Not Against Flesh And Blood

Our Struggle Is Not Against Flesh And Blood

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12 ESV).

"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" (Ephesians 6:12 KJV).

The spiritual world is real and there is a continual war between the Kingdom of God and Satan with his demons and his forces of evil. Many people will tell you that this is not true, but that is only because they have not seen, heard, experienced or accepted the supernatural as have the vast majority of people. (A survey by the very reputable Pew company found that 82% of people do believe in the spiritual world, this is more than 4 out of every 5 in the whole world).

Many scientists will tell you that they find truth by following the "scientific method". Now the scientific method explicitly excludes any possibility of any spiritual or supernatural reality .. so basically it is flawed; they are trying to find fact and truth by looking at less than half of all that there is! So sad.

Happily many scientists do recognise the spiritual realities, indeed many of the great scientific advances over many centuries, and during our present time too, were made by people who love God and were in awe of Him and His vast, glorious and hugely complicated universe!

In the past Australia was a very popular immigration destination because our culture was so egalitarian and inclusive; we were known as the nation of "a fair go" and everyone was accepted for who they were. Immigrants would happily assimilate into Australia's broad, peaceful and harmonious culture while keeping the distinctiveness of their original ethnicity. Sure, there were occasional cases of discrimination (as I have seen in every country I've been to); but over all, Australia was a peaceable, well-balanced and wealthy nation with many great fundamental freedoms.

I won't tell you the names I, a Kiwi, was called when I first came to live in Australia, but the names were not intended to wound, just to prevent me getting too uppity, and to be sure to remember that I was not born Australian and therefore was not as blessed as they were! (I found the same thing in Afghanistan before all their troubles of recent decades).

Australia largely followed the Christian way. What did Paul say? "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28, Colossians 3:11). Yes, this was how it was when I came here and when I brought Trish, my wife, here.

But now, and for some time, a tiny minority on the far political left have carefully planned, and are executing, massive cultural changes and reducing our long established and hard won freedoms, not just in our country but in every Western democracy. This is social engineering as all the totalitarian regimes do it; it is the opposite of democracy.

Much of the erosion of our freedoms is contrary to United Nations charters and agreements that our countries have signed. So are illegal. None-the-less the changes continue .. Deception and intimidation, even outright lies, ridicule, scorn, name calling and other anti-social methods are used to influence our population while also marginalising truth and shutting down discussion or conservative opinion.

"The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.  For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake" (2 Corinthians 4:4-5).

Political correctness is now a big part of what our media presents to us. By definition what is politically correct is untrue; if it were true then it would not be being "politically corrected". This same minority have effectively taken over our whole system of education so that our children are growing up being told what to think. An open and enquiring mind is no longer welcome in our universities .. (See Note 1).

The Christian newsletters I receive are clear in their concern; these activities always have a spiritual root. The newsletters quote warnings from history and from Scripture. Humankind has seen these uprisings many times and always amid much suffering.

Isaiah lived and wrote about 2800 years ago, he saw  things then much as we see them today:

"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" (Isaiah 5:20).

And:

"Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice .. " (Isaiah 59:14-16a).

Paul, when writing to Timothy, makes it plain that we are to show courage in times like these, to be encouraged and not discouraged (Romans 1:12), but to be ready to seek God's will for us (Romans 12:2), and to follow His leading (Mark 8:34).

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7 KJV) ..

"a sound mind" .. Paul is saying that although this is largely a spiritual problem we are to respond to it with all of ourselves, spirit, soul, mind and body.

Our "sound mind" and our "spirit .. of power and love" enable us to identify and understand the spiritual world around us. We can receive the gift of discernment of spirits: "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1).

Satan and his many demons are also spiritual, and we are reminded: "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings" (1 Peter 5:8-9). This will require that every aspect of who we are is sharp and part of our response.

At some point in your life you may have completed a survey to see if you are a "left brain" or a "right brain" person. I know I did and concluded that I was "right brain" with some left brain qualities. Some work I did years ago necessitated my forming a small business and operating through that; I called it "Eagle Creative" because I love eagles (Isaiah 40:31) and needed to be very creative if I were to succeed ..

These are the kinds of thing associated with:

Left Brain	Right Brain
reason	intuition
cognitive	subjective
task-oriented	relationship-oriented
verbal	visual
facts	feelings
language	arts
mathematics	music
linear	spatial

(Neil Anderson, "Living Free", 1999, Monarch Books, p 30).

