1 Timothy 6:12 *Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses*.
Several years ago, I attended a prayer meeting where the brother leading us in prayer told us to blow the devil. We threw punches into the air until we had aches in our joints. After those kinds of meetings, analgesics are needed.
I attended another prayer programmes where we were told to carry gun and shot the devil. It was in that meeting I discovered some Christians watch action movies. The manner in which some were shooting the devil was 'Rambo-like'.
The understanding of spiritual warfare that some people have is that they want to use human methods and rituals to fight the devil. That mentality is what has corrupted most deliverance ministries today. They come up with gimmicks, rituals and gymnastics in trying to fight an invisible enemy.
Our enemy is not a physical being but spiritual one that cannot be seen with the physical eyes: *"For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places*" (Eph 6:12 NLT).
The enemy some are trying to fight with their human methodology was fought and won on the cross by Christ (Col2:15). Hallelujah! Why should someone use cane or horse whip on you or sit on your belly to cast out a demon? That's total error. I see a lot of physical abuses in some deliverance ministries and meetings. I have seen preachers slapping, blowing and even doing the WWE smack down all in the name of deliverance.
*True deliverance starts with knowledge not prayer, an understanding of what Christ did on the cross not man's effort*.
Colossians 2:14-15 says, *"He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. [15] In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross*".
Now, what is the biblical way of engaging in spiritual warfare? It starts with having faith in what Christ has done as the final and finished work done over Satan, sickness, oppression and all other demonic works.
Standing on our faith in what Christ has done, the next is to *resist Satan continuously* through the word of God in our hearts and mouth as we confess and pray it. As Satan tries to push his dirty dozens on us, we must stand against him vehemently and show him the blood.
James 4:7 says, *"So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you*"( NLT).
We don't fight for victory, we fight from victory because we are more than conqueror in Christ.