believe the devil and to worship the devil. But we have an opportunity to choose, follow, worship and live in the living God. So the living God achieves victory when a person who knows all about the world, who knows all about the devil (or at least enough), who knows all about what it means not to have God, voluntarily chooses Him instead of what they see in the world. You see the devil believes that he can be like God. He believes that he has accomplished great things. But when a person looks at what he has done and says, “I see what is here and I see what's available and I can see that it is not what I want,” then the devil loses. The Lord has a victory when a person chooses Him in light of everything else that they could choose, in light of every other temptation that is available to them in this world, in light of all the things that the devil advertises. When a person refuses that, when a person finally rejects that in a sober-minded way, with a full acknowledgement and full understanding of what they are turning away from, then the Lord achieves a victory that He could have never achieved if the devil had not rebelled. The living God is able to achieve something greater than what He could have ever created before without the assistance of the devil.

How long will this war go on? The longer it goes, the more people will turn to the living God. And so I believe that the Lord will allow this to go and will want this to go on as long as possible. I know people are saying that the Lord Jesus is coming at any moment and you know what, He might. But I believe that He will delay as long as He can. He is not going to return as soon as He can. He is going to delay as long as He can because the longer He waits the more people will turn to Him. He has no reason to fear people turning away from Him. When a person turns to Him for who He is, according to the true Gospel, they never turn back. So He will allow this to go on as long as possible because He benefits the longer it goes on. But the day will come when things just simply will not be able to continue on this earth in the way that they are. When that day comes the war is over because there are no longer any physical resources to fight over. The resources will be gone; they will be divided up. The Lord will have His, the devil will have his and that will be the end.  There will be the kingdom of God and there will be the other place (Hell) with the devil and his angels and his people who decided that they did not want to be a part of the true and living God. That is the war, that is how it started and this is how it will end. It will end when the earth passes away… The people who decided to reject the Lord Jesus will be the devil’s and they will immediately become obsolete because without this world you are obsolete in the devil. But, the people who are in Christ, who are a new creation, will never become obsolete in Him. You will live throughout eternity in a new life with Him and His Kingdom.” (Excerpt from Spiritual Warfare by Aaron Budjen)