Spiritual Warfare Quotes

“It is not only the far too prominent moral failures among Christians that bring shame to God and deprive Him of being glorified in our lives but simply the lack of Spirit-led submission to one another. Our independent, self-centered attitudes create dissension that paralyzes the work of God and makes us no different from the world.”
― Jerry Rankin, Spiritual Warfare: The Battle for God's Glory

“Satan doesn't have to create religious opposition and government restrictions to inhibit the kingdom of God from being established among all peoples. If he can just get us to live like the world, indulge the flesh and treat sinful behavior as normative, he has deprived God of His glory and diminished the potential of others receiving the gospel.”
― Jerry Rankin, Spiritual Warfare: The Battle for God's Glory

“Just as the true fruit of an apple tree is not an apple, but another tree; the true fruit of a small group is not a new Christian, but another group; the true fruit of a church is not a new group, but a new church; the true fruit of a leader is not a follower, but a new leader; the true fruit of an evangelist is not a convert, but new evangelists. Whenever this principle is understood and applied, the results are dramatic.”
― Ed Stetzer, Spiritual Warfare and Missions

“If Satan can get us to interpret our mission task as populating heaven with as many people as possible, we will resort to going only to those places of receptivity and harvest and neglect doing what is needed to reach the unreached and penetrate the dominions of darkness with the light of the gospel.”
― Ed Stetzer, Spiritual Warfare and Missions

“To play it safe is the most risky decision we could make. To risk is the safest decision we can make with God. No matter the short-term implications, we must obey God with reckless abandon.”
― Ed Stetzer, Spiritual Warfare and Missions

“If Southern Baptist churches sent just 1 percent of their members to reach the nations and peoples of the world, instead of five thousand there would be 160,000 missionaries (according to our reported membership of sixteen million in 2009). The support should not be a problem—not financially, logistically, or in human resources. Could not 99 percent of the church adequately support the 1 percent sent to the nations to fulfill the mission of God?”
― Ed Stetzer, Spiritual Warfare and Missions

“A biblical theology of persecution creates a framework for understanding God’s sovereign purpose in allowing the evil dominions of darkness to inflict suffering on His children.”
― Ed Stetzer, Spiritual Warfare and Missions

“Jesus did not send us to declare the gospel only where people are responsive or where our witness is welcome. He did not expect us to be on mission to disciple peoples only where there is no danger or risk involved. He was unequivocal in His mandate to disciple the nations (peoples)—all of them!”
― Ed Stetzer, Spiritual Warfare and Missions

“We tend to think of blessings as providing comfort, well-being, and joy in having what we want in life. Blessing is seen as the opposite of suffering, but to the contrary, anything that draws us closer to God is a blessing.”
― Jerry Rankin, Spiritual Warfare: The Battle for God's Glory

“God is able to see beforehand all that happens in our lives and in the world, and He is able to establish a plan of how it can be used for His purpose and His glory. We are assured, “All the nations You have made will come and bow down before You, Lord, and will honor Your name” (Ps. 86:9).”
― Ed Stetzer, Spiritual Warfare and Missions

“What we see happening as we move further into the twenty-first century is a sovereign God moving through global events to open doors once closed to the gospel.”
― Ed Stetzer, Spiritual Warfare and Missions

“We often feel that passion to know Christ in all of His fullness and to experience the power of the resurrected life but stop short of embracing His sufferings. But you can't have one without the other.”
― Jerry Rankin, Spiritual Warfare: The Battle for God's Glory

“Global evangelism does not take place in a demilitarized zone but on the battleground of spiritual warfare. Satan, in vengeance and jealousy for that which belongs to God, is deceiving the nations and holding them in bondage to a lie.”
― Ed Stetzer, Spiritual Warfare and Missions

“The passion of the church and every follower of Christ should be that all peoples have an opportunity to hear, understand, and respond to the gospel.”
― Ed Stetzer, Spiritual Warfare and Missions

“But too many Christians are content in their own salvation and allow an ethnocentric provincialism to dismiss the imperative of God’s mission to the nations.”
― Ed Stetzer, Spiritual Warfare and Missions

“The impetus for our mission task is to understand that everything we are—everything that happens to us and everything that we do—is to align us with the kingdom purpose for God to be exalted among the nations.”
― Ed Stetzer, Spiritual Warfare and Missions

“God is not the source of any form of worship that does not exalt and lift up the name of Jesus!”
― Ed Stetzer, Spiritual Warfare and Missions

“We do not see the divine intervention for which we yearn in our country because we think it is for us and our needs rather than an impetus for God’s mission.”
― Ed Stetzer, Spiritual Warfare and Missions

“God does not bless us so we can enjoy a prosperous lifestyle but to make His way known throughout the earth.”
― Ed Stetzer, Spiritual Warfare and Missions

“Everything created in the world should be seen in the context of existing for God's glory.”
― Ed Stetzer, Spiritual Warfare and Missions

“God cannot entrust His power to someone who doesn't want it enough to be willing to deny self and embrace suffering and sacrifice.”
― Jerry Rankin, Spiritual Warfare: The Battle for God's Glory

“You may not feel that the flesh is dead; it may not seem evident as you deal with temptation and ungodly thoughts that obviously come from that old fleshly nature of sin, but the Bible is saying, “Consider the flesh as being dead—think of it in this way—because that's the way it is!” Reconcile your perception of the flesh with the truth of what God has said about it.”
― Jerry Rankin, Spiritual Warfare: The Battle for God's Glory

“Andy Dietz, who is on the staff of a church in the panhandle of Texas, has been coordinating mission trips overseas for many years. On one particular trip with his young people, the project had been finished, and the kids had left for home, but Andy stayed over to visit with missionary friends in the area. He was coming back through a European city on his way home. Having an overnight transit, he went downtown for dinner, found himself in the wrong part of town, and was mugged and kidnapped. After taking all his money, and all he could get from the ATM machine, his captors had him wire his family to ask for $5,000 to secure his release. His family notified us, and we activated a prayer network and contacted our personnel in the city who were not even aware he was there. They notified the police, but before anything could be done, Andy was able to elude his captors and get away while they were eating and drinking. I called him after he got home to talk through the experience and seek to minister to him. I asked him, after such a traumatic experience, if he thought he would go on any more mission trips. He said, “Oh yes. It's the most gratifying thing I do to take these kids overseas.” He continued, “I was negligent and learned that I have got to be more vigilant about where I go.” He described what it was like to be beaten, tied up, put in the trunk of a car, and his life threatened. He said, “They didn't know me. Nobody knew where I was. I meant nothing to them. My life was worthless. I realized they wouldn't think twice about getting rid of me, and no one would know.” He continued, “You can imagine how desperate I was to get away. And all I could think of was God saying, 'Andy, this is how desperate you should be to know Me.'” I held the phone in disbelief. I can only imagine the extent of desperation to escape a situation where your life is threatened. Can you imagine being so desperate to know God in all of His fullness, to have a heart that is so passionate for Him and His holiness? I think that's the only thing that will be a fail-safe deterrent to immoral behavior. We are always vulnerable; Satan will see to that, but in Christ we have been given the capacity to walk in holiness and victory.”
― Jerry Rankin, Spiritual Warfare: The Battle for God's Glory