We are under attack! But don’t head for the hills. All of us
in God’s kingdom of light are sitting in the middle of Satan’s kingdom of
darkness (he is the god of this world, for now, Paul said). We are the world’s
enemy and we are living our lives in its territory. So, Paul exhorts all
believers, all followers of Jesus, to be strong in the Lord and in His mighty
power and to put on all of God’s armor so that we will be able to stand firm
against all strategies of the devil (Ephesians 6:10-11, NLT).
Did you know that Satan has strategies currently employed to
destroy you? Peter tells us to stay alert and to watch out for our great enemy,
the devil, because he prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to
devour. He exhorts us to stand firm against him and to be strong in our faith
(1 Peter 5:8-9).
This battle is not 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 (Ephesians
6:12).
So, this is not a fight that we can win in the flesh. That’s a relief, because I know that I would have no chance in my own strength against Satan and his army! I mean, I was a pretty good athlete once upon a time, but I get winded now just walking to the mail box! The most well trained, disciplined and ready athlete would have no chance against a power like Satan in the physical realm. This battle is real, and it’s being waged right now in the spiritual realm. The fight is over you, me and all believers, and every soul on earth, and there is no way to avoid it.
It’s interesting to me that many scientists theorize that
two or more worlds can co-exist in the same place. They say it is possible that
there are many unseen worlds co-existing with ours right now, unbeknownst to
us. From God’s Word, we know that there is the realm of the spirit co-existing
all around us, all of the time. This realm is full of good and evil spirits,
a.k.a. angels and demons.
Sometimes, we are just cruising along in life and all is
well. And praise God for those times, because they are wonderful and that’s the
way God ultimately wants it to be for us. And we have His wonderful kingdom to
look forward to, where there will be no evil or sin, only righteousness and
peace. But, many times in life we begin to realize that something is wrong.
God’s Holy Spirit, that He has given us, speaks to our hearts and we just know
that things are off, and we realize it’s a spiritual attack. Even if life is
seemingly smooth for you at the moment, right now Satan and his minions are
scheming against you; attacking in ways you do not recognize and planning
further attacks on you shortly.
Now, at this point, you may be thinking, “gee, thanks for
the upbeat message today, Brian. I think I’ll go on back and find something
else to read!” But don’t. I am not trying to discourage or bring fear, but warn
you and to shed some light on how the Bible says to defend ourselves as
Christians against the attacks of the Devil. God has led me into this study
because we all struggle with spiritual attacks.
Paul, in writing to the Ephesians in chapter six, got all of
this down. You remember that he had a few attacks to deal with in his life! If
you haven’t already, prayfully read verses 10 through 18, and then we’ll
continue going through them one by one.
For the full commentary on the Armor of God, visit
No comments:
Post a Comment