Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour 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 the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled round your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
Ephesians 6:10-20 NIVUK
Over the decades, this has been one of the most misunderstood verses in all of Scripture – mostly in charismatic circles, but also outside them.
Let me explain by using the example of a fourth year High School book report.
You see, when I was in fourth year, we were told that we would have to read a book – or books – and create a fifteen hundred word book report as part of our final grade in English class. No issues there. So far, so normal. They provided us a list of books we could read for this report.
None of them interested me or gripped my imagination.
Now, I had to submit a form to tell the examinations board which books I wanted to read. At the bottom of the list, they had a space with some text next to it, which basically said ‘If you don’t want to read any of these books, tell us which books you’d like to read and we’ll assess them to see if they are of sufficient quality.’
I was an avid reader. I’d been to a Christian bookstore shortly before receiving this form and had started reading a Christian novel by an author called Frank Peretti. So I thought... Well, you can guess what I thought!
I entered the details of the Christian novel down on the form. I thought that at the very least, someone from the secular Exam Board will have to read a Christian novel.
To my surprise, they allowed me to do a book report on it for my English exam grade!
The two Frank Peretti novels I read stood in complete contrast to everyone else who chose books from the list. They were reading heavy, weighty novels about love and death and depression and other such slow moving, tedious books. My books were all about angels and demons doing battles and fighting each other with swords and strange rituals and about how ordinary Christians could help the good guys win. Absolutely thrilling stuff. And I got an ‘A’.
But the books were pure fantasy. Nothing more. The Biblical and theological basis behind them was very thin.
The problem is that in the 1980s, there were believers who took this kind of fantasy literature way too seriously. They began seeing demons everywhere. It culminated in several cases of alleged satanic child abuse against people who might have been a little different, but had done nothing wrong.
Social workers and the police investigated. Occasionally, children were placed into temporary foster care.
Not one single case was substantiated. People’s lives were turned inside out for nothing.
I came from such a family. A seemingly well meaning member of our local church reported my family to the social work department. They interviewed us all and found nothing at all against us – apart from the fact that we ‘talked too much’ to each other. That’s it.
Paul is talking in Ephesians about something that is real and present in the lives of every believer, wherever they are. But he is not talking about the wild flights of fantasy that believers have taken since Christianity – and even Judiasm – came to be.
Hebrews 1 is really relevant here. In that short chapter, the writer is addressing a Jewish people whose heads had been turned my angelic and demonic mythology – completely extra-canonical (not in the Bible we all accept to be true) and instead the product of some highly fevered Pharisaical imaginations.
The writer doesn’t argue against the nature of a spiritual realm. Instead, he simply states that Jesus is superior to them all (Hebrews 1:1-13), and that angels are servants, sent to perform a service on behalf of the saved (Hebrews 1:14).
That is, they are mighty spiritual beings. That much is evident every time we encounter them in Scripture. But they are servants. They are not the boss.
The whole meaning of Hebrews from this point onwards is to show that Jesus is the boss – Jesus is the Lord – and we should only worship Him.
So while we can, and should, explore spiritual warfare, we need to understand exactly what it is and exactly what part in it we play.
If you love all those incredible and esoteric fantasy novels, you might have the idea in your head that studying these words will make you a Christian version of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ or ‘Harry Potter’ or some form of superhero.
If that’s what you think, I need to tell you that it won’t.
But what it will do is teach you how you can be victorious through all the daily pressures that every Christian faces, and how you can better help your friends and family to be victorious too.
Let’s start by looking at THE POWER.
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