BY GREG CRUM
“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:10-12
The sixth chapter of the book of Ephesians is a good reminder that because we live in a fallen world whose “god” is still the devil, we will face opposition from time to time. The enemy will do his best to set roadblocks in our way and hinder us from receiving from the Lord the “exceeding great and precious promises” (II Peter 1:4) that God has provided for us. The good news about all of this is that these hindrances can’t stop the promises from being fulfilled in our lives. Unless, of course, we allow the hindrances to derail our faith and our faithfulness in following God’s plan for our lives.
This being the case, it’s imperative that believers learn to keep Satan’s roadblocks from becoming road closers. How? In large part by coming to understand the battleground, learning to keep our peace, and using the Holy arsenal God has made available to us!
With that in mind, let me share with you some things that will help us all to overcome spiritual opposition we may face in this life. The first thing we need to understand along these lines is that our struggle in this life is always deeper than skin. It isn’t in the natural or mental arena at its base—it’s always spiritual at its root. Most of us have grown up influenced by the doctrines of secular education and have been desensitized to the supernatural. The supernatural is more “real,” more enduring than anything we see with our natural eyes.
If you believe the Bible and, in particular, the teachings of Jesus contained therein, you must believe in the supernatural, including the existence of both good and evil beings active in this Earth that we cannot see. Jesus taught of both angels and demons and how they work for their respective masters. So, there are influences involved in our seemingly everyday “human” struggles that are not human (flesh and blood) in origin. How does it help to understand that? Well, when you understand that the root of your struggle against “fill in the blank” (addiction, disease, unforgiveness, etc.) is not entirely human, you can begin to realize that entirely human cures won’t fix the problem. We can’t fight and win spiritual battles in and with our minds, emotions or fists. We have to take the fight to the spiritual level. Again, that’s great news for us because that’s where we always win!
A second thing that will help us to overcome spiritual opposition is recognizing the M.O. of our enemy. Satan and his forces have strategy; it’s effective unfortunately, but predictable. Usually, the enemy doesn’t come out with a haymaker, one large, powerful blow. Usually, his plan is to irritate us with small but uncomfortable things hoping for an overreaction on our part. Once that overreaction is achieved, then he is allowed by our sin to slip through an open door into our lives.
Demons act like flies or gnats in this regard. Their master was referred to as “Beelzebub” by Jesus, which can be translated to mean “lord of the flies.” This would seem to be a reference to how he and his forces operate. Their attacks are sorties of nuisance. Mostly benign at first, but aggressive. They swarm and buzz and make a lot of noise in the hopes that we’ll overreact and “wreck” as we swat at them.
The key to overcoming these attacks is to keep ourselves from the overreaction they desire. We must keep our peace in the middle of the buzz. We can’t allow ourselves to overreact to the aggravations in life. Psalm 46:10 speaks of being still and knowing God. When the devil “buzzes” lies through our minds and temptation before our eyes, we just need to keep our peace, stand in our faith and then we will see the deliverance of the Lord in our lives.
Greg Crum is the pastor of Calvary Temple in Lovely.