Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:10] Welcome back to another edition of the Weekday Podcast. I'm so glad you're here. This episode sets up the episodes for the whole week. So if you're able to, I'd love to invite you back every single weekday this week as we think about the topic of spiritual warfare. And I'll tell you the why behind this a little bit is because at Easter time, we asked you what are the things you want to hear about? What are the things that would be helpful in spiritual warfare? Was at the top of the list today. It kicks us off thinking about this idea that you're already in a war now. Second Kings, chapter 6, verses 11 and 12. It says, now the heart of the king of Aram, who's the enemy, was enraged over this thing. And so he called his servants and he said to them, will you tell me which one is for the king of Israel? And one of his servants said, no, my lord, O king, it's Elisha, the prophet who's in Israel who tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.
[00:01:00] Now, you probably know that feeling where something keeps going sideways, but you can't figure out why. Sometimes it's that same argument that keeps resurfacing, or it's that same fear that keeps finding you, or that same pattern that keeps repeating, and no matter how many times you try to fix it, the problem just comes back. And I want to suggest something that might change the way that you see all that. There is a war going on. Literally, there is a war going on right now around your life, your family, your faith. And the fact that most of us are unaware is not an accident, is actually part of the strategy. And that's not an attempt to be dramatic. That's just what the Bible teaches. This passage in 2nd Kings 6 talks about the king of Aram who's trying to wage war against Israel. But every single time he draws up a battle plan, Israel already knows the enemy's furious. He accuses his own generals. He demands to know who the traitor is. And one of his servants has to explain it's not a spy, but there's a prophet in Israel whose guide tells them the words spoken behind closed door.
[00:02:00] The enemy had a real strategy, a real army, a real plan to do real damage. And so does the enemy of your soul. This is why Paul writes in Ephesians 6 that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. We wrestle against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age.
[00:02:19] What that means is the person who frustrates you isn't actually the problem. The cycle that keeps dragging you under has a source. The discouragement that shows up right when things start going well, that's not coincidence.
[00:02:32] Here's the thing that changes everything.
[00:02:34] You can't engage what you can't see. You cannot engage what you cannot see. And most of us spend our lives fighting the wrong battle, directing our frustration at the people around us, at the circumstances, at ourselves, while we completely miss the thing that's actually driving the conflict. So the first move in spiritual warfare isn't a weapon. It's actually awareness. So today, I want to encourage you to ask God to help you to see what's really going on beneath the surface of whatever is wearing you down. There is a war, and it does have a strategy. Have a great day. We'll see you back here soon.
