You've Got to Show That There's a War Going On
Angel: “You’ve got to show them that there’s a war going on,
and you’ve got to show that the only way to win that war is through love.”
Those are the words of God directly and clearly to Darren Wilson, the producer of a movie called The Finger of God. Darren was set on his course to make that movie from two spectacular circumstances. One was that his aunt Patsy and uncle Bob both had gold fillings placed in their teeth during a Pentecostal church service. The phenomenon of gold crowns and fillings was a notable feature of special charismatic services, particularly associated with the Toronto Blessing, a revival that began in 1999.
The other is that an angel named Breakthrough confronted him directly and commanded him to make the movie he was contemplating. That first movie was about Christian miracles. including things like gold dust appearing on people as they preached, gemstones appearing in church.
Wilson’s second assignment, a movie which he called Furious Love, was first prophesied over him by an evangelist, who told him that God wanted him to go into the darkness to show the light. Wilson claims that later, in a service at the Toronto Airport church, he was shoved back into his seat and spoken to in no uncertain terms about the film, which would deal with the occult and paranormal. He began that project by going to a New Age convention to “pick a fight.” God restrained those efforts, reminding him that it wasn’t about fighting, but about love.
The claims in the two movies are compelling, but my point in this post is God’s assertion that there is a continuing and serious war in the heavens, and the front lines in the battle are the minds, hearts, and souls of mankind.
I once had a conversation with my mother-in-law about demons. First, she responded, “I don’t believe in demons.” Then added, “I don’t want to believe in demons.” She’s not alone. Few people want to believe that the spiritual realm is also a place of conflict where free will, goodness, and evil clash. There is so much conflict here in our physical plane that it’s difficult to grasp that today, angels and demons fight in the invisible space around us as well.
We want to believe that the afterlife or the dimension beyond our physical realm is a place where all issues get resolved, pure love and forgiveness reign, God is in control, evil is reconciled with good, and everyone rests in peace―kind of like a Hallmark movie where the improbable happy ending to a severe conflict makes us feel good. Nice people require a nice, benevolent universe because we are nice and we project that out into the universe.
But Jesus, who walked with us on Earth to help us defeat the enemy of our souls, says it isn’t so, and so does the entire Bible, from Genesis 3 to Revelation. The Bible is full of spiritual conflict and warnings about not recognizing the importance of engaging in that battle.
I wish God had spoken to Moses about love. Instead, we have, “Show them no mercy,” and “kill them all.” Maybe that’s why Jesus was never able to call God Yahweh. He always talked about Him as Father, conjuring a loving, nurturing relationship.
What a concept! This cosmic entity, with the power to nuke the entire globe if He wanted to, doesn’t require the title of “Your Mighty, Holy, Highness God of the Universe.” It seems the Pope demands more acknowledgement of holiness and authority than God does. God wants to be our Father, and he doesn’t care if we are men or women, slave or free, Canaanite or Israelite, black or white. We don’t have to claim to be the dirt under His feet like the Canaanite mayors who wrote to the Egyptian Pharaoh in the Amarna Letters. We are His children, and He is our inheritance.
I’m not suggesting that the God of Moses isn’t the same God that Jesus served. But I guess we have to acknowledge that God is so far above our own understanding that it takes us humans generations and generations to fully grasp who He is and what He wants of us.
Moses’s main job was to show that God is One and has much to offer us. Jesus’s job was to show that He offers it because He loves us.
And anyway, there are a few hints that the Israelites didn’t really go in and “kill them all.” The Amarna Letters suggest that the invaders of Canaan, the Israelites in my opinion, made treaties with several cities. That’s why Joshua proclaimed,
“If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
Joshua is not talking about a situation where idol nazis are prowling the villages to pull out the offenders and beat them to death on the spot. He is talking about choice. He is saying, “You can be stupid and wrong if you want, but I know which way is the right one, and my family is going to follow me on that path. I know that it’s the best inheritance I can give them.”
The war in heaven is well documented in the Bible, beginning in Genesis 3. The first arrow in Satan’s quiver is deception, propaganda, scams. Without litigating whether the story of Adam and Eve is genuine literal history or not, we can see in the narrative that God’s opponent was lurking in the Garden already, sharing the same space as the first couple, ready to usurp Yahweh’s relationship with them, ready to offer them brand X by causing them to doubt the word of their Creator.
The serpent wasn’t wrong about everything. Knowing the difference between good and evil is the sign of going from a toddler to an adult. In the Garden of Eden, we have a thumbnail picture of humanity leaping forward in brainpower, understanding, creativity, and power to do great evil or great good.
Satan’s disinformation program was also in the book of Revelation, where the devil appears, not as a slimy serpent hissing on the ground, hoping to bite the ankle of a human, but as a dragon, because we as humans have given him that power over us.
In Rev. 12:15–17, he spews a foul river from his mouth to sweep away the woman clothed with the sun (the Judeo-Christian Zion/ekklesia) who brought the Manchild (Jesus, or perhaps the community of his followers, matching plural to plural) into the world. I believe that the river coming from the dragon’s mouth is words…lies, disinformation, twisting truth, distractions from what is important, temptation to commit what the Catholic Church calls the Seven Deadly Sins…lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride.
The devil’s campaign is not always to attack the church openly with weapons, but to subvert the church, so that God’s people willingly give up the blessing and protection of His favor.
This post is an update. It can also be seen at https://janetkatherinesmith.blogspot.com/2024/01/youve-got-to-show-that-theres-war-going.html and at https://theologylighthouse.substack.com/p/show-them-that-theres-a-war-going
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