Spiritual Warfare Is a Reality in the Believer’s Life

I want to touch on the last request Jabez makes of God in this wonderful prayer, where Jabez says, “If You would deliver me from evil.” That is the last thing Jabez asks of the Lord, isn’t it? “If You would deliver me from evil.”

Evil always pursues the children of God. The Bible counsels us to be sober and watchful because our adversary the devil prowls like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus says, “And deliver us from evil,” or deliver us from the evil one, who is Satan. And again and again we find this idea that we are engaged in spiritual warfare against powers that want to harm our lives, obstruct our path, hinder our progress, and rob us of the blessings God has for us.

The schemes of the devil that the apostle Paul speaks of are aimed precisely at making us stumble and thus obstructing the life of prosperity and blessing that Jabez asks for. I believe that is why Jabez says, “And if You would deliver me from evil,” as though to close the series of requests he has presented to the Lord. It is as though he wants to close the back door, too, so that the devil cannot come in and harm him in any way, and so that he can retain the blessings God will give him.

Spiritual warfare is a reality in the believer’s life. We have to learn to wage spiritual warfare to protect the spiritual life God has given us and His blessings, and to protect the lives of our loved ones, our ministries, our work, and our health. Evil wants to steal our blessings and destroy us.

That is why the Bible also says that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against those hosts of wickedness that move in the heavenly places. Therefore, we must put on the whole armor of God. This dimension of warfare in the Christian life is so important, and unfortunately many Christians do not pay enough attention to the dark dimension of existence. Sometimes they even think it is superstition and that we do not need to talk about it.

Let me tell you that, in my experience dealing with demon-possessed people and with the ministry of deliverance, I have learned that evil is a reality, that we have to cover ourselves with the blood of Christ, learn to counter the devil’s attacks through powerful prayers, learn to rebuke the enemy, and take up the authority God gives us.

So it is important, isn’t it? This dimension of spiritual warfare is a key area of life. That warfare, which we must carry on every day in a very natural way—not obsessively, compulsively, or anxiously, but naturally—is what enables us to guard and protect our children, our property, our health, and our finances.

It is interesting that Jabez says, “So that evil will not hurt me.” The word “hurt” in the original Hebrew refers to pain; that is, “so that it will not cause me pain.” And it is interesting that Jabez is referring to his own name, that is, to his painful past, and is saying, “Lord, if You would keep me from evil, so that the negative nature my name suggests will not come to pass in my life.” It is as though he wants his name to be contradicted.

I would title this series of messages “A Contradiction of His Name,” because what Jabez is asking God to do is to contradict and neutralize what his name implies for his life. And that is why, at the end of his prayer—and we can understand, then, why it is so important that Jabez’s name condemned him to a life of pain—his entire prayer is explicitly designed.

We are not given so many words here, but it is a war against pain, failure, negativity, and evil. And at the end of his prayer Jabez says: so that it will not cause me pain or harm my life. Glory to God that this prayer ends with a very positive Word: God granted him what he asked for, because God honors requests like Jabez’s.

What was Jabez’s life like from then on, I wonder? We can imagine it in detail. Surely it was the very opposite of what he had experienced up to that point, with all the elements of prosperity, protection, and all-encompassing blessing that he had asked of the Lord. May our lives be like that.

If you are a child of God, if you are walking under God’s approval through Christ Jesus, you have every right to make the same requests of the Lord that Jabez made and to receive a positive answer. May God bless you, and until our next series of messages, I bid you all farewell in the love of Christ Jesus. Your friend and pastor, Roberto Miranda. God bless you all.