Before we can talk about achieving victory in spiritual warfare, we have to understand the nature and history of the conflict between God and Satan. The basic principle in everything we see in the visible, the natural realm is controlled in the supernatural invisible realm.
We can see throughout the Old Testament as God made the first move when He created the angels. Lucifer countered that move when he rebelled against God {Isaiah 14:12-15} and took one-third of the angels with him {Revelation 12:4}.
God countered that move with creating man in His own image, “a little lower than angels {Psalm 8:5}. Satan rebelled against that move by tempting Adam and Eve to sin and turn the earth over to his control. But God countered by providing a redemptive covering for Adam and Eve so they could return to fellowship with His. Of course, Satan tried to counter that move by getting Cain to kill Abel in order to cut off the godly line.
That’s when God countered the birth of Seth, so that “men began to call on the Name of the Lord” again {Genesis 4:26}. Satan tried to count that move through the birth of Nimrod, who built the civilization of Babylon and Syria and gathered the people at the Tower of Babel to build a civilization and a relic defiance of God {Genesis 11:1-9}. But God countered with a move to Ur of the Chaldeans, finding a man named Abram through whom He would establish a nation, Israel, that would obey Him.
However, Satan countered that move by getting people trapped in Egypt so that Pharaoh would not let them go. God countered again by calling Moses to go to Pharaoh with the message, “Let my people go” {Exodus 5:1}. We could go on and on, but you get the idea. The entire Old Testament is move, countermove, move, countermove as Satan battled the work of God. Now don’t get the wrong idea. Spiritual warfare is not a battle between two equal forces. Satan is the creature; God is the Creator. Satan is a defeated foe; his defeat as first announced in Genesis 3:15 when God Himself said One would come who would crush Satan.
God’s Final Move
The One is Jesus Christ. So God made the big move when He became man in the person of Jesus Christ. Satan tried to counter that move by tempting Jesus in the wilderness {Matthew 4:1-11}. Jesus overcame that through the use of God’s Word. Then Satan made his final move at the cross, thinking he had gotten rid of Jesus. But God made the final move by raising Jesus from the dead.
And that move is now your move. No matter what’s going on in your world, Jesus’s resurrection move was God’s move, and now it’s your move for victory in spiritual warfare. What do you need to make that victory real in your life is to take up the armor of God has provided. Paul describes the armor for spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the Devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms.
Ephesians 6:10-12
The Real Enemy
There’s a key principle of spiritual warfare in verse 12 that a lot of believers don’t understand. Notice our enemies are “the spiritual forces of evil.” In other words, people are not your problem. You may think people are your problem because they’re what you see, feel, touch, and hear. But according to Gods Word, people are just the conduit for the battle going on in the spiritual realm. The battles we have in life are not fundamentally physical in nature, but spiritual- not primarily on earth, but in the “heavenly realms.”
This means if you don’t know how to navigate the spiritual realm, you can’t fix what’s going on in the physical realm. Spiritual warfare is the battle in the invisible, spiritual world that is responsible for the battles in the visible physical world.
Paul uses the term “heavenly realms” uniquely in the Book of Ephesians to describe the Christian’s activities. For example, your blessings are located in the heavenly realms {Ephesians 1:3}. Everything God is going to do for you is located in the unseen realm. Then in Ephesians 1:20, Paul says God raised Jesus and seated Him in the heavenly realms. Not only are your blessings located there; Jesus, the One who is in charge, is there also. So if you want to get to Jesus m you have to go where He is in the spiritual realm.
What happens when we do this? For one, we start seeing other people, or even ourselves, as the problem, and we start fighting them or ourselves. Or we come to believe that the answers to our needs are found in some self-help program or in finding a new job or even a new spouse. But these things do work, so we start believing that we are helpless against the devil and his schemes.
A Secret To Victory
But here’s a secret to victory in spiritual warfare that the devil doesn’t want you to know. The only power that Satan and his demons have over you and me is the power we give them. That’s because Satan is already a defeated enemy, he was crushed at the cross and the empty tomb of Jesus. The only reason Satan can take over the planet earth is because Adam and Eve permitted him to do it. The devil and his demons need your permission to unleash the forces of Hell in your life.
And once they are given permission, demons are like roaches. They are scurrying around on our lives because we have permitted them to be there. But let me say it again; The devil operates by consent and by cooperation. Some people say, “Christians care just too demon conscious.” No, the problem is, most of us are too demon unconscious.
I say that because of our battle against these spiritual forces. Now let me ask you a question. If the devil has already been defeated by Jesus in the heavenly realm, and if we are seated with Jesus in the heavenly realm, and if our real battle is in the heavenly realm, where should we look for the weapons and the power to be victorious? In the heavenly realm.
That’s exactly what Paul is saying in Ephesians 6. The armor of God is spiritual. That means we can’t fight Satan in our own strength, using our puny human ideas. We fight in His power. Therefore, your assignment is to put the armor of God on and then stand your ground. Paul calls go to stand, twice in verse 13 and again in verse 14.
“Stand your ground” means stay where you are. Hold your ground. It means you don’t have to run and hide from the devil or throw down your weapons and surrender to I’m. Standing your ground doesn’t change the fact that evil is all around you or that the battle is raging all around you. But standing your ground, clothed in the armor of God, keeps the battle from overtaking you because you are under the protective covering of God
It’s like standing in the pouring rain with a big umbrella over you. The rain in hitting all around you and even trying to get you wet. But you’re okay as long as long as you stay under the protection of the umbrella. But step out from under your umbrella, and you’re going to get pelted.
From Pity to Praise 