Going into Battle
Ephesians 6:10-18
Sometimes Veterans will ask me, “If there is a God, how could he allow such evil to happen in the world? Why doesn’t he do something about it? Does he not care? Is he not strong enough?” I assure them that God does care and that he is strong enough. And that he is, in fact, at work. Someday he will deal with the devil finally and completely. Until then, he does allow the devil to stir up trouble all over the world. Yet, all the evil in the world traces back to the sinful human heart.
So how is God involved now? How does God choose to make a difference in our world? Through our prayers. I don’t understand it. Why would he trust us to pray like we should? And why would he choose to use our imperfect prayers and impure motives to do his work? The best that I can understand, God chooses to work through our prayers to build our faith and to draw others to faith.
Now there are all kinds of prayers. A family was having guests over for dinner. At the table, the mother turned to her six-year-old daughter and said, “Dear, would you like to say the blessing?”
“I wouldn't know what to say,” replied the little girl.
“Just say what you hear Mommy say, sweetie.”
Her daughter took a deep breath, bowed her head, and solemnly said, “Dear Lord, why the heck did I invite all these people to dinner?”
Now that's an honest prayer!
So there are all kinds of prayers. A few years ago, Steven Curtis Chapman wrote the theme song for the National Day of Prayer. The chorus went,
Let us pray, let us pray, everywhere in every way
Every moment of the day, it is the right time
For the Father above, He is listening with love
And He wants to answer us, so let us pray
Sometimes we pray quick prayers, like, “Help me, Lord! ... Give me the right words here ... Change my attitude ... Give me strength.” But sometimes we pray more earnestly. Sometimes we are absolutely desperate for God. These kinds of prayers are like spiritual warfare: we need God to overcome the evil one. Maybe these kinds of prayers are what J.C. Ryle had in mind when he said, “Trials are intended to make us think; to wean us from the world; to send us to the Bible; to drive us to our knees.” So when it comes to more serious kinds of prayers, consider these three action steps as you go into battle:
1. Recognize the reality of the spiritual world (v. 12)
We think the physical world is what’s real. But you know what? It’s not as real as the spiritual world. The physical world is only temporary. All that you see, all that you experience with your five senses, it’s all going to pass away someday.
What’s most real is the spiritual world. Why? Because elements of it will last forever. You have a physical body that is temporary, but you have a spiritual self, some people call it a soul, that is forever. The Bible talks about angelic beings who serve God as his messengers and warriors. They act on his behalf. A third of them fell from heaven with Satan, when his pride got the best of him. And those are demons, fallen angels. The spiritual world is a world of battle, between good and evil, between angels and demons, between God’s will and Satan’s will. There is more than meets the eye. There is a whole world that we cannot experience with our five senses.
Many years ago I loved the fiction books of Frank Peretti, like “This Present Darkness” and “Pursuing the Darkness.” In these and others, he masterfully pulled back the curtain to show us the spiritual world that is otherwise outside of our grasp. And he tied the events of that world to the prayers of faithful Christians.
The Apostle Paul contrasts these two worlds—the physical world and the spiritual world—in verse 12. After he recognizes that there is a scheming devil behind all the evil in the world, he writes, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” So the first thing we need to do is to recognize where our real struggle lies.
You thought you simply could not get along with that irritating person in your life. But below the surface, there are demons at work seeking to sow conflict, seeking to inflate selfishness and pride and greed and hatred, seeking to destroy relationships and thwart God’s plans. You hear about hatred and murder, lust and rape. Behind each terrible act is the devil and his demons, tempting people one step at a time until they choose to act in sinful ways. As God warned Cain before he committed the first murder, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it” (Genesis 4:7).
Recognize the reality of the spiritual world. Know there is a spiritual conflict happening around you, unseen but real nonetheless. And then, #2,
2. Rely on God’s power to face Satan (vv. 10-11)
You don’t want to go up against the demonic alone. You might feel like the seven sons of Sceva, who were not even believers but were trying to cast out a demon in Jesus’ name. Acts 19 records the outcome: “One day the evil spirit answered them, ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?’ Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding” (Acts 19:15-16). Don’t be a “Sceva deceiva!” (Like that?) Allow Jesus to face Satan.
Paul urges us to rely on God’s power. Listen to Paul’s words in today’s passage, in verses 10 and 11: “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.” Paul says, “Be strong...in the LORD and in HIS might power.” Spiritual warfare is not through your power but through the Lord’s power. Allow him to do the fighting through your prayers. And then #3,
3. Suit up visually for prayer (vv. 13-18)
Paul describes a “panoply” of armor the believer puts on for spiritual warfare. The actual word in the Greek is “panoply.” It’s a complete collection, a full suit of armor. We’ll briefly look at each item, from head to foot. You can follow along with the picture on your outline. I’ve borrowed from the Southern Baptist MasterLife discipleship course this depiction of a Roman soldier in Paul’s day.
First, the helmet of salvation: We can only pray because we are God’s. He has saved us and brought us into a relationship with him. I gave you a verse to think about with each piece of armor. Here I think about 1 John 4:4, which says, “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” The one who is in you, God’s Holy Spirit, is greater than the one who is in the world, the devil. You begin your prayer time remembering before God that you are his. That’s the only reason you can enter into spiritual warfare. Just as the Kevlar helmet, or “steel pot” of old days (hold up) protects the vital organ of the brain, Paul asks us to visualize the helmet of salvation which puts us into relationship with our God.
Secondly, the breastplate of righteousness. This was the body armor of old; it protected the vital organs: the heart, lungs, stomach, and intestines. Psalm 139:23-24 says, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” The heart in the Bible is that center place of one’s will. David’s prayer here speaks of allowing God to get our heart right as we begin: “Help me to know my own heart in this matter, Lord, and let me be about your heart instead.”
The belt of truth held together all the other armor. (I’ve got a web belt here, that holds up all my load bearing equipment.) We must keep our motives as pure as possible as we approach Jesus, the way, the TRUTH, and the life (John 14:6). James 4:3 says, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” Ask God to keep your motives true and pure.
And so it goes, with the sword of the Spirit (Hebrews 4:12), which is the word of God, and the shield of faith (Mark 11:24), and the shoes of the gospel of peace (1 Timothy 2:1, 3-4). Each one prepares us to enter this serious time of prayer before God.
Paul looked around him, and he saw lots of Roman soldiers. After all, he was under house arrest when he wrote the letter to the Ephesians. And he thought about the armor they wore, and he used it to remind himself of how to suit up in prayer, how to attack the evil one through the power of God Almighty, how to engage in spiritual warfare.
Oswald Chambers once wrote, “Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work!” Next time you are weighted down with anxiety, next time you are wondering, “What are you up to, God?,” come before God in earnest prayer. Use the armor as a tool to suit up, to prepare to meet the God of the universe, to plead for his will to be done in the world, for his glory and our good. Let’s pray:
Lord, thank you for your call to earnest prayer. We are humbled that you have chosen to work through our prayers to accomplish your will in the world. We know there is evil, and we need your help to combat it. Help us to be faithful to take up the call to battle in this vital work. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
