I've had a bit of a hard week. I've been struggling with my mind, struggling with the old demons that tell me I'm not good enough, I'm nothing special, I have no strengths, I'm abnormally stupid, no one likes me and I can never accomplish anything in my life.... Lies! All lies! It's been a fight to keep those thoughts from taking over. The mental exertion necessary to push them back has left me battle-worn and tired. I have a headache.

This week, out topic was on spiritual warfare, taught by Dean Sherman (who has a book out on the subject by the way). It seems appropriate. In believing the Bible, I believe that there is a spiritual realm. In believing in the spiritual realm, I must also believe that there are angels and demons. So what do demons do anyway? Dean pointed out that the sole goal of demons is to bring about the destruction of the kingdom of God. And what is this kingdom? The body of believers. How does Satan attack this kingdom? Through lying and deceiving. He attacks our minds so that from our ambiguous thought-life we are confused into inaction, guilted into retreat and self-condemned into depression. His primary form of attack is not physical opposition, it's the Chinese water torture of lies on our thoughts to slowly draw us away from truth. Out of the lies come selfishness, materialism, individualism and pride. Out of these lies we fight with others, we are greedy, we strive to exalt ourselves and we bring disunity to the world.

If we were physically opposed we would be able to physically see our enemy; things would be so clear. But Satan uses the subtle to lull us into a sense of security and self reliance. Then little by little he strips our mind until we destroy our relationships with others, God and our perception of ourselves. And we don't even see it.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.