ARMED FOR BATTLE

War is on the horizon. Actually, this war, is a spiritual war that has been raging for a long time now and is only intensifying. The Bible often illustrates the Christian life as a battle, waring against sin and satan according to Ephesians 6:12; "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." The children of God are soldiers of Christ according to 2 Timothy 2:3, in a spiritual warfare that requires them to use weapons that are not crafted by the world, according to 2 Cor.10:3-4, "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.". That’s why the apostle Paul encourages Christians in Ephesians 6 to, “put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.". Every day, all day long we face a spiritual war and an enemy that is real. His evil plans desire nothing more than to bring defeat to the child of God, as well as all the pain that he can dispose on God's creation. His goal is to steal, kill, and destroy. The forces of darkness that Eph. 6 talks about does not wait for us to be ready for their attack. They're ruthless, determined, and cunning. The devil could care less if we feel or assume that we are prepared or prayed up each day. In fact, he prefers that we get caught off our guard and unaware of his presence. That way, we are actually not fully ready for his attacks. God gives specific instructions in his Word. He gives us all we need to stand strong in this life. Yet all too often, we race through busy, ill-equipped, unprepared, and simply not aware of what we’re up against, or who the real enemy actually is. God has a plan for your life and mine. The enemy has a plan for us too. We just have to decide who we’re going to listen to, and who we're going to choose to follow each day. If you're a believer, living like salt and light in this dark world, you won't go for long without encountering obstacles and attacks that the enemy will hurl straight in your direction. This battle is real my friend, it’s intense and it is not going away, until the perfect plan of God has been fulfilled. C. S. Lewis warned years ago, that believers usually fall into one of two camps when dealing with the demonic: we deny their existence, or we get fascinated with them. Either way, we can miss the Bible’s basic teachings about this conflict. Ephesians 2:1-3 reminds us of the 3 enemies that we face: the world, our flesh and the devil. In some cases, the three are so interwoven that it’s difficult to tell them apart. However, we can be assured of some very important facts. God reigns over our enemy. The enemy we face is a defeated foe because of the cross of Jesus Christ. Warfare is the devil's attempt to deceive and divide God's people and encourage them to operate within their own abilities, apart from God's power as overcomers. Every disruption that he can cause in our life only takes away the freedom that we have, if we do not resist and give way to them and fall prey to satan's snares. Never forget, that the battle you may be facing today, may be more about what is unseen than what you can see with fleshly eyes. And when you resist the enemy, God's word tells us in James 4:7, that he has to flee. For the weapons that God has given you to be armed with, for the battles that you will face, are not made with fleshly hands of this world, but are found within the pages of the Word of God.

Hold Fast,

-Bren