Dear BPCWAians, As we approach the end of the book of Ephesians in   our Sunday worship series, we have been looking at the armour of God in Ephesians 6. As we study each piece of the armour, I wonder if you may be sitting in the pew wondering “What’s the big deal of this, why do we have to look at it in such detail? Can’t we move on to something more practical for my life now?” I hope that each of us will realise that the full armour of God is not a pretty picture to study about in the Bible and that is all. It is what God provides for us for the real spiritual battle with real spiritual enemies and that it is truly the power of His might to resist and stand till the end.

Why you must see the importance of the spiritual battle. Typically as we age, we become more conscious of the signs and symptoms of high blood pressure, stroke, cancer or heart attacks. These are illnesses that are highly likely to strike the elderly and so they want to know and find out about it, and how to try to prevent it. We become more conscious of what we eat and what we do. But tell these to a child, and the child will not really care about how to avoid these illnesses at all. Likewise in the spiritual realm.    If you don’t think that there will be a battle, you won’t care about being prepared for the battle gear (ie, the armour). And if you don’t think that you are now in a battle, you won’t even fight or resist the enemy in that battle. As in any warfare, if you don’t know it exists, or don’t fight, you will lose, and you will fall prey to the enemy. Furthermore, just like any physical battle, the impact and the consequences of that battle often last way longer than even the battle itself. So, winning or losing that spiritual battle could have far-reaching repercussions and consequences in the spiritual realm even after that actual battle has ended.

Where is the spiritual battle? There is no battle! That is what we are lulled to think. Life is going on as usual. It is just the usual daily routine, and yes, the daily problems are there too. You wake up in the morning, brush your teeth and change to get ready for the things that you do everyday in the week… just like you’ve done everyday last week, and the week before.  You meet your usual colleagues, take care of your family, and fellowship with those you meet at church. Life as usual. And yes, there are the usual problems, arguments, frustrations, and the mistakes that we face at home, work, school, and church. But you simply think that they are nothing more than that – just problems in the physical realm. There’s surely no battle… or is there? Let’s take a closer look. We need to look behind the flesh and blood. God says we need to realise what goes on beyond and behind the people and physical realm, “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” (Eph 6:12). Satan does not want us to think and see beyond the physical flesh and blood. But that is where the battle really is. If he can make you go through life daily viewing all things just as flesh and blood, you will be ignoring the real spiritual battles. When this happens, Satan has succeeded in deceiving you and will cause you to fall.

What is the battle? The spiritual battle is about doing, submitting to and following God’s will. That is the spiritual battle – the fight against “every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God”, that goes contrary to “the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor 10:5). The battle you face every day is about how you respond as you go through the daily decisions, difficulties, joys, disappointments and frustrations in life. These situations are not just flesh and blood. It is about what you choose when it goes against the flesh. These choices affect your spiritual walk. As you go through the daily troubles in life, face struggles, frustrations, anger, dissatisfactions, discontentment, you must know that you are actually fighting battles in the spiritual realm in terms of what we pursue, what values we allow to guide and lead us, and the motives behind what we do and say. Unless you see that you are fighting spiritual temptations and a battle to disobey or dishonour God, a battle to let what we want to do prevail, you will not fight rightly. Don’t we meet with these situations every day of our lives? When we think we are tempted with fulfilling what our flesh lusts for, or when we are being bullied by someone, or see things not turning out the way we want; the spiritual battle is how you will respond in obedience and to not sin against God. When anger seeks to control our emotions, words and behaviour, will you just yield to the fleshly desires and let the fleshly rage take over? These ungodly emotions are “lusts that war in your members” (James 4:1). When you let them control you, you are losing the spiritual battle in that evil day. When you allow yourself to be influenced by sinful thoughts, desires or suggestions, you are losing the spiritual battle.

God willing, we will see more about what we should do, having known that we must see beyond the flesh and blood and recognise that there is  a real spiritual battle behind the persons who are causing troubles to you or tempting you in the situation you are facing; or the physical situations or challenges you are encountering in life at this moment. What you see  is more than meets the eye. Satan wants you to fall, but he does it very subtly. He succeeded very well with our first parents and has continued his craftiness for thousands of years through today:

Ge 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said…? 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die

Yours in our Lord’s service

Pastor