Like a Roaring Lion: Spiritual Warfare for Wimps, Wusses, and 'Fraidy-Cats

By Thien An Phan

Do the words "spiritual warfare" make you want to hide under the bed? Do you know that the devil is real, but prefer to think about something else in the hopes that he will leave you alone? If so, this book is for you! Written in clear and simple language with a touch of humor, this book is the result of 25 years of experience in mission service, dealing with spiritual attacks of all kinds. The author is most definitely NOT a super-Christian, and you don't have to be, either. She explains many practical, simple ways to depend on God's strength to get you through the tough times, and even occasionally to prevent them. Like a Roaring Lion is based firmly in the Bible and contains discussion questions if you wish to use it with a group. It is particularly useful to new pastors and other Christian leaders who may find themselves "over their heads" as they come under spiritual attack of a level they have not experienced before.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thien An Phan
• Release date: Sep 20, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301733538

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Like a Roaring Lion: Spiritual Warfare for Wimps, Wusses, and ’Fraidy-Cats

by Thien An Phan

Smashwords edition

copyright Kari Vo

Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied, changed, or distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copies at Smashwords.com. Thank you for your support.

Bible quotations within this work are taken from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

With thanks to God for

Edward Lang,

Ellis Rottmann,

and

Debra Sutton—

dearly loved friends and spiritual warriors who cover our backs.

Acknowledgements

It is impossible to express my thanks adequately to everyone who has helped me through this difficult process, but I would like to single out Diane, Jean, and Debra for serving as readers and kind critics; and Ruth, for design and technical advice. Most of all, thanks to my husband Chau and son James--you who have shared the same battles and have been such a blessing to me.

Table of Contents

Chapter One: Know Your Enemy

Chapter Two: Know Yourself

Chapter Three: Know Your Lord

Chapter Four: Spiritual Attacks

Chapter Five: Stupid Human Tricks

Chapter Six: How Not to Cope with the Devil

Chapter Seven: My Big Brother Is Stronger Than You

Chapter Eight: He Who Is in You

Chapter Nine: The Bible, the Sword of the Spirit

Chapter Ten: Christians vs. the Lions (or, What the Church Is For)

Chapter Eleven: Church Discipline (and Why We’ve Got to Get It Right)

Chapter Twelve: Living with a Lion

Chapter Thirteen: The End of All the Roaring

Endnotes

Discussion Questions

About the Author

Chapter One: Know Your Enemy

He’s Real

If you are reading this, chances are good you come from one of the more affluent, powerful, Western cultures—from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and so forth. If so, you have grown up in a culture that denies the reality of the devil. He is a comic strip character, a guy in a red suit with horns and a tail. He’s a Halloween costume for children asking for candy. He’s a movie character—witty, urbane, cynical, and oh-so-much-more interesting than any of the good characters is, however much you know you’re supposed to hate him. But above all, he’s fictional.

As you probably know or at least suspect by now, this is not true. There is a devil, and he is in no way the comic, witty, or cool person of the movies and comics. He’s real, and he is your enemy.

So why has this idea grown up in our cultures? As C. S. Lewis pointed out,¹ probably because it suits him. If no one believes there is an enemy, it is easier for that enemy to operate. No one will take countermeasures. No one will even take decent precautions. Why worry about something that doesn’t exist? Get on with worrying about what we can see, like the genocidal maniacs in [ insert nation of the moment here], or the idiot politicians in [ insert your own country’s name here].

And yet this is foolish and short-sighted. If there is a devil (and we know from the Bible there is, let alone experience!), then we must assume that he is behind the great evils of our day. It sounds very high-minded to blame it all on humanity. One must not deny the intense human capability for evil and all that. And this is true. The devil should never be used as a way of sliding out from our own personal share of responsibility. The devil made me do it is complete garbage. He tempts, he tricks, he misleads—he does not (because he cannot) force. Though he’ll come as close to it as he possibly can, which is to say, as close as God allows.

But back to the evils of our day. Chances are good that you personally are not in a position to make a great, noticeable difference in the major issues of our time. You are not a world leader, a billionaire, a celebrity, an employer of zillions. Fine. Be glad of it. Because those who are in pivotal positions will come under even more intense attack, and you’re better off out of it. Pray for them. They need it.

But if you are not a general in the war against evil (or for it, God forbid!), still, you are a soldier. Simply by virtue of being born into this world you have been pressed, willy-nilly, into one army or the other. If you are a Christian (and I’m assuming you are, or why are you reading this book?), you belong to the army of Christ. And as his man or woman, you are eternally important. Your service makes all the difference—whether anyone ever knows your name or not. You must be faithful.

