Spiritual Warfare

Welcome to God First with Brian C. Thomas, a program committed to encouraging you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, let's join Brian C. Thomas for today's message.

I'm delighted that you are joining me today as we're looking at a topic on spiritual warfare. I have with me today by phone my good friend Todd Hampson, who is a best selling author, speaker, illustrator, and animation producer. Todd has a burden to reach the next generation with the gospel through the convincing proofs of Bible prophecy and apologetics, the very things that led to his salvation as a teenager.

In 2003, Todd founded Timbuktoons, an award-winning animation company that develops and produces cartoons for well-known children's ministry resource providers, global mission organizations, and Christian entertainment companies and curriculum developers. He is a best-selling author of The Non-Prophet's Guide to the End Times, The Non-Prophet's Guide to the Book of Revelation that has opened up the world to Bible prophecy and eschatology to a new generation of truth seekers. And so today I am talking to Todd. We're going to continue to look at his series on The Non-Prophet's Guide, and we're looking at spiritual warfare. So, Todd, I want to thank you for coming on.

And what inspired you to write this book? Because life is great right now. Everything is so good in the world, so we don't need anything about spiritual warfare, right?

Yeah, exactly. First of all, man, it's great to be on the show, Brian. I love joining you. You're a great friend, and just can't wait to see what this radio show does.

Man, I'm really excited for you. And yeah, this kind of fell in line. It's funny, all three books are the first books, End Times, Revelation, and Spiritual Warfare.

God kind of laid on my heart to pick those topics long before, well, it takes about two years to write and then produce and release a book. So it's wild how it timed out. I definitely saw that there was spiritual warfare going on in the world, ramping up like never before. And 2020, we just see it on steroids. Yeah, yeah.

It's amazing. I look at what God is doing with you and your ministry, your series you have, your Non-Prophet's Guide to the End Times, the Book of Revelation. And it definitely looks as though God has just been guiding you and preparing you for the times that we are living in. You know, He, of course, has all knowledge and He knows and sees all things. And He's just prepared you for things that are coming down the road. And you and I were just talking off air is how it looks like time is winding down, like there's not a lot of time left for the return of Christ.

You know, we don't make predictions. But when we look at what is taking place in the world, there is just so much unrest. We look at what is happening with our nation. You know, the tension between the races, politics, everything just blows up into a debate, an argument, no matter what direction you go. And unfortunately, you're seeing a lot in churches today right now as we were going through this COVID-19 pandemic. And you see a lot of tension between churches as to whether to gather and whether or not to gather.

There is just so much going on. And we know that the enemy is so in discord. He is trying to get people to be at one another. And the Bible says that in the last days before the return of Christ, that the love of many would grow cold. So so does that tie in a lot to to what you are are going for in writing this book here on spiritual warfare?

It really does. You know, the enemy is very crafty and we'll get into that here in a little bit. But he knows how to divide. Of course, he hates God's church. He hates God's chosen people, the Jewish people. So anything he can do to come against the church and the Jewish people, he's going to do.

And any time he can cause division in a country or in a church. You know, when you look when you carefully look at the division, it's of course, there's some racial tension. But really, when you dig into it, it's spiritual warfare big time behind the scenes. There's fascists who are really trying to take down our country. And when you when you really dig into the background and the philosophies of the movements that are behind some of this, it really is overt, straight up spiritual warfare.

If you take the time to look. Yeah, absolutely. I did a show a few weeks ago concerning this. This movement is happening right now, as you stated, with the Black Lives Matter movement. And on the surface, they give us this statement of making it is like, well, this this this civil rights movement or civil rights organization. But when you dig deeper into it, you know, we find that there's there's far from it. Yes.

Far from it. I mean, there is I mean, deep witchcraft that has taken place. And so Satan, he he is the one who's who's the deceiver. You know, he comes as an angel of light, but he is nothing but a liar. The Bible says he's the father of lies.

He's been a liar from the beginning and he is out to deceive and divide. And so that is why we as the church, we should be that salt and light. We want to shine in this world of darkness to get people to understand what the devil, the enemy is trying to do to divide us. So so again, so as you are coming to you sit down to to come up with this project on spiritual warfare, what are you thinking as far as like your main goal? What is it that you are looking to get through to the readers concerning spiritual warfare? How we need to approach this topic?

