As a Christian, you are involved in a spiritual wrestling match. According to Ephesians 6, your fight is not against flesh and blood, but against the kingdom of darkness, filled with evil spirits.
This evil kingdom is set up in an area called “the heavenly places.” The majority of Bible commentators would agree that this is not “the third heaven” which is God’s dwelling place, and it is not the first heaven, which is the visible heaven, but it is the second or intermediate heaven.
There is an unseen kingdom that is above the level of this world, and it is the kingdom of darkness. It is a kingdom in total opposition and in complete unrelenting hatred towards God, all God’s purposes, and all God’s people. This includes you and me. The devil hates you with all that is in him. He will do everything he can to harm you and to destroy you. He comes to steal, to kill and to destroy. He is an extremely powerful person.
It is our business as Christians to bring this kingdom down. It cannot be done by presidents or generals, because they do not have the weapons. If it were a question of fighting against flesh and blood, we would turn loose the tanks and armoured cars and the aeroplanes. But tanks and armoured cars and aeroplanes are totally ineffective because it is not against flesh and blood.
Many of the political leaders are coming to the same conclusion. They may not use the language but the implication is there. It is clear to me that almost all the political leaders in this country acknowledge that they are facing problems for which they do not have the answer. That is exactly what the Bible says.
It is not against flesh and blood. You can kill Nazis, but you cannot kill Nazism. You can kill endless numbers of men, but you do not deal with the spiritual forces behind them. Merely killing men is not going to solve the problem.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:3–5, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh”—our warfare is not in the fleshly realm, it is not in the carnal realm, it is not against flesh and blood. “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal”—they are not bombs, guns, or tanks, but they are “mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.” This refers to Satan’s strongholds.
Note where the strongholds are! “Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” The alternative reading for “arguments” is “reasonings.” The warfare is in the realm of the mind: reasonings, imaginations, thoughts and knowledge. You cannot change a man’s attitude by executing him. He will go out with the same attitudes.
During the Mau Mau emergency in East Africa, the British authorities executed some of the Mau Mau leaders by hanging. I know a missionary who was there when they were executed. He said that they went to the gallows repeating, “I’ll come back, I’ll come back.” It was not the man who was speaking. It was the demon in the man. You can kill a man’s body, but the demon within the man will come back.
We are not wrestling against flesh and blood. We are on a different plane; we have different enemies, we have different weapons. But the weapons which God has given us are mighty! They are invincible if we will use them. If we are defeated, it is not through a lack of armour. It is through the failure to use it.
Father, I want to learn how to use the spiritual weapons that You put at my disposal. Give me discernment to see what is happening in the spirit world. Help me to pray with grace and wisdom for the government, so evil spirits lose their influence, and the people from the government will make the right decisions. In the name of Jesus, amen!
