THE STRUGGLE IS REAL

Ephesians 6:12-13

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

Have you faced any battles lately? Is anyone harassing you or annoying you? Are you plagued with a recurring problem? Are you being badgered by circumstances that are out of your control? All of us will inevitably encounter our own fierce struggles in life. That’s just part of living. There will be times when we feel overwhelmed by circumstances, and we’re tempted to surrender. But if you are a believer, giving up is not an option. There is only one action we are charged to take…STAND.

Believers are at war on earth. It’s spiritual warfare. We have to fight for God, for truth, and for ourselves. There is a mysterious and beleaguering empire hovering over this world. It’s mysterious because we cannot see it. It’s beleaguering or vexing because it just won’t give up. It’s the empire of evil. Life is a battle between good and evil…between God and Satan. And the Divine instruction we get from the Lord is to “STAND”. Know that this struggle is real.

THE STRUGGLE IS REAL

There are at lease three battlefields in your life…the World, the Flesh, and the Devil. Satan’s demons operate on all three battle fronts. No human can avoid the battles. But you don’t have to go to battle unarmed. Paul explains further in his Epistle that God provides us with plenty of armor to withstand the wiles of the devil. I won’t take the time here to expound on them, but it’s an impressive list of weapons. These weapons are not forged on earthly anvils or tempered by human skill. God alone prepares this Divine armor, for offence as well as defense. Paul says… Gird your loins with truth. Cover your feet with the Gospel of peace. Protect yourself with the shield of faith. Put on the helmet of salvation. And carry the sword of the Spirit…which is the Word of God. (Ephesians 6:13-17) Of course, Paul doesn’t stop there. Armor is great, but the weapon that ties it all together is prayer. He tells the Ephesians, and us, to persevere in prayer (Ephesians 6:18)

Paul names four demons in our focus text (vs. 12). They are principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places. They are separate and distinct in their methods and devices, but they work together to achieve a common goal…to disrupt the lives of God’s people. The principalities and powers work behind the scenes through trickery and deceit. The rulers of the darkness operate under cover of night, and the wicked use their spirit bodies to dominate in high places.

So let’s take a closer look at the three battlefields where we confront these demons.

The World is a battlefield.

Every breath we take in this life is affected by the world around us. Why? Because Satan is the Prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2) and his evil is done in the atmosphere that surrounds the earth. The world has been his home since he was permanently evicted from heaven.

Satan knows he can’t argue his case with the Lord. He is conscious of his indefensible position as one who has been conquered by Christ (Revelation 1:17-18). So instead, he coaxes man to use his own ‘secular reasoning’ to reject Christ. That’s why so many are still living under the delusion of this error.

We face Satan’s tactics at every turn. He’s in our workplace, our neighborhood, our government, and he is even known to infiltrate the Church whenever a weak Christian gives him opportunity.

The adversary, Satan, does not work out in the open. He uses the world as his canvas to fill mankind with fallacies and erroneous views that attempt to persuade men to abandon Christ. Satan and his demons infiltrate our being through literature, music, and social interactions; and now added to that list is social media. That’s why we need to stay awake and prepared. The Apostle Paul gave the church at Ephesus some sound instruction. You know the old adage: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it? Well, Paul sticks to what he knows works. He tells the Ephesians: “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” (Ephesians 6: 10). Paul had a high admiration for the strength of his Father. He knew something about God’s power because he experienced it firsthand.

· It was God’s power that knocked him off his horse when he was headed to Damascus to persecute the Believers.

· It was God’s power that allowed the scales to drop from his blinded eyes.

· And here, in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul makes it plain that it’s that same power that will, as Christ promised, “deliver US from evil” (Matthew 6:13).

The world has broken God’s laws. It has murdered God’s Son, and it continues to… Resist God’s Spirit. Defy God’s authority. And waste God’s blessings.

But rest assured, on the world’s battlefield, the power of God’s might is all we need to combat the source of sin, the strategy of sin, the society of sin, the sorrows of sin, and the sentence of sin.

