Uncovering the Unseen Realm: Our Role as Believers
January 5, 2025
Dr. Bradford Reaves
Crossway Christian Fellowship
Ephesians 6:10-17
2 Kings 6:15-17
Introduction: The Reality Beyond the Veil
Good morning, church. Today, we step into a realm that few talk about but all of us are affected by—the unseen realm. Think about it: We accept the existence of things we cannot see, like gravity, wind, or radio waves. We experience their effects even though they are invisible. In the same way, there is a spiritual reality just as real, if not more so, than the physical world we live in. Yet most Christians say that Satan is just a metaphor of evil; the same with the demonic realm. Yet the Bible says he is real and our enemy.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)
The Apostle Paul is saying the real battle is not against people—it’s against spiritual forces of evil. Sadly , what usually happens, especially among believers is that we battle others in our family, our churches, our neighbors, and others, not realizing our battle is against demonic forces. Last fall, I did a series on spiritual blindness. Today, we are going on in that series by starting an extensive series on spiritual warfare. We will uncover this unseen realm, understand the enemy’s tactics, and learn how to stand firm in the victory we have in Jesus Christ.
I. The Spiritual Realm: A Biblical Foundation
We need to begin by grounding ourselves in Scripture. In Ephesians 6:10-12, Paul commands us to “be strong in the Lord” and to “put on the whole armor of God.” He describes a battle not fought with weapons of this world, but one that rages in the spiritual realm. Then we turn to 2 Kings 6:15-17, where Elisha’s servant is terrified by the sight of an enemy army surrounding their city.
15 When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” 16 He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 17 Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (2 Kings 6:15–17)
These passages remind us of two critical truths:
1. There is an actual spiritual realm influencing the physical world. We cannot see it, but it is influencing our culture, our governments, our behaviors, and nearly every aspect of our lives. However, just because we can’t see it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist and it also doesn’t mean that we don’t have influence over the demonic realm. That’s what we call spiritual warfare.
II. The Kingdom of Satan: A Counterfeit and Inversion
One of Satan’s greatest deceptions is his counterfeit kingdom. This is what I call and the Bible a Babylonian Kingdom. It is built on the foundation that man can achieve anything because we ourselves can be gods. In reality it is a counterfeit kingdom build on Satan’s rebellion against God
God’s kingdom is built on truth and love. Satan’s kingdom is built on lies and rebellion. For example, God’s moral law commands us to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:5) and to love our neighbor as our self (Leviticus 19:18). What does Satan do? He perverts love to make it about self gratification instead of honoring God.Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew 16:24 “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
In contrast, Aleister Crowley, a man steeped in occultism, proclaimed, “Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.” This mantra encapsulates Satan’s strategy: invert and corrupt everything God has ordained.
Examples of Satan’s Inversion:
1. Truth vs. Deception: God is truth (John 14:6), but Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44).
2. Life vs. Death (John 10:10) God’s kingdom is life-giving, Satan’s kingdom is self-destructive
2. Order vs. Chaos: God establishes order through His Word; Satan sows confusion and moral anarchy.
3. Humility vs. Pride: God calls us to humility, while Satan’s rebellion was rooted in pride (Isaiah 14:14).
7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. (2 Thessalonians 2:7–8)
Even today, we see these inversions in culture. For instance, the normalization of sin in entertainment. Everything
that Holywood is putting out is in direct opposition to the values of God. Hollywood is all about stirring up emotion, we know that Satan is an emotional being because he's filled with pride and hate he disguises it at love. There's no love in him, there's no compassion, there's no mercy, it's pride and hate. And so many producers and actors make deals with Satan for fame, money, and fortune.
This is also why transgenderism has become militantly aggressive to anything of God. Worldliness creates enmity between you and God, because now you're part of the satanic system that's actually working against God's program. So a worldly philosophy will direct a person towards satanic goals
Most people do not know it, but they're being influenced by the world system and the satanic world. So for instance, there are school systems that are promoting critical race theory, and with that comes all kinds of weird stuff, like the alphabet mafia, pedophilia, transgender, communism, socialism. Because once you start down that road, you have to take the train to the end of the station. It’s the premise that all humans are inherently evil, which is contradictory to the teaching of the Bible.
So a guy went in front of the Loudon County School Board who's pushing transgenderism. He there to point out that a boy wearing a skirt walked into the girls locker room and raped his daughter. He said, it's because of your transgender obsession that you're putting girls in harm's way and his daughter got raped in school. What did they do? They hauled him away through the police. He was just voicing his opinion and those pushing transgenderism on our kids protect the satanic ideology, rather than doing what’s right. That's the counterfeit program that is in opposition to God and you can do the same things on a geopolitical level.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. (Romans 1:26–27)
So these people who are pushing a satanic worldly system and don't even know that they're pushing satanic things. They think these are good things, because they're so brainwashed by and blinded that something that is evil is good.
The other thing that Satan does is with the rise of movements promoting self-worship and moral relativism. In essence, you will pretend to be like God because you're making up your own rules, which is exactly what wokeism is today, right? It's the individual makes up their rules and they apply them to based on how they feel and experience life, right? So they, in essence, become their own God. That's relativism. They don't believe in absolute morality, absolute truth, right? And so, these people just, I make the rules up as I go and how I see fit.
