This week we are continuing our study on spiritual warfare

This week we are continuing our study on spiritual warfare with a look into psychological warfare and how it applies. The essence of psychological warfare is to confuse the meaning of words and infiltrate the mind with conflicting concepts. This week, we will talk about some of the distinguishing marks of a psychological battle, things you can use and things that will be used against you. Before any battle begins the enemy will begin working on you, so there are things you can do also. Of course, we are not talking about literal battles but everyday confrontations and issues that come up where people are trying to control you, influence you and change you into something that is not what God has for you. We must, at times, speak loudly when you aren’t carrying a big stick. We sometimes must show our strength even more than it really is. A biblical example of this is Gideon and his 300 when he made the enemy think there were more soldiers than there were. Israel actually did this in the 1973 Yom Kippur war when they sent 300 radio operators into the field to make it sound like there were many more troops than there really were. We must be strong and show the enemy we are strong even when we aren’t. You must realize when you are under a psychological attack and one of the advantages of using a psychological attack is time is on your side and you can make the enemy work all the time., but this can and will be used against you as well. But, we should not carry “arks” into battle to assure victory. These can be things like good luck charms, crosses, statues, a Star of David, emblems, magic formulas and talismans, Bibles or whatever you think will assure victory. Israel went to battle at Aphek carrying the Ark and it didn’t save them because they were in rebellion against God to begin with (1 Sam 4) and the Philistines captured it. We must stay psychologically strong in God, not things. King Hezekiah listened to Isaiah and not to the Assyrian representatives of Sennacarib in Isaiah chapters 36 and 37. They were trying to get into the heads of the people. In the Civil war, there was a battle called Chickamauga and a confederate soldier said one of the reasons they lost the battle was “you Yanks got into out innards.”

We must be prepared to go out on a limb and get hurt in psychological warfare. Psychological warfare will always try to keep you at odds from within (groups fighting one another or to keep you busy, running, not resting) to weaken you. Rome did this against the Jews behind the walls of Jerusalem during the 1^st Jewish revolt. They will watch to see if you are disintegrating from within and then they will try to keep you in confusion. Spiritual battles don’t have to be centered in logic and the enemy you may have at times will be illogical in what they do and say. The Arabs, Palestinians, Iranians and certain political groups today are a perfect example of this. There are two key elements in successful battles. First, God told them to go and secondly He told them what to do. Doubt can be a killer in a psychological battle so don’t let the enemy discourage you or those around you. Don’t “hate” your enemy, you don’t need it to defeat them. Don’t talk to the enemy either, trying to strike back against their accusations. The Assyrians told King Hezekiah that they would be “drinking their own urine” if they didn’t surrender and Hezekiah didn’t say a word about the water tunnel he had dug bringing water into the city. The tunnel still exists today but how many Assyrians do you know? In battles like this, come before the Lord in humility because He directs the battle, not the believer. There is no such thing as “name it and claim it” because it is the Lord who does it, not us. Your enemy will accentuate the problems you may have and will try to speak to others around you to get them to influence you, especially if they think they don’t know what to do either. These mind games can include false promises, but that always ends in slavery and you will be worse off than before.

Hopefully, this brief look into psychological warfare will help you recognize it, using it to your advantage and not letting others exploit you. In the next phase of spiritual warfare we will talk about attacking and what to do and mistakes to avoid.