On Spiritual Warfare: Bowing Down in Prayerful Obedience

Last updated on: September 10, 2023 at 11:41 am by Paul Louis Metzger

0 Comments

On Spiritual Warfare: Bowing Down in Prayerful Obedience 2023-09-10T11:41:06-07:00 Paul Louis Metzger

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Ilya Repin, Temptation of Christ, 19th or early 20th century; Source/Photographer: Bukowskis; Wikimedia {{PD-US–expired}}

I was role-playing with my six-year-old granddaughter Jaylah the other day. She had her tired, old grandpa on his hands and knees as she stood confidently before me eye to eye. I was an alligator, and she was a fairy princess. At one point, she paused to reflect on what she would say next. She pondered and then proclaimed: “What’s that word again? Oh yeah, bow down to me!” What is a good-natured and tired alligator like me to do when a fairy princess as cute as Jaylah utters a command? All I could do was comply with her order. How I wish I were that compliant with God! But all too often, total surrender and obedience are hard to come by. And yet, they are essential as I seek to navigate crocodile-infested waters of spiritual warfare in my daily life. This post is about the vital importance of bowing down to God in prayerful obedience in spiritual warfare.

You may ask why I transitioned quickly from alligators to crocodiles in discussing spiritual warfare? It’s because I was playing the part of an alligator and wish to appear more innocent. One report I read indicates that crocodiles are more aggressive and dangerous than their reptile cousins. Here’s that report of the comparison: “To most people, alligators vs crocodiles look similar. While they do share many of the same features, they couldn’t be any more different to a trained professional. Typically, crocodiles are more aggressive than alligators, which makes crocodiles more dangerous than alligators. Alligators are opportunistic feeders, meaning that they’re not likely to chase you down unless they’re provoked. However, that certainly doesn’t mean that you should swim with them. Caution and common sense should be exercised at all times near and around both alligators and crocodiles on an Everglades excursion.”

Similarly, we should make use of caution and common sense when dealing with the spiritual equivalent of a crocodile. In spiritual warfare, I find that demonic forces chase me down even when unprovoked, like crocodiles. Even so, they are still opportunistic, like alligators. Now whether one believes in literal demons or think of the demonic as a literary equivalent for how humans often operate in devilish ways (as C.S. Lewis portrays them in his Screwtape Letters), or as structural forces in society that take on a destructive, personified life of their own (reminiscent of Walter Wink’s portrayal in his works on the principalities and powers), this post has merit.

The Bible compares the Devil to a serpent and dragon (Revelation 12:9, 20:2), as well as to a lion (1 Peter 5:8), but never to a crocodile. Please be assured that I am not trying to convey the idea that the crocodile or any of these other creatures has any inherent resemblance to the demonic. After all, Jesus encourages his disciples to be shrewd as serpents in addition to being innocent as doves! (Matthew 10:16) Perhaps we should even be like crocodiles in some manner! Whether any of them have soft hearts, they sure have thick or tough skin, I am told, and we should have both!

The best way to deal with crocodiles is to stay far away and never feed them! As my granddaughter, the fairy princess, and I like to say in unison, “See you later Alligator! After while Crocodile!” In spiritual warfare, the best way to stay away from and never feed demonic forces is by obeying God and holding closely to God’s word.

Notice how the Lord Jesus didn’t take on the Devil directly in the wilderness when tired, thirsty, and exhausted, as Matthew chapter 4:1-11 recounts. Rather, Jesus submitted his life to God and obeyed God’s word. Rather than take the Devil on in his own strength, Jesus bowed down to God. Similarly, Jesus submitted and released his life to God as he prayerfully prepared in the Garden of Gethsemane for his passion and death: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42; NIV) Lastly, on the cross, Jesus never stopped looking to God. He never wrestled from God, but with God. “About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ (which means ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’).” (Matthew 27:46; NIV) Jesus’ final cry on the cross shows us that even while wrestling with God, he submits to God in total obedient trust: “Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ When he had said this, he breathed his last” (Luke 23:46; NIV)

The demonic forces of various kinds prey on us when we go it alone, consumed with pride, and refusing to trust God. If anyone could have gone it alone, it would have been Jesus. But he didn’t. After all, he could have turned stones into bread. But again, he didn’t (Matthew 4:3-4). He could even choose to go the opposite route of what he and his Father had agreed to do. He could have called on his Father to send twelve legions of angels to his defense to conquer his enemies rather than go to the cross. But again and again, he didn’t (Matthew 26:53). Jesus didn’t go it alone. He didn’t take matters into his own hands. He relied on God every step of the way.