That's a great question. And, you know, looking at the Times, I see I saw the need. And then I also saw a need for a systematic but a practical guide to spiritual warfare, because there's a lot of confusion.

It is kind of a complex topic. And of course, anytime pop culture, you know, influences people's views, you have, you know, all kinds of new agey, angel type stuff that influences what people think about spiritual warfare. So people really want to know what's going on behind the scenes biblically. Even Christians don't fully understand it a lot of times because it's, you know, you really got to study systematically from Genesis to Revelation. So really, I wanted to come up with a practical, understandable guide similar to the Book of Revelation and the End Times book with a nonprofit's guide, trying to take a complex topic, make it understandable and easy to digest and pretty a pretty quick read. And also, I wanted to show how spiritual warfare ties in with the end times and kind of sheds light on a lot of the things that we're seeing right now. OK, great.

Yeah. And it's an awesome book, folks. And we'll we'll tell you at the end of the program how you can get a copy of this book, The Nonprofit's Guide to Spiritual Warfare. So in section one, Todd, you state section one, which is understanding the battle, you explain angels and fallen angels. So can you talk to us a little bit today about angels and fallen angels?

Yeah, sure thing. In the book, I use the I open that that first chapter in that section kind of talking about if people have used different software packages, you know, some some text packages have reveal codes that you can turn on where you you can see symbols for where the returns are and all the all the kind of hidden stuff behind the scenes or like I use a lot of graphic arts and animation tools. And there's different guides and stuff you can turn on that are that are there all the time.

But you don't see them unless you look for them or unless you turn that on. So I really treat that section like that, like trying to show people what we as we go through our lives and as we see world events, they're not just randomly happening. Everything that happens is connected to something in the unseen realm.

And I don't mean that in a goofy, new agey way. But what I'm saying is there's a whole nother battle going on behind the scenes that we're caught in the middle of that most people don't even realize. And Satan either shows up overtly, you know, like when you talk to missionaries on the field who are reaching new people groups, a lot of times they'll face overt, in your face, spiritual warfare. But here in America and in the West where we're, you know, kind of captivated by comfort and ease and pleasure, you know, we got relatively good lives in the West and Satan kind of tricks us covertly. He uses other other methods. But as you mentioned, in lawless times that that covert is starting to become overt. So we're seeing more of it. But also a lot of people don't realize there's kind of a whole legal system or like a heavenly court and different ranks of angels and demons that are that exist in the unseen realm.

And I kind of unpack that, too. Like, why didn't Jesus just immediately destroy Satan when he rebelled? And how is it that demons, you know, can influence things on Earth? And why is it that Satan kind of he's called the prince of the power of the air and the ruler of this age? Why is he given dominion over the Earth, so to speak, during this time while we await the Lord's return? So I address those questions and kind of clarify, put it all in kind of a systematic package that hopefully makes sense for folks.

I mean, it's a great section. And because when we when we stop and think about things from a spiritual standpoint and we think about the good versus evil, we see we can really only see in our minds. It seems that we only think of the fallen angels, that is the demonic world, Satan and his allegiance as having always been evil. It's hard to imagine the fact that they were at one time on God's side. Satan, Lucifer, he was the one of the highest ranking in the kingdom of God in heaven. And then he had others who were there as well.

But when he decided to rebel against God, then he was kicked out of heaven. And then a third of the angels fell with him and became demons. And it's so important that we understand the demonic warfare. And I've talked with people before and I said, if we could see what is taking place around us in the spiritual realm, a lot of us could not handle it.

You know, we would probably pass out in all of what is taking place. And so there's definitely a spiritual battle that is going on all around us. Yeah, and I'm glad you highlighted that, Brian. Those are the basics that everyone should know that one third, we don't know the full number, but it's the Bible calls it myriads upon myriads. It's millions and millions of angels. And whatever that number is, Satan convinced a third of them to rebel with him. So he was crafty enough to convince a third of the angels that they could actually beat God and take the throne. And so they still exist.

So you're absolutely right. That's one thing people need to keep in mind is that there's demonic activity going on and there's also angelic activity going on behind the scenes. There are a few verses that hint at the fact that it says that angels were created to minister to those who would receive salvation. So in some sense, we have we do have guardian angels. I don't know if it's a man to man or zone defense, but but they do minister to us. And you see glimpses of that, like when Daniel prayed and the angel came to him and said, hey, the moment you began to pray, I was dispatched to come to you.

