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Enemies in Dark Places
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Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Listen to the radio broadcast of Enemies in Dark Places
Download audio fileEvery now and then, you run into such fierce opposition, such an onslaught, that it leaves you reeling. Where did that come from? How did that happen? It just knocks the stuffing out of you.
Sometimes it’s other people. They behave so badly. They react so unpredictably. They’re disloyal, they’re uncaring, they use you for their own ends. And the closer they are to you, the more it hurts.
Other times, it’s circumstances. Just the other evening on the news, there was a thing where a policeman made a routine traffic stop, and was shot dead by the man he’d stopped. Doubtless that morning he, his wife and his children got up, had their showers, had their breakfast, got themselves ready for work and school pretty much the same as every other morning.
But by two in the afternoon, his wife was a widow and his children had lost their father. And when the news reported on the man who’d done this terrible thing, I tell you his rap sheet … it was like, evil personified.
And you know what I think makes it all worse? It’s the shock factor, the unexpectedness, the suddenness with which those terrible things happen. People … circumstances; sometimes they take a terrible turn.
So either, we throw our hands in the air, we suffer, we mourn, or we press on and battle and fight and kick and scream and … and we’re so engrossed in what’s going on, that we make a big mistake. We imagine that it’s a battle that’s just taking place in our little corner of the here and now. We imagine that we’re just battling against people, or circumstances, or both.
But can I tell you, every time you step out to do something good, something for Jesus, something that in your heart of hearts you know He wants you to do – it’s as though the gates of hell open up and the devil unleashes his legions against you.
Now, that’s not just a figure of speech. That’s not just Berni waxing the lyrical. That’s actually what is going on.
For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)
Laugh at me if you will – but there is a spiritual dimension to life. And you and I, we have enemies in dark places.
It’s as much a spiritual battle as it is a physical one, and we ignore that spiritual dimension at our own peril.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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