Transcript
We’re going to be in Ephesians 6 during this time in God’s Word. If you have your Bibles please turn with me there.
Dr. Jack Groppel who works with developing leaders tells the following: Four athletes from the NFL showed up at our training center in the swamplands of Florida. Their average size was 6’5”, 300lbs.
One of them was Victor Riley, a former first round pick of the Chiefs, offensive tackle, 6’6” 350lbs. I asked him, “What goes through your mind when you see a blitzing linebacker coming straight at you?” Victor said, “I’m going to fold him in half.”
These 4 players were first told they had a mission. There was wilderness behind their property. All they had to do was to run one mile to a white fence at the back of their property and touch it and then return.
But they were told that they’d be running through a swamp, which had alligators in it, and so they needed to be alert and keep their eyes open. They were also told that there might be poisonous snakes sunning themselves along the trail, but to not bother them.
If they saw one coiled up on the trail they were to just run around them. And finally just the day before wild boar were seen. These wild boars were bigger than they were, about 400 lbs, with razor-sharp tusks, and they could attack them unprovoked.
So if they encountered one they needed to take appropriate action. But above all else they were told that they must complete their mission to touch the white fence. So off they went. Unbeknownst to them a cameraman was hiding in the bushes along the trail.
As they came up to him, the cameraman shook the bushes and snorted like a boar. These 4 men screamed and squealed like schoolgirls, turned tail immediately and ran all the way back to the building.
They got back and were asked if they touched the white fence, and they shook their heads, “No.” “What do you mean, No?” They said, “We heard something.” “What do you mean you heard something?” And they stuttered, “There was a wild boar in the bushes.” Then they showed them the tape. And they were mortified.
The next week, 4 men from the FBI swat program came and they were given the same mission, and were told to watch out for the alligators, snakes, and beware of the wild boar. The cameraman was in position again in the same location. And here came the FBI agents down the trail. He rustled the bushes and snorted like a boar.
But instead all these men got in combat position for an attack and they each held their ground. And the cameramen panicked thinking “Oh no, what if they have a gun?!” And he stood up and showed himself very quickly.
The FBI agents then stood back up and kept on running and completed the mission. Their attitude was, “If this is the hand that is dealt me, bring it on.”
Now whose organization was most exalted by the courage of its members? In the Christian life, we exalt and glorify God by our courage and discipline for Him.
In the spiritual battle, along our journey through life, we face attacks and tricks from the devil, and we must courageously and with discipline stand our ground in them.
But having faced the attack of the enemy we must also continue on and complete our mission. We have a mission to complete in our lives, to faithfully hold forth the Word of life, to share the gospel of grace, and beseech people to be reconciled to God.
And we have a mission to make all men see what is the revelation of the mystery, what it is that God is doing today under grace. And God wants us to complete our mission and finish our course and keep the faith until He comes or we go to be with Him.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”
We need to note that Paul says “our warfare.” The moment you trust Christ as your personal Savior, that He died for your sins personally, was buried and rose again, you are immediately placed into the spiritual battle.
The satanic forces of evil in heavenly places, who from almost the beginning of time, have been in battle against God and His Christ and His own, turn their guns on you the moment you believe. And the spiritual battle becomes “my warfare.”
All believers are soldiers of the cross and called to take part in the ancient, longstanding spiritual war and struggle against Satan’s kingdom of darkness.
Paul says that though “we walk in the flesh,” that though he was a man living in a body of flesh, he did not wage the Christian warfare according to fleshly methods or motives and the struggle in the spiritual war is not “after the flesh” or “against flesh and blood,” but against “spiritual wickedness in high places” as Paul says in Ephesians 6:12.
A spiritual battle must be fought with spiritual weapons. To fight in the spiritual war, we need weapons from the heavenly arsenal. As it’s been said, “Human reason, wisdom, plans, cleverness, strategies, organizations, skill, eloquence, marketing, showmanship…are all ineffective weapons against the forces of the kingdom of darkness.”