Last night, I called my spiritual counselor, Pastor Tom Schiave, while on a long, lonely journey home from Seattle to Vancouver, Washington. I was so down and discouraged regarding so many things that my family and I personally have endured and lost the past 2.5 plus years. Jaylah’s dad’s catastrophic brain injury certainly weighs heaviest on me. But in addition to my son, so many other areas of my life appear to be on life support, and Pastor Tom knows all of it. In such situations, it’s easy to panic and try and take matters into my own hands. But as Pastor Tom encouraged me, I need to submit everything to God who cares for each of us and who alone can lead us out of crocodile-infested waters to the Promised Land. Only as I cry out to God, “Not my will, but your will be done, Father,” only as I cry out, “Into your hands, I release my spirit,” and only as I bow down in total submission to Jesus rather than revolt in pride and get consumed by that serpent of old, will I be free.

As I journeyed down the I-5 late last night, I kept Tom’s wise words in mind. I kept the mysterious and comforting words of Jesus on my lips and in my heart. The spiritual struggle I experienced on the way home was but a snapshot and a glimpse of the journey we daily have to make on the way from the wilderness to the Promised Land.

I wish it were easy to bow down to Jesus in total submission. If only it were as easy as bowing down to the ground on my hands and feet before my cute little granddaughter when role-playing as a crocodile with a fairy princess! I doubt the Lord Jesus is as ‘cute’ as Jaylah is, but he sure has exceedingly more wisdom, power, and authority than all the crocodiles, fairy princesses, and legions of angels combined! It’s only as I realize that Jesus loves Jaylah, you, and me, and will take us through these crocodile-infested waters as I trust in him that I will kneel.

Certainly, I kneel without hesitation as a crouching though tamed crocodile before the fairy princess that I love. So, why won’t I quickly kneel before the untamed though good Lord Jesus, who loves us so much that he gave up his life for you, Jaylah, and me to do the Father’s will and bring the Devil’s evil empire down? That question continues to bewilder and humble me.

Bono and U2 put the spiritual warfare struggle so well in contemporary garb in the song Vertigo, when recounting the temptation scene in Matthew 4. Satan offers to take care of the rocker if he will only give the Devil what he wants. But Bono refuses. How so? Besides the band’s forceful musical retort letting the Devil know to shove off, the ensuing line about love conveys it well: God’s love is teaching him to kneel. (Check out the video here, where you can find Bono kneeling and looking up to Heaven).

The spiritual life filled with temptations has its fair share of vertigo as I keep standing up and then bowing down. The journey involving spiritual warfare takes place on the various highways, byways, and waterways of life. Two key questions before us today as we head out on the wilderness wanderings on the way to the Promised Land are, “Who will you and I bow down to today? And who is worthy of our prayerful obedience?” Whatever we do, let’s remember to stay clear of those lurking crocodiles and never feed them. Let’s surrender our lives to the One whose love alone will fill us.

Uncategorized

Prayerful obedience

Spiritual warfare

About Paul Louis Metzger

Paul Louis Metzger, Ph.D., is Professor of Theology & Culture, Multnomah University & Seminary; Director of The Institute for Cultural Engagement: New Wine, New Wineskins; and Author and Editor of numerous works, including Setting the Spiritual Clock: Sacred Time Breaking Through the Secular Eclipse (Cascade Books, 2020) and More Than Things: A Personalist Ethics for a Throwaway Culture (IVP Academic, 2023). You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

September 3, 2023

Searching for Conscious Control Amid Life's Turbulent Storms