To many, they were men of great vision. To many, they were men of great treason. To many, they were righteous patriots. To many, they were unscrupulous rebels, traitors to the Crown of England. They were the men of ‘76. 1776. They met 230 years ago to draft a document declaring their intent to separate from the rule of what they perceived to be a king guilty of tyranny and oppression. These men, and those who followed them, knew full well that they were to be engaged in a war that, should they fail to be victorious, would mean their destruction.
Let’s take a quick look at these men. Who were they? What happened to them? I have here a 26 page report that I would like to read a little bit of to gain some insight. For the full report go to http://www.barefootsworld.net/doi1776.html.
Well, you can see that these were courageous and bold men. Each affixed his name to a document that would lead to hardship and conflict. Yet they knew in their hearts that if they would call on the “Divine One” and if they remained true to His will, they would not fail.
“That’s wonderful, pastor,” you say, “but what has that got to do with Scripture and such?” The answer is that like those men of ‘76, we, each and every one of us, are also engaged in a war. It is a spiritual war. It is an unseen war. It is a war for our very souls. The battle is going on around us all the time in the spiritual realm. Unfortunately, many of us engaged in this war do not know who our enemies are, have no training to fight this war, and have no plan for victory!
Fortunately, the Apostle Paul does indeed give us insights into the nature of this war, who the enemy is, and even how to fight to win it. Hear Paul’s inspired word from his letter to the Church at Ephesus, chapter 6, verses 10-12. “A final word: Be strong with the Lord’s mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all the strategies and tricks of the Devil. For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the Heavenly realms.”
Let’s look now at several basic truths we need to understand in order to grasp fully what Paul is speaking of in these passages. First, there is an invisible world that is just as real as the visible world we live in. Unfortunately, most of us tend to accept as real only those things we can see, hear, smell, taste or touch. We tend to dismiss as unreal those things that do not fall into the category of things we can experience with one or more of the physical senses that God has given us. Nothing could be further from the truth! “For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the Heavenly realms.”
You see, while we exist in this visible world, we also exist simultaneously in the unseen world that Paul describes in these passages. The unseen spiritual world is the place where the evil spiritual beings exist and operate. The Good News is that it is also the place where Jesus Christ and all believers live. Scripture tells us that as Christians, “God…has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly realms because we belong to Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 1:3) “This is the same power that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the Heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 1:19-20) “For He raised us from the dead along with Christ, and we are seated with Him in the Heavenly realms all because we are one with Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:6) Beyond our senses lies the unseen world where spiritual agents of both evil and good reside. It is in this world that the spiritual battles takes place. And we are involved in that war that has eternal implications!
We read in the Book of Daniel that he had been praying to God and had not yet received an answer. Then an angel came to Daniel and explained the delay in terms of spiritual warfare. Hear the angel’s words to Daniel found in Daniel 10:12-13:
“Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in Heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. But for 21 days the spirit prince of the Kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, the archangel, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the King of Persia.”
While there is much that we do not yet understand, it is obvious from these passages that, in an unseen world all around us, there is indeed a war going on between the “evil” and “good” spirit beings. It is a conflict between satanic forces and heavenly forces and we are smack dab in the middle of it!
Do you remember the story of Elisha and his servant in Kings 6:15-17? Elisha and his servant are confronted by the army of King Aram, who had surrounded the city. Elisha’s servant saw the many chariots of the enemy all around them and began to despair.
“‘Ah, my Lord, what will we do now?’ he cried to Elisha. ‘Don’t be afraid,’ Elisha told him. ‘For there are more on our side than on theirs.’ Then Elisha prayed, ‘O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!’ The Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillsides around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire.”
God revealed to the servant that He and His army were there from the unseen spirit world, and stood ready to do battle on their behalf. The spiritual battle that we are engaged in is no less real than it was for Daniel, Elisha or any of God’s people throughout the ages.
Satan, the god of this evil world, has blinded the eyes of so many people that they do not believe and are unable to see the light of God that shines on and for them. Christians must fight this war with God’s mighty weapons in order to knock down Satan’s strongholds. We, His Church, are being called by God to engage Satan and his army in spiritual warfare so that we will be strong in the Lord and be able to break every Satanic stronghold that keeps people from knowing God. It is not an easy task because our foe is a formidable enemy, and his goal is to destroy Christians and discredit Jesus Christ and His mission. We must never underestimate the power of our Enemy. While he is not God’s opposite equal, he indeed has much power.
Peter tells us in 1 Peter 5:8, that Satan “prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour.” Satan is a present being, a reality in our lives whether we like it or not. He wants nothing more than to make our lives miserable, destroy our faith, take away our joy, and lead us to stumble and fall into sin. We need to respect his abilities and be wary of and watchful for his attacks. We must respect our enemy, but not fear him. We must be acutely aware of his methods, but not be constantly preoccupied with them. Scripture reveals Satan’s tactics for us to know about and understand. Satan attacks God’s Church by:
Remember during Operation Iraqi Freedom, how Iraq’s Minister of Information, named Mohammed al-Sahhaf, daily refuted clear evidence that Iraq was losing the war? Here are some examples:
It is much like that for Christians. Our spiritual enemy has already been defeated at the Cross of Christ. Yet Satan continues to spew forth lies, insults, half-truths and condemnation at God’s family. We do indeed fight real battles against a real enemy, but we need to know that without a doubt, our victory over him is assured, the war is won! This assurance of victory is given to us in several scripture passages. Here are but a few: