Spiritual Readiness
If you know the enemy, [the operational environment], and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Sun Tzu's quote regarding physical battles applies equally to spiritual battles. Unfortunately, many western churches no longer understand their spiritual enemy, adequate depths of spiritual dimensions, or the full mission of the Church. Falling short in these understandings, these churches succumb in many battles.
In 62 A.D., Paul of Tarsus described the spiritual battle this way:
Your hand-to-hand combat is not with human beings, but with the highest [spiritual] principalities and authorities operating in rebellion under the heavenly realms. For they are a powerful class of demon-gods and evil spirits that hold this dark world in bondage.
King David, a man after God's own heart who ruled Israel around 1,000 B.C., recorded these instructions:
Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust...”
You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.
.- Psalm 91
King David recorded further instructions:
Do not put your trust in princes,
in human beings, who cannot save.
Northern Afghanistan, 2016