The fighting of the children of Israel against the Canaanites that they might possess and enjoy the good land portrays the invisible spiritual warfare that is taking place behind the visible scene on earth, and it typifies the spiritual warfare of the church against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies.
Even before entering the good land, the army of God – the army of the children of Israel – had to defeat some kings who were guarding the gate to the good land, and who pro-actively attacked them. These were small kings, but they attacked Israel and were defeated by them.
We need to realize that, in order for us to enter into the enjoyment and experience of Christ as the good land there is a spiritual warfare; there is spiritual warfare for us and for all the saints to enter into the possession and enjoyment of our allotted portion of Christ.
In the church life on the one hand we enjoy the Lord with all his riches and His loving care, and on the other hand we are on a battlefield, for in order for us to possess Christ as the good land for the fulfillment of God’s purpose, we must fight and defeat the satanic forces.
Satan raised his will against God’s will, and whenever we want to come to the Lord, enjoy Him, and experience Him, Satan fights against us.
In Daniel 10 we see something regarding the spiritual struggle in the air; in vv. 10-17 the evil prince of the kingdom of Persian withstood the sent angelic messenger (probably one of the chief prices) for twenty-one days.
So Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help the sent angelic messenger. This evil prince of the kingdom of Persia must have been an evil spirit, a rebellious angel, one who followed Satan in his rebellion against God and who was commissioned by Satan to help Persia.
On the earth Daniel was praying and standing with God, uttering prayers to release the will of God on earth; at the same time, in the air there was a spiritual struggle taking place between two spirits, one belonging to Satan and the other belonging to God.
As the angelic messenger was coming to Daniel as an answer to his prayer, the evil spirit rose up and fought him. Then in vv. 18-21 we see more of the spiritual struggle behind the scenes.
This really shows that, as we the church pray and utter God’s prayers to bind and release, there is a spiritual war going on; this is the spiritual warfare of the church for all the saints to enter into the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land.
For us to Gain the Unsearchable Riches of Christ, we must Crush the Spiritual Enemies
In Num. 21:1-3 and 21-35 we see how the army of God defeated the king of Arad, Sihon the king of the Amorites, and Og the king of Bashan. The first stage of the battle is to remove them and open the way for the army to advance toward the good land to enter into its possession and inheritance.
The kings of Arad, of the Amorites, and of Bashan were the “gate guards” on the east of the Jordan river; they were guarding the land of Canaan, the kingdom of darkness, for Satan.
They signify the rulers, the authorities, and the world-rulers of darkness against whom we as the church must struggle (see Eph. 6:12).
We need to be trained by the Lord and be formed into His army to fight His enemy, entering into the spiritual warfare of the church, and we need to realize that this is a war at close range, a wrestling.
We are being coached in dealing with the enemy in close range; we are being trained how to fight under different situations and circumstances, for Joshua and Caleb train us to fight the spiritual warfare of the church.
Once our training in various stages has been complete, we will be able to have the view that this training was far more rigorous than the training for the special forces.
However, there is nothing to be afraid of, for the Lord doesn’t just send us in battle without Him training us; we all need to learn, be trained, and advance together.
There’s an army about to be formed throughout the local churches in the Lord’s recovery, and the Lord will be able to move in an unhindered and unprecedented way to announce the gospel of the kingdom and to bring in the consummation of this age! Amen!
In order for the children of Israel to enter into the good land, they had to pass through certain territories, which were controlled by these kings; so they had to fight against them, destroy them, and take over their territory.
The enemy needs not just to be defeated but destroyed, annihilated, reduced to nothing; in the spiritual warfare of the church we take no prisoners of war.
In order for us as believers in Christ to gain the unsearchable riches of Christ, we must crush the spiritual enemies signified by these kings – the king of Arad, Sihon the king of the Amorites, and Og the king of Bashan – and take over their territories (Eph. 3:8; 6:10-12).
The spiritual warfare of the church is not something delicate or dainty, and there is no compromise or peace treaty; we must stand one with the Lord and destroy, crush, and annihilate the enemy, so that we may gain the unsearchable riches of Christ!
Lord Jesus, train us and form us as an army to fight the spiritual warfare of the church so that we and all the saints may gain the unsearchable riches of Christ. Thank You Lord, our wrestling is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, the authorities, and the world-rulers of this darkness. We open to Your training and perfecting, and we want to be formed into the army that You desire to have to advance, take the land, and possess the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land!
Fighting the Spiritual Warfare of the Church to Posses and Enjoy the All-inclusive Christ
Both Dan. 10:10-21 and Eph. 6:10-12 confirm what we see in Num. 21, that is, that there’s an invisible spiritual warfare taking place behind the visible scene on earth, and it typifies the spiritual warfare of the church against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies.
We do not fight the warfare against people directly, even though we may realize that some persons are the channels of the enemy’s attack – whether they know it or not; rather, we are engaged in a spiritual warfare with the evil forces that are invisible.
In the typology of the Old Testament, Canaan has two aspects: on the positive side it is a land of riches (Deut. 8:7-10) typifying the all-inclusive Christ with His unsearchable riches (Col. 1:12; Eph. 3:8), and on the negative side, it signifies the aerial part, the heavenly part of the dark kingdom of Satan.
The children of Israel entering the good land and dealing with the tribes there is a picture of our dealing with the enemy.
As the ruler of this world (John 12:31) and as the ruler of the authority of the air (Eph. 2:2), Satan has his authority (Acts 26:18) and his angels (Matt. 25:41), who are his subordinates as principalities, powers, and rulers of the darkness of this world (Eph. 6:12); hence, Satan has his kingdom (Matt. 12:26), the authority of darkness (Col. 1:13).
