Guerilla Christianity: Spiritual Warfare

By James Costello

The Bible reveals we are in a battle—a spiritual war waged on earth and in heavenly places—for our very souls. We have a real enemy of our faith who wants to take away our peace, joy, and happiness. It is his desire to destroy lives. It is God’s desire to restore them.

In Guerilla Christianity, author James Costello demonstrates, through sound life principles and scripture passages, there is a way to battle the enemy of our faith and to live a faith-filled life. He weaves personal accounts of loss and spiritual battle with tales of bravery and faith. Offering inspiration to others, he provides examples of God’s spiritual weapons that were used to overcome extreme circumstances.

James communicates that God does not want you—his child—to live a defeated, meaningless existence. He wants you to walk in the power of his might, to have a sense of purpose and direction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Sep 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664239555

James Costello

James Costello was raised in Long Island, New York, and currently resides in the Tampa Bay area. During his time in Tampa Bay, he has served as Chairman of his local church board and successfully led a fund-raising campaign to build a Christian school.

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Copyright © 2021 James Costello.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.®

ISBN: 978-1-6642-3954-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-3956-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-3955-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021913347

WestBow Press rev. date: 09/14/2021

Contents

Foreword

Chapter 1 Warfare Begins

Chapter 2 The Battle Plan: Finding Your Purpose

Chapter 3 Battle Fatigue: Overcoming Challenges

Chapter 4 Jungle Warfare: Demons in Our Midst

Chapter 5 Preparing for War: Your Thought Life

Chapter 6 Love: The Ultimate Defense

Chapter 7 The Ultimate Secret Weapon: Faith

Chapter 8 When the Enemy Has You Surrounded: A Game Plan for Courage

Chapter 9 Ceasefire: Forgiveness

Chapter 10 Speaking in His Defense: The Case for Our Commander-in-Chief

Epilogue

Endnotes

Foreword

Many wonderful projects for God never come to fruition, are never executed because a child of God meets opposition or discouragement. He gives up, and says, The project is not in God’s will.

—Dr. J. Vernon McGee

Struggles and trials have a way of bringing us closer to God. In my case, each trial has given me a deeper appreciation for who God is and how He can use personal tragedy to bring us closer to Him.

The Bible reveals that we are in a battle—a spiritual war that is waged on earth and in heavenly places—for our very souls. We have a real enemy in Satan who wants to take away our peace, joy, and happiness. It is his desire to destroy lives. It is God’s desire to restore them.

In war as in life, there is always a juncture—a critical point that determines an outcome. It is a time where a person’s resolve is tested.

In the darkest days of World War II, when their defeat seemed almost assured, the great statesman Winston Churchill all but said that he and his people will fight unto death. His speech was a rallying cry for the desperate British people. They had basically given up. It is certainly true that during the most extreme, perilous times, God begins to move. This was the case in the survival of Great Britain.

Like Winston Churchill and the British, the Bible has many instances of great people of faith who reached significant turning points. This often happens when faced with the most extreme circumstances.

Through these trials, as well as many others, I was brought closer to God than ever before. I wrote this book to give inspiration to others who are searching for meaning as they endure trials.

What I have learned is that God allows tribulations to teach us valuable lessons about His love. He wants us to depend on Him. God wants us to walk with love in His power no matter how difficult our circumstances.

In this book, hardships are presented that both I and many other people have endured. Perhaps you will find yourself in these stories. I provide examples of God’s spiritual weapons that were used to overcome extreme circumstances. One such example is Viktor Frankl, a survivor of the brutalities in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. Amid suffering, he found a higher purpose: the ability to attach a meaning to the brutality that he endured. Without this, he would not have survived. I will discuss his story later in this book.

God does not want you—His child—to live a defeated, meaningless existence. He wants you to walk in the power of His might, to have a sense of purpose and direction. There is a way to battle the enemy of our faith and to live a faith-filled life. My hope is to share that way with you.

1

WARFARE BEGINS

Christians are in a war—a spiritual one—aimed for our destruction. The reality is that life is a battlefield, and we are all the targets of an enemy. It is a battle of good versus evil, a battle to take us away from a life of fulfillment in God.

