The Believers And Spiritual Warfare

THE BELIEVER AND SPIRITUAL WARFARE

Study Text: Ephesians 6:10-18

Introduction:

- Most Christians have forgotten that the Christian life is not a playground, but a battlefield. As a result, very few of the Lord's people are armed, equipped and ready to wage spiritual battle.

- Whether we ever believe it or not, we are engaged in spiritual warfare. If we are to be successful in our work for the Lord Jesus, then we must be prepared for that battle and be ready to go to war against the powers of darkness.

- In this passage, we are given insight into the battle we are engaged in and into the weapons with which we are to fight this battle.

- We shall be discussing under three subheadings:

1. The Description of Our Enemy

2. The Direction of Our Efforts

3. The Details of Our Empowerment

1. The Description of Our Enemy

- The enemy we engage in spiritual warfare is the Devil. This is a word that means "slanderer, accuser.". His name reveals his character. Since his first appearance in the Bible, the devil has been in the business of lying, slandering and accusing the people of God. Genesis. 3:1-6; Job 1, 2.

- Our enemy is a spiritual enemy, and not flesh and blood as we are. Too often, we are guilty of fighting the wrong enemy. We will get at odds with our fellow believers, when the real enemy is the devil.

- He is the one causing division and sowing discord among the brethren. We need to understand that our fight is a spiritual battle. The devil might work through people at times to get to us and cause us to stumble, but the real battle is fought on a spiritual level. Our battle is with an unseen army of spiritual enemies lead by the devil himself.

- The kingdom of darkness led by the Devil, is subdivided into four hierarchical categories, but working together under an effective networking system. They are:

1. The Principalities

2. The Powers

3. The Rulers of Darkness of this World

4. The Spiritual Wickedness in High Places

- Having established that our enemy is a spiritual enemy, how then do we go about knowing how to fight him. God has fully exposed our enemy's tactics in His Holy Word. We need to study it and plan on how to effectively challenge him with an assured victory. The key to defeating the devil is understanding how he works. And the secret to that is reading about him in the Word of God.

2. The Direction of Our Efforts

- The Bible makes it clear in these verses that our goal as Christian soldiers is that of standing. This word refers to something that is firmly fixed. It speaks of people who do not waiver.

- If we are to stand in this day of battle, then we must not only know our enemy, but we must be fully prepared for the battle. That is why we are told to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

- The source of our strength is not within ourselves. That is good to know, because there are times when our strength runs low. We are to draw our strength from the "power of His might." This means the Lord can, and will strengthen and energize those who place their trust in Him.

- When a believer's faith is in God, then the Lord's power becomes the power of that believer. When my faith is in God and in His power, then His strength becomes my strength. His power becomes my power. Ephesians 3:20

- We all know that too many believers are not standing, they are falling by the wayside. The direction of our efforts is to ensure that we are standing and this can only be assured by putting our faith in the Lord and by drawing strength from the power of his might. The battle rages all around us. The best we can do is to place our faith in the awesome power of God so that we can stand.

3. The Details of Our Empowerment

- A soldier is no better than his weapons. We have been provided with the best weapons to be victorious continuously in our spiritual warfare. This is described as the whole armour of God.

- Paul is describing the armour of the average Roman soldier. For these soldiers to be effective in battle, they need to be protected on the battlefield. Paul uses the image of their armour to teach us about how we need to dress up for the day of battle. The pieces of the weapons available to us are :

1. The Girdle of Truth

- This girdle encircled the waist and served to stabilize the body, protect the mid-section and provide the soldier with a place to restrain his garments so that his movements in the heat of battle would be unhindered.