Jesus put me right about my "right brain" thinking. He wants us all to use the "sound mind" God has given us, as well as our more subjective or creative attributes and our spiritual gifting. He gave us a complete brain, indeed a complete person, so that we can think and reason and feel, build and sustain relationships and be creative as He is (Genesis 1 and 2).

We can be both internal, so we know what is going on with our self, and external so we know what is going on outside and with others (Matthew 22:39). God created us to be able to understand facts and feelings, mathematics and music, logic and things spatial, things verbal and things visual and things spiritual ..

We are told to both "be filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:15-20), and to "let the Word of Christ dwell richly among you" (Colossians 3:15-46), so that we will be equipped and free to  "sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,  always giving thanks  .. "  (both the above Scriptures). Not the one thing or the other, not just spiritual and not just intellectual, but both so we can be a complete person for our Lord:

And we are also to clothe our self fully in Jesus Himself so that we "can take our stand against the devil's schemes". As you read these verses you will see that every piece of God's armour protects us in a way that Jesus Himself already has covered for us (Romans 13:14):

"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 the heavenly realms.  Therefore put on the full armor 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 around 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" (Ephesians 6:10-17).

God is teaching us through Scripture to be ready to respond to any situation by seeking revelation and clarity from the Word, and from Jesus by the Spirit of God, so that we can use the knowledge and skills we have gained in the church and in the world to shape our prayers and our actions. At the same time Jesus will protect us from the "flaming arrows" of the world.

Jesus always goes before (Matthew 10:38), even when we must speak: "But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say,  for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you" (Matthew 10:19-20).

Jesus is the ultimate revelation in the universe, He is "truth" (John 4:16), and He is "light" (John 1:4). Jesus draws us to Himself and never lets us go: "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). We are equipped with Him and in Him ..

Once again I am reminded of the song:
"Fix your eyes upon Jesus,
look full in His wonderful face.
For the things of the Earth will grow strangely dim,
in the light of His glory and grace".

We are spiritual people in a world which largely thinks in physical terms. I choose to cleave to Jesus!

"But our way is not that of those who draw back to eternal misery (perdition) and are utterly destroyed, but we are of those who believe [who cleave to and trust in and rely on God through Jesus Christ, the Messiah] and by faith preserve the soul" (Hebrews 10:39 Amplified).

And also, let us keep praying (Ephesians 6:18).

Hallelujah.

Note 1:

In November 2018 the Australian Prayer Network published an article by John Anderson, former deputy prime minister of Australia and leader of the National Party from 1999 to 2005, here are excerpts:

We Cannot Let The Aggressive Secularists Drive Out Religion

" .. how are 25 million people going to live together with their deepest ideological and religious beliefs in the vastly different Australia we now live in .. How are we now going to respect diversity and still promote liberty while maintaining the harmony that has been so much the hallmark of our national life .. We are atomising and fracturing in the context of the rise of powerful ferment over beliefs and ideologies ..

We are witnessing a global resurgence of religion and ideology.  We are also living through a clash .. between liberal traditionalism and cultural Marxism, both of which emerged out of the Enlightenment. 

The emergence of social media, which was supposed to create a virtual global public square .. has also created virtual global tribes, and we have a vast new machinery for transforming civil disagreement into civil hate.  These forces are potentially so destabilising that they may threaten our governability.

History teaches that the long arc of Christian influence on society has proven to be hugely beneficial.  No doubt it is easy to find serious moral blemishes in Christian history, but it was also out of Christianity’s capacity for reform that the solutions evolved .. "

We are in the midst of spiritual problems .. let us do what Jesus asks of us .. we know that we can always trust Him ..

One thing He asks often is that we unify .. (John 17:23, Ephesians 4:3, Ephesians 4:13, Colossians 3:14), so let us do all we can to unify the church; to become unified with other Christians, unified in personal relationships, and in groups, and more ..

"Stay alert. This is hazardous work I'm assigning you. You're going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack, so don't call attention to yourselves. Be as cunning as a snake, inoffensive as a dove" (Matthew 10:16 Message).

"I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves" (Matthew 10:16).

Bless you ..

Amen.

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Praise Jesus.