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Spiritual Warfare - Part 7 of 7

by Paul George  
12/04/2008 / Bible Studies

Ephesians 6:10-17

Quotes from the 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."

Each of us as Christians has been given the Word of God and we have been told to use it to help rid the world of the evil existing in the world. However, we can only rid the world of the evil existing in the world when we shut off the flow of evil that pours into our own hearts from the world rulers of this present darkness. That is exactly what the apostle Paul urges in Ephesians chapter six verses ten through thirteen. We can be of no possible help in solving the moral, social, and spiritual problems of the world as long as we remain part of the problem. This whole passage is designed to awaken us and call our attention to the need for understanding the nature of our problem. As we have seen, it is through the world and the flesh that Satan makes his indirect and most insidious attack upon human life. The world demands our conformity to its false values and ideas, and mercilessly punishes those who refuse to conform. That is why, down through the centuries and right into the present day, the world has practiced persecution and intimidation against Christians because when Christians truly practice their faith and preach the gospel, the world and its false values stand exposed and condemned. The flesh is that urge within us toward rebellion, toward being our own little gods accountable to no one, responsible to no one, obeying no one, respecting no one, and running our own little worlds to suit ourselves.

This struggle against the influences of the world and the flesh is a battle in which we are all engaged every moment of our lives because the world, the outer arena of battle, is always around us while the flesh, the inner arena of battle, is always within us. We cannot escape "the world," nor can we run away from "the flesh." You might be thinking that when you became a Christian, Jesus set you free from the kingdom of Satan and Satan and his demonic forces could no longer touch you. You might be thinking when you accepted Jesus as your Savior and Lord He took you out of the conflict between good and evil. If that is your concept of the Christian life, you could not be more wrong. When you become a Christian that is when the battle really begins.

Satan becomes very vicious when one of his children escapes from his dominion. He brings the full force of his evil power against the escapee in an effort to discourage, dishearten, and regain control over the escapee. Sometimes Satan attacks the escapee as "a roaring lion." At other times he comes as "an angel of light," offering the escapee some attractive lure that seems so right yet has a deadly, poisonous trap hidden within. Sometimes Satan uses "the world" with its intimidating pressure to conform, and to go with the flow to avoid being thought of as fanatics or religious extremists. However, most often Satan uses "the flesh."

We are subject to the influence of the world rulers of this present darkness through our mind, our feelings, and our actions through our intelligence, our emotions, and our will. Through the mind, Satan makes his appeal to human pride. Through the emotions, Satan uses fear and passion in his attempts to defeat Christians. In the realm of our actions, our behavior, the things we choose to do and say, Satan makes his appeal to pleasure, since we are essentially sensuous beings. This appeal is illustrated by the account of Eve's conversation with the serpent in the Garden of Eden. We are told that when she saw that the fruit was good for food, the appeal to the body, and it was a delight to the eyes, the appeal to the emotions, and when she saw that it was desired to make one wise, the appeal to the pride of mind, the appeal to intelligence, and the love of wisdom and knowledge, she took it and ate.

These are the methods by which human beings are moved, whether for good or for ill. Both God and Satan appeal to us by these methods. You may say, "If God and Satan use the same methods to move us, whether for good or for evil what is the difference?" The difference is Satan uses these methods to create disharmony, and evil. God uses these methods moves, however, toward harmony, and good. The difference is not how they work, but the direction in which they move. This is revealed in the Gospel message.

