War - Simulation or Real

Eph 6:11-12 -  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.
Paul compares the life of a christian to that of a soldier:
  • 1 Tim 6:12 - Fight the good fight
  • 2 Tim 2:3 - Endure hardness as a good soldier
  • 1 Cor 16:13- Be brave, be strong
Paul is not taking about theological mental debates here but rather about practical warfare that actually occurs daily in the life of a christian. 
Paul rightly identifies this warfare as a struggle, something that is against our will and emotions. Its not easy and smooth sailing, otherwise it would not have been called a struggle. It's a struggles that involves the  faculties of the will, the mind, the soul and the spirit, the total spectrum of the human being. This is something that we all can identity with. No one is spared from evil thoughts, neither is any one a stranger to the works of the flesh that Paul identifies in Gal 5: 16-21. 

But Paul identifies a third element here in our struggles and this is more potent and the source of all others. Its against spiritual forces. That's our real enemy. Unfortunately many Christians are like a soldier who fights his battles in an air-conditioned war simulator. They know all about spiritual warfare and the high praises in worship but in reality have never engaged the enemy, never destroyed the works of the flesh, never pulled a soul out of darkness into God's kingdom.

1John 3:8 - The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.

We have not lived as a christian if we are not engaged in destroying the works of the devil. That's why Jesus came to this world and that's why He has saved. We cannot sit and remain silent, when we see sin abounding, fear of God diminishing and souls perishing.

May God, like Jesus, give the holy anger to speak against the rising tide of evil, the boldness to speak against the those who make the house of God, a den of thieves, and the passion to weep and pray for those who are heading towards hell.

How do we fight the enemy? Put on the whole armor of God. Hallelujah. We don't fight alone. The armor of God is in essence, the Holy Spirit Himself, who fights for us, fights with us and fights through us. When we thus engage ourselves in this warfare, we can resonate the words of Isaiah 61:1 - The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,

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