COV LIFE BLOG

Ephesians 6:10-17 Spiritual Warfare

It is in the heavenly realms we struggle, we wrestle. Not against flesh and blood . .. but in the heavenly realms.So the cure can only be a spiritual cure. We cannot use ordinary water to wash away the guilt of sin. We cannot use bread and butter to feed the hungry souls of people. We cannot use grape juice to revive those who are fainting from spiritual exhaustion. Spiritual problems can be solved only by spiritual power. That is why the flesh and blood of Christ had to be given for the life of the world.

So it needs the pure light of the Holy Spirit to dispel this darkness of which we have been thinking, because we are operating in the heavenly realms. The Christian, in one sense, has been given contact with a superterrestial world. And in that spiritual realm, while there is deep darkness (ignorance of God), there is also the immense power of the Holy Spirit. He alone can restore to life those who are in the dark shadow of death.

Only he can awaken blind consciences. Only he can throw light on the wickedness of living without God. Only the Holy Spirit can light the pathway to the Cross and to the waiting Saviour. Only the Holy Spirit can lead the blind out of the gloom of spiritual night, restore their sight and bring them into the sunshine of God’s love.

That is why we wrestle and struggle. Our fight is on two fronts. It is against sin and its darkness in our own lives, and it is against Satan’s hold on the lives of so many others. We wrestle by faith and we wrestle by prayer. I wonder how much we know of this spiritual battle as we work in our churches and offer our service to the Lord?

We must wrestle with our lifestyle, to love God and to hold the deceitful riches of this world as lightly as we ought. The struggle is against falling in love with mere trash, and falling out of love with Christ, the pearl of great price. We wrestle with our selfish wills lest we pamper ourselves and feed our own pride, instead of carrying the Cross and following Christ. There is many a Christian who has found the Cross too heavy, and has laid it down and opted out of this spiritual struggle in the heavenly realms.

May Christ come and waken any who have become drowsy and near to falling asleep…. May Christ waken us! May he rouse us! Men and women are without God, living and dying in darkness, hell-bound. It needs those who are in the heavenly realms, in close touch with the Holy Spirit, to bring light to them-the light that will show them their need and let them see clearly the way to God.

David Searle

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Heart Preparation
Read Ephesians 6:10-17. When you are struggling in life, are you often aware that you live in a battlefield against spiritual forces? Are you fighting those oppositions with the spiritual weapons provided us in Christ? How can you grow here?