Seeing with New Eyes - Part Three
"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 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 6:10-12
“Against the power of this dark world
and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
Imagine with me…
• An unseen world filled with spirit beings of all sizes and shapes.
• These spirit beings given power – even power to influence events in our world.
• And imagine that a large number of these spirit beings have evil intentions – it is their objective to do harm rather than good.
• These spirit beings live in a non-material realm that is just as real as the physical world we inhabit.
• And – we are told by God’s Word that these are the enemy and we must do battle with them in order to become the men and women we were created to be!
Scripture presents a very different world that we as members of the 20th and 21st century western world have come to expect and experience.
Scripture is filled with wonderful stories of…
• Angels and demons impacting human life!
• Miracles and healings working to improve people’s lives!
• Epic battles between good and evil!
• Prophets, seers – men and women with a special ability granted by God to see beyond the natural world!
In fact, the ultimate story in the Bible is that of a man being executed by the Roman government – and then, miraculously resurrecting from the dead just three days later! Furthermore, this story is the pivotal point in human history and what you do with this story determines your eternal destiny.
The Bible teaches us that we should anticipate, expect and experience an ongoing interplay between the realm of the spiritual world and the material world in which we live.
Yet, because of the predominant world-view of Western Rationalism, we are Christians struggle with believing that this is possible. We demand that everything is tested from a scientific, rationalistic world-view that says…
I must be able to… see it, touch it, taste it, smell it – or hear it – for it to be real!
If we are to be honest, we must admit that as Christians we are facing a dilemma:
• Our culture presents one world-view.
• Our Christ presents yet another.
Look again at verse 12: “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."
God’s Word tells us that…
1. OUR ENEMY IS SPIRITUAL – NOT PHYSICAL! “not against flesh and blood… against the spiritual forces of evil…”
Apparently there are spirit beings who are out to do us harm.
Look at Isaiah 14:12-14…
"How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." Isaiah 14:12-14
And now Ezekiel 28:12, 15…
"‘You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty." "You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you." Ezekiel 28:12, 15
Let lay this out simply: Satan – AKA “Lucifer” was a high ranking Angel in God’s service. But he rose up against God, becoming adversarial to all that is good, right and godly.
Rev. 12:4 tells us that… “His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth…” which many people believe means that when Satan rose up against God, he took a third of all the angels of heaven with him. These evil spirits are what we call “Demons”.
Until God puts an end to this evil age, Satan and his demons are active on earth.
Which brings us back to what Paul says in Eph. 6 – our enemy is spiritual, not physical!
Secondly,
2. OUR ENEMY HAS POWER OVER THE PHYSICAL WORLD! “against the spiritual forces of evil…”
The enemy and his demons are a force to be reckoned with. They have power. And that power is destructive.
Dr. Charles Kraft writes in his book: Defeating Dark Angels:
“Satanic beings are involved in every kind of disruptive human activity. They can hinder earthly endeavors, and even delay answer to prayer. They seem to have authority over place and territories such as buildings, cities, and temples. Additionally, they appear to have authority over social organizations, and groups, and influence sinful behavior such as homosexuality, drug addiction, lust, incest, rape, and murder.
We can assume demons primary concern is to disrupt and if possible cripple anything or anyone that might be a threat to Satan’s dominion over the world. Their guns are aimed at individual, groups and organizations that seek to advance God’s purposes. They produce strongholds in people’s minds and probably other places as well. They attack Christian ministries and are agents of doctrinal aberrations. They affect health, perhaps affect weather and even have power over death, though they have no power except that allowed them by God.”
The great news is that their power is a limited power. In fact, for some reason God allows them – temporarily – to have power. But their power is subject to His greater authority! Satan is not co-equal to God. And as Believers, we are told that we have the power and authority in Jesus Name to limit and control the power of the demons and of Satan.
Jesus said in Luke 9…
"When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick." Luke 9:1, 2
And Paul wrote in 2 Cor. 2:11 that as Christians “we are not unaware of his schemes.”
Be assured – the enemy has power – and it is time we took him seriously!
Thirdly…
3. OUR ENEMY HAS EVIL INTENTIONS! “against the spiritual forces of evil…”
We’ve already seen that Satan and his forces are diabolically opposed to anything good, right or godly – but Peter wrote in 1 Peter 5 that Christians are to…
“Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith…” 1 Peter 5:8-9a
Why do we need to be self-controlled and alert? Because the enemy is watching for the Christian who has his defenses down – in order to pounce and to devour!
