“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12).
Wrestling is a sport that is usually associated with boys and men, only a few of whom engaged in organized wrestling in high school or college. But whether you are a man or a woman, the Apostle Paul says that you are engaged in a life-long wrestling match against the members of Satan’s host.
But did you ever wonder how you are supposed to wrestle a spirit? And what is this wrestling match all about, anyway? Paul doesn’t say, but we believe he was thinking of Daniel 10. Here an angel was sent to Daniel to deliver a message from God, but a fallen angel “withstood” him for 21 days (vv. 11-14). Since Paul says of our wrestling match that we must “withstand” (Eph. 6:13), we feel he had this passage in mind, especially when we consider what was happening in Daniel 10. The Prince of Persia, one of “the rulers of the darkness of this world,” was fighting to keep a message from God from getting through to a man of God. It is our firm conviction that “the rulers of the darkness of this world” are still fighting to keep a message from God from getting through to men and women of God—the grace message. Today, however, God is not using angels to deliver His message to His people, He is using grace believers. Because of this, the members of Satan’s host are no longer withstanding angels, they are withstanding us.
And so if you’ve been wondering how you are supposed to wrestle against the devil’s principalities and powers, wonder no more. Every time you share the grace message with someone, you walk out onto the wrestling mat. Every time you try to “make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery” (Eph. 3:9), you engage your wicked opponent. And every dollar you invest in grace ministries helps defeat the adversary’s attempts to keep men and women of God from obtaining the message that unlocks the Scriptures, the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery. Why not reach someone with the message today, and know the thrill of pinning a Satanic combatant to the mat, and liberating a bewildered believer from the dark shackles of religious tradition that envelope every saint who has not yet learned to rightly divide the Word of truth.
To the Reader:
Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:
"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."
To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.