The Battle Against the Unseen
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. Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil."(Ephesians 6:10-16)
It is easy in our daily lives to forget this truth. Because we live in a world of the seen - we see everyone we live with, work with, go to church with, and do business with. We see their attitudes, their behavior, the result of their choices - and even our own. But we forget that the God we trust in as believers, we cannot see, touch, taste, or feel - we just know - it's a supernatural knowing in our hearts that He is real and we believe it in our hearts. Our faith in God is founded upon believing in the unseen. In Romans 10 verses 1 thru 15 we read, "Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. For they don't understand God's way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God's way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God. For Moses writes that the law's way of making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands. But faith's way of getting right with God says, "Don't say in your heart, 'Who will go up to heaven?' (to bring Christ down to earth). And don't say, 'Who will go down to the place of the dead?' (to bring Christ back to life again)." In fact, it says, "The message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart." And that message is the very message about faith that we preach: If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced." Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. For "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, "How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!""
Our salvation is based on believing with our hearts and confessing with our mouths - it's not a "see to believe faith" but a "believe to see faith". Let's read about the Resurrection, and listen to what Jesus said to Thomas. In John Chapter 20 we read, "Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, "They have taken the Lord's body out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!" Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn't go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus' head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed - for until then they still hadn't understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. Then they went home. Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. "Dear woman, why are you crying?" the angels asked her. "Because they have taken away my Lord," she replied, "and I don't know where they have put him." She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn't recognize him. "Dear woman, why are you crying?" Jesus asked her. "Who are you looking for?" She thought he was the gardener. "Sir," she said, "if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him." "Mary!" Jesus said. She turned to him and cried out, "Rabboni!" (which is Hebrew for "Teacher"). "Don't cling to me," Jesus said, "for I haven't yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, "I have seen the Lord!" Then she gave them his message. That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! "Peace be with you," he said. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again he said, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you." Then he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he replied, "I won't believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side." Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. "Peace be with you," he said. Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don't be faithless any longer. Believe!" "My Lord and my God!" Thomas exclaimed. Then Jesus told him, "You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me." The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name."
The word "believe" that we have heard in both passages Romans 10 & John 20 is defined as, "to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in of the thing believed;" According to Strong's Concordance "it is used in the New Testament of the conviction and trust to which a man is impelled by a certain inner and higher prerogative and law of soul; it is also to trust in Jesus or God as able to aid either in obtaining or in doing something: saving faith". It is also a "mere acknowledgment of some fact or event: intellectual faith". The life of faith we live according to 2 Corinthians 5:7, "For we walk by faith, not by sight:" - that faith is defined as a "conviction of the truth of anything, belief; in the New Testament of a conviction or belief respecting man's relationship to God and divine things, generally with the included idea of trust and holy fervor born of faith and joined with it. As relating to God, it is the conviction that God exists and is the creator and ruler of all things, the provider and bestower of eternal salvation through Christ. Relating to Christ it is a strong and welcome conviction or belief that Jesus is the Messiah, through whom we obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God. It is the foundational and religious belief of Christians. It is with this belief with the predominate idea of trust (or confidence) whether in God or in Christ, that springs from faith in the same.".
Our belief, trust, and faith are dependent upon our confidence in a God Who we cannot see, yet in Whom we totally and completely with abandonment believe in intellectually, emotionally, and physically - with all of our being. It is with this knowledge that we also believe we are spirits living in a body with a soul (will, intellect, and emotions), and that our spirits are born again from above. You can read more about that in John chapter 3 verses 3 thru 15.
Now, with the knowledge that we can confidently believe in a God we cannot see, we must understand that we also have forces working against us who we may not be able to see with our physical eyes. Okay, some of you may say, "what are you talking about?" Let me give you an example. Although we know we have the Air Force, Navy, Army, and Marines on our side to protect us in the United States, we also have those who desire to do harm to our country. We may hear about them, but can we see them? Yes, maybe we hear the threats on some television coverage indirectly, but we do not experience the threats directly. Yet we "believe" they are present nonetheless, and we have seen some of the effects, such as in 9-1-1. I have another example, in case there are some skeptics out there. When we fly, unless we have full knowledge of physics and aerospace engineering, do we completely understand how the airplane keeps us flying high in the sky and lands us safely to our destination? Yet we believe that the pilots have obtained the necessary education to carry us wherever we choose to go. Well, in the same way, believers have confident trust in the manual - the Book of the Bible - the truth that God is real and everything He has told us is true - therefore it is our truth and our reality - it is how we perceive everything we believe.
In 2 Kings 6 we read about Elijah and his servant Gehazi, "When the king of Aram was at war with Israel, he would confer with his officers and say, "We will mobilize our forces at such and such a place." But immediately Elisha, the man of God, would warn the king of Israel, "Do not go near that place, for the Arameans are planning to mobilize their troops there." So theking of Israel would send word to the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he would be on the alert there. The king of Aram became very upset over this. He called his officers together and demanded, "Which of you is the traitor? Who has been informing the king of Israel of my plans?" "It's not us, my lord the king," one of the officers replied. "Elisha, the prophet in Israel, tells the king of Israel even the words you speak in the privacy of your bedroom!" "Go and find out where he is," the king commanded, "so I can send troops to seize him." And the report came back: "Elisha is at Dothan." So one night the king of Aram sent a great army with many chariots and horses to surround the city. When the servant of the man of God got up early the next morning and went outside, there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere. "Oh, sir, what will we do now?" the young man cried to Elisha. "Don't be afraid!" Elisha told him. "For there are more on our side than on theirs!" Then Elisha prayed, "O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!" The Lord opened the young man's eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire. As the Aramean army advanced toward him, Elisha prayed, "O Lord, please make them blind." So the Lord struck them with blindness as Elisha had asked. Then Elisha went out and told them, "You have come the wrong way! This isn't the right city! Follow me, and I will take you to the man you are looking for." And he led them to the city of Samaria. As soon as they had entered Samaria, Elisha prayed, "O Lord, now open their eyes and let them see." So the Lord opened their eyes, and they discovered that they were in the middle of Samaria. When the king of Israel saw them, he shouted to Elisha, "My father, should I kill them? Should I kill them?" "Of course not!" Elisha replied. "Do we kill prisoners of war? Give them food and drink and send them home again to their master." So the king made a great feast for them and then sent them home to their master. After that, the Aramean raiders stayed away from the land of Israel." (Verses 9-23)
Now, after laying the foundation of the fact that there are unseen forces out there. What do we do with this information as believers? How do we live as Elijah did, with the confidence that there are more for us than against us? We read in Romans chapter 8, "What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died-more than that, who was raised to life-is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Verses 31-39)
God is for us! With God we are not just conquerors, but more than conquerors! Our battle is not against one another, but against unseen forces, which God sees and wants us to also see that He fights against them for us. We have to trust Him with the battle of the unseen. How? By putting on all the armor that God has given to us. And we must do this daily to acknowledge our trust in God, our awareness of the unseen enemy forces, and to arm ourselves with the proper safeguard against these forces. In the New Living Translation of Ephesians 6 verses 10 thru 18 we read, "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. Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere." When you do all of this, it will definitely be Time Well Spent.