We are being watched

“A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”   Ephesians 6:10-12 NLT

Do you feel the “weight of sin?” One of my men at work responded to my “good morning” this week in a different way. He opened up to me about his current struggle with sin. The type of sin is irrelevant but the struggle itself is something we can all relate to. He felt as if he was fighting and struggling more than ever with this particular sin and carrying around a heavy load; one that was invisible to the world around him and just plain wearing him out. He was feeling alone, isolated and wondered if he was the only one dealing with this. Au contraire say they French!

 Epouranios is the Greek word used in the above passage. This level of “heavenly places” refers to the air around us; the space between us and the highest sky. We’re talking about clouds here. When you see the sky change above, the clouds begin to roll and become blazed like fire then you’re seeing that heavenly place spoken of here. The Bible says that there is more going on there than meets the eye. There are battles being waged by forces of evil and by platoons of heaven’s angels. This war is being fought not over land or kingdoms we see but over you and me. There are two who lead this fight, God and the Devil. Both want us for their eternal kingdom beyond this life. They fight for each of us and no single person comes at a higher price than the other. In this, we are equal.

 “The Devil is pure evil. There is nothing good about him. None of his purposes are good.” Dr. Charles Stanley (When the Enemy Strikes)

Satan, the Devil, does his fighting in our minds. By the enticing bullets of temptation, he fights your mind and mine to lead us to commit sin against God. That sin, given time, becomes a stronghold in our lives that wears us out. It chokes the spiritual life out of us. In some cases, it will actually kill us. Once we are off this earth physically, our spirit joins one of these two kingdoms forever; Gods or the Devil’s. While we are here, Satan and his demonic forces fight for our hearts. They watch and learn our bad patterns and they try to use them against us. They tempt us in our weak areas and try to break through our armor. But because of the love of our God they must also fight the angles of Christ. This fierce war for mankind is ongoing, around-the-clock and unseen to the naked eye.

“The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.”  1 Corinthians 10:13

Even though you may feel alone, as if what you are dealing with is like nothing anyone else is experiencing, rest assured that most of us are fighting similar battles every day. We struggle with our own sins and our own demons; Christian and non-Christian alike. The thing we have to remember is that there is a real war going on around us. We are all a part of that war. We are being fought for. The entire human race is dealing with sin and temptation every day. The true question lies with how we deal with that temptation.  How we deal with it determines whether or not we have peace of mind from day-to-day or whether we feel overcome and weighed down. The Bible says, no matter the detail of the war, we can be at peace on a daily basis. But we have to follow God’s battle plan.

Focus on God this week. Ask Him for a break from Satan’s attacks. Meditate on the goodness of God. In next week’s blog I will discuss ways that bad patterns can be turned into good, how we can break down the strongholds of sin and enter into the peace that God says we can have in the midst of the spiritual war waging around us.