Fleshly weapons and human ideologies and ingenuity cannot assault and bring down the formidable satanic “strongholds” in which sinners are entrenched.
Our spiritual weapons are “mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds.” Spiritual, divinely powerful weapons are needed for the destruction of spiritual fortresses.
Our warfare is waged against the false “imaginations,” philosophies and arguments of the devil. We war to change how people think. We battle against human and demonic reasonings, speculations and doctrines which are contrary to God’s Word.
We war to cast down “every high thing,” or any false thought or belief exalted as truth that lifts itself over and against the knowledge of God.
Doomed sinners are inside fortresses of ideas, which become their prisons and can become their tombs, unless they are delivered from them by the truth of the gospel.
And so we war and fight and battle to deliver those who are captive to lies that are exalted in opposition to the Word of God. We fight to expose and destroy the lies of false religion and pseudo gospels which lead people to hell.
Unbelievers are entrenched inside fortresses of philosophy, psychology, world religions, cults, humanism, naturalism, etc. And so we wield the Sword of the Spirit against the lies that people believe, as the truth exposes and corrects lies.
Spiritual warfare is about assaulting the proud strongholds of ideas that sinners erect against the truth, and believe are better than the Bible.
The world’s wisdom with its reasonings and pride are destroyed and cast down before the wisdom found in the Word of God and by its power through the Holy Spirit.
Our spiritual weapons of the Word of God, the gospel, and prayer are “mighty through God,” not us. The power of God’s Word and His gospel and prayer can shatter and crush the lies of false, satanic systems.
“Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God,” and so we use the Sword of the Spirit to rescue sinners from hell seeking to pull down, throw down, cast down, the strongholds of error, false religions, opinions, theories & beliefs people are entrenched in.
Using God’s truth and God’s power, believers attempt to smash fortresses to the ground and march the prisoners out to set them free in Christ, bringing them from falsehood into truth, from darkness to light, from death to life eternal.
We seek thru the Word and prayer for Christ to conquer hearts, for unbelievers to believe, and give their lives to Him and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
We need to be proficient at wielding the Sword against the lies people believe. To fight error, we must know the truth. A soldier in the military is taught to know their weapon backwards and forwards, and so it should be for the believer.
As a good soldier of Christ we should know our weapon, know our Sword, and we should know how to use it. And we need to rightly divide the Word of truth to know and understand it more fully and how to use it most effectively.
In other words, we must recognize the difference between prophecy and the mystery, between Israel’s program under the law, and the program for the Body under grace.
God uses the soldiers of the Cross and our efforts to tear down Satan’s fortresses, but in every way the battle is the Lord’s and any victory gained is due to Him.
2 Samuel 23:9-10 says this, “And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines that were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away:
“He arose, and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clave unto the sword: and the LORD wrought a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to spoil.”
David is near the end of his life here and he remembers the veterans who served with him in battle. The bravest warriors and most outstanding soldiers are honored and memorialized by David: “These be the names of the mighty men whom David had” (v. 8), and he lists thirty-seven men (v. 39).
Among these men is a man by the name of Eleazar who fought beside David against the Philistines while many Israelites were retreating.
With David, Eleazar remained, held fast and did not retreat, and the Lord honored his and David’s faith and bravery, giving Israel “a great victory,” after which the other soldiers returned to claim the spoil from the battlefield.
It says in v. 10 that because Eleazar fought so long and so fiercely “his hand clave unto the sword.” His grip was so tight his hand was welded or stuck to his sword, and his fingers had to be pried from the sword.
Ephesians 6:17 says that in the spiritual battle we are to “take…the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” Just like Eleazar, our grip should be tight to our Sword, the Word of God.
And we should hold it close and near, and grow in it, and grasp it tightly. And as Paul told Titus in Titus 1:9, we need to be “holding fast the faithful Word.”
Paul tells Timothy to “fight the good fight of the faith,” and to “war a good warfare.” Ephesians 6 tells us that God wants us to stand in the spiritual battle.
