Yet again this week, I will be sharing from the letters of Apostle Paul to the churches of old. This blog post will take a close look at his admonition to the church in Ephesus. In the sixth chapter of his letters, he addressed the parents, the children, the servants, the masters and then finally the whole church. Verse ten starts with a strong word of encouragement to the church – Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. You may ask how could the church remain strong in the Lord? How can the church be strong in the Lord? Thank God He did not leave us in the dark about being strong in Him- in verse three He says to us, “Put on the whole armor of God. And why should we put on the armor of God? so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil”
What are these Wiles of the devil? These are all the strategies, plots, schemes, ways that that the devil and his cohort try to intimidate, scare, or rattle God’s children. All through scripture, we can see the various wiles of the devil against God’s children. All the way to the beginning of time in the garden of Eden, he took a shot at the mind of the woman and he was able to convince her out of the will of God. That was the beginning of the downfall of man. One would think that he would stop at that but that wasn’t the case. He continued to throw his fiery dart at God’s children from planting fear in Abraham’s heart so much that he told an unnecessary lie that Sarah was his sister and not wife-Genesis 12:10-20, Genesis 20:1-3. The devil continued with his wiles by using Pharaoh of Egypt against God’s children, he enslaved them, burdened them with so much labor so that they doubted God, were unable to worship God. This is the ultimate goal of the enemy: to deter God’s children from knowing, understanding God’s goodness. He wants us to doubt God’s goodness, so we do not worship Him in truth and Spirit
Ephesians 6:12 further emphasizes this to us, it points us to the facts that majority of the struggles that we go through in life stems from the spiritual realm and from the enemy – For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. I mean, take a moment to examine it, we were created by God’s word and His Spirit gives us life. So in essence, we are Spirit beings, the spirit inside of us powers our movement and living. With that premise established, only things that stem from the spirit realm can really attack us who are spirit beings.
Let us go a little further into scripture, I will cite about four examples of almost glaring proof that the devil’s wiles were at work. First example is that of Joseph who was sold into slavery by his brothers. In fact, they wanted to kill him but God in His wisdom saved him from untimely death. To have your blood brothers connive against you in such a manner isn’t mere flesh. That was definitely the wile of the devil working through Joseph’s brothers. And the goal of the enemy there was to ensure that Joseph’s star was dimmed, he wanted Joseph to doubt God’s existence, he wanted to deter Joseph from worshipping God. But thank God, Joseph was not deterred, rather he allowed his challenges draw him closer to God and that was his secret weapon to victory. My next focus would be on Queen Esther, Mordecai and the Jews that lived in the time of king Ahasuerus. Haman who worked with and for the king was just hell bent on killing Mordecai and the Jews for no good reason on earth. Immediately Queen Esther learned about this and was advised wisely by her uncle- Mordecai, she took to spiritual warfare. She took into three days prayer and fasting while she also told her people to fast and pray along. And that was how she was able to defeat the wile of the devil. If we paid a close attention to Haman’s character, we can tell that he was working powered by the enemy unknown or known to him. Because, I strongly believe that no human being that is sane or with the spirit of God will ever plot to kill any human being.
Let us make a quick stop at the character of Daniel and his friends that were taken into captivity by the Babylonians. That in its own is a wile of the devil to deter God’s children from serving God in gladness, peace and joy. Nonetheless, Daniel and his friends made up their minds to serve God with all of their hearts. The enemy wasn’t happy about this, so he raised evil men to report Daniel to the king at the different times. At two different times, the king asked that Daniel and his friends be thrown into a fiery furnace to burn to ashes. That definitely isn’t a sane human being speaking, that was the devil speaking through those people. Another time, when Daniel was reported, the decree was given for him to be thrown into the lion’s den. That again was the devil speaking through those men to discourage Daniel from thriving in God’s presence. But thank God whom Daniel knew and served, he was delivered all of the time the enemy raised a standard against him.
Now, let us move into the new testament incase you still doubt the existence of spiritual warfare. All through scripture, we see how much persecution the disciples faced just because they preached the Good news. Yet again, that was the enemy using his wiles to break the bones of the disciples. Apostle Paul understood this, hence he encouraged the church in Ephesus to be strong in the Lord. Apostle Paul had his fair share of the attack from the enemy. At some point in his ministry, some people came together and vowed not to eat or drink till apostle Paul was killed – Acts 23:12. That is the height of wickedness in high places in my opinion, like how can sane people vow not to eat and drink for something as useless as killing another human being. Another time, Apostle Paul had just survived a ship wreck and was trying to get some warmth from some fire he had put together – some viper latched on to his hand. Humanly speaking, that should have killed him but God! But God whom apostle Paul was strong in saved him from untimely death. The enemy tried to kill him through the ship wreck but failed, then they tried yet again with the viper. the viper came out of the fire that Apostle Paul had prepared. Let us take a moment to ponder on this, how could a viper survive in fire? Except it was from the pits of hell itself, hence its ability to jump out of that fire.
And finally, on this blog post let us look at the life of our dear Jesus who nothing wrong but share the good news and minister healing to the earth. But the enemy saw this as a threat and thought eliminating Him from the earth would be best. He began to work through men and women to ensure Jesus’ crucifixion. The bible clearly makes it clear to us that the plot against Jesus Christ was spiritual warfare. Apostle Paul tells us in I Corinthians 2:8 that if the rules of this world had known anything about the wisdom of God, they would not have killed Jesus Christ.
As I wrap up this blog post, my dear brother and sister in the Lord be strong in the Lord, put on His whole armor so that you can stand against the wiles of the enemy. Amen.