We are now in the last passage in my series on the book of Ephesians, which I began in 2012. This book covers some of the deepest insights that the Apostle Paul learned as the pre-eminent writer of the New Testament. We’ve covered in the past few months our call to seek the unity of the Spirit and of the faith, what it means to be a “New Man” in Christ, and principles for godly living in harmony in our society, in marriage and in families.

Today, I will be dealing with one of the most serious and difficult realities of Christian living – spiritual warfare. The Bible is straightforward that Christians can expect to be opposed by an invisible, supernaturally cunning and still potent enemy. The Apostle Paul had suffered the attacks of Satan on multiple fronts – from the hostility and violence of Jews and pagans opposed to the Gospel, confrontations with sorcerers and demonized people, to physical infirmities and struggles with deep despair.

Paul understood that behind all human antagonism to his message was an invisible kingdom that seeks to keep people in bondage in this life and damnation after death. This satanic kingdom infiltrates and attacks the minds of believers and creates strife between people wherever it can. So the struggles you and I face today are just small fronts in a worldwide struggle between God’s kingdom and Satan’s kingdom – and only one kingdom will prevail.

So today I am going to talk about how we can put on “God’s Armor for Life’s Battles”. Afterwards, I hope to pray with some of you who wish to fortify yourself for life’s battles inside and outside of prison. I also want to pray for deliverance from any vestiges, or lingering spiritual strongholds, that you may have that would allow the devil to lure you back into your former sins and wreck your life and faith.

I’ll be reading from Ephesians 6:10 to the end of the book. Let us read together.

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. ¹³ Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. ¹⁴ Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, ¹⁵ and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; ¹⁶ in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

¹⁸ With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, ¹⁹ and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

²¹ But that you also may know about my circumstances, how I am doing, Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will make everything known to you. ²² I have sent him to you for this very purpose, so that you may know about us, and that he may comfort your hearts.

²³ Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love.

PURPOSE OF GOD’S ARMOR. Vv.10-13. First, let me talk about the Purpose of God’s armor in verses 10-13.

In v. 10 we are commanded to “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might” – that is, be strong in Christ’s strength. And if you look at the very end of the letter, he gives an expanded benediction to the brethren with two key words that he used in the beginning: “peace” and “grace” and adds the phrase “love with faith”, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

These four essential divine virtues: grace, peace, love, and faith are really the foundation of our Christian life and the source of our strength. In his final sentence, we read that the end result of living in God’s strength is the grace to “love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love” or incorruptibly, blamelessly and sincerely.

Why do we need divine strength to reach this peaceful and loving end? V. 11 gives the simple answer: We’re to put on the full or entire armor of God to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. Since the devil is an invisible, fallen angelic or spirit being – God’s armor is also spiritual. It is a metaphor for virtues that fortify us to withstand the kinds of spiritual attacks Satan uses to undermine our morality, faith, and reputation.

It’s one thing to be an unbelieving heathen who falls into crime and ends up in prison. It hurts a lot more when you put your trust in Christ and begin your faith well, but then slowly get seduced into the same compulsions that brought you down before. The devil loves to entice us into corrupt behavior and then condemn us after we sin as hypocrites and losers who will never make it as a Christian.

Thank God that we can always turn back to God for forgiveness and restoration; but God still won’t shield us from all the pain and loss that backsliding can cause. Proverbs 14:14 says, “The backslider in heart will have the fill of his ways, but a good man will be satisfied with his.” God’s armor enables us to identify and resist Satan’s cunning schemes and protect our soul from backsliding and the disgrace and shame we feel when our sins are exposed to others.

Let me talk briefly about the reality and subtle attacks of the devil. I have personally been in one encounter with a demonized man where the evil spirit caused his face to glare at me with pure hatred and hissed at me more than once like a snake, “I’m going to kill you!”

The demonized man was a friend of mine and a Pentecostal minister. The man loved Jesus with all his heart, but he had medicine cult leaders in his family line and had been periodically taken over by this demonic spirit from early childhood. It was so much a part of his life that he didn’t recognize it for what it was until it was forced to expose itself to me. Roughly 16 hours later, I witnessed that demon come out with a scream; and my friend was the one who willed for that spirit to go out.

