A Call to War: An Exposé on Biblical Truth and Spiritual Warfare

By Daniel Boyer

A Call to War is more than a battle cry; it is a call by God for each one of us to enlist in His Army and surrender to His Lordship. It is time to stand strong in the the truth of the Word of God and reject Satan's lies and deception that are so prevalent in today's society. It is time to relentlessly resist and defeat the kingdom of darkness with the spiritual weapons that God has entrusted unto each one of us.

We are called to take up the mantle of a soldier of God, and walk in the authority and power of the Holy Spirit. We are encouraged to preach the gospel message, heal the brokenhearted, preach deliverance to the captives, recover sight to the blind, and set at liberty those that are bruised...just as Jesus did The challenge has been set before us; now is the time to go forth boldly and finish the race that He has set before us.

written to help all of us better understand the truth of the Word of God and how it can be applied to our lives today and to reveal the inroads that Satan and the kingdom of God have made into society today. It is a call to repentence and a turning away from deceoption and flase teaching of doctrines that many have been entagled in.

It is designed to allow the light of God's truth to permeate our minds and hearts and to eradicate the lies that Satan has woven into our lives and especially into society today. It is meant to equip us with the spiritual weaponry that we need to successfully fight the kingdom of darkness with the full authority and power of the Holy Spirit who lives within true believers in Christ. Jesus has won the victory on the Cross at Calvary, we simply need to apprehend that victory for our personal lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
• Release date: Mar 29, 2023
• ISBN: 9781489746818

Daniel Boyer

Daniel Boyer is a born-again, Spirit-filled believer in Jesus Christ who was ordained into the ministry in 1983, and has functioned in the Church as both a pastor and teacher. He has had the opportunity to preach the Word of God in both the U.S. and Australia, as well as to lead in a prison ministry for young men, and to speak at Christian conferences and meetings. He is called to be an evangelist to those in need of salvation, healing and deliverance, all in the mighty Name of Jesus. Daniel has also spent considerable time in Corporate America where he has a passion for reaching the lost and touching lives for Christ. He has a heart-felt burden for restoring Biblical truth throughout our Nation, and rallying God's people to stand up, confront, and relentlessly battle against the powers of darkness by using the weapons of warfare that God has graciously provided for our victory which has already been won on the Cross at Calvary.

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Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version.

ISBN: 978-1-4897-4565-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-4564-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-4681-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023904993

LifeRich Publishing rev. date: 10/02/2023

This manuscript is

dedicated to God the Father, who

has provided mankind with His Word as our standard

of law; to God the Son, Jesus Christ, who has provided

the world with salvation for all those who will believe

in Him; and to God the Holy Spirit, who will lead and

guide us unto all truth. May God receive all the glory!

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1     The Road To Salvation

Chapter 2     Authority and Power

Chapter 3     A Falling Away

Chapter 4     Our Adversary the Devil

Chapter 5     Modern-Day Scribes and Pharisees

Chapter 6     Spiritual Warfare

Chapter 7     The Triple Crown

Chapter 8     The Destiny of the Church

Epilogue

Introduction

The late Jesse Penn-Lewis, a visionary spiritual warrior of the Welsh revival, wrote about a Satanic confederacy of wicked spirits in her book entitled War on the Saints. These spirits are sent forth from the kingdom of darkness to bring lies, fear, and deception to the human race in an effort to destroy what God has created. In her book, Ms. Penn-Lewis expounds upon this confederacy: A perspective view of the ages covered by the history in Bible records, shows that the rise and fall in spiritual power of the people of God, was marked by the recognition of the existence of the demoniacal hosts of evil. When the Church of God in the old and new dispensations was at the highest point of spiritual power, the leaders recognized, and drastically dealt with the invisible forces of Satan; and when at the lowest they were ignored, or allowed to have free course among the people.

Her declaration underscores the purpose of this book. As we approach the return of the Lord Jesus Christ as the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and Judge of Judges with all power and glory at the end of this age, it is time for the Church of God to once again wake up, stand up, and walk in the true authority and power of the Holy Spirit. Man’s ignorance and passivity have always been the main conditions for deception by evil spirits, and it is now time for ignorance and passivity to be replaced with truth and action. It is time for men, women, and even children to be equipped with the truth of the Word of God and with all spiritual knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. And it is time that we use the weapons of our warfare and stand strong and persistent in the face of opposition from the powers of darkness.

