Spiritual Warfare
Joe Terrell

"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

The world struggles against worldly enemies. Each man fights against the other inhabitants of the world in order to gain an advantage in power, wealth of fame. Worldly religionists fight worldly evil, protesting the whatever sins may be fashionable at the time and trying to gain whatever power they can in order to slow the descent of the culture or maybe even push the world in a positive direction.

But, just as the believer’s hope is not in this world, so his warfare is not in this world. When a man believes the gospel, his warfare with God is ended, but a new warfare begins. He who would make a friend of Christ and His Kingdom will make an enemy of Satan and his kingdom. Do not ever think that the life of faith is an easy one. It involves warfare – fierce fighting; and to make things worse, it is a sort of warfare we are not accustomed to. The weapons are different, the results are different, and much of the victory will not be seen by us until all fighting is over.

But, blessed be God, the outcome of our present warfare is also different! In times past, we battled in vain. No matter how successful we seemed, in the end all would be lost. But now, our eternal victory is guaranteed, as it is written, “in all these things we are more than conquerors”. The battle will be fierce, and it may often look as though we are on the losing side. But the reality is, everything is going exactly according to plan, and our Lord has and shall be completely victorious, and all our labors in Him shall prove fruitful to the praise of God’s glorious grace. So, encourage your hearts with grace, and fight on, for the battle is the Lord’s!