Touré Roberts - The 4 Levels of Spiritual Warfare - Part 2

As I mentioned last week, it’s easier to preach some of the lighter aspects of the faith, such as faith itself. Faith is engaging to teach and to preach. Have faith! Believe in God; believe in yourself. You can do all things through Christ. You know, talking about mountains and slaying Goliaths—those are the real easy and more appealing topics to preach about. However, there are deeper matters, and I said it last week and I’ll say it again: when it comes to spiritual warfare, ignorance is not bliss. It’s not bliss, and it’s not okay to be ignorant because, in this context, if you are ignorant, you will face loss. As I mentioned last week, the less you know, the more you are exploited. Paul often said, «I would not that you be ignorant.» He mentioned this several times in his letters, always trying to teach. He was a great teacher and a great edifier, consistently saying, «Listen, you can’t be ignorant! I don’t want you to be ignorant because ignorance isn’t bliss. My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.»

So, as it relates to spiritual warfare, we went over and I’m just going to recap a little bit. We looked at 2 Corinthians chapter 3, where Paul talks about the weapons of our warfare, and he makes it clear that we are in a war. We are in a battle, and when you are in a war, you carry yourself differently. The way you walk in a country that is not in war versus how you walk in a country that is in war are two different experiences.

I remember when I went to Israel for the first time, probably about 10 or 11 years ago. I went there, and it was a beautiful country with beautiful people from all different ethnicities. It was just an amazing melting pot of cultures. When I was in Jerusalem, I saw people from Africa, people from Asia, and, of course, from the Middle East—it was just amazing. However, one interesting observation was the driver I had. I stayed in Jerusalem, and he was warm, kind, very present, and attentive. But he had a look in his eye, and as I studied that look during the week I was with him, I realized it was the look of someone prepared for anything that could happen at any moment. They had been through so much; this is, after all, a region of great conflict. He was equipped—still smiling, still cool—didn’t look paranoid. He had found a way to be himself, yet you could see in his eyes he was ready for anything to happen in an instant.

That’s how we have to be spiritually. We must be people who live our lives fully aware. I’m not talking about walking around wondering, «Is that a demon?» I’m not suggesting being weird because, sometimes, people blame everything on demons. No, sometimes it’s just laziness; it’s not a demon. We don’t blame everything on the devil. So, we need to be people who know how to function in this world without being strange while still understanding there is a spiritual realm where spiritual warfare occurs. We have to learn to keep one hand in the world and our spirit in the spiritual realm because you never know when you’ll have to confront something.

There will be moments when I’m in a conversation with someone, and they might say, «What was that?» You can just sense that a spiritual element is present. Oh God, I want to teach today, but let me explain it a bit more. We’re having a dialogue, but then you start feeling shifts around the conversation, and you realize we’re not just discussing surface-level matters; this is something deeper, and it’s pulling at you. You may not need to react radically; sometimes, merely perceiving it is enough. There will be other times when you must confront it directly, and we will see examples of this as our discussion progresses today.

Listen, people agree on negativity; you don’t have to be a Christian or a believer; anyone can recognize something negative. However, as we talked about last week, negativity has a source. Most of the time, you’re not negative towards others; rather, negativity is often inwardly focused—99.9% of the time. This proves that negativity, or evil, has an origin. When did you start being against yourself? I believe the origin of all evil is our enemy, Satan—the devil, the father of lies.