Our study this week is from Ephesians 6:12:
The first point in this verse is that we are not fighting “flesh and blood” or other people, but a power that seeks to control them. It is true that the devil will almost always use people to do his work, but we must understand that it is not these people who are attacking us. The power of the evil one somehow has access to them and is using them. We should therefore not be getting angry or hurt by people, but be even more prone to have mercy on them. It is a major victory when we help the person that the devil has gained such access to get free.
The next point is that we must recognize our fight is against “rulers,” “powers, world forces of this darkness,” and “spiritual forces of wickedness.” Wow! Who would have thought that we as born again Christians would be so important? If you are a born again Christian, you have the power of the One who created the universe living in you. If you were to ever get fully free of your doubt and fully believe God to release His power through you, you would be the greatest threat to the devil on the earth. You do not have to go to seminary to do this, nor do you have to have decades of experience. You simply have to believe God. This belief comes as we stop looking at ourselves and our shortcomings, and start looking at God.
The Greek word that is translated “struggle” in our verse for this week is sometimes translated “wrestle.” Wrestling is the closest form of combat. It is a face-to-face encounter. I know many people who try to cast down principalities and powers with petitions from their prayer closet, but I have never seen it work to bring down a principality. This is because you can cast out demons but you must wrestle with principalities. This type of wrestling requires going face-to-face with it where it is being manifested. This is why we see in Luke 10 that when the Lord sent the seventy out to preach the gospel they came back excited about how the demons were subject to them. However, the Lord said that something even greater than that had happened—He had seen Satan himself fall from heaven! Apostolic preaching is required to displace the devil—the light must go forth to cast out the darkness.
This “wrestling” or “struggle” against principalities can take on many forms depending on how deeply the devil is into a place. For example, if he has taken over the courts you may find yourself battling in the courts. If he has taken over the government you will have a struggle there. Even so, in each of these places the truth must be spoken and the light must go forth to displace the darkness. This is why Paul the apostle had to be tried by his own nation so he could stand for truth there, and go all the way to Caesar and testify of the truth at the highest levels.
We may think this did not accomplish much as Paul was eventually executed for his testimony, but it accomplished much in the heavenly realm. It actually began the unraveling of the evil one’s power over the Roman Empire so that the gospel would spread more readily throughout it. We too may appear in court and lose the court case, but if we have stood for truth and declared it we have probably accomplished much more than we can see from our perspective just as the seventy did in Luke 10.
To really understand what is being accomplished by our lives and our message, the “eyes of our hearts” must be opened just as the apostle Paul prayed at the beginning of this epistle. We also need to keep in mind that we are not wrestling with flesh and blood, and we should not keep looking at what is going on at that level. If we get the victory in the heavenly realm it will eventually result in people getting free, but we must keep our attention on where the fight is.
We also must keep in mind that we are not to war according to our own strength, but in the “strength of His might,” or by God’s strength and power. Therefore, our primary strategy in all spiritual warfare is not just coming up with a more brilliant strategy. The devil has been around for thousands of years and is smarter than us to begin with. We are not going to outsmart him. Neither do we need to be overly concerned about what the devil is doing. Effective spiritual warfare is not devil-centered but God-centered. Our goal is not to be more brilliant, but to be more obedient so we will more fully abide in Him. The more perfectly we abide in Him the more of His strength and power we will have. Remember, we only have true spiritual authority to the degree that we are abiding in the King.
