Credit: Sailko, Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0
When it comes to spiritual warfare, Paul encouraged believers to do a very odd thing and if recent statements by former Fox News commentator, Tucker Carlson, are correct, we need to be doing it now.
In a recent speech at the Heritage Foundation’s Policy Fest held July 15, 2024, Tucker Carlson gave his opinion on what is actually taking place in America, the Christian Post reports.
The speech was made two days after the assassination attempt on former US president Donald Trump.
While admitting he is “not a particularly fervent, lifelong Christian,” Carlson stated that recent events have led him to believe that there is something much more serious going on in America, than a divisive political divide.
He believes the country is in the midst of a great spiritual battle, between the demonic and Godly realms.
“I think what happened on Saturday, the assassination attempt against President Trump, reminded a lot of people, or awakened a lot of people to this. There is a spiritual battle underway,” Tucker said.
“There is no logical way to understand what we’re seeing now in temporal terms, you just can’t. These are not political divides. There are forces — and they’re very obvious now, they’ve decided, for whatever reason, to take off the mask — whose only goal is chaos, violence, destruction,” Tucker added.
“This is not flesh and blood at all. If you’re offended by prayer, you’re taking orders, OK? I don’t see another rational explanation for it.”
If Tucker is right, then assassination attempts and efforts to silence Christians in the public square are just the outward symptoms of a much deeper spiritual conflict.
So if a spiritual war is taking place in America, what are Christians to do?
Well, to be honest, the Apostle Paul gives some strange advice, in perhaps, one of the greatest passages describing spiritual warfare found in Ephesians 6.
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places,” Paul starts off in Ephesians 6:12.
Paul says that our ultimate enemy in this battle is not flesh and blood, such as politicians, rogue District attorneys or rabid activists, it is, in fact, spiritual — the demonic realm.
For the next few verses, he talks about putting on the armor of God (Ephesians 6:13-17), and then wraps up this discussion with some advice on what to do when involved in a spiritual battle.
Paul writes in verse 18, “with every prayer and request, pray at all times in the Spirit.” But notice the very distinctive phrase that Paul uses, he specifically says we need to pray “in the Spirit.”
This is not the first time, Paul talked about ‘praying in the spirit’.
He uses the same phrase in his discussion on spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 14, where Paul writes, “For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unproductive. What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also” (verses 14 and 15).
It is clear in this verse that Paul is connecting praying in the spirit with the Gift of Tongues.
So turning back to Paul’s discussion on spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6, when he encourages the Ephesians to “pray in the spirit,” he is literally telling them to pray in tongues, which is how the Ephesians would have understood it.
But Paul does more than that, he is encouraging them to ‘pray at all times‘ in the Spirit.
When we are praying, we should pray using our minds, but then we also need to pray in tongues, so the Holy Spirit can guide our prayers.
The Gift of Tongues needs to be a significant part of our prayer life, because if we are involved in a spiritual battle, we need spiritual prayer.
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