Ready For Anything (Part 2: In The Heavenly Realm Series

Intro

As we approach a Presidential election, we all feel a degree of uncertainty about the future. The agendas of the two parties are very different and would take the whole nation on very different paths. What will be the outcome of the coming election? How will that affect each of us personally? How will it affect our loved ones? We wonder what is in store politically.

The Middle East is at war. Will that war be temporarily resolved, or will it escalate? It is amazing how prominent the tiny nation of Israel is in world affairs. But the Bible predicted that would be the case in the last days.

China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran are strengthening their alliance, and we know their intentions toward America are not good. Russia has moved nuclear vessels to Cuba, and the threat of war has never been this severe since the Cuban Crisis in 1962. Additionally, our adversaries have formed an economic alliance designed to counter the dollar as the international currency of exchange. BRICS is a serious challenge to the economic future of America.

There are also big changes happening in the American church, especially in some of the megachurches. What is God doing in the church? There seems to be a sifting going on. Judgment begins in the house of the Lord (1 Pet. 4:17). Is this a prelude to judgment in the nation? Perhaps it is a prelude to revival. Nobody knows for sure.

We could go on with specific issues in our personal lives and families. There is a lot about the future that we simply do not know (James 4:14). But the Bible tells us how to be prepared for whatever happens. We can be equipped to navigate the future come what may.i

In the last message, we began a series entitled “Ready for Anything.” If we will follow God's instruction in Scripture, we can be equipped for whatever happens next. In that message, we dealt with Ephesians 6:10-12: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” ii

I intended to begin processing the specific pieces of armor that Paul lists in the verses that follow. But the Lord directed me to slow down and deal with this one phrase: “in the heavenly places.” The Greek phrase is “en tois epouraniois.” The New International Version helps us understand what Paul is talking about. It says, “in the heavenly realms.” It is not referring to a distant place on some other planet or beyond. It is an unseen dimension. As Jack Hayford puts it, this spiritual realm is “one foot above your head and one foot to the right.”iii In other words, it is right here with us.

A key to understanding the book of Ephesians is knowing what these heavenly places are. It is referred to five times in the epistle. The Greek is exactly the same each time. I will deal with each reference because understanding these passages helps us interpret our text in Ephesians 6.

I. Ephesians 1:3 tells us that the RESOURCES we need in life are stored there for us.iv

God has provided “everything we need for a godly life” (2 Pet. 1:3 NIV), but we must learn to go to the storehouse through prayer and receive the resources we need for daily life. It is already there for us. But the benefit of these resources is experienced only when we lay hold on them by faith. Romans 5:2 says, “we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand.” Do you want to stand firm in the day of battle? Learn to access the grace needed.v Learn to exercise faith and lay hold of the resources need for victory. It is all there waiting for us. But we must access it by faith.

God gave the Promise Land to Israel. But he required them to exercise faith, defeat the inhabitants, and possess the land. That is what the book of Joshua is all about. The book of Joshua is a good companion text for the book of Ephesians. They were taking physical ground. We are taking spiritual ground. “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). We have an assignment that must be fulfilled. And there will be some battles to fulfill it.

The armor that Paul talks about in our text is the armor “of God.”vi We do not manufacture this armor. God provides it. In the Greek, the phrase “of God” is a genitive of source or origin. God has provided all the armor we need to win every battle.