The World is a battlefield.

But then, the Flesh is a battlefield too.

This battlefield is different. While the world attacks from the outside, the flesh attacks from the inside. That’s probably why Paul calls our battles wrestling matches. Our own sin nature causes us to face some enormous battles. There’s the lust of the eyes. There’s the vulgarity of our language. There’s the corruption of our character. There’s the impurity of our thoughts. There’s the foolishness of our actions.

The world may try to influence us toward sin, but we have to go to battle against the fleshly desire to submit or surrender. We have to follow the sound advice Paul gave the Church at Corinth. This is how Paul dealt with the flesh. He said, “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection…” In other words, We can’t let the flesh control us. We have to control our flesh. We have to be spiritually disciplined enough to deny our body the sinful things it craves.

The Flesh is a battlefield

And finally, the Devil is a battlefield.

He’s not a man in a red suit with horns on his head. He is the grand enemy of the Church, a superhuman tempter, older than man. He has immense resources of cunning and craft. He has the power to inject evil into the minds of the saints, with the ultimate goal to destroy the souls of men and the whole moral order of the world.

Paul makes it clear that the demons who operate on the Devil’s battlefield belong to a different hierarchy…the realm of Satan. They perform their evil activity under the reign of darkness. Their moral character is wickedness.

So what are we fighting for? We are fighting for our lives! Not just our lives here on earth…but Eternal Life! And the only way for man to lose this battle is through cowardice. The way to resist the Devil is with Divine armor. God’s armor is indispensable if we want to be part of the positive outcome. We have to use God’s armor and Submit ourselves to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you”. (James 4:7)

Too many Believers just put on the helmet of Salvation and think that’s enough. I know it’s popular to say, “Once saved, always saved”, but being saved alone may just leave you open to danger. Satan is cunning, and he can trick you into giving up that helmet of salvation. He tricked Demas into leaving Paul and going back into the world (2 Timothy 4:10). Hebrew 6:4-6 explains what can happen when saved people choose to abandon Christ. Buckle your spiritual seatbelts for this one…Once you turn back, you might not get back! Paul explains that it would be like crucifying Him all over again and putting Him to shame.

Unless you are grounded in Christ, Satan can uproot you. Unless you are persuaded by Christ, Satan can persuade you. Unless you are possessed by Christ, Satan can possess you. Unless you are dedicated to Christ, Satan can defeat you.

A soldier needs more than a hat. He needs a gun. Christians need more than the helmet of salvation. We need the whole armor of God. We need to take this three-front battle seriously if we want to take that triumphant ride one day into heaven.

We’ll have many struggles in life, and we will never escape them by our own power or ingenuity. But God is more powerful than any enemy or evil we will ever have to face. We just have to learn how to stand, because the struggle is real.

· Moses knew how to stand. Facing the Red Sea, with Pharoah’s army at his back, he lifted his rod and said, “Fear ye not; stand still and see the salvation of the LORD.” Exodus 14:13)

· Joshua learned how to stand. The LORD fulfilled His promise to Joshua. saying, “There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life…” (Joshua 1:5) And no man ever stood against him.

· David knew how to stand. He stood up against Goliath when no one else would stand.

· Gideon knew how to stand. He stood against an army of Midianites with just 300 men.

· Samson knew how to stand. He stood between two pillars, and the walls came tumbling down.

And Jesus knew how to stand. He stood against the Roman Empire. He stood against the Chief Priests of the Jews. He stood against the whip and the lash. He stood against an inquiring Herod. He stood against a determined Pilate. And He stood against the taunts from His crucifiers. And He stood against Satan himself!

Yes, the struggle is real. But the militant soul of a believer must STAND. The believer whose soul belongs to Christ must stand in the face of all enemies. Not as combatants, or radicals. Not as rebellious or confrontational. But robed in the weaponry of the assuredness and hope in a Risen Savior, We must “Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free!”(Galatians 5:1).

Matthew 11:12  And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.