To do this, you must know your enemy. You must know whom you are fighting—what he is like, what he wants, what he is likely to try on you. You must know yourself—your weaknesses, your advantages, your tools. And you must know your God. Because, in the end, he is the one fighting for you and through you. And his will be the victory.

Portrait of an Enemy

So let’s start with your enemy. You already know he is real. What else do we know about him?

Scripture tells us many things, some of them clearly and some of them, well, not so clearly. Let’s take a look.

God’s Creation

This might surprise you until you stop to think about it, but the devil is and was originally God’s good creation. He is not some eternally self-existent being, some cosmic opposite to God himself. Scripture makes it clear that there is only one person who has been there from the beginning and before, and that is God himself. He has no opposite. As God says in Isaiah 44,

Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel

and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:

"I am the first and I am the last;

besides me there is no god.

Who is like me? Let him proclaim it.

Let him declare and set it before me,

since I appointed an ancient people.

Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen.

Fear not, nor be afraid;

have I not told you from of old and declared it?

And you are my witnesses!

Is there a God besides me?

There is no Rock; I know not any."

The devil was created by God, and like everything else God made, he was good. You’ve heard that God doesn’t make junk? Well, it is true in the devil’s case as well. He started out very good, just like everything else in God’s creation—from stars to quarks to squirrels to people.

Two Key Passages

So if he was originally good, what went wrong? There are two key passages in the Old Testament that seem to offer some answers. They are Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14. Both are prophetic poetry—beautiful picture language that God uses to describe some very mysterious events.

Now if you read these passages in their biblical context, you will see that they are both addressed to human leaders—Ezekiel’s message is to the prince of Tyre, and Isaiah is speaking of the king of Babylon. Both of these were enemies of God’s people, men who used their vast power and influence to oppress and destroy innocent people. As such, it is no wonder God called the prophets to speak about their doom. That was the kind of thing the prophets did on a regular basis.

But these passages are different from the majority of other judgment prophecies. Both of these passages go way beyond what you would expect to hear about an ordinary man, even the greatest and most evil of world leaders. While each of them may take a human king as their starting point, they go beyond that—into the supernatural. This is why Christianity has traditionally considered these to be descriptions of the devil.

Let’s take a look at them together.

Not Always Evil

Isaiah starts by describing the devil in these words (14:12):

"How you are fallen from heaven,

O Day Star, son of Dawn!

This passage is the origin of the traditional name for the devil, Lucifer. The name is actually a good and beautiful one, which means Light Bearer or Carrier of Light. Lucifer is not actually found in the Bible text—it is one translation for the Hebrew word helel, here translated day star or morning star—the star that heralds the dawn. You can see this is a wonderful name for an angel who serves the Light of Light, Jesus Christ our Lord. What a shame it is so inappropriate now!

Ezekiel describes the devil’s original state at much greater length. He writes,

Thus says the Lord God:

"You were the signet of perfection,

full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

You were in Eden, the garden of God;

every precious stone was your covering,

sardius, topaz, and diamond,

beryl, onyx, and jasper,

sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle;

and crafted in gold were your settings

and your engravings.

On the day that you were created

they were prepared.

You were an anointed guardian cherub.

I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God;

in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.

You were blameless in your ways

from the day you were created,

till unrighteousness was found in you." (Ezekiel 28:12–15)

Ezekiel, speaking under the influence of the Holy Spirit, describes him as an anointed guardian cherub. Cherubim are not the flying baby heads with wings you see in popular culture—the Bible shows them as a kind of angel, one that God commanded Moses to picture on the ark of the covenant, guarding the holy place of God’s presence. C. S. Lewis points out that "The full degradation of the Cherub . . . will perhaps be clearest if we remember that the word probably comes from the same root as gryphon. Even for Chaucer a cherub was a creature of fire: not at all ‘cuddly’."² So the devil appears to have been a very high-ranking angel indeed, possibly one intended to be a fierce guardian of what is holy.

The picture Ezekiel paints is a glorious one—the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. . . . every precious stone was your covering. . . . blameless in your ways. And it would appear that he still has a certain amount of that glory left—as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:14, And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. In short, he was the kind of being that, if we had seen him in his glory, we probably would have been strongly tempted to worship (Revelation 19:10, 22:9). And his natural gifts—his intelligence, his strength and power, the very things we value so highly in humanity over against the animals—these would have been as far above ours as our gifts are above those of the fish or the birds. As an angel, and a high ranking one, he was a wonderful creature.

What Happened?

But then it all went wrong. Some way, somehow, he took it into his