As believers in Christ, we are in the midst of a spiritual war. It is a war that has been declared upon us by the kingdom of darkness; it is not one that we have chosen. It is a war that Satan has orchestrated in an effort to defeat and destroy us. But in truth, it is a war in which God has given us the ability to overcome the powers of darkness and bring to pass the ultimate victory that Jesus has already accomplished on the cross at Calvary over two thousand years ago.

In these last days, God is gathering the saints together and building His great army on earth, ready for spiritual battle. It is an anointed army, an army covered and protected by the blood of the Lamb. It is an army of believers who have chosen to lay down their lives for Christ in the manner first proclaimed by Jesus Himself in Matthew 16:24–25 (KJV):

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

These individuals are called to be the unknowns—men, women, and children who have chosen to obey God at all costs rather than make a name for themselves; these are individuals who have humbly chosen to surrender all to Christ so that He might increase, while they decrease.

The question is, How might each of us respond to a call to war?

One

The Road To Salvation

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

—John 3:16

Early Beginnings

Growing up in quite a conservative and religious part of the country, I learned early in life the importance of religion and the need to attend church together as a family. I lived in a small city in southeastern Pennsylvania where there seemed to be churches on many of the downtown corners, and the city itself was surrounded by rich, fertile farmland cultivated by numerous Amish and Mennonite families. These religious sects had emigrated primarily from Germany, were very much Bible believers, and helped maintain the sphere of Christianity over the area.

As far back as I can remember, I attended a small denominational church with my father and mother. We hardly ever missed a week, and we attended both the worship service and Sunday school that followed. My initial recollection as a churchgoing young man was wearing a wool suit and tie, both hot and prickly, and being made to sit through an hour-long service, not knowing exactly what was being said and, of course, being completely bored. And every Sunday we would recite the same prayers and creeds in unison with the congregation and sing three hymns, which to me were in no way uplifting but rather solemn and sad regardless of the tune or tempo. But it did give me a great opportunity to look around at the other churchgoers and observe the internal workings of the church.

While I believe that most of the people in this particular church loved the Lord and followed the Word of God on a daily basis, my attention would often gravitate to those who were not really exemplifying how a true Christian should act, at least not in my young mind. This was not an attempt on my part to be judgmental; it was simply the ability to observe and to distinguish between two different sets of individuals and their respective behaviors. Since I knew many of the churchgoers because they were friends of my family, I noticed that some maintained the same godly attitude and behavior throughout the week, while others appeared to act one way at church but quite differently when away from church. Although I did not yet use or understand the term at the time, there was a great deal of hypocrisy that was evident in these individuals. This only brought about confusion in my young mind as to the overall merits and value of the church. Yet looking back now, I can see that even at an early age, the powers of darkness were actively attempting to poison my mind with indifference and disdain, and thereby lead me away from the truth and my need for eternal salvation.

During those very informative years of my young life, the desire to flee the church only grew in intensity as I got older. I’m sure that the gospel message was preached during my days at church, and I knew the pastor was a man of God, but the gospel message just never seemed to ever permeate my mind and heart. After high school, I started college and essentially dropped out of church life completely. However, God had a plan for my life, and a few years later, He suddenly intervened in a very amazing way—and my personal journey with God quickly began.

It was in late summer of 1971 when my life was suddenly and irreversibly shaken to the core. My mother had previously been diagnosed with cancer, which went into remission for several years but was now back with a vengeance. She was now terminally ill. One afternoon, while sitting in her recliner in the living room and barely able to speak, she motioned for me to carry her into the bedroom. My mother and I had had a tumultuous life together, but in the last year of her life, I saw an abrupt and positive change in her attitude and behavior toward me. She became the loving mother that I had always wanted and needed. That afternoon, as I carried her down the hall to her bedroom, she hugged me as best she could and died in my arms. It was an extremely tragic moment for me, and one that I will always remember.

