Ephesians 6:12
If #1 priority: “love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37) heart/soul/mind is where fiercest part of battle will take place and all must be engaged in battle using resources – strength, armor and weapon – supplied by God, empowered by Spirit, fueled by Word, applied by God-given wits. Satan will use his resources to make something other than God more desirable to us, convince us other parts of life more important than our souls, encourage us to think in wrong ways about important things especially relating to God, his word and fellow Christians.
Important to recognize this warfare engaged in not like much military action today – more like video game than combat in Paul’s day. Our conflict mostly hand-to-hand, each in other’s personal space. To be effective, must rightly identify the enemy and must engage courageously / confidently. If you think you will fail, you probably will, Satan has gained an advantage. Key to confidence is Lord Jesus, what he has achieved, who we are in relation to him.
Also important to remember Satan a created being – different, more powerful than us… still created, and not God. Satan not able to be present more than one place, does not have unlimited power, does not know all things. Means that most if not all the time, we engaged in battle with an agent or instrument of Satan, yet at same time very powerful and dangerous.
A. who the enemy is not
family
we all live in blended families, blend of believers/unbelievers – one or more may act in way that seems hostile, antagonistic
can also be far more subtle, mask over hostility, working to persuade to their point of view – may even be genuine believer, temporarily deceived and being used to deceive others
deceived believer can be very useful to Satan – others don’t have filter turned up, more readily pulled off course
whether family member, close friend, neighbor… they have been tricked… may not even know they are helping Satan – our real enemy not “flesh and blood”
government
real easy to view gov’t at some level in particular place as the enemy – easy b/c gov’t/political individuals are faces of unjust treatment
government one of those things that requires certain people acting in particular ways to have any meaning, often act wrongly
very tempting tools for Satan to use – one or few in gov’t can make things really difficult for lots of those who belong to Jesus
many politicos genuinely convinced are doing right/best thing even in places most hostile to Christians, still are acting to carry out Satan’s agenda
technology
depends on the decade which specific “evil” the one Satan must be using, esp. to ensnare young people, steal them away
rock ‘n roll, color television, cell phones, internet… and of course there’s more – they don’t exist w/o people
is people who use and misuse technology – is Satan’s dark influence persuading people to pervert and misuse good for evil
is most times true for lots of things that banning technology not the solution… especially when it can be used for good
B. who the enemy is
agents
ones who influence from within – demon-possession not limited to one place or time, even Jesus’ presence in world did not prevent it… remember some of his miracles
Satan will send other fallen angels to target those in positions of power – our task not to try to figure out who’s who
the real power behind the ones pulling levers of government and corporate action to do evil comes from poster child of evil
deceived or not, those people do bear some responsibility for their evil actions – as awful as actions are, the people are not beyond reach of God’s saving grace
associates
ones who influence from beside, persuading of untruth and encouraging practice of evil behavior – those who work in abortion clinic are at least persuaded the evil they do is somehow good
and don’t forget God’s people who work in positions of influence and authority – they are especially at risk, pray for them
while believers cannot be demon-possessed, Holy Spirit prevents that, Satan’s associates will definitely try to influence
the devil
the one who leads the rest, coordinating spiritual forces of evil – to extent he can, gets all his forces to work together to push his agenda forward
don’t need to look for Satan or his hosts of wickedness, do need to recognize their deceptions, use only effective weapons we have… against unseen spiritual forces
and… don’t be distracted by QAnon conspiracy theory and others like it – diverts focus from real, greater danger, Satan
C. why we can have confidence – see Col. 2:13-15
Satan’s real goal for believers: “push” them back to where they were before they came to faith in Christ; our task not to crusade against Satan and try to defeat him, ours to stand firm against his “push”, help others do the same
disarmed
our enemies have no weapon guaranteed effective against our armor or weapon… God’s word – God’s truth supplied to us in his word the Bible will unmask their deception
no matter how great our intelligence, reasoning ability… cannot match Satan’s – yet God’s word cannot be broken (John 10:35)
fact is, Satan’s greatest weapon completely taken away: threat of death for failure to keep God’s Law, no longer applies to believer since was satisfied by Christ
disgraced
their defeat by Lord Jesus at cross and empty tomb not carried out in secret – done publicly for all the world to see, hear about
Satan’s power clearly shown to be insufficient in face of Lord Jesus – can make all kinds of claims, obviously lacks power
this kind of public shame especially irksome to Satan, direct insult to his pride – his anger, resentment fuels his desire to destroy
defeated
Satan not permanently locked up but is defeated – not without resources but… both Satan and resources are strictly limited
spiritual forces of evil can only do what God permits and… God will not allow his people to be overcome – his indwelling Spirit guarantees that
Enemy still dangerous, very dangerous. But… have the best protection, best protector – armor of God, commander who is Jesus.
What God clothes us with is nothing less than his own armor, the same armor that Christ has already worn on our behalf in his lifelong struggle with the mortal enemy of our souls, Satan himself. Unlike armchair generals who watch the fighting from a safe distance, Jesus has himself worn the armor and won the victory. You are called to wear the armor of God not because that’s what Jesus would do if he found himself in a similar situation; you are called to wear God’s armor because that is what Jesus has already done, wearing God’s armor all the way to the cross. Iain M. Duguid
This is armor that has been tested and proven fit for the conflict. Need not fear the outcome, instead trust in Jesus – his armor, his presence, his promises, his completed work of redemption on our behalf.
Reformanda 