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Spiritual
Warfare
Developing Your Strategy
"There have
existed at all times, fundamental principles on which
depend good results in warfare...These principles are
unchanging, independent of the kind of weapons, of
historical time and of place" (Jomini).
Victory is determined by "fundamental principles
upon which depend good results in warfare". Just because
spiritual warfare employs weapons different from that of natural
warfare does not disqualify it, according to Jomini, from the
same governing principles of war. The Church has many times
committed military blunders because of disregard or ignorance of
these basic principles.
Every army lists these military principles with
slightly different priority, depending on the strengths and
weaknesses of that army. Likewise, the list of principles for
spiritual warfare depends on the Church's own unique strengths
and weaknesses. We have therefore organised ten Principles of
Spiritual Warfare as follows:
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Objective |
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Discipline |
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Perspective |
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Concentration |
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Unity |
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Flexibility |
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Intelligence |
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Momentum |
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Morale |
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Support |
Strategy and Tactics
Any military operation revolves around two
levels of perspective: the strategic and the tactical.
Strategy involves long-term, long-range
goals. The success of a strategy is hard to evaluate in the
short term. Strategy is measured in months and years.
Tactics involve short-term, short-range
goals. Tactics are much more fluid than strategy, more
responsive to immediate problems. Tactical goals are the
step-by-step implementation of strategic aims. Tactics are
measured in days and weeks.
The Mission of Christ
The stated aim of Christ's incarnation was to:
These two objectives form the basis of Christ's
"vision" - the "joy set before him" that enabled Him to endure
the Cross (Heb. 12:3). But the outworking of this vision can be
seen in Christ's strategy and tactics.
Tactics
Wherever Christ went He touched people's lives.
He sought out sinners, He healed the sick, He cast out unclean
spirits, He taught the multitudes. These activities were all
tactical in nature. They were an immediate response to
individual needs. As marvellous as this ministry was, if it had
had no strategic depth, the essential vision of Christ's coming
would never have been fulfilled.
Strategy
To fulfil the vision for which the Father had
sent Him, Christ made two strategic moves:
He selected a core of disciples for
personal training who would be the seed of the Church
that would be born after His Resurrection.
He committed Himself to the Cross, the
strategic kingpin of God's plan of salvation.
If the Lord Jesus had simply acted tactically,
many individual lives would have experienced God's power, but
the world at large would have remained untouched. Now for the
Church to fulfil its delegated ministry, as the Body of Christ,
we too must move tactically and strategically. Tactically, to
see individual lives come into the Kingdom of God.
Strategically, to see our whole community touched by the impact
of the Gospel.
Five Steps
In order to form a clear and effective strategy,
five steps are needed:
Vision
The vision is the starting point of all action
in your life. What is your vision for your life, for your work,
for your family, for your church? Your vision is what you are
ultimately aiming for.
Contradictions
Identifying the contradictions, or obstacles,
that impede the fulfilment of the vision is possibly the most
crucial step. List the contradictions clearly, for they are the
key to developing your strategy.
Strategy
Strategy is born out of the contradictions. When
you have clearly defined what is hindering the fulfilment of
your vision, you can then develop a strategy, a long-term
program designed to break through the contradictions.
Tactics
Tactics are the down-to-earth, week-by-week
implementation of the strategy. Tactical plans generally do not
work effectively beyond 90 days. Too many things change within a
three month period. Job situations fluctuate. School holidays
come and go. Exams are here, then gone. The weather changes.
People go on holidays, move house, start families. Tactics are
flexible, responding quickly to these abrupt changes.
Timeplan
The next step is to weave the previous four
factors into a comprehensive timeplan. The timeplan provides the
basis for evaluation - if a goal is not fulfilled, we must
ascertain whether the goal was unrealistic in the first place,
or whether the strategy/tactics you used were ineffective.
Ministry Strategies
In your church, family or ministry of any kin,
the strategies that will develop out of the contradictions you
face should include:
_ Prayer Strategies
_ Communication Strategies
_ Evangelistic Strategies
_ Community/Group Strategies
_ Support Strategies
The Decisive Point
"...The race
is not to the swift or the battle to the strong... Wisdom is
better than weapons of war" Ecclesiastes 9:11,18.
History has proven that when direct frontal
assault is used in warfare, victory is rare and generally very
costly. The most successful generals in history, however -
Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Scipio, Frederick, Napoleon - all
avoided the direct approach to warfare. They used what is called
"the indirect method".
The indirect method seeks to find the enemy's
weakness - the "seam" in his ranks - and exploit it. In
spiritual warfare, too, our strategy must be aimed at the weak
place in the enemy's hold on people's lives, that crucial point
in his ranks which is termed "the decisive point".
Concentration
The key to tactical success is concentration.
There is always a temptation to "do much". Like Martha, the
Church is often "distracted by all the preparations that had to
be made" and "worried and upset about many things" (Luke
10:40-41). The Church is not lacking in activity, but not all
activity may be actually accomplishing the vision.
Jomini defined concentration as "to throw the
mass of the forces upon the decisive point, or upon that portion
of the hostile line which it is of first importance to
overthrow."
Napoleon said: "Fire must be concentrated on one
point, and as soon as the breach is made, the equilibrium is
broken and the rest is nothing."
And Clausewitz stated: "the best strategy is
always to be very strong; first in general, and then at the
decisive point."
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