1- Be sure you are in proper relationship to God.
The basics are: Knowing you are born again, knowing you have a satisfactory prayer life and knowing you are filled with Holy Spirit. Note: This checkpoint is in proper relationship to God, not a perfect relationship. The crucial test is that your heart's desire is to know God more intimately and to please Him in all things.
2- Confess all known sins.
Most mature believers know when they have sinned. But just to check periodically, use the list of the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21 and other Biblical lists of sins as a starting point. Francis Frangipane warns: "If you attempt to bind a principality or power while you harbor sin in your heart, you will surely be defeated." Note: Do not indulge in spiritual self-flagellation. That is also a work of the flesh. Something is wrong if you do not feel good unless you feel guilty! Allow the Holy Spirit Himself to convict you of sin.
3- Seekhealing for persistent sin patterns.
If you have a heart for God but a particular sin continues to surface, this is a spiritual illness for which you must seek healing just as you would seek healing for a bladder infection or sugar diabetes. Note: You will usually need outside help for this inner healing. Get the help before you attempt any ministry, but especially before you attempt spiritual warfare.
4- Allow others to read your spiritual barometer.
Relate closely to a number of other people whose spirituality you respect and who know you well enough to be frank with you. Note: Too much openness, especially in public, can itself become pathological. But by keeping everything to yourself, you have no way to test the accuracy of your self-evaluations.
5- The higher God calls you to leadership, the higher your standards of holiness.
Many levels of Christian ministry are not overly demanding for holiness, although mature holiness is a goal for all believers. Some forms of ministry are like playing touch football with kids on the front lawn, not too demanding. Other levels of ministry are more like the National Football League, and they require a spiritual conditioning that is considerably above the average. Note: Strategic-level, spiritual warfare should be considered more in the NFL category. If you feel you are gifted and called to this kind of ministry, be specially strict with yourself.
If your score on this checklist is satisfactory, you are ready for ministry. Don't separate holy character from gifting or ministry or you will end up with hypocrisy.
At the same time, don’t wait until you have attained super holiness before you do ministry or you will end up in the bless-me trap.
Paul’s metaphor of the armor of the Roman Legionnaire gives us a list of vital elements in the preparation of spiritual warriors. Our loins need to be girded with truth. Jesus Himself is the Way, the Truth and the Life. We put on a breastplate of righteousness. Our heart is protected by the holiness of cleansing our hands and purifying our hearts as we have seen earlier. The shield of faith protects us from Satan’s fiery darts. The helmet of salvation reminds us that we belong to Jesus and that we are assured of final victory in the battle.
As I have read extensively in the area of spiritual warfare. I am puzzled by the considerable number of authors who feel the need to make a special point that all the pieces of the armor of God are defensive. The fact is that the warrior not only wears armor and holds a shield, but has a sword in his right hand. The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, is certainly an offensive weapon. I enjoy Walter Wink’s comment, “It is humorous to watch the statement bob from scholar to scholar that the weapons here are all ‘defensive’. The pentagon says the same about nuclear missiles”.
Some, I believe, want to hope against hope that since Christ has defeated Satan on the cross, all we are expected to do is to “stand”. If we stand around with our hands in our pockets, evil will somehow not bother us or our society, but this is not what Paul had in mind when he wrote Ephesians 6. In my opinion, Clinton Arnold raises the question whether “to stand” is static or dynamic? He asks, “Is the reader also called upon to take more ‘offensive’ action such as in proclaiming the redemptive message of the Gospel to humanity held in bondage by the devil?” His conclusion is, “The flow of the context also reveals that the author conceives of ‘standing’ in offensive terms.”
Using the whole armor of God, then, we are ready not only to protect ourselves from Satan’s onslaughts, but also to overcome the strong man and advance the Kingdom of God.
By: C. Peter Wagner