authorities, world-rulers, and spiritual forces of wicked-
ness are evil spirits. The question that I asked when
looking with fresh eyes at the four different descriptions
which Paul gave was, “how do we fight in hand-to-hand
combat with each of them?”
The rulers.
The word for ruler means “beginning.” What
are the “rulers” we fight against? These are the spirits
which have been with us from the beginning of our lives.
They are the demons which have gained access to our
lives because of generational sins which have been
passed down to us. We are born in sin. Along with that
sin, evil spirits seek to control our lives through that sin.
The authorities.
Authorities are those who are “invested
with power.” These evil spirits are the ones we give power
to by believing Satan’s lies instead of God’s truth. We
empower them when we continue to live in our deceptions.
The world-rulers.
World-rulers are those spirits who
control parts of the world. Even before Paul wrote these
words in the first century, the Greek culture believed that
spirits controlled parts of the world. This word was used
in Astrology in reference to the planets which were be-
lieved, along with the Greek gods, to control the fate of
mankind. Though Satan, in his deception, twisted the
real nature of evil spirits in the Greek culture, the truth
remains that some spirits have control over regions and
nations and cultures.
Our struggle against these demons, these world-rulers,
is hand-to-hand combat because we are pressured to
believe like the culture around us instead of like the
Bible teaches. It’s personal. Try as we might to avoid
these battles, these evil spirts do not stop until they are
in control. They desire to rule.
Racism is a world-ruler. Back in the 90’s, the country of
Rwanda experienced a spiritual battle against the
world-ruler of racism. Overnight people from the tribes
of Hutus and Tutsis, who lived alongside each other in
peace, began to kill each other. These groups of people
would describe themselves as Christian, yet they were
not immune to the attack of racism. After the conflict was
over, people testified that it was like being in a dream,
like not being in control of their bodies. This is why we
“Christians” must be prepared to stand our ground
against the evil spirits which seek to control and destroy
our culture. We need to know our enemy and be prepared
to fight using God’s methods and His ways.
The spiritual forces of wickedness.
These spiritual
forces are demons which are pure evil. They are malicious
and conniving and without remorse. They fight dirty and
they don’t care who gets hurt or how they accomplish
their goal.
They fight “in the heavenly places.”
They fight in the
heavenly places because that is where Christ-followers
live and because they aim to strip us of our rightful inheri-
tance as children of God. Joshua led the children of Israel
into the promised land with the mission of destroying
every enemy in the land. His fight and our fight is a fight
to the death. We must either take control and push back
our malicious enemy out of the inheritance in Christ that
is rightfully ours, or our enemy will take it from us.
Our struggle is for “righteousness, peace and joy in the
Holy Spirit” which is the kingdom of God. This is our
birthright as God’s children by faith in Jesus Christ. We
have been made “children of the light.” Everyone that is
in the light obeys and follows after God. Yet, just like
Joshua, we must defeat these enemies of our soul in
order to experience the promises which God has for us.
So, again, how do we do this?
Take up God’s armor
...to stand against and resist the evil one.
On the evil
day, that is when the attacks are particularly bad, we
need His armor to stand our ground. God’s armor is not
just the tools to fight. It is the strength, first and foremost,
to respond to our struggle in a manner that is honoring
to God.
...to keep standing.
God’s strength allows us to stay
standing until the last round. When the smoke clears,
because of his strength working in us, we will still be on
our feet. We need perseverance. When we are in the
middle of the struggle we can easily lower our shield
and take off our armor or protection. We need this
reminder: keep your armor on, keep your armor up.
Our weapons are spiritual ones.
We must learn to use
them because we are not strong enough to endure when
we fight any other way. Our enemy is too strong, too
smart and too well-equipped.
The fight is contrary to our sinful nature’s tendency for
fighting. The battle is the Lord’s. He will win. Truly when
we stand “in the Lord” we will be on His winning side.
— Sermon series by Pastor Nathan Crandall
Senior Pastor, Milton SDB Church, WI
Coming next month: the weapons of our fight are those
which lead us towards God and towards becoming
more like Jesus.
12
October 2015 SR
The Conflict
continued from previous page...
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