People often get hyped up about spiritual warfare and satanic attacks. They have a myriad of techniques and methods of dealing with Satan, from special forms of words, 'In the name of Jesus I command you to come out from him', to excessive movement and heightened emotion (If I can rock back and forth and pray as quickly and loudly and ecstatically as possible then surely I'll scare the evil spirit off - like a car alarm perhaps?). And this strikes fear into peoples hearts, because they're not sure whether they're 'doing it right' or with enough emotional energy and gusto. You know what - in the most prominent bible passage on spiritual warfare I don't see any of that.
Now I don't doubt some people have had pretty out there experiences and I certainly don't pretend to be an expert in all of this. Paul is certainly not naive about the devils schemes and about the struggle with the 'powers of this dark world' and 'the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms'. But the response to this struggle is not in our strength or methods, but in Gods. The primary command of this armour of God passage comes in verse 10: 'Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power'.
The armour isn't magical or mystical things, but the basic necessities of the Christian life: truth, righteousness, the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace, faith, salvation and most importantly the word and Spirit of God. It's interesting to note that we aren't called to take up this armour at the moment of battle, but in preparation for battle. In the moment of battle it isn't our skill on the day that brings the result, it is our preparation. When the testing time of life comes along we will be relying on the past years of our Christian growth through this spiritual armour to get us through.
Something that is very clear in this armour is that the only offensive weapon we have is the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. The Spirit and the Word cannot be seperated. So much talk of spiritual warfare talks about the independent working of the Spirit to drive out other Spirits or to give us some special insight or revelation, or a word of prophecy perhaps. But the Spirit and the word are inseperable. You want to interact and be filled with the Holy Spirit? - then fill yourself with the word.
So keep on with the battle folks - not by some over-hyped spiritual moment of emotionalism, but by the steady formation of our salvation, faith, truth, righteousness and readiness, through the work of the word and Spirit (together) in our lives. And the cover-all thing here is prayer.Verse 18 basically says, if in doubt pray. Prayer is us being strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. It is depending on him and calling upon his strength. One of my tricks in talking to people is that if I don't know what to say or how to deal with a situation, just pray, if I do know what to say and how to deal with a situation, then also pray, whatever the situation, just pray. Pray over big family decisions, pray over little conversations after church, pray with the kids on the way to school, pray, pray, pray.
A totally separate aside from the household table in Ephesians 5:23-6:9: isn't it interesting that the Bible rarely (never?) talks about who we are to be as men, or who we are to be as women. In order to find out what a Christian man looks like you actually don't look up 'man' or 'men' in the Bible, you need to look up words like husband, father, brother, son. Because God has made us and formed us to be in relationships and who we are is who we are in relationships. Being a good woman means being a good daughter, mother, sister, wife, etc... To think about how I'm growing as a Christian it is probably a great practice to ask myself - how am I going in loving relationships with those around me?
yours in Christ,
Ben Boardman (Assistant Minister)
Tomorrows Readings: Micah 3, 1 Peter 1
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