Justin asked about why some people just simply don’t get it, see here. Well, there is no simple answer but the Bible do give us some revelations. I have wrote about The Divine Armor of God, and in essence the passage tells us to keep Jesus in our focus all the time, in all areas of our lives, so I wouldn’t repeat here. But what we have not looked at is the portion of the passage just before it, the forces we are fighting against.
A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting 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 6:10-12
We are to be strong-not with ourselves but in the Lord. Whoever starts to believe he is independent, strong and righteous, having more faith in himself-his own sets of believe rather than in the Person of Jesus Christ, he is going to be the first target for the enemy. We are to draw our strength and power from the Lord, and anyone who steps out of the pouring of the Holy Spirit, steps out of the divine power and protection. Again easy meat for the dark side!
We are not fighting physically against flesh and blood; God’s Genesis Creation. We are fighting against the evil spiritual mighty powers of the dark-unseen world; no flesh-no blood. Don’t be naive because we have to know that the enemy is extremely smart and cunning; he uses strategies for his grand demonic objectives. He is more a slithery snake than a raging bull as commonly portrait, but he is definitely a hungry roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8) because he knows his time is near. He is a dirty fighter and does not respect gentlemanly “rules of engagement”; when you trip, he steps on it; he hits you when you are not looking and devours you when you are at your weakest. Guess where terrorism originated from?
There is never a neutral ground, in the spiritual domain, there are constant battles going on. There are great words from C.S. Lewis: “There is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counter-claimed by Satan.” Everywhere-even in the body of Christ, the devil is plotting strategies against believers, against the claims of God and against the very truths of God.
The simplest but most vicious evil plan is not to deny God but to deny Jesus Christ. The devil is not “anti-God”, but he is “anti-Christ”. The devil cannot not understand the Word-the grace (John 1:1-5), but he understands idolatry-sorcery-hostility-quarreling-jealousy-anger-selfish ambition-dissension-division (Galatians 5:19-21).
It does not matter whether you are a three-day-old believer or a senior-leader-decon-pastor-teacher-fulltimer, all of us needs to cover ourselves with the Armor of God, which really is the metaphor of Jesus Christ Himself. There is no need to memorize all the different parts and their functions. The real simple solution is to remember Jesus our Lord who gives us all the covering and protection we will ever need from the devil’s attack.
You have armed me with strength for the battle; you have subdued my enemies under my feet. Psalm 18:39 Instead of fear, we can and are able to stand boldly to declare His power, as our victory is already sealed. The more turbulence the world is experiencing, the taller we stand!
King David 