The Lord wants us to fight like David and Eleazar, and to not retreat, like Israel did in the battle, and like so many around us. But rather we should stay in the fight so the Lord can “wrought a great victory” through us for His glory.
In the battle, God wants us to fight to set men free, to fight for sound doctrine, to fight for the truth of the gospel, to fight for the truth of what God is doing today under grace. It takes guts to stay in the fight when so many retreat from these things.
As we do so, we’re to grip the Sword tightly, and in the power of Spirit we wield it according to God’s truth, and as the Lord honored the faithfulness and courage of David and Eleazar and gave them a great victory, He can do the same through us.
Ephesians 6:17: “And take…the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”
God encourages the Church to put on the whole armor, and to take “the sword of the Spirit,” to be able to stand in the spiritual battle. Like a sword is used, the Sword of the Spirit is used both offensively and defensively.
The sword carried by the Romans was usually around 18 inches long and was carried in a sheath attached to the belt. It was to always be within reach and ready to be unsheathed. So the Word is always to be close and ready for use in the spiritual battle.
Warren Wiersbe says this, “When the Child of God, looks into the Word of God, and sees the Son of God, he is changed by the Spirit of God, into the image of God, for the glory of God.” This is the power of the living Word, to transform lives for the glory of God.
The Bible is living and powerful and it is the Spirit’s Sword. The Holy Spirit is its Author and as we take it by faith and use it, the Spirit, not us, can pierce the heart of people and transform lives.
As Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
It’s important to note that when Paul says the “Word of God” here he does not use “logos,” for “Word,” which refers to general statements or messages, but instead the Greek word “rhema,” which refers to certain portions, particular statements, individual words.
The Spirit is pointing us specifically to the Pauline revelation in his epistles where we find God’s body of truth for this present dispensation of Grace, and how we are to use the His Word today both defensively and offensively in light of the mystery committed to Paul in the spiritual battle.
This allows us to wield the Spirit most proficiently and powerfully as we rightly divide the Word of truth.
Ephesians 6:18 says, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.”
Pastor Charles Lyons writes on the topic of praying for the streets of Chicago. During the 1980s the OA gang dominated our area.
So we created a prayer patrol of three or four teams of two men each. These were men with street savvy, men who knew the language and weren’t intimidated easily.
Normally when a gang hangs out on a corner, nobody goes near them.
Once a young man puts on the colors, the only adult that may ever speak to him again is usually a police detective. With the gang watching every car, keeping an eye out for drive-bys, our prayer patrols would slow down and find a place to park.
Then the patrol would do the unheard of: walk right up and start talking to the gang. I’m Al, this is Moses, and we’re from Armitage Church.
“We’re the prayer patrol. How ya’ doin’? Is there anything we can pray about with you? Baby sick? Brother in jail? Can we pray for you?”
These patrolmen then put their hands on the shoulders of these lost kids and prayed for them. In time, the gangs got to know and respect our prayer patrols.
The OAs had called our block their headquarters for 20 years. Today, the OAs are gone. The gang was overcome by the power of prayer.
And in the spiritual battle, we stand and we war by the power of God through prayer. Paul instructs the Body to pray, and to pray all the time. I believe part of God’s armor for our spiritual protection and as an offensive weapon is prayer. To be strong in the Lord and the power of His might in this spiritual battle and in this life, we need to pray.
The Christian life isn’t easy, Christian service is work, the spiritual battle is tough, and we need the Word and we need to pray to be strong in the Lord.
And Paul says: pray all the time, through all kinds of prayer, with all perseverance, for all God’s people. We are to pray all the time because we are subject to the attacks of Satan all the time, and the Body of Christ has needs all the time.
Paul tells us to pray “for all saints” here. We watch and pray for “all” that we “all” may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil in this spiritual battle.
We pray for spiritual protection and strength for “all” in this battle and for ourselves.
Like here in v. 18, Scripture often exhorts and challenges us to prayer, and to pray continuously. Psalm 55:16,17, “As for me, I will call upon God… Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and He shall hear my voice.”
