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Spiritual Warfare - Part 6 of 7

by Paul George  
12/04/2008 / Bible Studies


Ephesians 6:10-17

Quotes from World English Bible unless otherwise noted

"Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world's rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having the utility belt of truth buckled around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having fitted your feet with the preparation of the Good News of peace; above all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

Biblically speaking all human beings, without exception, are helpless victims of satanic control, apart from Jesus Christ. Under the domination of invisible satanic forces, human beings are oppressed, unhappy, and incapable of escape by any wisdom or power of their own. However, the good news is that we can be set free by the outside intervention of Jesus Himself, who came to destroy the works of the devil. He has broken the power and bondage of Satan over human lives. When we receive Him into our lives, we are liberated to live as children of God. It is important to understand what this liberation truly means. It does not mean that we have been set free to live lives of selfishness and self-indulgence. That is a common misconception, but it is nowhere taught in the Bible. We have not been liberated to live for ourselves. We have been liberated to live for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have been set free so that we can join the battle against the evil in this world. That is the call that comes to all Christians. When God calls us to join the battle, He is not using a mere metaphor. This war is real, the enemy is determined to destroy us, and his weapons are deadly. Like soldiers in any war, we stand a chance of suffering wounds at the hands of our enemy. To defend ourselves against the forces of evil we need to understand the way they operate. The Bible confirms this truth. Read the Old Testament and you will see that every saint, every prophet, every patriarch, every one of the great and glorious kings of Israel, was defeated at one time or another by the devil. The wisest and greatest of men are helpless in attempting to outwit the devil by themselves. Yet, the Bible makes it clear that we can walk in victory. God does not want us to fail; that is why He has made victory possible in our lives. This why we are to resist the devil and "he will flee from you" (James 4:7). Think of that! The clever, cunning planner of the destruction of the world who has held the world in defeat for centuries, whom no man is able to out-maneuver; will flee from you when you learn not to be ignorant of his schemes and strategies.

Now, the question we must ask ourselves is, "What is the strategy of the devil? How does he plan to defeat us? How does he keep the world in such bondage? What are the particular ways he uses to neutralize our effectiveness for God?" The only one in all history who has ever consistently defeated the devil, not only in His life but also in His death, is the Lord Jesus Christ. He put His finger squarely upon the strategy and tactics of Satan when He said that the devil "was a murderer from the beginning, does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies" (John 8:44). The strategy of the devil is to murder. The tactic by which he accomplishes this is to lie.

One of the names given to the devil in the book of the Revelation is Apollyon, which means "Destroyer." The goal of the destroyer is to create chaos, to lay waste, to ruin, to make desolate. There you have the explanation for the tragic story of human history: A Destroyer is at work among human beings.

The world was created as orderly and perfect and even human beings were once orderly and perfect. Then a Destroyer came on the scene. It is his delights to smash, mangle, twist, mutilate, disfigure, and darken, in every way he can. It does not make any difference whether it is bodies or souls, flesh or ideas, matter or spirit the aim of the devil is the same in every case. That is why Satan can never offer anything positive to human life. He can create nothing. He has never made anything, and he never will make anything. All he can do is destroy what God has made. His power is totally negative and destructive in every way. He destroys by deceiving, by lying, by distorting, by counterfeiting, by masquerading, by clouding human minds with illusion and fantasy. This is what Paul calls "the devil's schemes," or as some translations put it, "the wiles of the devil." That is why we must understand the tactics the devil uses against us so that we can be strong and well defended when he comes to us to defeat us, weaken us, and ruin our lives.

The Bible makes it clear that the tactics of the devil fall into two major divisions, direct attack and indirect attack. He is capable of direct confrontation with human beings, as well as a subtle, indirect approach.

Many people, today, do not believe in a direct attack upon humans through demon possession. The mindset is belief in demons and demon possession nonsense in an educated, sophisticated society. The denial of the existence of demons, and demon possession is based on the idea the Bible was written in ancient times for gullible, primitive people. We are much better informed today. What was once called demon possession we now know to be mental illness, and we can treat it with drugs and other therapies. The biblical reply to that kind of thinking can be contradicted by the nature of the Bible. The Bible is not a book of primitive superstition and the writers of the Scriptures were aware of the difference between mental illness and demon possession. Luke, who was a physician, was certainly acquainted with the distinctions between physical diseases and mental illnesses and demon possession (Luke 4:40-41). In Matthew also, a careful distinction is made between those who were afflicted by diseases, those who were demon-possessed, and those who were mentally ill (Matthew 4:24).

The writers of the Scriptures recognized the difference between demon possession and mental disease. Diseases of the mind, like those of the body, present standard clinical patterns and symptoms that can be readily recognized. However, when you carefully examine the biblical accounts of demon possession, you find that these accounts do not fit any of the standard patterns of mental diseases. Mental illness and demon possession is clearly not the same thing. In contrast to mental illness, biblical cases of demon possession always contain an element of debasement. There is uncleanness and moral defilement present. Also in the biblical accounts of demon possession, we see an immediate recognition by the demon of the character and identity of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ would deliver people from demons, those demons would often call out and say, "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are the Holy One of God" (Luke 4:34 NASB). The demons used titles for Jesus that the human victims of possession could not know. Though demons are in opposition to God, they inhabit the invisible realm and are well acquainted with spiritual realities; only such creatures could have instantly recognized the authority of Jesus Christ. There is also the presence of a totally distinct and different personality involved. In some cases, multiple demonic personalities are involved, as in the incident where Jesus asks the name of the demon and the demon's reply is, "My name is Legion, for we are many" (Mark 5:9 NASB).

Finally, we see that Jesus is able to transfer demons from individuals to animals something that is never observed in cases of mental illness.

