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.
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Spiritual Warfare And Our Defense Weapons
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Spiritual warfare begins practically at birth. The toddler ignores mother’s warning not to touch the hot stove and touches it anyway. Thus the will is born. The teenager, in spite of home, school, and common sense, follows after the peer group. Rebellion is mounted. The adult allows business, pleasure , or other manifestations of the world to drown out the still small voice of God. Wrong paths are chosen.
Spiritual warfare springs from within rather than from without. God is regulated to the status of Santa Claus and sug
javascript”> ar plum fairies and becomes an interesting idea, perhaps, but certainly not central to REAL: LIFE. And the pilgrim is lost. The hopeless forest, the burning desert, the terrors of the deep consumes him until one day he awakes with the anguish cry, “my God, where did I g
o wrong”.
In his lost-ness, he cries out the prayer of the lost, “Oh God, if there is a God, save my soul if I have a soul”. Thus the” Divine Other” has become, for the lost soul, the frightful specter of nothingness.
For the spiritual struggle, Paul, in Ephesians 6, lists, in military terms, our weapons: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the(boots) of readiness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Paul’s words are imperative but at the same time bring a sense of loneliness, of facing the enemy alone, especially when our struggle is” not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, the authorities, the powers of this dark world”. Paul’s pictures us, not matter how strong, no matter how brave, standing alone against an unconquerable foe. While this is quite true for us in our own strength; it is not true for those that are in Christ Jesus.
For we are not alone. What seems to us an impossible, lonely struggle, is, in reality, a battle already won by Jesus Christ. As we face our spiritual battles, let us heed Paul’s admonitions to equip ourselves with the armor of God , to be sure, but, further, let us look with a faith, which refuses to recognize despair, to Jesus Christ as He leads us through those fears that so beset us to the one eternal victory; the placing in God’s hands our immortal souls.
Chandler Lanier
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