To Stand

¹Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
Ephesians 6:13

The full armor (all the weapons) of God must be “put on,” or literally in the Greek, “taken up” or “raised.” It’s not just that we must put on the helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness, belt of truth, and boots of the gospel of peace, but we must also take up the sword of the Spirit and our long spear–prayer in the Spirit on all occasions–and raise the shield of faith. This not something that passively happens. We must actively engage in doing it. Our weapons are offensive just as our armor is defensive. We need to actively take up both.

The purpose of taking up our weapons is to stand our ground when we face those days that are really rough, those days we feel like we’re getting attacked–the day of evil. The Greek word for “stand your ground” is a compound word that puts together “against” and “stand.” This isn’t just a word that describes standing upright. It means actively standing against your enemy. This word comes with it the idea of refusing to be moved. The imagery here is a soldier who just took ground and is enduring a counterattack, leaning forward, resisting it with everything he’s got.

The last word in this passage “to stand” is not the compound word mentioned above. It is simply the word “to stand.” In other words, we strongly resist the counterattack, refusing to be moved, so that after we have fought the battle, we can stand tall with our heads held high.

Not Against Flesh and Blood

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Ephesians 6:12

When we fight this spiritual battle, we fight as the Israelites did to take possession of the Promised Land. We are given new life in Jesus and there are some parts of this new life that we must fight for in order to possess. The land of this new life in Christ is already ours, but we must kick out the inhabitants of darkness that previously occupied our life.

This passage in Ephesians 6 indicates that the kingdom of darkness has a hierarchical command and control structure. Demons seem to be the lowest level spirit of darkness. Then there are powers (authorities) and principalities (rulers) that seem to be higher level beings of darkness that retained more of their power when they fell from heaven with Satan. We might call these powers and principalities “fallen angels” who are able to retain some of their former glory–though it is fading.

Satan is a counterfeiter. He is constantly trying to imitate in his kingdom of darkness the things of the Kingdom of Light. I believe this hierarchical command and control structure is an attempt by Satan to imitate and counterfeit the omnipresence of God the Father. Since Satan can’t be everywhere at once like God, he sends his minions everywhere.

I believe the principalities of darkness that are over a geographic regions are trying to imitate and counterfeit the fact that Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords. And I believe demons, with their constant need to be embodied in something physical, are attempting to imitate and counterfeit the Holy Spirit who dwells inside the body of believers, His Temple.

The reason I believe Paul needed to remind the Ephesians that our battle is not with people (flesh and blood) but with the kingdom of darkness is because we can so easily miss our target if we make people our enemy. We are like the Israelites, taking ground for the Kingdom of God, but different from the Israelites we are not fighting people. We are not even fighting ourselves. We are fighting the darkness that invades and persuades people. So our weapons are different. Our most powerful weapons in a battle like this are love and forgiveness.

And we don’t fight in order to attain the victory. Jesus won the victory for us on the cross and in His resurrection. We don’t fight for victory but from victory. We fight the battles knowing that the war has been won by Jesus alone! Here is how Paul writes it to the Colossian Christians:

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Colossians 2:13-15

Weapons and Armor

¹Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
Ephesians 6:11

Paul tells the Ephesians not only to “be empowered in the Lord” (verse 10) but also to “put on the full armor of God.” The word there in the Greek for “full armor” is the compound Greek word panoplía (pan = all + hoplia = weapons). The list of weapons in Ephesians 6 will include defensive armor but also offensive weaponry.

Romans 13:12 says, “…let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. That word translated “armor” here is really the Greek word for weapon (hopla). Light is armor for the believer; light is also a weapon that we can wield.

2 Corinthians 6:4 & 7 says, “Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses…in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left…” The word here translated as “weapons” is that same Greek word (hoplon).

2 Corinthians 10:3-4 says, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” Again we see the word weapons (hopla) is the same one used in the other passages.

The passage that I find most interesting regarding spiritual weapons is Romans 6:13 which says, “Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.” The word translated here as “instrument” is actually the Greek word for weapon (hopla). Parts of our being actually become weapons.