Some of you may be questioning how a Christian can be “demon-possessed.” I never said he was demon-possessed. That phrase in English Bibles is in my judgment a mistranslation of the Greek verb daimonizomai. The implication of daimonizomai in the New Testament is that a demon is operating within or affecting a person in various ways or degrees. I use the word “demonized” or “demon-oppressed”, because every one of us can be attacked or temporarily succumb to a demonic attack.

There are some people who are so profoundly controlled by demon spirits that you could truly call them demon-possessed. The demoniac of the Gadarenes or the boy possessed by a deaf and mute spirit whom Jesus cast out would be among these. But most people who are demonically oppressed are more like Mary Magdalene, a fairly affluent woman from whom Jesus cast out seven spirits, and who responded by supporting his ministry out of her means, which means she had money to give.

I went to the same seminary as a missionary’s daughter, also named Mary, who had suffered emotional abuse from her fiercely driven, but anger-prone father while growing up in Kenya. Mary attended a small home group that I led, and to me seemed a bright, somewhat zany woman. But Mary couldn’t find victory over her own emotional struggles, which were hidden from me.

One day in 1994, she sought out a lady with experience in deliverance ministry. This lady interviewed Mary Beth and then prayed for certain kinds of spirits to leave. She told me that in every case she experienced a manifestation such as coughing, retching, or sometimes the sense of something just lifting from her. She gained an emotional freedom that enabled her to go to Korea as an English teacher a year later. When I last saw her in Daegu, South Korea in 2001, she had been hired as a chaplain at Keimyung University. That is what deliverance ministry did for my friend; and it has done the same for hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Maybe it can for you, too.

I don’t believe any of you are demon-possessed; but you may have cracks in your spiritual defenses that the devil can penetrate at the opportune time. That is the danger that we all face, because of all of us have a fallen nature that will reassert itself and drag us down, if we let down our guard.

V. 12 describes what most interpreters view as an ascending hierarchy of demonic power and evil. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” The rulers and powers might be evil spirits that exercise spiritual power in a limited direct form of temptation, such as the lust for alcohol or drugs, sexual immorality, rage, jealousy, and murder. These demons are fairly weak and stupid compared to the latter two.

Think about your own life. When you’ve been filled with sexual lust or anger or compulsion are you exercising subtlety of mind and cunning? No. These passions make you act and behave irrationally.

But a drug lord who builds a criminal network has to be clever and resourceful and able to act with a measure of sophistication. Their actions cause a lot more harm to others than the man who acts out his passions impulsively alone; but their evil is usually carried out by others, and they are harder to implicate as the masterminds of their criminal empire.

That’s the way it is with the higher levels of demonic power. They control territories and shape communities or nations indirectly through a host of demonic powers subtly manipulating people to align their thinking and actions with the devil’s will. And behind all demonic power structures is Satan himself; so every work of every demon can rightly be attributed to him.

Paul calls the highest level of demonic power “spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places.” I believe these are powerful demons that manipulate and corrupt religion or ideology into the most potent force for evil in our world. For when people as a whole believe and conform to a lie they are capable of building enduring, evil political structures and carrying out monstrous acts of violence. The Holocaust of Nazi Germany, the murderous Communist regimes, Al Qaeda and the genocides launched against ethnic or other large groups of people attest to what evil beliefs can cause.

So we need to learn how to stand against evil in a compromised world that confronts us. When good and God-fearing people work together to protect their liberty they can overcome these powers, even as the US and its allies overcame Nazism and Imperial Japan in World War II. Verse 13 says, “Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.”

PUTTING ON GOD’S ARMOR. Vv. 14-17. So how do we put on God’s armor? Paul uses the armor of a Roman soldier as a metaphor for the virtues that protect our spiritual life, giving us 5 pieces of defensive armament and one weapon. Each one of them is found in Christ.

