After giving the believer abundant encouragement that he has all the resources he needs to win in verse 11, Paul now turns with great gravity of tone in verse 12 to describe the daunting fight in which the believer finds himself. He introduces the verse with the word “for,” which links verse 12 to the “wiles [stratagems] of the devil” in 11. Paul is not trying to scare us, but he does want to awaken and sober us. God is not afraid to show his saints the full extent of Satan's awful power because the weakness of God is stronger than all the combined powers of hell!
Paul is not here advocating “Christian exorcism.” Fighting against real demon powers is not a matter of using the right “technique” to send them away but of being so filled with God's grace and power that no demon can find an “unclean place” in us to make his base of operations. There is no “formula” for success against Satanic forces except James' admonition: “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
We cannot resist evil spiritual forces with fleshly weapons (2 Cor. 10:4). We are no match for the Devil intellectually. Even the prophet Daniel, brilliant and godly as he was, had to obtain additional God-given wisdom to have discernment in occult matters. Let us approach this study of our Christian armor without any presumptuous pride but with true humility and faith that takes into account both Satan's real power and God's proven weaponry and armor.
Featuring a sermon puts it on the front page of the site and is the most effective way to bring this sermon to the attention of thousands including all mobile platforms + newsletter.
Text-Featuring a sermon is a less expensive way to bring this sermon to the attention of thousands on the right bar with optional newsletter inclusion. As low as $30/day.
Bob Vradenburgh is the senior pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. He has spent 40 years in full-time Christian service: the first 20 years as a missionary and the past 20 years in the pastorate. Bob’s passion is the expository preaching of God’s Word,...