The Fight

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Therefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand" Ephesians 6:12-13

Ephesians 6:12 seems to be another one of those clichés in the church. That verse comes up over, and over and over again, and I must have heard it a zillion times as a little kid (Remember the plastic swords and shields, our "spiritual armor"?). But to be honest it never really came any further than dress-up time, and when I did start to read into it when I got a lil older all I could see was this mystical Lord Of The Rings sort of world where if we gave into temptation and put on the ring, scary black riders on horses would come and stab me to death that night... I don't know why my parents let me watch those movies... Well, I guess that’s a pretty good analogy for my 10-year-old-mind, however, I was still stuck in this mindset that "principalities" and "spiritual wickedness in high places" was something that I might never experience, I mean come on, how often do you get a chance like that to fight of demons in the spiritual realm? Right?
Wrong. Dead wrong. We are living in a state of being blind to the spiritual, every decision we make, every choice, every depression, every emotion. This is the spiritual, and I am pretty sure it looks absolutely nothing like Lord Of The Rings, there aren't magical rings, but there are everyday temptations (lust, cheating, lying) and there is only one way to combat them, with God's word. We are getting this so wrong guys, the spiritual world isn't all so "spiritual", there's a difference between the powers the Bible talks about and DOOM III, the war we are fighting is constant and its ultimately against ourselves (the "sin nature" or the "old man" that we give up when we accept Christ.) So when we are making a choice, like whether you are going to cheat on a math test, we are in a fight! Satan wants you to fall into that sin and bring you further from God, and God is trying to give you the strength it takes to do the right thing. It is you fighting "against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" , and this is what the fight looks like.

So now that we've identified who we are fighting and what it looks like, what do we do to win? Ephesians 6:13 says that we are to put on the full armor of God. Basically this means to be able to 1) know the truth that when faced with lies you will be able to defeat them 2) be righteous, or stand up for what is right so that when people try to speak against you they will have nothing to say 3) be prepared to defend the gospel, hiding God's word in your heart so you will know whats right 4) and the Bible says that above all these, to have faith, faith that no matter where you are in your life God is always right by your side and you can only fight off the temptations and lifestyle of the world with His help 5) accept salvation, this obviously being the first step 6) finally, what do we use on the offence? The word of God. Over and over again we are told to hide God's words in our heart, and this is why. We can't LIVE for God if we don't KNOW God! We have to know what He says about life and WHY He says it so when we come to making those decisions we will know what to say or do.

This realization can to me only a few days ago; I have always been dreaming about fighting a spiritual battle, I need to look around, I'm already in one. We need to open our eyes here, this isn't just our lifestyle, its our fight.