As was customary in Pennsylvania at that point in time, my father had to call for the doctor to personally visit our home and officially pronounce her death. As my father was on the phone, I walked over to the bedroom window. It was a beautiful, sunny August afternoon. On the outside, everything appeared peaceful, but on the inside of me, everything was anything but peaceful.

I started to reminisce about my life, and I could not understand why the mother who never showed me much love would suddenly begin to love me so much during that final year of her life. Obviously, she knew she was dying, but I didn’t know how she could have changed so drastically without some type of godly intervention. I even recall speaking out silently to the God that I did not even know yet and asking Him about the purpose of my life and my relationship with my mother, and why that relationship had ended so abruptly just when everything had gotten so much better.

It was then that I made a promise to what I then considered the unknown God. I promised Him that I would search for Him and attempt to find Him and know Him—no matter what it took or how long it took—in order to find answers to my many questions. And search I did. For almost three years, I read about every religion possible, and none seemed to appease the longing in my soul. Then, one day, God began to answer my prayers in a very astounding way, and I would ponder the meaning of all that had happened for the next few years.

It happened quite suddenly one Saturday morning as I was walking down the main street of the city in which I lived. There were very few people on the street at 9:00 a.m. since the retail stores were just starting to open for business. I was deep in thought as my eyes fell upon a young man who was approaching me. He was about seventy-five feet from where I was, walking toward me, and he was intently staring directly at me. Our eyes soon met. He was a very handsome young man about my age, twenty-five at the time; he was about my height with blond hair and blue eyes. As we continued to walk toward each other, he kept his eyes riveted on mine, and I became somewhat unnerved since I did not know who he was; nor did I know why he would be staring so intently at me. He just kept walking toward me, closer and closer, and he suddenly stopped directly in front of me. Then, quite unexpectedly, while still looking directly into my eyes, he said the words that changed my life forever. He said in a very strong yet gentle way, God loves you!

While that in itself was remarkable, what moved me the most was the fact that as he expressed God’s love to me with his words, I actually felt the love of God wash over me. It was the most intense feeling that I had ever experienced, almost like waves of love billowing out and over me, and I knew that it was coming from without, and not from within me. But somehow, I instinctively knew that the God who had just spoken through this young man and revealed His love to me was the Christian God, Jehovah.

It took me a second or two to gain my composure. But in that short period of time, the young man had sidestepped and walked around me. I immediately turned, and to my shock and amazement, I saw no one—he was gone. He had completely vanished. He had not walked across the street; there was no doorway within fifty feet through which he could have gone. He had simply and quietly disappeared, and I was left in a very confused and bewildered state of mind. I can honestly say that I was in a real panic!

Throughout my college and graduate school days, I always thought of myself as an intellectual. I surmised that there was an answer to every question and I simply had to seek out the answer. However, this experience threw a curveball at my intellect, as well as my thoughts about God and the spiritual realm. At the very least, this was something I could not tell anyone about lest they think I was mad or a lunatic. However, a few years later, after I had accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, God revealed to me that this young man was actually an angel that He had sent to lead me onward on my path to eventually knowing Him. Perhaps this angel was the one whom God had assigned to constantly watch over me, or perhaps he was simply sent to intervene at that particular point in my life. Either way, it was a moment I will always remember, especially God’s display of love for me.

However, many times when God meets us at our point of need or provides a very important blessing in our lives, Satan and the demonic realm will often come close behind and attempt to steal that blessing away or negate what God has done. And this time was no exception. Shortly thereafter, I found myself in a troubling dream, or what I initially thought was a dream. As I lay on my bed, I felt a heavy weight upon my body; I could literally not move my arms, my legs, my feet, or my head. It was as though an invisible force was pinning me down. I began to panic, and suddenly I woke up, and the dream became reality. I could still not move my body. Suddenly, as a last resort, I cried out to God and asked Him to help me. The moment I called out to God, the weight subsided; it was finally gone. Although I did not understand what had just occurred, I became aware of the existence of other forces in the universe that were diametrically opposed to the goodness of God. In time, God would reveal what had really happened to me that night.