The Gospel message is an appeal to our humanity, to our whole being, body, soul, and spirit, and to the whole of life. It is this fact that reveals the divine origin of the Gospel Message. The Gospel message deals with and explains all of history. It has a clear and consistent worldview, and it provides a framework for every science, every endeavor to investigate reality, and every effort to understand and make sense of all the events of history. The Gospel message does not simply deal with the symptoms of the human condition. It offers a radical solution to our basis problem. We often come to Christ asking him to resolve some immediate difficulty in which we find ourselves. The Lord does not simply treat our symptoms and stop there. He knows us better than we know ourselves, and He knows that if He merely solves this small problem here or that difficulty there, He has only touched the surface of our lives. The rest of our lives, the core of our lives, will remain diseased and dying. Therefore, in His gospel, Jesus makes His appeal and applies His power to the wholeness of our humanity and to the wholeness of our lives. His goal is to confront the disharmony that sin and Satan produce in our lives, and to bring us into a harmonious relationship with God and our fellowman. You can see this harmonious relationship with God in the life of Jesus.

In contrast, Satan tries to create disharmony. He works overtime to enlarge one element of human nature at the expense of the others. Many people actually take pride in emphasizing one part of their being above everything else. There are the intellectuals, they say there is nothing important in life but the mind, the ability to reason, and they give themselves over completely to the development of that one area of life. As a result, they are so impractical, emotionless and dull in their personalities that we can hardly live with them.

Then there are the emotional people. These people are always living in their momentary emotions. They are led about by their feelings. They do not make careful, thoughtful decisions based on biblical principles, facts, or information. They simply do whatever "feels good" or "feels right" and as a result, they create enormous chaos for themselves and the people around them. The world has become increasingly filled with people who believe that feelings are all that matter. Rarely, anymore, do you hear people say, "What do you think about this or that?" Usually, people today ask, "How do you feel about it?"

Then there are the pragmatists. They are concerned only with deeds, accomplishments, actions, and results. They do not ask, "What do you think?" They do not ask, "How do you feel?" They ask, "What do you do?" They ask, "What have you accomplished?" They ask, "What's the practical use or benefit of this?"

These are three personality extremes. God did not create human beings to be extremists. He created us to exhibit a rich and well-integrated blend of human intellect, emotion, and will. God did not produce these extremes in us Satan produces them. Consider the realm of the mind. One of the schemes of the devil is to tempt people to exalt reason to the exclusion of faith. Faith is a function of the will, of the soul. That is why faith is the, most human characteristic of humanity. It is our basic motivator. That is why everyone can exercise faith. You are not human; you are not even alive, if you cannot exercise faith.

However, Satan tries to move from faith by appealing to our pride. We love to think of ourselves as rational, intellectual beings that have a logical reason for all our ideas, beliefs, and actions. However, this opens the door to error and arrogant self-deception. We delude ourselves into thinking that we are motivated by logic, when in fact, we are generally motivated by emotions, desires, and we use our intellect to justify our illogical, emotional decisions.

One of the great examples of this that we often hear these days, is the worldly teaching that the Bible is a primitive book for a primitive age, that biblical truth and morality are irrelevant in today's world, that all truly enlightened, educated, modern, or even postmodern people know that the Bible is just a collection of outdated stories, fanciful myths, and out-of-date moral concepts. Secure in our intellectual smugness, we know that the Bible cannot be believed as a historical record, nor relied upon as a moral guide. Not only are we free to ignore biblical truth, but we do not need to believe in any concept of truth. We are free to invent our own reality, our own truth, our own morality, our own worldview, without some deity looking over our shoulder, telling us what is right and wrong.

The same people who tell us that the Bible is no longer relevant and trustworthy never ever stop to consider the fact that the further our society moves away from the teaching of Scripture, the more debased, corrupt, and cruel humanity becomes. As the world has moved away from belief in God and the Bible, we have seen a corresponding rise in crime, political corruption, teen pregnancies, teen suicides, divorce, fatherless children, disrespect for marriage, single parent families, abortion, pornography, drug abuse, alcoholism, racism, plus a general decline in personal integrity, responsibility, decency, and civility.

There is an active effort in our society today to erase the image of God as a loving heavenly Father. It began as an effort to devalue God's image by picturing Him disrespectfully as "the Old Man in the Sky" or "the Man Upstairs." It has gone so far today that even many churches and denominations now picture God not as a Father, but as a gender-neutral heavenly Parent or even a heavenly Mother. The gender politics of the radical feminist movement have successfully infected the church, seeking to destroy the positive image of fatherhood and manhood in general, and the image of the heavenly fatherhood of God in particular.