The Canaanites typify the fallen angels, the rebellious angels who follow Satan (Rev. 12:4, 7), who have become the powers, rulers, and authorities in Satan’s kingdom (cf. Dan. 10:13, 20).
There are three particular references to the Canaanites, each showing a particular aspect of what they represent.
In Exo. 23:23 the Canaanites typify the various aspects of our natural life; the Lord said that He will not drive all these tribes out at once but little by little, otherwise the land will be empty and in a worse condition.
In the application, the Lord will deal with our natural life gradually; here the Canaanites signify our natural life with its feelings, experiences, offenses, and wounds.
In Num. 14:45 the Canaanite tribes typify human beings joined to the evil spirits; there are some human beings with their natural life that are linked to the evil spirits, enabling the principalities and powers to operate through them and with them.
In Num. 21 the Canaanite tribes typify the evil principalities and powers themselves. We need to see something in application of this; we need to realize that we all have the natural life with its feelings, and the enemy is quite adept at manipulating and using our natural life.
In particular, in the context of our human life and church life, we all have been offended and hurt; we have wounds, and it is impossible to be in the church life for many years and never experience this.
The enemy knows this, and when he wills, he will use these persons who have been offended but won’t forgive, those who have been wounded but would not take the way of healing in life. The enemy uses these people as channels to do whatever he wants.
Someone who has allowed a negative accumulation of experiences, offenses, and injuries, will at a certain point experience the enemy himself dispatching one of his followers to use him, and the fiery darts will be aimed right at his wounds.
Because these wounds and hurts are not healed in life, the enemy will use his feelings of anger and rage, and there’s virtually no limit to what this person can do; he may even go online and make things known to the whole earth!
Such a person, in almost all cases, is not aware of what is going on. But praise the Lord, there is a way to deal with this.
The way for us to be preserved in the church life and to enter into the spiritual warfare of the church is to take the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition (Eph. 6:17).
We have the word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit, as our offensive weapon to deal with the enemy.
But if we try to use this weapon against the enemy directly, we may be utterly devastated by him, for he realises that we are vulnerable and attacks us.
However, when we come to the written word of God in the Bible and pray the word, the word becomes Spirit and life to us (John 6:63); when this happens, the word becomes the sword, and this sword firstly pierces us, cutting into the anger, the self-pity, the offense, and whatever the problem is, and removes the ground for the evil spirits to attack.
Spontaneously then, the sword of the Spirit shreds the enemy to pieces. This is our experience.
Sometimes we may experience strong feelings, intense hurts, as if there’s something more than human there; there are undealt feelings, hurts, offenses, and wounds, and the fiery darts of the enemy intensify them.
But when we allow the sword of the Spirit – the word of God – to be breathed into us and operate in us, the enemy will be destroyed in us, and then he will be cut into pieces. There’s a strong connection between our natural life and the principalities and powers.
When we prayerfully read the Bible and open to the Lord, He will shine on us, He will expose the enemy’s ground in us, and He will heal us. Amen!
The fighting of the children of Israel against the Canaanites that they might possess and enjoy the good land typifies the spiritual warfare of the church against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies so that the saints may enjoy Christ as the all-inclusive land (Eph. 6:12).
God wants us as His people to gain Christ as our good land, but between us and the good land there’s a layer of devilish, demonic forces, so if we want to enter the good land, we must defeat these satanic forces (Col. 1:12-13; 2:15; Eph. 3:18; 6:10-12).
If we want the saints to enjoy the good land, if we want to help them enjoy the all-inclusive Christ, we must enter the spiritual warfare of the church to fight the enemy so that they may enter into the enjoyment.
There is an exceedingly real spiritual warfare in which we must engage; thus, the church must be a corporate warrior fighting the battle to gain the all-inclusive Christ and for the establishing and spreading of the kingdom of God so that Christ may come back to inherit the earth! Amen!
There is a great longing in our heart,
Lord Jesus, we want You to come back to the earth! We stand one with You in the church to fight the spiritual warfare of the church for all the saints to enter into the possession and enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ! Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit to pray over Your word, taking the Word of God in by means of all prayers and petitions, so that any ground of the enemy in our being would be dealt with and removed. Lord, gain the church as a corporate warrior fighting the battle to gain the all-inclusive Christ and for the establishing and spreading of the kingdom of God so that Christ may come back to inherit the earth! Amen, come Lord Jesus!
Read this article in the Romanian language / citiți acest articol și în limba română la următorul link, Să luptăm războiul spiritual al bisericii pentru a-L poseda și savura pe Cristosul atotinclusiv.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, The All-Inclusive Christ, chs. 11-13 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Numbers (2), week 12, The Necessity of Spiritual Warfare and God’s People Formed into an Army Ready for Battle.
- Hymns on this topic:
# ’Tis harder at the end / The word to testify, / For Satan fights with all his pow’r / Our witness to defy. / Much greater strength we need / The foe to overcome; / How happy when the Lord we see / And all our sighing’s done! (Hymns #893)
# O may I love Thy precious Word, / May I explore the mine, / May I its glorious riches take, / May light upon me shine. / O may I find my armor there, / Thy Word my trusty sword; / I’ll learn to fight with every foe / The battle of the Lord. (Hymns #804)
# Keep on wrestling in the Body, / Mighty vict’ry you will see, / Bind and loose, God’s will fulfilling, / And the foes your food will be. (Hymns #885)
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