We need to remember three things about Satan. First, the battle with Satan is fierce. Life and death are at stake. Principalities and powers are under Satan’s dominion and subject to his orders. His lieutenants are devils who delight to carry out his orders, and his army is aggressive, malignant, cruel and its powers are in high places, above us and around us. Satan’s army is too powerful for us to fight in our own strength. And yet we cannot compromise with him. We cannot surrender to him. We must resist the devil by fleeing to the Word of God. The living Word, Christ Jesus, the written Word, the Holy Bible.
Secondly, we must remember that the battle against Satan and his devils is not only fierce, but is spiritual. You do not fight this battle with guns and tanks and atomic weapons. Nor do we fight merely with flesh and blood. Paul said that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness in this world, spiritual wickedness in high places. So, this battle is not for worldly power, or worldly possessions or worldly honour. It aims higher; it aims at the spiritual realities of truth and righteousness, and at the glory of God. So, behind all our visible enemies is this spiritual, invisible army. Spiritual warfare is a battle against invisible enemies, with invisible weapons. It is a battle against those who would oppose the course of the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
And thirdly, the battle against Satan and his devils is necessary. Inescapable, if you will. Much as our world cannot escape the war against terrorism, we cannot escape spiritually this war of Satan. If you are a believer, like it or not, you are in earnest war with Satan. You cannot plead passivism or medical deferment. You cannot avoid all the bullets and the bombs but it begins with realizing you are at war. To be in the midst of war and not to realize it, is the most dangerous thing possible. That is what George Bush, when he was president, reminded himself over and over again. We are at war, he kept saying. Whether we realize it or not. With terrorism. That is what Paul would say to us in Ephesians 6:1–24 as well.1
Dr Joel Beeke
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.