Ephesians 6:10-14 “My
brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the
whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the
heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you
may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand
therefore.”
This week
Michael writes: We need our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. It's
easy to become casual about important things we've read in the Word of God.
When we meet with our Christian brothers and sisters, we're often reproved by
the Holy Spirit when we don't apply the Word of Holy Scripture that we read. The
armor of God in Ephesians 6 is one such passage about our spiritual battle. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood
but against spiritual wickedness from on high. For the Christian, it is not
a matter of “if”, but of “when”.
John 10:10 “The
thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have
life, and have it to the full.”
We don't need
to volunteer to find ourselves in the midst of a spiritual battle either. The
adversary (Satan) has taken the battle to us. The devil's ploy is to take
men and women of God off the spiritual battlefield. He works in the cover
of darkness and tempts our flesh desires. When we fail to see with
Christ's eyes behind our eyes ... without spiritual perception and awareness of
walking in the Spirit, the devil distracts us to focus on the “wrong”
thing. He diverts our attention with deceptive illusions and sinfully shiny
objects ... the things of the world that take our minds off the things of the
spirit. His deception will cause us to sin and fall into his snare of death when
lose our focus on our Lord Jesus Christ.
There's a
video clip from a PBS production called "The Ghost Battle." In
World War 2, there were decoys set up to deceive Hitler's army. While the Germans saw
tanks and heard war sounds, these were actually props to deceive the enemy and
to distract Hitler's forces from the actual allied army. Likewise, the world is
surrounded by a demonic spiritual battle. Prayer and the Word of God are two of
our offensive weapons in spiritual warfare. Ephesians 6 contains our
defensive and offensive arsenal in the spiritual warfare.
Ephesians 6:14-18 “Stand
therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the
breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the
preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of
faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked
one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the
Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and
supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all
perseverance and supplication for all the saints.”
Let's continue Michael's message on Spiritual Battles in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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