Topic: Spiritual War
In Ephesians 6:10-17, Apostle Paul gives instructions to prepare us for a fight against Satan and his demons. First, let us go to spiritual battle training. We need to understand who Satan and his demons are and what they can do to pull us apart from God.
We need to understand that Satan is a liar; he is the master of lies. In his book, You Are Destined to Win!, John N. Chacha brings out some of the key lies of Satan. Here are a few:
- Your sins are beyond forgiveness.
- Your problems are beyond God’s help.
- Jesus didn’t die for you as an individual. (Page 6.)
These are lies from the mouth of our enemy. The Word of God says that he is the father of lies (John 8:44). There is no doubt about it, Satan is a liar! Dr. Chacha also pointed out that our battleground is in our minds, because Satan tries to give us bad thoughts or bad habits to control our minds, so he can destroy us in our relationship with God, ourselves, and others. Unfortunately for him, Satan has very limited power to defeat us. Apostle Paul had experienced pain from Satan, but God said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in you (II Corinthians 12:9 NKJV).” Satan and his armies are no match with God, our Supreme. Jesus defeated him when He crucified Himself on the cross for our sins, but He resurrected on the third day from the grave to show us that He won the war.
We need to do our part, training with God to face our enemies. Paul says in I Timothy 4:8, “For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.” Paul knows and understands the importance of being trained spiritually because he had experienced the pain that Satan put him through as we see in II Corinthians 12.
First, we need to understand that our struggle is not coming from the other person. Sometimes, the problems might be caused by the other person’s mistakes. However, we need to look beyond the problem. Paul said that we need to be prepared to fight against principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this age, and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly realms. You and I need to understand the main reason why Paul wrote this portion of passage in Ephesians.
Today, we see the enemy attacking the churches around the world through the creation of certain denominational churches that mix Christianity and paganism tradition. We see this throughout I Corinthians, where Paul focused on the problems within the Church of Corinth . We see many issues within the churches throughout the , such as: denominations, immorality within the church, and music that is mixed with worldly tunes (Contemporary Christian Music). These and other problems arrived from our very own enemy, Satan.
We not only need to recognize our enemy, we need to equip our spiritual weapons to stand against Satan. Paul named some weapons that we can use to stand firm against the prince of this world. These weapons are:
- The truth of the Gospel (Ephesians 6:14a)
- The breastplate of righteousness (Ephesians 6:14b)
- The Gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:15)
- The shield of faith (Ephesians 6:16)
- The helmet of salvation (Ephesians 6:17a)
- The sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17b)
We need to gird our waist with the truth of the Gospel. The truth of the Gospel is like a belt that we put on our waist. Paul says that when we are wearing the belt of the Gospel, we will not be deceived by the lies of Satan. We also need the “breastplate of righteousness and having shod our feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:14-15).” This protects us from satanic attack as the shield of armor protects us from the enemy’s sword. Finally, we need to have the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:16-17). These weapons are deadly to Satan and his armies. Paul recommends us to have all these weapons in us, ready at all times.
Above all, Paul stresses the importance of prayer (Ephesians 6:18). Prayer is vital for our stance against devils. Our communication with God is crucial to have in our daily life. It is the key to stand against Satan at the spiritual battleground. Jesus said that if we ask Him anything in His name, He can do it for us. Read what God did for Paul when he faced struggles in his life. In II Corinthians 12:8-9, Paul asked the Lord to remove his pain from him; and God answered him. He knew Paul’s circumstances and let him know that He had been working with him to strengthen him.
As I am a disabled man, God is continuing to work with me through various trials in my life. When I am distressed or going through a hard time as I am living independently, there is a great resource. I receive some help from the community, but there is no greater resource than God, His Holy Word, and my communication with Him. Being a physically disabled person doesn’t mean that Satan can defeat me easily. No! As long as I trust in God and have hope, Satan cannot stand against me long.
As we see in Paul’s letter to the Church of Corinth , he didn’t deny the Gospel of Jesus Christ; instead, he continued to pursue and to tell others about what Jesus did for all humanity. Also, he wrote and preached a powerful message to the Ephesian church, urging them to protect themselves from the darkness of life.
We need to learn from Paul’s experiences that there is nothing Satan can do to destroy our lives or pull us away from God’s presence. Our daily prayers are the most powerful weapon we have in our lives, because God stands with us when we cry out to Him while facing problems throughout our lives. Although Paul had a stressful life in his missionary journey to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, God was with him because of his communication with the Creator of the Universe. To have a successful life, we need to prepare our spiritual weapons and make room for God to intervene in our lives each day.