The first piece of armor is the belt of truth. This was the first piece that a Roman soldier put on as protection. It protected the underbelly of the soldier from undercuts of the enemy. In the same way, the truth of God protects us from lies that would gut our strength to resist evil. The devil will attack our confidence in the truth of God’s word first, because once we doubt its integrity our spiritual life is sure to die. Earlier, in Eph. 4:21, Paul says that “truth is in Jesus.” And Jesus Himself said, “I am the way, the truth and the life…”

The second piece is the breastplate of righteousness. Once you know the truth about Christ, the next attack against will be to lure you into sin. Just as the breastplate protected the vital organs of the soldier, so living uprightly protects your spiritual vitality. Nothing deadens your walk with God faster than to knowingly sin or to deal dishonestly with others.

Isaiah speaks prophetically about the Messiah coming with spiritual armor:
“Now the Lord saw, and it was displeasing in His sight that there was no justice. ¹⁶ And He saw that there was no man, and was astonished that there was no one to intercede; then His own arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness upheld Him. ¹⁷ He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle.”

The third piece of protection is putting on your gospel boots, “the preparation of the gospel of peace”. You can’t march without good footwear, and you can’t grow in your spiritual life if you’re not prepared to share your faith with others. 1 Peter 3:15 says, “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.” You prepare yourself in the gospel by spending time in the Word of God, meditating on its truths and also praying for others who need salvation. Then you can be a messenger of the gospel that brings God’s peace and favor to others.

The fourth piece of armament is held off the body – the shield of faith. That’s a fitting placement, since faith is something you project forward by your words and deeds. Paul says faith extinguishes the flaming missiles of the enemy.

Flaming missiles are also an apt metaphor because the Greek word for devil, diabolos, literally means “hurls against”. The devil hurls accusations against us like flaming darts or provokes others to do the same. The accusations burn and heart when they penetrate our thinking. But faith snuffs these accusations out. Isaiah 54:17 says, “No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that accuses you in judgment, you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord: ‘Their vindication is from me’, says the Lord.” God is the one who vindicates His children, and God gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Again, the Bible says that Jesus is “the author and perfecter of our faith.” He puts the faith within us, and then perfects what He started.

The helmet of Salvation is the fifth piece of armor. The helmet protects the head from deadly blows; so our salvation preserves us from the second death, eternal perdition unto everlasting life. The head is the center of our reasoning; knowing we have salvation in Christ protects our mind from the despair of feeling lost and hopeless.

We can also see a progression in the armor of God that parallels the way a Roman soldier girded himself for battle. We arm ourselves with the truth of Jesus’ Lordship and salvation, which he earned when died for our sins and rose from the grave. Next, we cover that truth with righteous living that affirms the truth which we believe. With that we’re ready to be prepared to move forward with the gospel of peace. With truth, righteousness, and preparation in the gospel, we can exercise faith that the enemy cannot kill with his lies and accusations. All of these, working together, then assure our salvation – not just from hell after we die, but salvation from the power of sin to weaken our resolve and kill our faith.

But the last piece of the armor of God is not defensive; it is a weapon against our enemy – “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Remember that when Jesus faced Satan’s three great temptations in the wilderness, He always replied, “It is written…” and then quoted a Scripture that parried Satan’s attack and finally put him in his place. In the same way, if you have hidden God’s word in your heart you can counter his accusing thrusts by citing the word and banishing him from your thinking and presence. If you keep answering Satan’s negativity with biblical promises of God’s favor, he’ll back off from accusing you.

I really believe that speaking God’s word by faith in the face of mental accusations is like a sword cut to the demonic tempter. And I believe it empowers our guardian angels to also strike demonic accusers or keep them far from us. How this works is an imperceptible mystery, but many centuries of faithful disciples have proven that keeping your mind fixed on God and His promises will keep the devil from oppressing you.

Again, the Bible says that Jesus is the Word made flesh or human. Christ in you will also make God’s word alive in you and empower you to stand firm against the enemy.