There is nothing fair, just or reasonable about him. All rules are irrelevant. He is a liar. A cheater. A thief. He deceives, distorts, confuses, sneaks, causes doubt – whatever it takes to fool you into buying his lies.
Why? Because he hates your guts. He hates your family. He hates your marriage. He hates your faith. He hates anything in you that if of God.
When evil happens – don’t blame God. That is one of the worst lies of the enemy. He tries to get you to believe that the car accident, the cancer, the loss of job – was God’s doing. Don’t believe it. Because if you buy his lies you’ll move away from your source of life and nothing could make Satan happier!
Fourthly – Paul write that the spiritual forces of evil are from “the heavenly realms.”
4. OUR ENEMY LIVES IN THE NON-PHYSICAL REALITY! “the heavenly realms.”
The Greek word for ‘heavenly realms’ is ‘epi-ouranious’ – which literally means “high place” and refers to the abode of God and angels – which of course would also be the dwelling place of Satan and demons.
Why is this important? For a couple of reasons:
1. Satan and demons do not have physical bodies.
2. Which makes it harder to do battle with them.
Ultimately, because our enemy lives in a non-physical reality – we have to learn to do battle with an unseen enemy.
You see, non-physical spirits can affect us for good and for evil.
Let me explain: When you pray to God – you are praying to a non-physical spirit and you pray anticipating at some level that although God is not physical, He can impact your life in a positive way. So we pray for healings, for jobs, for courage, for loved ones – anticipating that He will intervene and do something good for you.
But, isn’t it equally true that unseen spirits with evil intentions and powers can also impact you for evil? Given that the Bible makes it clear that Satan and demons have as their objective to destroy good – we need to become increasingly aware of how they work – so that we can fight effectively!
In the book of Exodus – God sends Moses before the King of Egypt to demand the release of the people of Israel. In order to demonstrate authority from God, Moses throws down his wooden staff to the ground – and through the power of God – it becomes a snake. Not to be outdone, the magicians in Pharoah’s courts replicate the exact same miracle. As they also do when God uses Moses to turn the river Nile into blood, and to create millions upon millions of frogs that invade the land.
How did Pharoah’s magicians do this? How did they reproduce these signs and wonders? By aligning themselves with demon spirits who gave them the power to do so!
In Acts 8:9-11 we read of Simon the Sorceror:
"Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, "This man is the divine power known as the Great Power." They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic." Acts 8:9-11
How did Simon do these great works of power? He aligned himself with demon spirits.
Today, around the world there are Shamans, Witch Doctors, Psychics, mediums like John Edwards – who all have power – and what is the source of that power? Demon spirits seeking to deceive people from the truth!
In our arrogance – we tend to dismiss those who follow these types of people as ‘ignorant’ – but the reality is this: They are being deceived by demon spirits.
We shouldn’t be surpised by this: 2 Cor 11:4 tells us that Satan
‘…masquerades as an angel of light…’ 2 Cor. 11:4
Now – back to Moses and the Pharoah’s magicians – When Moses – under the power of the Holy Spirit – created an invasion of gnats in the land of Egypt – the magicians recognized that this demonstrated the ‘finger of God’ – and they could not reproduce this miracle. Nor could they reproduce any of the other plagues that hit and destroyed Egypt! This was the turning point in the battle that ultimately lead to the freedom of 2 million Jews!
Why couldn’t the magicians do these miracles? Because Satan’s power is finite – whereas the power of God has no limits!
Don’t think I’m making this stuff up. Even Jesus saw beyond the physical realm into the reality of the spirit world.
In Matthew 16 when Peter attempts to block the mission of Jesus – Jesus says:
"Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." Matthew 16:23
Jesus knows that while it was Peter’s mouth that spoke – it wasn’t Peter’s words. Those words came from the unseen enemy.
Spiritual warfare is a battle – not against flesh and blood – but against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. And step one in winning the battle is to see the true nature of it. It is a spiritual fight.
In C.S. Lewis’ amazing book Screwtape Letters – “Screwtape” posing as an older more experienced demon, writing to a young trainee demon named “Wormwood” says:
“The fact that ‘devils’ are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that, he therefore cannot believe in you.”
I’ll put it this way: You cannot fight – let alone defeat – something you do not believe exists.
So, I’ll pose these questions:
• Aren’t you tired of being beat up and defeated by this unseen enemy?
• Isn’t it time to look at the world through with a truly biblical world-view?