But but another another demon with withstood me for 21 days. So that those were high ranking angels and demons, because what Daniel was dealing with was a pretty big deal with the entire Jewish history. But we also see other other verses that hint at the fact that that angels are involved in our lives behind the scenes. And we like you said, we won't know till till we get into heaven. I believe I believe we'll see some things that will make a lot of sense on why certain things happen in our lives and how we were protected and how we were attacked at different times.

Yeah, absolutely. So you explain the afterlife in Section two of the book. What is the afterlife?

That was another concept that I wanted to really systematically show, because it is kind of confusing if you if you just read bits and pieces, it'll it can confuse people. For example, in the Old Testament, like David said, when his son with Bathsheba died, he said, I will go to him, but he can't come to me. And he was like, I'll go to him to the grave to Sheol. And they keep throughout the Old Testament, they keep talking about the afterlife being down below the earth. You know, but then, of course, when we get to the New Testament, heaven is as always depicted as above. And we also read about some other strange things, you know, in the Old Testament regarding Sheol or or hell. And it's the place of torment.

Then there's a place of paradise. And even in the New Testament, when Jesus shares the story of the rich man, the Lazarus, which I don't believe that's a parable. I believe that's a literal story that he was sharing because he didn't say it was a parable. But he talks about a great gulf or a big gap between paradise and hell. And then we also learn about the abyss, which could also be the great gulf and also a separate kind of holding area for particularly evil demons called Tartarus.

So when you read the Old Testament, it seems kind of complex until you study it systematically and you see it all together. And then when you get to, you know, what was going on with Jesus in the three days that he was in the grave. There's a few verses, one in Peter and a couple other places that talk about Jesus went down to hell and what he did there. And essentially what happened is when we put all the pieces together, simply what happens is in the Old Testament, the heaven was in a place called paradise. It was kind of a holding cell or it was also called Abraham's bosom.

But it was kind of one one section across from the place of torment. Well, at the cross, part of what Jesus won there was being able to move that paradise to heaven. So now all those Old Testament saints who were in Abraham's bosom or paradise are now moved to heaven. And that's also where, you know, so now when we die, we go straight to heaven. So I unpack all of that in that section because people are kind of confused by that or some critics even try to say, oh, the Bible's just like any other ancient book when it talks about the afterlife.

So I wanted to really address that from a apologetics and systematic way that, no, it's a very clear order of events about how that happened and why that had to happen. If you were just now joining us, you are tuned into the God first program I have with me, Todd Hampson, the author of the nonprofit's guide to spiritual warfare. And we're looking at what is going on in the world today, how this book is so timely and applies to what is taking place in our world. So we're going to take a short break, but please don't go away. We're going to come back and talk more with Todd concerning spiritual warfare in the last days.

Stay tuned. You are listening to the God first program. You are listening to Brian C. Thomas on God first. For more of Brian's teachings, please visit God first dot org to browse our extensive library of material. There you will find devotionals, blogs, articles and audio messages available as MP3 downloads on various topics such as salvation, Bible prophecy, marriage and the significance of Lesson Israel.

Just to name a few. You can also sign up for our monthly newsletter and visit our Web store. So please visit us at God first dot org. Now, let's return to the conclusion of today's message. Welcome back to the God first program. My name is Brian Thomas, and I am being joined today by Todd Hampson looking at spiritual warfare. If you would like to hear this message again, you can download it at our Web site. God first dot org.

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North Carolina two seven five four five. All right, Todd. So you were talking before the break about the afterlife. And so there is an afterlife for us when we die. Our bodies go to the grave, but our soul and spirit lives on. And a day is coming in which our soul and spirit is going to be rejoined, reunited with our physical bodies. And that is something that I know growing up when I was in church, I did not hear that.

I thought for us who are believers in Jesus Christ, we go to heaven when we die. And that is where we're going to be in eternity, floating on clouds and playing a harp and in this disembodied spirit. But that is really not what the Bible says, right? Correct.

