Subsequent to a number of requests for me to expand on my spiritual warfare meditations I decided to make some of my private commentaries on the subject more public. As they formed part of conversations with others I will need to edit them to ensure confidentiality, so bear with me. To kick it off here’s one comment I made recently:
I have been doing a reasonable thinking on the Spiritual Warfare issue over the last twelve months as I find it highly problematic for mission within the Spiritual Supermarket.
Firstly, I have found popular manifestations of it often disempower Christians for mission by giving too much ground to the devil and his minions. I have lost count of the Christians who have backed away from following me into new territory for fear of demon contamination and seem to think that long distance warfare prayer is an adequate substitute for face to face evangelism.
Secondly, I have found many Christians who buy into it tend to project Christian Urban Legends onto New Age seekers in a highly non-contextual way. For instance, visions and words of knowledge from Spiritual Warfare gurus are often given more weight than primary source research.
Thirdly, there is a lot of Spiritual Warfare teaching that verges on Christian animism and Zoroastrianism. I have come across many teachings and thought, “Hey I’ve seen this before but last time it was amongst Wiccans or Neo-Gnostics. Only the language has changed.” Words and phrases such as ‘washed in the blood’ assume magical properties. Bibles become anti-demon talismans. The Lausanne Covenant document, “Deliver Us From Evil”, acknowledges this as a common failing the church needs to give more attention to.
That being said, I have been compelled to take the angelic / demonic realm more seriously as a consequence of personal encounters. For those that don’t know, one of my mates was converted to Christ after a partial possession at a séance that we ran at my house in my pre-Christian days. The experience affected him powerfully and opened him up to the gospel (note: I am not endorsing this as an outreach strategy!!!) I have also met many people who have an interest in the angelic realm and trance channeling so being able to speak into that is important.
Anyway, the bottom line of my ruminations is that we need to approach the subject from a critically contextual direction, just as we would tarot or any other phenomenon [note to bloggers: I was alluding here to the tarot based evangelism pioneered by Community of Hope in Australia]. I find the popular spiritual warfare paradigm is too couched in Zoroastrian worldview frames to be of much use to me. I am seeking new ways forward that instead start from an incarnational framework. Just as we find the devil card in the tarot we find Wiccans talking about protection from negative spiritual influences. I don’t think labeling the Goddess as a demon is the wisest starting point for communication. Instead, where do Wiccans perceive negative spiritual forces in their lives? How can we incarnate into their reference frame? That is what occupies my thinking.
And I think a starting point for power encounters is to consider that God’s power is manifest in our weakness. We need to get away from macho grand standings by Witch Finder Generals. Courageous vulnerability in Christ is a form of spiritual warfare I can gel with.
Suggested further reading:
Curious Christian 
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