10.25 Wrestling and What It Means

from

Chapter 10: Victory in Conflict

from War On the Saints
by Jesse Penn-Lewis

Scriptures Referenced in This Section:
          (Follow the Scripture links if you want to study the Scriptures for yourself.)
Rev. 12:11

It is only possible to wrestle against the powers of darkness, by the spirit. It is a spiritual warfare, and can only be understood by the spiritual man, that is, a man who lives by and is governed by his spirit. Evil spirits attack, wrestle with, and resist the believer. Therefore he must fight them, wrestle with them, and resist them. This wrestling is not with soul or body, but with the spirit; for the lesser cannot wrestle with the higher. Body wrestles with body in the physical realm; in the intellectual, soul with soul; and in the spiritual, spirit with spirit. But the powers of darkness attack the threefold nature of man, and through body or soul seek to reach the spirit of man. If the fight is a mental one, the will should be used in decisive action, quietly and steadily. If it is a spirit fight, all the forces of the spirit should be brought to join the mind. If the spirit is pressed down and unable to resist, then there should be a steady mental fight when the mind, as it were, stretches out its hand to lift up the spirit.

The objective of evil spirits is to get the spirit down, and thus render the believer powerless to take the aggressive against them; or else they seek to push the spirit beyond its due poise and measure, into an effervescence which carries the believer beyond the control of his volition and mind, and hence off guard against the subtle foe; or incapable of exercising due balance of speech, action, thought, discrimination, so that under cover they may regain ground, or some advantage for themselves. A GREAT VICTORY MEANS GREAT DANGER, because when the believer is occupied with it, the devil is scheming how to rob him of it. The hour of victory therefore calls for soberness of mind, and watching unto prayer, for a little over-elation may mean its loss and a long sore fight back to full victory.

When the spirit triumphs in the wrestling and gains the victory, there breaks out, as it were, a stream from the spirit, of triumph and resistance against the invisible, but very real foe; but sometimes in the conflict the enemy succeeds in blocking the spirit through his attack on body or soul.

The spirit needs soul and body for expression, hence the enemy's attacks to close the spirit up, so as to render the man unable to act in resistance against him. When this takes place the believer thinks that he is "reserved," because he feels "shut up"; or he has "no voice to refuse"; in audible prayer the "words seem empty," he "feels no effect," it seems a "mockery," but in truth it is that the spirit is closing up through the wrestling enemy gripping, holding and binding it. The believer must now insist on EXPRESSING HIMSELF IN VOICE, until the spirit breaks through into liberty. This is "the word of testimony" which is said, in Rev. 12:11 (top), to be part of the overcoming power over the dragon. The wrestling believer stands on the

1) ground of the Blood of the Lamb, which includes all that the finished work of Calvary means in victory over sin and Satan; he

2) gives the word of his testimony in affirming his attitude to sin and Satan, and the sure, certain victory through Christ; and

3) he lives in the Calvary spirit, with his life surrendered to do the will of God, even unto death.

[10.24] Fighting From Principle
π
[10.26] Prayer and Personal Conflict
10: Victory in Conflict - Table of Contents
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