If you want to be truly enlightened and contemporary in your thinking today, you must view God in a more vague and meaningless way. You must view God not as a person, but as a force or as a universal principle. This view of God is viewed as a revolutionary advance in theological thinking. It is, in fact, nothing but an ancient pagan heresy. We see this in the Apostle Paul's journey to the city of Athens. As he walked around the city, he found evidences of a superstitious, ignorant, and pagan faith everywhere he went. He even found an altar dedicated "To An Unknown God." Then he went to Mars Hill and spoke to the intellectual elite of Athens (Acts 17: 23, 25, 28).

Paul told them, even you as pagans are intelligent enough to know that God does not dwell in temples made of stone. How could the Creator of the universe be contained by such a man-made dwelling place? Even your own Greek poets recognize the fact that God is not far from anyone of us, for in Him we live, move, and have our being. You already know that much about God now I'm going to give you the complete, biblical revelation, so that you will know exactly who God is.

Primitive faith is the simplest level of faith, and we see such primitive, uninformed, ignorant, searching, groping faith among the intellectual elite of Mars Hill, and with many of today's nonspecific faiths, such as the New Age movement. Many New Agers believe in a concept they call "God" but they are apathetic or actively hostile toward faith in Jesus Christ. Like the intellect of Athens, they worship an unknown God, and they do so in ignorance. It is Satan's plan to keep such people in their ignorance, always searching and never finding the truth that is right in front of their eyes.

We also see primitive, simple faith in many recovery movements. Many in the recovery movements say the Lord's Prayer and believe in a "higher power" but do not recognize Jesus Christ as their "higher power." This is not a criticism of those who are at this searching, groping stage, there are many Christians today whose first introduction to God was in the form of this vague "higher power." As they grew in their understanding and dependence upon God for their deliverance, Jesus gradually revealed Himself to them. In time, they became not merely followers of a "higher power," but followers of the risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

However, there are also many in the recovery movements who never move beyond primitive faith. There are even some who claim a pagan deity, a New Age concept, or some other substitute deity as their higher power. Though the recovery movements have accomplished much good and have saved many people from their destructive habits, Satan will use anything to accomplish his purposes. It is part of his strategy to keep people locked in a primitive faith, never moving on to a more mature faith in Jesus Christ. Satan will frequently keep people in their primitive faith by appealing to human pride. Satan cleverly appeals to human pride and arrogance, deceiving the intellectual elite into thinking that ancient pagan myths and heresies are new advances in religious thought.

Another scheme Satan employs against us in the realm of the intellect is doubt. The devil plants his heresies and incites false teaching. False teaching always takes an extreme position exaggerating one particular aspect of truth and blowing it out of proportion, turning some small piece of God's truth into an overblown, extreme position. Satan uses this ploy to promote false ideas about himself. He will cause some Christians to become so focused and fanatical about the subject of Satan and demons that they lose their focus on God and His Son and His power and fall into occultism, and other obsessive, fear-focused practices and beliefs.

At the other extreme, Satan will lead some people including many church people, to become so intellectually smug that they refuse to believe in the existence of a real, personal devil. There are pastors and church leaders who say, they believe in God and Jesus Christ, but do not believe in the existence of a personal devil. If that is not a perfect way to trap unsuspecting prey, what is? That is why duck hunters hide in a blind, waiting for the ducks to pass by, unaware of the double-barreled, 16-gauge death that is waiting to explode in their direction, and that is exactly what Satan does. He hides, he lays in wait, he persuades people that there is no such thing as a real, personal devil and that is the perfect set-up for an ambush. When humanity is unbelieving and unsuspecting, then Satan is perfectly free to do exactly what he wants among us.