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. (Genesis 3:1–7)
That's coming from the garden. That's what wokeism is. Becoming your own God.
1. Redefining Good and Evil:
• God had explicitly commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17), establishing an absolute standard. Eve, however, chose to rely on her own judgment, seeing the fruit as “good for food” and “a delight to the eyes,” contrary to God’s clear command.
2. Relying on Human Reasoning: The serpent’s deception in verse 5 (“You will be like God, knowing good and evil”) led Eve to evaluate the fruit by her own logic rather than trusting God’s word. Moral relativism often arises when human reasoning supersedes God’s authority, leading people to justify actions that align with their desires rather than God’s will.
3. Elevating Personal Desire Over Divine Authority: Eve’s decision was driven by three desires:
• “Good for food”—the physical appeal of the fruit.
• “Delight to the eyes”—the aesthetic or emotional allure.
• “Desired to make one wise”—the prideful aspiration to gain wisdom apart from God.
• This echoes 1 John 2:16: “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.”
4. Influencing Others to Sin. Eve gave the fruit to Adam, who also ate, spreading disobedience and further rejecting God’s truth. Moral relativism doesn’t stay isolated; it often influences others, creating a ripple effect of rebellion.
III. The Modus Operandi of Demonic Forces
The same tactics Satan used in the garden, he is using today. The first and primary tactic is to convince us that there’s an alternative to being obedient to God’s Word. Satan’s tactics can be summarized in three words: deception, division, and destruction.
1. Deception: Satan masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). So he has to do it clandestine. He has to do it in the shadows. He has to hide himself. He has to appear as an angel of light. “I'm just here to help you.” And therefore, what he does is demonic worship.We see this in the New Age movement, the normalization of occult practices, and ideologies that distort God’s truth, Anime, etc. Jesus said he is the light of the world. Paul tells us that Satan is an angel of light. We need to have discernment.
2. Division: Satan uses politics, racial tensions, and even theological debates to fracture the body of Christ. One of the fastest ways Satan can take down a church is by dividing it over inconsequential things - or even disagreements over serious issues, but the issue is lost in the discord of the church or the family or the marriage. Churches embracing cultural ideologies over biblical truth are a clear example of this tactic.
3. Destruction: Jesus warns in John 10:10 that Satan comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. We see this in the breakdown of families, mental health crises, addiction, and the erosion of godly values in society. Look, Satan hates churches that preach the Bible, men that follow godly leadership, espeically in the home, and the family unit.
IV. Our Role as Believers in the Spiritual Battle
So, what is our role in this battle?
1. Stand Strong in Christ
• Ephesians 6:10 says, “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.” Our strength comes not from ourselves, but from our relationship with Christ.
As believers, our role in the spiritual battle is rooted in standing strong in Christ and discerning the enemy’s work. The Apostle Paul exhorts us in Ephesians 6:10-11 to rely on God’s strength and put on His full armor. This includes truth, righteousness, faith, salvation, the Word of God, and prayer—all of which equip us to resist the devil’s schemes. Spiritual preparation is not passive; it requires intentional effort to grow in faith, engage in prayer, and immerse ourselves in Scripture.
2. Put on the Full Armor of God:
It’s not hard to look at people, espeically like many of the lucifarians like Bill Gates, Klause Schwab and other and see the demonic activity all around them. That's your discernment saying, “there's something wrong with that guy or that gal.” What you have to remember is, they have no protection whatsoever from Satan. You and I have protection from the Armor of God and the Holy Spirit. They don’t. They are completely naked spiritually.
This is important when you're dealing with people, even on a one-on-one basis to see the bigger picture. What Satan wants you to do is to get so focused on the person, instead of seeing the spiritual battle happening in their life and if they are not a believer, they have no armor.
3. Discern the Enemy’s Work:
• Hebrews 5:14 reminds us to “have our powers of discernment trained by constant practice.” Discernment is equally crucial in recognizing the enemy’s tactics. Satan often masquerades as an angel of light, presenting lies as truth and twisting God’s Word to deceive even believers. Through constant practice of spiritual disciplines and reliance on the Holy Spirit, we can distinguish between godly truth and satanic deception. Believers are called not only to resist evil but also to proclaim God’s truth in a world increasingly swayed by relativism and moral decay.
Practical application: Test everything against Scripture (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
V. The Victory of Believers in Christ
The good news is that the battle has already been won. Colossians 2:15 declares: “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Him.” In 2 Kings 6, Elisha reassured his servant, “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” No matter how fierce the battle becomes, we fight from a place of victory. Jesus Christ has already conquered sin, death, and Satan.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:57)
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:37)
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
That is the position we always start from in spiritual warfare. It’s not about our own skill. It’s about our relationship in Jesus Christ. When we start in the battle under him, we follow his command and discern the spirits and he wins the victory.
Conclusion: Open Your Eyes
As we close, let me ask you: Have your eyes been opened to the reality of the unseen realm? Do you recognize the spiritual battle raging around you? This series is not just another sermon series. It’s a call to awaken, to stand firm, and to fight with the confidence that the One who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world (1 John 4:4).
