This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. Ephesians 6:12 (MSG)
As Pastor Rick has been teaching us, the battle to live by our new nature is important, and we must learn how to fight with weapons of the Spirit if we want to live in freedom.
God places weapons of righteousness at our disposal. These weapons require us to work with him, relying on him when we come up against the enemy. Our strength is dependent upon him, a paradox of the faith where he comes in strong through our weakness.
Our objective is to use everything God gives us: We must learn to utilize these weapons of the Spirit; what they are, how to use them, and when to use them.
Weapons of the Spirit include such things as honesty, humility, authenticity, grace, love, prayer, obedience, community, healthy dependence, God’s Word, and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us.
In contrast, weapons of the flesh include such things as excessive anger, manipulation, blame, shame, hatred, pride, sneaky-hiding, self-centeredness, defensiveness, and an unhealthy I-don’t-need-you attitude.
The spiritual battle in which we’re engaged is
“no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish . . .” (Ephesians 6:12 MSG).
It’s a cataclysmic, brutal, bloody war of eternal significance; yet, in this war we have God-with-us, God-in-us, and God-for-us.
Jon Walker is the author of
Costly Grace.