All of this points to a few truths that we need to hold on to. First, we are not left defenseless against the enemy. We have been given armor and weapons to fight the spiritual battle that we are in. But we must put on the armor and we must take up our weapons. So many Christians don’t know they are in a war, and so they leave all their gear piled on the ground. They are sitting ducks, deceived into believing there is no war.

Secondly, while we have been given spiritual weapons and armor, we’ve also been given a physical body, a mind, a will, emotions, and senses, all of which can become weapons. The question is not whether they are weaponized, but for whom. All of these parts of us surrendered to the Lord in obedience become weapons for God and His Kingdom. Yet, when we “offer any part” of ourself to sin, it becomes a weapon in the hands of our enemy.

Finally, the whole point in having all this armor and all these weapons is in order to take our stand against “the devil’s schemes.” That word translated as “schemes” is the word methodeía in the Greek. It’s where we get our word “method.” Here it means “organized evil-doing.” Just as the mob does not do haphazard or sporadic crime, but instead engages in strategically planned and organized crime, that is how Satan operates with evil. He has a plan of attack that is strategic and organized. We must have our armor and our weapons ready so that we can take our stand.

Public Thought Life

Some of your thoughts are not your own. Some of them did not originate with you. The enemy tries to plant thoughts in our minds that are lies, deception, and/or condemnation. These demonic thoughts projected into our minds are the “flaming arrows of the evil one” mentioned in Ephesians 6:16.

So, we know the kingdom of darkness can whisper lies to us, but can demons read our thoughts?

I had an encounter once where I was praying for a woman in my church who was physically sick, and I was just praying for healing. As I prayed for healing she had no outward, physical signs of the demonic. Yet, as I prayed, I sensed the Lord highlight the possibility that she had demons in her causing some of the problems. So without saying a word, I shifted in my thoughts from “healing prayer” to “deliverance prayer.”

As soon as I shifted my thoughts and directed them against the demons, even thought I never prayed out loud, she started to have physical manifestations of the demonic. She started to dry-heave and gag (common signs of demons trying to leave the body) just as I turned my thoughts from healing prayer to deliverance mode. Obviously the demons somehow picked up on the change in my thoughts.

Did they read my thoughts? I’m not sure. I believe that as soon as my thoughts changed from healing prayer to “commanding demons to leave,” something was released out of me in the spirit realm…maybe light or power or something to which the demons reacted. It’s possible that demons can pick up when our thoughts agree with God and when they agree with a lie from the enemy. Maybe there is something released in the spirit realm that they can pick up on from our thoughts and emotions.

This could explain why Jesus was very concerned with our thought life and the condition of our hearts. What if every thought you have and every emotion either repels the kingdom of darkness or invites it. What if every thought you have and every emotion either strengthens the angels around you and the Kingdom of God or diminishes it. This is why we must “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5) and stop thinking that our thought life is in any way “private.”

Third Heaven

Sometimes we forget that the apostle Paul had an incredible vision of heaven similar to John’s vision where John saw “a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it” (Revelation 4:2). Anyone who’s read John’s book of Revelation can understand why Paul considered what he himself saw and heard there “inexpressible” (2 Corinthians 12:4).

When Paul writes about his vision of being taken to heaven, he talks about it in the third person. He sort of mocks the Corinthians who were following false apostles that loved to boast about themselves. So as a response, Paul boasts about having this vision right at the start of his ministry but talks about it as if he is talking about another man.

He writes, “I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord.I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows.And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows—was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell” (2 Corinthians 12:1-4).

Paul references it happening 14 years ago. I’m not sure whether this vision happened right after his conversion while he was still in Arabia (Galatians 2:17) or after he had gone back to his hometown of Tarsus (Acts 9:30). Either way, it was before his first missionary journey. And part of what fueled his ministry was not only his encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:3-6) but also this vision of heaven.

Paul calls what he and John saw “the third heaven.” This begs the question, “What are the first and second heavens?” Many people believe that the first heaven is the physical universe that we can see in the sky…the sun, the moon, the stars, the other planets, etc. The third heaven is the throne room of God. The place where the fullness of His Presence resides, where His perfect will is always done, and where heavenly beings worship and serve God continuously. So what is the second heaven?