“Against the power of this dark world
and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
Imagine with me…
• An unseen world filled with spirit beings of all sizes and shapes.
• These spirit beings given power – even power to influence events in our world.
• And imagine that a large number of these spirit beings have evil intentions – it is their objective to do harm rather than good.
• These spirit beings live in a non-material realm that is just as real as the physical world we inhabit.
• And – we are told by God’s Word that these are the enemy and we must do battle with them in order to become the men and women we were created to be!
Scripture presents a very different world that we as members of the 20th and 21st century western world have come to expect and experience.
Scripture is filled with wonderful stories of…
• Angels and demons impacting human life!
• Miracles and healings working to improve people’s lives!
• Epic battles between good and evil!
• Prophets, seers – men and women with a special ability granted by God to see beyond the natural world!
In fact, the ultimate story in the Bible is that of a man being executed by the Roman government – and then, miraculously resurrecting from the dead just three days later! Furthermore, this story is the pivotal point in human history and what you do with this story determines your eternal destiny.
The Bible teaches us that we should anticipate, expect and experience an ongoing interplay between the realm of the spiritual world and the material world in which we live.
Yet, because of the predominant world-view of Western Rationalism, we are Christians struggle with believing that this is possible. We demand that everything is tested from a scientific, rationalistic world-view that says…
I must be able to… see it, touch it, taste it, smell it – or hear it – for it to be real!
If we are to be honest, we must admit that as Christians we are facing a dilemma:
• Our culture presents one world-view.
• Our Christ presents yet another.
Look again at verse 12: “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."
God’s Word tells us that…
1. OUR ENEMY IS SPIRITUAL – NOT PHYSICAL! “not against flesh and blood… against the spiritual forces of evil…”
Apparently there are spirit beings who are out to do us harm.
Look at Isaiah 14:12-14…
"How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." Isaiah 14:12-14
And now Ezekiel 28:12, 15…
"‘You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty." "You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you." Ezekiel 28:12, 15
Let lay this out simply: Satan – AKA “Lucifer” was a high ranking Angel in God’s service. But he rose up against God, becoming adversarial to all that is good, right and godly.
Rev. 12:4 tells us that… “His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth…” which many people believe means that when Satan rose up against God, he took a third of all the angels of heaven with him. These evil spirits are what we call “Demons”.
Until God puts an end to this evil age, Satan and his demons are active on earth.
Which brings us back to what Paul says in Eph. 6 – our enemy is spiritual, not physical!
Secondly,
2. OUR ENEMY HAS POWER OVER THE PHYSICAL WORLD! “against the spiritual forces of evil…”
The enemy and his demons are a force to be reckoned with. They have power. And that power is destructive.
Dr. Charles Kraft writes in his book: Defeating Dark Angels:
“Satanic beings are involved in every kind of disruptive human activity. They can hinder earthly endeavors, and even delay answer to prayer. They seem to have authority over place and territories such as buildings, cities, and temples. Additionally, they appear to have authority over social organizations, and groups, and influence sinful behavior such as homosexuality, drug addiction, lust, incest, rape, and murder.
We can assume demons primary concern is to disrupt and if possible cripple anything or anyone that might be a threat to Satan’s dominion over the world. Their guns are aimed at individual, groups and organizations that seek to advance God’s purposes. They produce strongholds in people’s minds and probably other places as well. They attack Christian ministries and are agents of doctrinal aberrations. They affect health, perhaps affect weather and even have power over death, though they have no power except that allowed them by God.”
The great news is that their power is a limited power. In fact, for some reason God allows them – temporarily – to have power. But their power is subject to His greater authority! Satan is not co-equal to God. And as Believers, we are told that we have the power and authority in Jesus Name to limit and control the power of the demons and of Satan.
Jesus said in Luke 9…
"When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick." Luke 9:1, 2
And Paul wrote in 2 Cor. 2:11 that as Christians “we are not unaware of his schemes.”
Be assured – the enemy has power – and it is time we took him seriously!
Thirdly…
3. OUR ENEMY HAS EVIL INTENTIONS! “against the spiritual forces of evil…”
We’ve already seen that Satan and his forces are diabolically opposed to anything good, right or godly – but Peter wrote in 1 Peter 5 that Christians are to…
“Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith…” 1 Peter 5:8-9a
Why do we need to be self-controlled and alert? Because the enemy is watching for the Christian who has his defenses down – in order to pounce and to devour!