Exactly. Right now, it says, absent from the body is present with the Lord. And it's you know, we know who we are in that in that, you know, we're not disembodied spirits, like you said. But we do await the rapture and the resurrection when our glorified spirit is merged with our glorified body. So in other words, we have nothing but layers of awesomeness to look forward to when it comes to our future with the Lord. And like you said, far from being boring, heaven is going to be mind blowing. It's going to be more exciting, more thrilling beyond anything we've ever experienced here on earth that we can't even imagine it. It's going to be amazing. Yeah, man, I can't wait. I mean, all the things you look at, the turmoil that is going on in the world today, the suffering and the pain and just thinking how great heaven is going to be.

We cannot imagine it. We are just going to be mind blown when we get there. Now, you also mentioned in the book, you stated so well that we are to put on the body armor of righteousness. So can you speak to us about how do we put on the body armor of righteousness when it comes to spiritual warfare? Yeah, in that section, basically the whole purpose of the going through the Old Testament history systematically was to set up.

OK, now how do we do the practical stuff? How do we actually put on the full armor of God that Paul talks about in Ephesians chapter six? And for the body armor, that's a great one to pull out and talk about, because in one sense, each of the pieces of armor depend on God. And in another sense, they depend on us to activate them, to put them on to live out the faith that we've been given. And what's interesting, in particular with the body armor, well, two things. One, it fits into the belt of truth.

So truth is the foundation of everything, us being truthful, but also God's truth. And then also the body armor. It's called the body armor of God's righteousness. And I point that out because, yes, we have to work and take action.

We're involved in putting on our armor. But really, at the end of the day, it's God's righteousness. We can't earn it. We can't pay for it.

He's already done it all. It's all us tapping into his righteousness. But I do believe we put the body armor on by thinking about it, praying through it.

Sometimes I'll even envision myself putting it on as I'm praying through it, you know, as a way to really solidify it in my mind. But the bottom line is what it should remind us to do is to live righteously. You know, if there's an area of sin or temptation that draws us away, well, you know what?

We need to put on the body armor. And by putting distance between us and that sin, if somebody is an alcoholic, they don't need to be working at a bar. You know, if somebody struggles with their eyes and lust, well, you need to have accountability.

You need to make sure you don't go to the websites that used to trip you up or go to the places that used to trip you up. You need accountability. You need community. So in my opinion, putting on the body armor is a daily decision of living righteously, of putting distance between us and temptation and praying and inviting God into our lives as we live righteously that day.

Yeah. And I'm glad you mentioned prayer also. And having known you for a number of years, you are definitely someone who believes in prayer. You go straight to prayer. And there are so many today that really don't tap into prayer like we should, I think. And even with churches, the power of inaccessory prayer, how we can come together and intercede on behalf of one another. And that is so important that as we put on this body armor of righteousness that we pray and we look to our Lord because there's so much power in prayer. Amen. That's right. That's how we access all of it.

And when I say access all of it, I don't mean in some kind of mystical way. But I mean, and we don't fully understand prayer, but somehow prayer moves God. Somehow prayer changes us. It aligns us more with God's will, but it also moves the hand of God. And it's something that he wants us to do that. It's an amazing privilege that we have as believers. Yeah, absolutely.

All right. So in Section four, you speak on spiritual warfare in the end times. You and I are both guys who are very heavy on eschatology. God has called us into that area of ministry where we always have an eye on what is taking place in the world and what the Bible says concerning the end times. So let's talk about what is it that you are getting through to the readers concerning spiritual warfare in the end times?

Yeah. And that was kind of the secondary thing that the purpose of the rest of the book is to was to show the history of spiritual warfare, to show that from from Genesis to Revelation, it's been going on and how it all connects and to shed some light on the things that you and I talk about at the opening of your show. Just the division, the lawlessness, the overt demonic activity, all that stuff. You know, how does spiritual warfare play into that and how does spiritual warfare and eschatology tie in together?

I believe it ties in together in our day more than ever before. I mean, of course, when you when you study scripture, you see, you know, seasons where there's a lot of demonic activity during the first coming of Christ. There was a lot of demonic activity, you know, and other other times with scripture kind of peels back that layer and lets us see. But the closer we get to the return of the Lord, we should see the stage being set for the conditions of the return of the Lord.

And that's exactly what we're seeing. So we see tension building in the areas of globalism, lawlessness and all the other things we just mentioned. All of those are both spiritual warfare components and end times conditions. And I point out in the book that the first right now, we don't we don't see a lot of supernatural events happening every day. But soon the rapture is coming. And with with the rapture, that is going to be the biggest supernatural event, probably since creation.