PRAYER – POWER BEYOND GOD’S ARMOR. Vv. 18-20

Once we are personally fortified for life’s battles we can go on the offensive, living confidently with the expectation that God’s favor and our best efforts will lead to success in whatever arena we’re called to serve. But there’s another dimension that we have to employ to win spiritual battles, which I call God’s heavy artillery; and that’s prayer.

Ephesians 6:18 says, “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.” Prayer protects us from concerted attacks and prepares the spiritual ground for our advance the way artillery weakens enemy advances and ability to resist our efforts for the gospel. Like the artillery, prayer is indirect fire. We are addressing God and trusting Him to clear the way of demonic resistance for us.

Praying for those who are most critical or negative towards you whenever they cross your mind protects you from bitterness toward them, but also mysteriously allows God to work to change their mindset toward you. One reason I believe this works is because praying for those who persecute you blocks the Accuser from filling their mind with negative judgments. I have used this discipline frequently in recent years as a prison chaplain; and once I start praying for my opponents, things just seem to go better.

The other and more potent reason prayer is so effective, is that when you pray for others according to God’s will, God’s Holy Spirit is moved to shape people’s thoughts and actions in a way that is favorable to you. That’s what grace is, God’s unmerited favor; and prayer opens the door to favor, because you are declaring to God that He is only one who can turn the tide in your favor.

Now what does it mean to “pray at all times in the Spirit.” I’m not totally sure, but surely it means praying in agreement with what the Holy Spirit desires. 1 John 5:14 says, “This is the confidence we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will he hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.”

I also believe, if we let Scripture interpret Scripture, that praying in the Spirit also refers to praying in tongues. 1 Corinthians 14:13-15 says, “Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. ¹⁴ For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. ¹⁵ What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also.” 

It is evident that Paul equated praying in tongues with his spirit praying and his mind or understanding not comprehending. He then declared that “I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also.” Clearly, to Paul, praying with the spirit contrasted with praying in a language he understood. The Greek prepositions for praying in the Spirit and with the Spirit are different; so you can’t be dogmatic that they are entirely identical.

I will put it this way. God desires that we pray and gives us different tools in prayer. Praying in English is obviously good, because we then know what we’re asking for and know when the prayer has been answered. The Bible has many recorded prayers, and God gave us tongues to speak so that we could speak to Him from our hearts. The heart is where the Holy Spirit resides when he indwells us, so we should be confident that any heartfelt prayer that is consistent with biblical revelation is also praying in the Spirit.

Praying in unknown tongues is also an easy and effective tool for praying in the Spirit, because you don’t have to concentrate on articulating your thoughts into words and you don’t have to struggle to keep your mind and mouth on track. It is clearly biblical. The Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14:5, “Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues… [and in v.18] I thank God I speak in tongues more than you all.” This is sacred Scripture, and the Apostle Paul is the Bible’s chief example for a Christ follower to emulate. So there has to be something good about praying in tongues if the pre-eminent Apostle did it more than anyone else.

If you want to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues, I would be happy to aid you in that. I believe it can open a gateway to the supernatural that will energize your spiritual life to the next level, and empower you to do some of the “greater works” that Jesus promised His disciples they would do when the Holy Spirit came upon them.

And the most important of these Greater Works is to advance the gospel and fulfill Christ’s Great Commission to make disciples of all nations. That’s why Paul’s final exhortation to the Ephesians, in vv.19-20 is: ”Pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”

My prayer for you today is that you will desire to be more than just a sinner saved by grace. You will also want to be a committed Christ-follower, someone who actively seeks to live out your Christian life and make a difference in the lives of others by the way you act and how you speak.

God will empower you to do this, but understand this – Once you set your course on being a fruitful disciple of Jesus Christ, you have a target on your back and the devil will exploit every opportunity you give him to cut you down. The good news is that God has defanged the devil when it comes to His children; so we can successfully resist and overcome him. As Revelation 12:11 declares, “They overcame [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life event to death.”

CONCLUSION. Is this the life that you want for yourself – a life of divine favor and spiritual empowerment?

Prayers for spiritual victory

Prayers for deliverance

Prayers to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit.