Ephesians 6:10-20 – Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having belted your waist with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having strapped on your feet the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With every prayer and request, pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be alert with all perseverance and every request for all the saints, and pray in my behalf, that speech may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.What is the battle? It is a prayer battle. We see what is happening in the world. We have been taught about spiritual battles, but most don’t see the spiritual things happening behind the natural things. They just get more and more confused, frustrated and full of fear. It is time we begin to understand that it is a spiritual battle – more than just in our doctrine.
What is the battle?
It is a prayer battle. We see what happening in the world is a spiritual battle. We have been taught about spiritual battles, but most don’t see the spiritual things happening behind the natural things. We take this passage in Ephesians as doctrine more than a reality. People just get more and more confused, frustrated and full of fear as they see what is happening around them. It is illogical and doesn’t make sense.
It is time we begin to understand that it is a spiritual battle – more than just in our doctrine.
What we see happening is a war against God, against His work in bringing Jesus to the world as He has done for over 2,000 years through the Western Civilization, which is what the enemy is targeting these days. The enemies of God are working through people trying to take us back to paganism and away from God’s ways. The enemy has done this again and again throughout time. But he is not going to succeed this time.
We are supposed to win. How can the enemy win against God? I know, he has seemed to many times in gaining control of the culture and civilization. But not this time. We know too much, at least a few of us barely know enough to win.
The very purpose of the creation of mankind is that we take dominion and win over the forces in this world. This was included in God’s primary injunction over mankind (Genesis 1:27-28). Be fruitful and multiply and take dominion.
Overcoming and pushing back the forces of darkness isn’t something God is going to do. This is what He created man to do, and we MUST do it, and until we do, we are not done in this present age, and He certainly won’t take us away (rapture us). We have to win over the powers of darkness before we are done here.
Some thoughts from Ephesians:
- The struggle we are facing in this world is not natural but spiritual.
- V. 2:1 – The course of this world is according to the prince of the power of the air.
- V. 1:17-23 – The prayer for us to realize what God has done in regaining authority and giving it to us – TO USE!
- We are fighting not against people but against the rulers and powers, the world forces of darkness, the spiritual forces of wickedness controlling the thoughts and ways of man from the heavenly places.
- But who really has the authority now? WE DO! He gave it to US so that we might USE it!
We are designed for the very purpose to win this battle over the darkness of the world. We were put here in this present time to do specific good works for the Lord, to work with Him in putting down evil and winning the world to Him. The Bible says the Gates of Hell will not prevail against us. We will prevail, but we must use spiritual weapons to win spiritual battles.
How do we win?
The Bible gives us full instructions to win over the forces in darkness, much of which is in the book of Ephesians.
- Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
- Put on the FULL armor of God.
- With the armor on, we will be able to stand firmly against the schemes of the devil – this is includes what darkness is doing in this day.
- We are not helpless against the onslaught of evil – although much the current church world is weakened by deception, lies, and unbelief and having too easy of a natural life for too many years
- I believe we were designed for this very day to win over the evil trying to take control of our nation and the entire world.
- What is on the line? Everything. God has worked since the earth was created and especially since Jesus came and God’s ways began to spread to bring truth to the world. The Lord has build a stronghold for good, starting in the Western World.
- The enemy is coming against this, identifying our faults and the ways we have done it wrong and using this to cause even His own people to turn against what He is doing.
- The enemy is trying to undo the work of God in the last 2000 years. We can’t let this happen, and we won’t!
- Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you WILL BE ABLE to resist on the evil day (that is today!) and having don’t everything, to stand firm.
- Paul then goes into the specific pieces of armor which I will cover later.
What is the purpose of the armor?
The purpose of the armor is prayer. Look at Verse 18.
- With every prayer and request, pray at all times in the spirit.
- Do you get this? It is a spiritual battle. Mental prayer can’t get the job done. A spiritual battle REQUIRES spiritual prayer.
- Praying in the spirit is praying first of all in other tongues (1 Corinthians 14;15 speaks of praying in the spirit (in other tongues VS praying from the mind in mental prayers). But praying in the spirit is also praying in your natural tongue led and inspired by the Holy Spirit. Some may call is prophetic prayer. I call it spirit-led prayer – and we can’t win without it.
- MENTAL PRAYERS ARE NOT ENOUGH TO GET THE JOB DONE AGAISNT THE PRINCIPALITIES AND POWERS CONTROLLING THE PRESENT WORLD!!!!
- We can win. We are designed to win. But we are going to have to do it in the Spirit covered by the armor God has provided and in the Spirit, being strong the Lord and the power of His might, praying always in the Spirit with all kinds of prayer…
Let’s get busy and do our part in the battle. We are the winners!