Nevertheless, about two years later, God led me to a church, to a God, and to a Savior—and I have never been the same since. On August 31, 1976, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and my Christian life journey began.

My conversion to Christ came during a time period that is referred to in Christian history as the charismatic movement of the Holy Spirit. In 1936, the evangelist Smith Wigglesworth prophesied about this move of God. He accurately predicted that the mainstream denominational churches in the United States would experience conversions to Christ, widespread revival, and a renewal of the manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in a manner that would surpass the Pentecostal Movement that had previously touched California and other areas in the early twentieth century. In the mid-70s, the fire of the Holy Spirit came down, ignited the hearts of many, and burned brightly up and down the Eastern Seaboard before starting its march across middle America. Millions of souls were saved by the blood of the Lamb; they were water baptized, and baptized in the Holy Spirit, while miracles, healings, and deliverance abounded everywhere. Regardless of age or even one’s maturity in Christ, the supernatural occurred through the prayers and God-ordained actions of many. God was definitely on the move!

And in the midst of this move of the Holy Spirit, God began to change the very foundation of church leadership. In churches where once a single pastor stood in leadership, the Lord began to raise up the fivefold ministry as described in Ephesians 4:11–13:

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors, and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

The collective ministry function of Christ Himself was now embedded in the five-fold ministry, and it was being used to raise up ministry from within the church. No longer was a degree in seminary needed to minister to God’s people; God raised up His own in the body of Christ—those who had both a calling to ministry and a heart for God. And as the fivefold ministry was raised up in the church, apostles and prophets were sent out to start new churches as the Spirit led. The church was rapidly growing, and the fire of salvation was ablaze.

Yet, in the midst of this great movement of God, the kingdom of darkness brought forth a parallel move during the same time—a plan of deception and wickedness to deceive people and lead them away from all that God was doing. Other movements of the Holy Spirit in the past, such as the Pentecostal Movement and the Welsh Revival, had experienced similar parallel and counterfeit moves of Satan to discredit the work of God during those times of revival. It was no different this time, and the enemy attacked both young and old, especially with all types of deception, false doctrines, doubt, and fear.

As an example, I recall that shortly after my conversion to Christ, I moved to a new house, a small two-story colonial. One day, upon arriving home from work, I noticed that the upstairs bathroom window was open on the front of house. I never opened windows at that time of year, so I thought it was strange that it was now open. The next morning, before leaving for work, I made sure that window was closed and locked. That evening I came home to find the window open again. This happened four days in a row, and when I came home the fifth evening, I found that the window remained closed but the trap door at the top of the stairs leading to the attic was partially open. The attic door was higher than I could reach and could only be reached with a ladder; nevertheless, the trap door was open.

That Sunday, I shared my experience with others in our church, some of whom agreed to come over to my house and pray over the situation. We first prayed over the house, then we took authority over the demons who were trying to instill fear in my heart, and we commanded them to leave in the name of Jesus and by the blood of the Lamb. The demons never came back to stir up trouble again, but most importantly, I felt as if I had just passed my first test in spiritual warfare.

In addition to those of us who were young believers, the kingdom of darkness also came against the more mature believers in Christ. Some of the very saints that God had used mightily to heal and deliver now became entrapped in Satan’s plan. Rather than give the glory to God for what He was doing, these believers became prideful, controlling, and manipulative toward their brothers and sisters in Christ; this was even true of some in leadership. And many churches, including ours, saw the infiltration of witches into their congregations to stir up trouble and deny the power of the Holy Spirit.

In the end, God’s power and truth reigned supreme, and many were added to the kingdom of God. Within a few short years, the spiritual fire and anointing died down and the charismatic movement of the Holy Spirit came to an end. God had touched the lives of an innumerable number of men, women, and children throughout the land. However, during that time we learned much. We dramatically saw how a believer in Christ could be deceived by the enemy and led astray. But more importantly, we saw the need for spiritual warfare, and we learned to fight the good fight of faith, which has only escalated since that point in time.

Saved by Grace

Around this same time, the Lord quickly set me straight on my previous exploration of theology. He revealed to me that my previous wandering through other religions while on my search for the unknown God was really a road filled with error and grave deception.