Colossians 4:2 says to “continue [be devoted] in prayer.” In Romans 12:12, we are told be “instant in prayer.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says to: “Pray without ceasing.”
All these verses, speak of a readiness to pray, for prayer to be a habit of life, for prayer to be as normal to us as breathing.
The problem is that often in life we hold our breath, and we forget to pray! The instruction to pray teaches us that God wants us to speak to Him all the time.
To pray always is to know by faith that God is always there, always caring, always wanting us to turn to Him, and that He hears all our prayers as we pray all the time. To pray all the time is to be aware of God’s presence in our lives at all times.
It is to live in continual God consciousness. In prayer we center our minds and hearts on our personal relationship with Him.
We’re called to pray as a way of life in our journey home and in the spiritual battle. This doesn’t mean we have to be on our knees all day, refusing food and sleep.
Praying always means to continually send quick prayers of faith to the Lord throughout the day. It’s not a lengthy or eloquent: “Thou, Almighty Maker of heaven and earth, I beseech Thee with a contrite and lowly heart…”
It’s quicker and simpler than that, it’s: “Lord, help.” When a boss makes life difficult, release that burden in prayer. When a worry creeps up, pray a short prayer of trust in the Lord.
We’re in the middle of a certain problem, we ask Him for a resolution. When we’re tempted, we pray for strength. When believers/family are in conflict, we pray for peace.
When we hear of one who is sick and hurting, pray immediately for their comfort, strength, healing. When we speak with an unbeliever, we quietly pray for their salvation, as we’re talking to them!
As we pray always, we pray at any and all times in any situation we find ourselves in. So, we pray out loud or silently, in public or in private, sitting, standing, walking, driving, hiking, jogging, kneeling, lying in bed, or lounging in your easy chair.
We pray at home, at work, in school, in church, in a crowd, in a group, or alone. We pray with eyes open, eyes closed, head bowed, head raised, hands folded, hands open.
We pray intensely or calmly, burdened or in joy, spontaneously or planned, in the morning, afternoon, evening, middle of the night, however, whenever, wherever, we just pray.
Prayer is to fill the Christian life. The believer is to hold a running conversation with their Lord throughout each day. Our prayer life is to be a long conversation that is never broken. It’s just a constant, open conversation that never really has a period, just a series of commas and semicolons.
Praying always isn’t about audible words or having a set time for it, but that there’s always this openness that thrusts everything in your life to God.
It’s not the kind of thing where you set an alarm on your phone to go off every hour to remind me to pray. Unceasing prayer is an attitude in which I view the world and all that is going on around me and it translates into prayer, talking to the Lord about it.
And praying always does not mean saying the same thing over to God again and again and again, repeating the same phrases, same sentences, the same words.
We don’t pray with meaningless chants, religious repetitions, and rehearsed prayers. We don’t pray superstitiously, with empty, ritualistic, heartless, passionless prayers.
We pray within a real relationship, speaking as a child to a loving Father. And when you do, you share your heart, because that’s what God hears, not just your words.
He wants you to be real with Him when you pray. If you’re angry, tell Him. If you’re hurt, tell Him. If you’re impatient, tell Him. Don’t hold back. He knows anyway!
We pray always knowing that He is interested and involved in every area of our lives. God wouldn’t tell you to pray always unless He cared always for you. He wants you and I to come to Him with all requests, cares, needs, asking for His supply and His will.
Praying always is a constantly expressed dependence. And there is never a moment in the life of a believer when we don’t need the Lord, and need to depend on Him.
That’s how we live our lives and where the power for the spiritual battle is: in dependence on the Lord, and so we need to pray always in that dependence, taking everything directly to the power supply for our lives, and relying on Him and His strength and wisdom and supply in the spiritual battle.
So in summary, our spiritual weapons of God’s Word and prayer are “mighty through God” and by them we have the strength to stand in the battle, and the power to pull down strongholds of error and set people free in Christ.