There is nothing fair, just or reasonable about him. All rules are irrelevant. He is a liar. A cheater. A thief. He deceives, distorts, confuses, sneaks, causes doubt – whatever it takes to fool you into buying his lies.
Why? Because he hates your guts. He hates your family. He hates your marriage. He hates your faith. He hates anything in you that if of God.
When evil happens – don’t blame God. That is one of the worst lies of the enemy. He tries to get you to believe that the car accident, the cancer, the loss of job – was God’s doing. Don’t believe it. Because if you buy his lies you’ll move away from your source of life and nothing could make Satan happier!
Fourthly – Paul write that the spiritual forces of evil are from “the heavenly realms.”
4. OUR ENEMY LIVES IN THE NON-PHYSICAL REALITY! “the heavenly realms.”
The Greek word for ‘heavenly realms’ is ‘epi-ouranious’ – which literally means “high place” and refers to the abode of God and angels – which of course would also be the dwelling place of Satan and demons.
Why is this important? For a couple of reasons:
1. Satan and demons do not have physical bodies.
2. Which makes it harder to do battle with them.
Ultimately, because our enemy lives in a non-physical reality – we have to learn to do battle with an unseen enemy.
You see, non-physical spirits can affect us for good and for evil.
Let me explain: When you pray to God – you are praying to a non-physical spirit and you pray anticipating at some level that although God is not physical, He can impact your life in a positive way. So we pray for healings, for jobs, for courage, for loved ones – anticipating that He will intervene and do something good for you.
But, isn’t it equally true that unseen spirits with evil intentions and powers can also impact you for evil? Given that the Bible makes it clear that Satan and demons have as their objective to destroy good – we need to become increasingly aware of how they work – so that we can fight effectively!
In the book of Exodus – God sends Moses before the King of Egypt to demand the release of the people of Israel. In order to demonstrate authority from God, Moses throws down his wooden staff to the ground – and through the power of God – it becomes a snake. Not to be outdone, the magicians in Pharoah’s courts replicate the exact same miracle. As they also do when God uses Moses to turn the river Nile into blood, and to create millions upon millions of frogs that invade the land.
How did Pharoah’s magicians do this? How did they reproduce these signs and wonders? By aligning themselves with demon spirits who gave them the power to do so!
In Acts 8:9-11 we read of Simon the Sorceror:
"Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, "This man is the divine power known as the Great Power." They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic." Acts 8:9-11
How did Simon do these great works of power? He aligned himself with demon spirits.
Today, around the world there are Shamans, Witch Doctors, Psychics, mediums like John Edwards – who all have power – and what is the source of that power? Demon spirits seeking to deceive people from the truth!
In our arrogance – we tend to dismiss those who follow these types of people as ‘ignorant’ – but the reality is this: They are being deceived by demon spirits.
We shouldn’t be surpised by this: 2 Cor 11:4 tells us that Satan
‘…masquerades as an angel of light…’ 2 Cor. 11:4
Now – back to Moses and the Pharoah’s magicians – When Moses – under the power of the Holy Spirit – created an invasion of gnats in the land of Egypt – the magicians recognized that this demonstrated the ‘finger of God’ – and they could not reproduce this miracle. Nor could they reproduce any of the other plagues that hit and destroyed Egypt! This was the turning point in the battle that ultimately lead to the freedom of 2 million Jews!
Why couldn’t the magicians do these miracles? Because Satan’s power is finite – whereas the power of God has no limits!
Don’t think I’m making this stuff up. Even Jesus saw beyond the physical realm into the reality of the spirit world.
In Matthew 16 when Peter attempts to block the mission of Jesus – Jesus says:
"Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." Matthew 16:23
Jesus knows that while it was Peter’s mouth that spoke – it wasn’t Peter’s words. Those words came from the unseen enemy.
Spiritual warfare is a battle – not against flesh and blood – but against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. And step one in winning the battle is to see the true nature of it. It is a spiritual fight.
In C.S. Lewis’ amazing book Screwtape Letters – “Screwtape” posing as an older more experienced demon, writing to a young trainee demon named “Wormwood” says:
“The fact that ‘devils’ are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that, he therefore cannot believe in you.”
I’ll put it this way: You cannot fight – let alone defeat – something you do not believe exists.
So, I’ll pose these questions:
• Aren’t you tired of being beat up and defeated by this unseen enemy?
• Isn’t it time to look at the world through with a truly biblical world-view?
posted by Doug Love at 6:47 AM
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