The Battle

St Paul tells us that we are really engaged in a cosmic battle that is centred in humanity: “It is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the Sovereignties and the Powers who originate the darkness in this world, the spiritual army of evil in the heavens” (Ephesians 6: 12).

The great cosmic war of salvation was won by Christ on Calvary. Now we, his people, are in a process of reclamation. When a war is won, there are still many skirmishes to be fought to root out a stubborn enemy from positions where they are dug in. Satan and his forces will not accept defeat lightly. They delude themselves into thinking that they are the real power.

Hebrews 2: 15 tells us that Satan held humanity in slavery because of the “fear of death”. The fear of death means that deep down dread that I can be destroyed - I can lose my life and everything that I have and am; my very self may disappear. To avoid that most people will accept any compromise. It is the compromises that are the sins. The purity of heart which enables a person to come to true integration is forever postponed. Evil becomes normalised and hope is nothing more than the desire to survive. The blessed purity of heart which enables us to see God is impeded.

Where is Satan holding humanity in slavery? Wherever this fear of death is operative - I am tired or confused or bored. Deep down, underneath all this is the lurking sensation of being irrelevant, and fear of nothingness. In that state of insecurity, I can be drawn into the grip of a powerful temptation, and I frequently give in to it. In consequence I loathe myself and feel oppressed. My spark of energy is depleted and I know it; the joy that comes from fulfilling one’s obligations is lacking. This is the slavery that the writer of Hebrews is talking about. It is an inability to be free.

The nature of temptation

Here we need to open the eyes of our spirits. This weakness that we call temptation arises from a wound in our own selves, but it is being aggravated by the subtle whispering of the Father of Lies. In order to weaken us, an enemy will strike us where we are weakest or wounded. That is his surest way of disabling us. In the depths of our wounded spirits, we hear clearly the whispering of the Father of Lies.

Oh, it is so subtle. We even believe that we have vacuum-sealed minds where we alone are thinking these thoughts, as though telepathy cannot exist. Satan even tries to trick us into  believing that  he does not exist. That convinces us that we are thinking these thoughts on our own, whereas we are, in fact, open to a constant barrage of distortion by which he keeps us in that slavery.

We can see this phenomenon working openly when a false narrative is circulated and believed on social media with crazy results. We do not see it clearly when we are being persuaded to sin in the quiet of our minds. Only the mind that is set firmly in Christ can properly withstand this whirl of fakeness.

The true functioning of intercession

This brings us to the true functioning of intercession. It is not to battle with Satan directly. He would like that, because he is the ultimate narcissist. If we set out to battle Satan, we will be making the mistake of fighting on his ground. It is a law of sanity that you should never step onto the ground of a person who is mad, because it is unreal; you have to call them onto the ground of sanity in order to bring them back to reality.

The true functioning of intercession is to stand firmly in Christ. With him our minds and hearts are drawn to the Father. There we seek his face which is the face of love. When we pray, the brokenness of humanity surrounds us in hidden and shadowy ways, it may take the form of a meteor shower of distractions; it may be profound emptiness, or uncomfortable purposelessness. The key is to not give up. We stand in Christ; we keep standing up as Jesus did at the scourging at the pillar. That is the spiritual sacrifice we offer. It can be a harsh ordeal.

This dedicated standing in Christ, seeking the face of the Father is what dislodges Satan. It enables little chinks of light to penetrate the souls of brothers and sisters as yet unknown to us, so that their liberation progresses. That is intercession.

It is inexorably clearing out the putrid crust that has attached itself to our beautiful humanity, humanity that is created in the image and likeness of God.

“May he give you the power for your inner self to grow strong”  (Ephesians 3: 16)

The amazing thing is that those who pray like this, although bloodied by the strain and pain of it, grow strong in the strength of the Holy Spirit. They become rocks of truth and love enabled to fulfil the purposes of God in extraordinary ways. I am speaking of ordinary people here, not just the outstanding Saints. But they are saints, none-the-less. We experience increasingly what St Paul describes when he proclaims “I live now, not I, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2: 20).

It is written of Jacob that he spent the night wrestling with God before he returned to enter into his inherited title as the heir to the promise given to Abraham and Isaac. He was fighting not against God but with God for his future descendants who would be the focus of the salvation of the world. As morning came, God gave Jacob and his descendants a new name, Israel, meaning someone that has the power to deal with God.  The perfect rightness which God insists that humanity achieve is released through the struggles of the Jacob and his children.

But don’t forget that Jacob had a limp from then on. While he and his descendants had been given access to the power to free humanity, which would mature in Jesus and those who believe in him, Jacob was painfully reminded that he himself was part of the broken humanity that he was called to free. It is a royal service not a privileged entitlement.