One day, while in prayer, the Lord quite unexpectedly gave me a mental vision that laid out for me the true difference between Christianity and all other religions that have ever been birthed throughout the world. The Lord showed me a very large tree that was full of many branches of all shapes and sizes. The trunk of the tree was perfectly round and thick, and its roots went down deep into the soil of the earth. The Lord revealed that the trunk of the tree represented Old Testament Judaism, while the roots themselves constituted the covenant that God had made with the Jewish people. It was that covenant that connected Judaism to the very heart of God, which was represented by the earthly soil. Just as the soil provides a tree with the necessary nutrients to grow, God is the one who provided everything under the Old Testament covenant that the Jewish people needed in order to live and prosper in the land that He had given to them.

As my gaze continued upward, I saw that at a particular point on the tree, the branches began to spread out and away from the main trunk, while at the same time the main trunk continued to grow skyward. The Lord showed me that this particular point on the trunk denoted Christ’s death on the cross at Calvary and His glorious resurrection from the dead that birthed the new covenant with Jesus Christ. Above that point on the tree, the trunk grew straight and strong, representing New Testament Christianity throughout the present church age.

However, each of the branches that grew out from the trunk at a perpendicular angle represented a unique religion that Satan had birthed over time to lead people away from Christ. I saw Buddhism, Hinduism, Humanism, Islam, and many, many more, all designed to lead mankind away from the truth and into deception and eternal damnation. As Jesus proclaimed in John 14:6, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. There is only one way to heaven and that way only goes through knowing Jesus Christ and making Him Lord of our lives.

The truth here is so very important. Some people seem to live as though they will never die. But the truth is that we will all die at some point in our lives. We do not know the exact time when it will occur, but we will die alone, not along with family or friends. Our relationship with Jesus Christ, or the lack thereof, will dictate where we will go upon death—and death is forever!

While walking out my own path of salvation and freedom from darkness, I found out how great our God is and how unique His plan for salvation really is. First, Christianity is the only religion in the world that I am aware of where salvation is not based upon an individual working out his or her salvation. Rather, it is predicated upon what Jesus did for us on the cross at Calvary, and therefore salvation is given freely by God’s grace and love for us. All we have to do is accept that salvation and make Him our Lord. In other words, one does not have to pray a certain number of times a day or read a specific number of scripture verses each day in order to be saved; one does not even have to belong to a particular Christian church or denomination to receive salvation. Salvation is provided freely by God through Jesus Christ and His infinite grace, mercy, and love.

In the book of Romans, chapter 3:23–28, the apostle Paul states,

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forebearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? By works? Nay, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

Every person who has ever lived on the face of the earth has sinned. That is the foundation upon which Paul speaks, and sin always demands personal accountability and therefore the need for salvation. Yet we have been justified freely by His grace, meaning that we have been shown to be innocent and just through no merit of our own, but by God’s grace and mercy over our lives. By sending forth His son, Jesus Christ, God made Him to be a propitiation (an atonement) for our sins, and if we repent of our sins, receive Him into our hearts as Lord and Savior of our lives, and believe in His finished work at Calvary, our faith in Him through His shed blood provides eternal salvation for us. As the Word proclaims in John 3:3–7, we are then born again in Christ!

Second, Jehovah is a God of love and not to be feared when we proclaim Him as our Lord and we walk with Him. With most other religions, devotees worship their god out of fear, and there is a constant need to appease their god in order to prevent retribution for their sins. I recall a conversation that I had with a business associate many years ago. This gentleman had emigrated from India and was a devout follower of Hinduism. He told me that they had literally thousands of gods that they worshiped, although there were three primary gods for whom temples were built. However, he emphasized the fact that the largest temple was built for the one god whom they all feared the most. Fear is a terrible motive for worship!

But our God truly does love us with an unconditional love. One of the most well-known and beloved scriptures (John 3:16) makes this fact very clear: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

The catalyst for sending His Son to this earth and to lay down His sinless life for us was His immense love for us. Yet Satan and the powers of darkness will often come to believers and make us think and feel that God really does not love us; they want us to believe