If demon possession is merely mental sickness or a hallucination or some kind of schizophrenia, then how did the demons leave the man, enter the herd of swine, and send them rushing to drown themselves in the sea? These cases simply do not conform to any clinical pattern of known mental disease.

The finale authority on the difference between demon possession and mental disease is Jesus. When Jesus sent out His disciples, He gave them authority to cast out demons.

Those who deny the authority of the Word of God claim Jesus was simply accommodating Himself to the way of thinking of the people of His day. They believed in demons and devils, so He simply spoke in those same terms. However, it is impossible to take that position and be consistent with the rest of the account of Christ's ministry, for we see Him constantly correcting misconceptions like that. On one occasion He said to His disciples concerning another matter, "If it were not so, I would have told you" (John 14:2). Jesus did not come to the world to accommodate the superstitions and misconceptions of the people; He came to reveal the truth about the world as it really is.

However, when education becomes purely secular and denies the Bible and God, then even though men and women reject superstition and profess a degree of sophistication about these matters not all this is enough to keep these powers at bay. As our world grows godless and secularized, we will witness an increasing tide of demonic manifestation in our culture. There is no power in man to withhold these forces or to stand against them, because this is the manifestation of the god of this world.

When we, as Christians, are confronted with what we suspect is demon possession, the one thing we are told to do to help such people is to pray. These cases of demon possession, Jesus said, yield to concerted and persistent prayer. There is no need to chant or sprinkle holy water or conduct exorcism rituals, as the sensationalized Hollywood horror movies portray. Prayer is the recommended therapy in any case of this type. Let us give ourselves to prayer and nothing else.

For the sake of a balanced perspective, the New Testament letters of the apostles seldom mention the direct attack of Satan against human beings. There are a few instances of this sort of attack. However, after our Lord physically left the world there seems to be a reduction in the evidence of demonic activity. As we see in the four Gospels, these dark powers were no doubt stirred up by His presence on earth, but they seem to be less active as we move through the book of Acts and on into the letters of Paul and the other apostles. The letters of Paul has little to say about the direct attack of satanic forces. He does address the indirect attack of satanic forces in his letters.

The Bible tells us that the indirect approach of the devil comes largely through two means, "the world" and "the flesh." We often hear it said that the enemies of the Christian are the world, the flesh, and the devil, as though these were three equally powerful enemies. However, there are not three. There is only one enemy, the devil, as Paul tells us in Ephesians 6. However, our enemy, the devil, uses these two means, the world and the flesh, to make his indirect attack against us.

When the Bible uses the term "the flesh," it does so in a symbolic sense. The flesh, in this context, is not our bodies, not the meat and blood and bones of our physical life. It is a term that describes the urge to self-centeredness within us, that distortion of human nature that makes us want to be our own god the proud ego, the uncrucified self that is the seat of willful defiance and rebellion against authority.

We are all born with this sinful nature. None of us had to be taught to be self-centered. Who taught us to lie? Who taught us to be proud, bitter, rebellious, defiant, and self-centered? We never had to take classes in these. We are all born with "the flesh." This sinful nature makes us sinners.

"The world," on the other hand, is the corporate expression of all the flesh-centered individuals who make up the human race. Since the flesh is in every human being acting in a way that is satanic, sensual, and earthly the total combined expression of such beings constitutes the world and determines the philosophy of the world. It is that tremendous pressure of the majority upon the minority to conform, adjust, keep in step, and go along with the crowd, however, Paul told the Romans, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world" (Romans .12:2 NASB). In other words, "Do not let the world squeeze you into its mold" because the world is flesh-centered, flesh-governed, and as Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit" (John 3:6 NASB). In order to be changed, people must be born of the Spirit. Therefore, this is the world that human society that insists on satanic value judgments and is guided by satanic pride and philosophy. While the world is unaware of it, nevertheless, it is under the control of satanic philosophy.

We must never forget the devil seeks to destroy, ruin, and make waste. That is his purpose toward you and me. You can probably think of people who gave the devil some toehold in their lives, and the devil used it to destroy their lives. Perhaps they got involved in some habit that took over their lives, such as drugs or promiscuous sex or pornography. They may have destroyed their family relationship by their habitual rage or destructive tongue. They may have turned aside from the truth of God in order to chase some worldly philosophy or wealth or prestige or self-centered idea of "fulfillment." It is a story that is repeated. Satan's desire is to destroy a life God loves and in that particular life, Satan wins because that individual was not aware of the schemes of the devil.

Therefore, we have been called to a battle against a vicious, scheming, unseen enemy. We are called to battle not only for our own sakes, not only for our own families, but also for the sake of others around us. We must warn those around us that life is a battle, and that the enemy has us in his cross hairs. We must warn one another to be aware of the devil's schemes, so that we can be armed and defended against the devil's attacks. In addition, we must pray for one another, because our only true defender is Jesus Himself.

If Christians, who are the salt of the earth, are not devoted to an intense, intelligent battle against Satan and satanic forces, if we as believers did not choose to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, then human life could not exist on this planet. The forces of evil would run rampant and unopposed throughout human society, and life on earth would be a horrible, unendurable hell. It is the presence of Christians, and the Holy Spirit who lives within us, and the gospel that we bring, that makes the world as livable and bearable as it is, even for non-Christians.

Therefore, we have an enormous responsibility before God and before the entire world to give body, soul, to this great battle against the schemes of the evil one. We have a responsibility to battle the schemes of the devil in this world, and to point the way to the peace and security that lies ahead of us in the world to come.

Retired pastor,Church of the Nazarene

Author of web site Exploring God's Word

www.thewordofgodonline.net

New American Standard Bible

King James Version

The World English Bible

Sermons and Bible studies preached and taught by author

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