I mean, even in my opinion, probably bigger, bigger than the exodus, bigger than a lot of the things that happened during the first coming of Christ. The rapture, when when millions of Christians are suddenly taken from the earth, that's a special ops snatch and grab by the by the Lord. It's a spiritual warfare event.

It's a beautiful event for us. But it really is at its heart a spiritual warfare event. He's coming into enemy territory to snatch us out before judgment falls. And also when that happened, the church with the Holy Spirit who resides in each believer is in one instant taken out of the world. So in one instant, the salt and light that is currently restraining evil, believe it or not, evil would be much worse right now without the church, will be taken out in an instant. And there's a tidal wave of evil that we can see pushing in on us right now that is going to flood the world as soon as the rapture occurs.

Yeah. And as I look at things happening in the world today, as I think about spiritual warfare, one of the things, as you stated, the spirit of lawlessness. I see that now because there is a spirit that is very, very apparent in our society that people want to be able to break the law without consequences. And you can tell from looking at these people. And I think also about Romans chapter one, where he says in the scriptures, the Bible, God says he's going to turn them over to a depraved mind or to a debased mind. And you can tell that people have been turned over.

And it's not because God wants them that way, but it's because of the fact that when they embrace sin and they refuse to turn to him, he eventually gives them over to the sin that they desire. And they come to a point where they cannot discern right and wrong anymore. And when I see people say and defund the police and that makes no logical sense at all. Get rid of the police. But people that have been turned over to a depraved mind, a debased mind, they cannot reason anymore on what is right and what is wrong. So they're saying, get rid of the police.

It makes no logical sense. It is spiritual warfare. We are living in the days in which the Bible says that that spirit of lawlessness and the things that will happen before the Lord's return. And you and I both, we believe we're in that season.

We don't make predictions, but we believe that the time is very near. So, Todd, in the last minute, can you just take a minute to share with our listeners how they can get a copy of your book? Get in contact with you to learn more about your ministry and also for those out there who have not yet accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Give a word to those people as to how they can come to know him and receive eternal life.

Absolutely. Let me address that first, because I do believe that now more than ever, Christians need to be preaching the gospel and pointing people to the Lord. Even though it doesn't seem like a lot of people are, this is a time when God is shaking the world and getting people's attention to either turn to him or choose to turn away from him. So if that's you, if you are sensing the Lord drawing you at this moment, if you've never received the Lord, if you've believed a lie that you've got to give up stuff that is, give up fun stuff and it's going to be a boring Christian life, let me tell you, that is the biggest lie of the enemy. Whatever you give up for him, he's going to replace with something much better. I can attest to that.

Brian can attest to that. But the bottom line is, come as you are, whatever sins, whatever you got, come as you are. The Lord will save you, then work on you from the inside out.

Don't worry about trying to clean yourself up. If the Lord has drawn you right now, put your faith and trust in Christ. Just pray, Lord, I believe that you died for my sins. I believe that my sins are separating me from you. I invite you in. I pray, God, that you would just, I receive you as my savior and I want you to be my savior.

That's as simple as it gets. And contact Brian for more info. I know time's short, so we've got to move on. But if that's you, please contact Brian. He'll be glad to walk through that with you. You can find out about my books at pretty much any online outlet, amazonchristianbook.com. And if you want to check out my ministry, just go to toddhampson.com.

All right. Well, Todd, I want to thank you so much for joining us today. This is certainly a blessing. And to our listeners, I guarantee you, if you've never read any of Todd's books, pick it up.

You will not be disappointed. It will be a great blessing to you. So, Todd, thank you and many blessings to you and your ministry. Likewise, man. It's great to be here with you. And I look forward to see what the Lord does with your ministry in the future. All right.

Thank you. And to our listeners, the time is near. Keep looking to the Lord. Don't get discouraged. Jesus Christ said, When you see all these things begin to happen, look up for your redemption draws near.

Please come back and join us next week. Until then, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel. And to the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever. You've been listening to the Bible teacher Brian C. Thomas, founder and president of God First. Brian and God first reserve all copyright protection under applicable law. Our copyright policy is available at our Web site, God first dot org. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God.