Why I Started Studying Spiritual Warfare, and Why Discipleship Matters in the Battle

This week, I am starting a 10-week article series on the topic of spiritual warfare. I have written on this topic for more than 30 years. To help you understand why this topic matters so much to me—and to show you why discipleship is critical in seeking spiritual victory—I am taking you back to one of the books I co-wrote with my friend, New Testament professor Dr. Bill Cook:ⁱ 

I started studying spiritual warfare when Eph 6:12—“our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens”—came to life for me one day. This truth gripped me at a time when I was struggling to love my dad, who at the time was not a believer. He had been a volatile, angry man as we were growing up, and I both feared him and hated him at the same time. My Christian conversion only compounded my guilt over my feelings toward him; but, apart from discipleship, I did not know how to overcome these feelings. What Ephesians 6:12 did was show me that my dad was not my enemy; rather, Satan and his forces were.  

Thus, my journey into studying spiritual warfare began with an intensely personal focus. I wanted freedom from my wrong feelings toward my dad. I no longer wanted to face the ongoing conviction and guilt I experienced because I had not overcome these feelings as a believer. When I read books challenging me to recognize particular demons that might have been influencing my life (such as what others identified as demons of hatred or demons of bitterness), it didn’t take long for me to begin looking for demonic forces everywhere. Identifying the demons rather than repenting over my sin wrongly became my focus.  

I desperately needed someone to correct and teach me along the way, but that had never been my pattern before that point. For example, as a young male who grew up in a home filled with pornography, I regularly faced that temptation alone as a teenager even after I became a believer. God eventually graciously gave me victory, but in no way was I going to let anyone know my secret in my early years as a believer. I just walked alone.  

When I later became a pastor, I faced a different struggle of trying to shepherd a people when I had never been discipled myself. I had no one to invest in me and show me “the ropes” of ministry, and I made mistake after mistake. I didn’t know how to follow Christ fully, nor did I know how to lead others in that direction. Indeed, the fact that God allowed me to stay in ministry at all is only evidence of his grace. 

Even later after I married my wife, I had never seen personally how a husband loves his wife as Christ loves the church (Eph 5:21). I selfishly protected my independence and fought my responsibility to give myself fully to become one with my spouse. I loved Pam the best I could, but I just did not know what a godly husband looked like. I was already a pastor then, so I again refrained from asking anyone to guide me. In my personal life, my ministry, and my marriage, I was fighting alone and losing alone far too often. I was neither the disciple nor the disciple maker I should have been.  

Much of that changed when I met Robert Coleman, author of the best-selling book The Master Plan of Evangelism, when I was a young seminary professor. Dr. Coleman, who for more than sixty years has invested in others, challenged me to spend the rest of my life investing in younger believers. I took that challenge to heart—but it did not take me long to realize I needed someone to mentor me if I were going to mentor others.  

God first showed me that He had indeed already given me men who had shown me real faith, though I wasn’t always watching for it. They had pointed me to Christ by the way they imitated Him. I will always be grateful for men such as Sonney, Red, Ed, Ronnie, Mike, Dave, Ralph, and so many others who modeled victory in Christ for me, even when they faced tough times. I just wish I had leaned more on them as a young pastor.  

Now, I think often about five men who have been my pastoral heroes over the last decades. Two are now with the Lord, but the remaining three (in their 90s, 80s, and 70s, respectively) still passionately and faithfully follow the Lord. They are the most prayerful, Word-saturated, evangelistic, mission-minded, Spirit-filled, family-loving, God-focused men I have ever met in my life. Their trust in God is unwavering, and their obedience is complete—yet they ooze humility in everything they are and do. They show me daily victory in the battle.  

These relationships have changed my daily walk with God. They have not only reminded me that I must not face the enemy alone, but they have also shown me God’s grace in providing others to walk with me. I have learned that victory in spiritual warfare is sweetest when others faithfully run the race with us—and even defeat is less consuming when others quickly pick us up and challenge us to walk again.  

As we begin this article series together, who is walking with you today? I challenge you to ask God today to give you a discipleship mentor if you don’t already have one. Don’t fight the battle by yourself.   

ⁱ Much of this material is found in William F. Cook III, and Chuck Lawless, Victory over the Enemy (pp. 233-234). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.