You’re at war. Are you winning?
Your fight is not with the problems you can see—depression, a broken marriage, addiction, or financial troubles. These are just the symptoms, the true disease—the true battle—is against the devil and his armies. But the devil’s not afraid of mere humans like you and me. So how are we supposed to fight? More importantly, how are we supposed to win?
Warfare is a … win?
Warfare is a guide to fighting the battles that matter. In it, you’ll learn:
- to identify how spiritual warfare is impacting your soul, family, church, and culture.
- who the armies are and what role they play—God, angels, demons, and the devil
- how to use the arsenal of spiritual weapons God provides
- how to claim the victory God has already won.
When we fight the right battles with the right weapons, fear gives way to courage, futility gives way to purpose, and failure gives way to victory.
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In Warfare: Winning the Spiritual Battle, Dr. Tony Evans tackles the complicated topic of spiritual warfare. Dr. Evans spends substantial time fleshing out the history of spiritual warfare, who is involved in the war, and how to fight the war. He writes so that someone with little or no previous knowledge of spiritual warfare can get a comprehensive view of the subject matter.
In the pages of Warfare, I also found good, practical advice on matters such as: recognizing one’s responsibility and power to direct one’s thoughts/doubts, reverence for the Lord God, realizing that people/situations are not the real enemy and who the actual enemy is, the necessity of prayer, the danger of elevating things or people above God, and more.
There was one major idea in Warfare that Dr. Evans did not completely convince me about: that all spiritual warfare happens because Satan wants to steal God’s glory and God is all about keeping His glory. Dr. Evans explains why he believes this, but I was not convinced. The way it was presented made God seem narcissistic. My personal belief is that spiritual warfare happens because God loves humans and wants a relationship with them while the enemy hates humans and works to prevent that relationship with God. Perhaps I am in the wrong, but I just wasn’t convinced in this matter.
It is important to note that Warfare is written from a conservative, evangelical worldview. Those who disagree with said worldview will likely disagree with several things including Dr. Evans’ view of the necessity of submission in marriage.
Personally, I would have liked to have seen Chapter 9 go into further detail about the weapons we can use in this war – commonly known as the Armor of God in Ephesians 6. (Dr. Evans’ daughter, Priscilla Shirer, has a fabulous in-depth study on this particular topic if you want to explore more with practical application)
Lastly, I noted that the copyright page shows that Warfare is a condensed version of Tony Evans’ book, The Battle is the Lord’s, and that part of chapter 1 is excerpted from his book, Kingdom Man. So, just a heads-up that if you have read The Battle is the Lord’s, the material might be very similar.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
What a timely message! Dr. Tony Evans uses a straight forward approach to clearly communicate how to live in our world where the devil continually attacks. Warfare is filled with solid Biblical teaching about victory in spiritual warfare. I was encouraged as I read about God’s role and His control over my trials, hardships, disappointments and also moments of joy. Warfare gave me insight, as well as, a new perspective on facing my trials. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is feeling attacked or defeated. Warfare could be shared with anyone facing difficulties and is perfect for a book discussion/study group. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher. All opinions are my own.