The enemy is Lucifer, called the son of the morning (Isaiah 14:12), also known as the devil. He is a wily, hidden enemy, and his ways of deception can be subtle. Like a lion (1 Peter 5:8), he prowls stealthily, hidden in the tall grass, ready to spring into action as soon as the opportunity arises.

Satan uses guerrilla war tactics with stealth-like precision, much like an enemy in jungle warfare. He sets up booby traps and bombs; every trick of deception and evil is fair game. In 1 John 5:19, the Apostle John acknowledges that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. Since the world is under Satan’s influence, it is easy for a Christian to fall into the trap of following the world’s systems. The devil loves it when Christians believe that he doesn’t exist.

IS SPIRITUAL WARFARE REAL?

Our battle is not against people. They are merely influenced by their own sin, rebellion, and outside influences. Our battle is against principalities, powers, rulers of this present darkness—evil spirits in the world. It illustrates Satan’s power and influence over the world to cause destruction. The Bible speaks of the Holy Spirit holding back evil, to some degree, during our time on earth (2 Thessalonians 2:7).

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient (Ephesians 2:1–2).

The prince of the power of the air works in the children of disobedience. Christians too are cautioned about being influenced by the wiles of the devil because all people can be influenced by Satan, not just unbelievers.

Since Satan is a spirit, he works in the spiritual realm to influence a person’s inner spirit to do his bidding. He is a single, actual being who cannot be in two places at once. He has demon spirits who operate under his command. These demon spirits carry out his destructive warfare.

A war is raging around us with unseen forces battling in heavenly places.

Evil proves there is a God. This may sound counterintuitive, but when tragedy strikes, we are left soul searching. We long to find meaning in what happened. People seek a higher power to make sense of their suffering. It is at our lowest point that we often draw closer to Him.

GOD IS WITH US IN OUR SUFFERING

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God (2 Corinthians 1:3–4).

Things were getting tough for me financially. The Great Recession had started, and my business had all but disappeared. In addition, my wife and I were having relationship problems, and the arguments had become all too frequent. Numerous attempts at marriage counseling failed, and failed miserably. We were at the end of the line—there was no saving our marriage.

One day the police were called to our house. My wife had told them I had hit her, but I did no such thing. In fact, the police report said there were no marks on her and there was nothing out of place to indicate a struggle. After a lot of back and forth with the police, they took her word for it. I was arrested for domestic violence.

Thankfully, the charges were eventually dismissed. But my reputation was tarnished. The damage had been done.

We all go through unfair trials. We all face tragedy; nobody is immune to it. Have you ever asked yourself, Why did it happen? It is in this soul searching that life gains meaning.

My wife also had numerous health problems. There were days when the pain was so severe that it was impossible for her to do anything. It affected her outlook on life, and she suffered severe depression because of it. Eventually, the depression got the better of her. One day, a year after our divorce, she asked me over to the house. Things were not going well with one of our children, and she asked me to stop by. Just before I was ready to leave, she asked, Do you still love me?

There was a long period during our separation where I tried to reconcile with her. But after everything that happened between us, my heart was numb. I answered how I felt at that moment and said no. Three days later she died by suicide—a bullet, shot through her heart. My life and my children’s lives would never be the same.

As you can see, I have lived through some hard times, and they often made me wonder why they happened. I tried to make sense of them and couldn’t because I looked at them from a humanistic point of view.

I wrote this book with the understanding that I believe God’s Word when He says Satan is out to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). I believe what happened to me is supported by this scripture. We live in world that is not our own.

Contrary to what we may feel and experience, our battle is not against other people in the world. Instead, our battle is against principalities, powers, and evil spirits in heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12 speaks about dark forces that control the world. Specifically, it talks about angels of darkness—demons. We do not have to look far to see that death, sickness, and despair are all around us and to know something isn’t right.

PREPARING TO WIN THE SPIRITUAL BATTLE

The battle waged against us is real, and without the protection