Many people believe the “second heaven” is the place where Satan and his fallen angels were sent after they were expelled from the third heaven (Revelation 12:9). It is the spirit realm around the earth where spiritual warfare happens. The second heaven is where the angel that was sent to Daniel was fought against and detained by the demonic principality over the Persian Kingdom in Daniel 10:13. It is why Satan is now called “the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient” (Ephesians 2:2).

Masquerading

One of the jobs of a pastor is to protect the church from false teaching. This was a primary concern for the apostle Paul and his churches. It was relational for Paul. He saw false teaching as a kind of marital infidelity between the church and Christ.

He writes to the Corinthians, “I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2-3).

One of the most dangerous things filtering into the church today is the false belief that dabbling in astrology, mediums, psychics, reiki healing, spells, seances, horoscopes and other forms of eastern mysticism and occult practices are harmless fun. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

A woman in my church, after years of dabbling in tarot cards and automatic writing, found herself demonized. She needed multiple demons cast out of her because of her participation in these occult practices.

Another friend of mine used to watch Long Island Medium on the TLC channel. I believe people are so interested in this stuff because western skepticism has told us there is no spirit realm, yet a part of us still believes there is more out there than what empiricism tells us.

Unfortunately, much of the church has sided with western skepticism rather than adopting a biblical worldview that acknowledges the reality of a spirit realm that contains both light and dark, angels and demons. A large segment of the church doesn’t warn against these occult practices because they see them as “fake” rather than what they are, which is a direct line to “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12).

So when my friend would watch this medium on TV revealing things about people she couldn’t possibly know, and it seemed like the person was encouraged, then it had to be a good thing. Right? If good things are coming from it, isn’t it a good thing?

Paul responded to something similar by reminding the Corinthians, “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness” (2 Corinthians 11:14-15). He warned them not to accept things that come from a “different spirit from the one you received” (2 Corinthians 11:4).

Was this medium hearing from the spirit realm? Yep. But she’s not hearing from the Holy Spirit. She’s hearing from deceptive and cunning demonic spirits. And the same demonic spirits that speak to her about other people also torment her life.

New Age and occult practices are darkness masquerading as light. They invite us to put our trust in something other that God and His word. They are a form of marital infidelity between the church and Christ. They end up being a gateway for the demonic to access and torment the life of those who participate in them.

Wage War

The apostle Paul understood that he was born into a war. He was as comfortable describing his ministry as “warfare” as he was describing it any other way. Unlike many forms of militant Christianity, however, he knew that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but… against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”(Ephesians 6:12).

Friend, you are a battlefield. There is a war in the heavenly realms, the spirit realm, for you. If you don’t know Jesus, your spirit, soul (mind, will, & emotions) and body are being fought for. The kingdom of darkness is trying to secure defensive strongholds in your life as the Kingdom of God calls for a surrender to Jesus that leads to freedom.

If you’ve surrendered your life to Christ, your spirit has now become one with the Holy Spirit (like how two become one in marriage). “You are not your own; you were bought at a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

Yet, there is still a war for your soul (mind, will, & emotions) and body. They belong to Christ; they’ve been totally redeemed, but what has been redeemed must be reclaimed. Just like the people of Israel were given the Promised Land by God yet still had to go in and possess the land, so too are we in a battle to reclaim and maintain our freedom from sin and the enemy’s influence.

You are the battlefield in this war, and the frontlines of the battle, where the war rages most intensely, is your mind. The apostle Paul talks about the weapons he employs in this battle for the mind:
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ”(2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

In war, you take captive either enemy soldiers or friendly soldiers who’ve become spies. Notice that he said that in this battle we must take captive “every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” That means some of our thoughts are enemy soldiers and don’t originate with us at all. Instead, they are the lies that are whispered by the enemy. It also means that other thoughts did originate with us but have become tools for the enemy to use against us. They are not truth but instead our own thoughts that deceive us. These we must “take captive,” reject the lie, and remind ourselves of the truth.

We should all be encouraged that the weapons the Holy Spirit gives us to fight in this war “have divine power to demolish strongholds.” No encampment of the enemy in our life can withstand the power of the Lord. But we must be willing to find the stronghold and demolish it in Jesus’s name!