Another scheme Satan employs against us in the realm of the intellect is emotions. From childhood, we have been used to reacting to the way we feel and accepting the way we feel as a legitimate and accurate description of the way things are. Nothing could be more foolish. There is no more uncertain, unreliable, and unrealistic guide in life than our emotions. Emotions are like the tide, they come and go, and most of the time they do not relate to reality at all, because they are subject to so many influences changing circumstances, our own changing perspective, and even the hormonal and chemical changes that take place within the human body and human brain.

Satan seduces some Christians into the belief that true worship, true faith; true joy consists of constant emotionalism. These Christians must have a regular dose of hand clapping, shouting, dancing, falling down, and an array of seemingly miraculous manifestations. If they do not experience these extreme emotional experiences, they feel that they are no longer experiencing the Christian life; they are no longer in the Spirit. This can lead to an emotionalism where the Christian alternates between feelings of religious ecstasy and feelings of abject defeat and depression. God never intended for us to live that way. He intended us to live our lives not trusting in momentary surges of emotion, but in His unchanging promises and truths.

Satan seduces others into an opposite extreme, a view of emotion that says happiness is sinful and that joy is a mark of spiritual shallowness. Such Christians are all gloom and introspection, and the faith they practice is not what Christianity was intended to be. This extreme is no more godly and Christian than is extreme emotionalism. God created us as emotional beings, and He reaches us not only through our intellect and our will, but also through our emotions. Satan's scheme is to distort our emotions so that we are in one extreme or the other, so that we are either all emotion or no emotion at all.

Another way Satan uses human emotion to keep Christians defeated is through negative emotions. He preys on our thoughts and induces worry in us, making us anxious about the future, anxious about making decisions, anxious about whether or not God really loves us, whether or not we truly belong to Him. God's prescription for this form of satanic attack is found in Philippians 4:6, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."
On the other hand, the devil may appeal to us through our fears. He attacks our effectiveness by making us timid and afraid to move out in faith, to live boldly and speak out boldly for God, and to dare great things for God. Satan always appeals to our fears while God always appeals to our faith. From faith comes hope and love, but Satan wants us to give way to our fears. God's solution for this scheme of the devil is found in 1 John chapter four verse eighteen, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love" (NASB).

Fear is the failure of faith. If you give way to fear, you will soon be discouraged and defeated. If you give way to defeat, you will begin to hate and Satan will have accomplished his purposes. He has destroyed, he has ruined, he has laid waste that which God loves and desires to bless.

Another scheme Satan employs against us in the realm of our will and our behavior. He tries to push us into becoming "workaholics," never knowing peace or rest or satisfaction, always driven, always active and often exhausted and defeated. He may even push us toward religious activity, being so busy working in the church and Christian groups that we never take time to "Be still" ( Psalm 46:10). We become like Martha in Luke 10. She was always busy, always doing, always preparing, cleaning, and taking care of her guests and then she became bitter and annoyed when her sister Mary was found sitting at the feet of Jesus listening, learning, worshiping, and reveling in the presence of her Lord. It was Mary, the learner, who chose the better part, not Martha the workaholic. If you see yourself as Martha right now, you need to be very careful and very much aware that you may have succumbed to one of the devil's schemes and it is time to wake up and find the peace in life that God intended you to have.

Satan will also push us in a different direction of activity he will lead us to wear a rut in the road of our lives, to dig such a deep trench of habits for ourselves that we cannot get out. We become slaves to tradition, habit, and daily custom. We go through life doing the same old thing, never risking, never attempting anything new, never allowing anything to shake us out of our complacency, until we one day reach the end of our lives only to discover that we never truly lived, never truly discovered the blessings that God planned for our lives.

At this point, you may be thinking, "How can I possibly hope to fend off such attacks? The devil is too clever, and his schemes are too potent for me. I can never stand-alone against such an enemy." You are right you cannot stand-alone. The good news is that you are not alone. Remember, Paul's word to us is "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes." You see, God has made a provision for you. Only when we recognize we are weak are we truly ready to "be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power."

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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