#095 "God's Devil" (Ephesians 6:12)

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12)

What if the struggle you feel every day isn’t just emotional… relational… or circumstantial? What if it’s spiritual?

In this episode, Kate walks verse-by-verse through Ephesians 6:12 and gently—but boldly—pulls back the curtain on the unseen reality Scripture has been revealing all along. This isn’t about fear. It’s about clarity. Because when we don’t understand the battle, we won’t be prepared to stand in it.

Together, you’ll explore: Why the Bible is far more supernatural than we often realize, How Paul’s firsthand experiences in the spiritual realm give weight to his words, What it actually means that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, The organized, strategic nature of the enemy—and why that matters for you, And most importantly, how the finished work of Christ completely reframes the fight. 

This episode will ground you in truth, steady your heart, and remind you that while the battle is real… it is nothing to fear. Because in Christ, the victory has already been won.

If this episode encourages you, consider supporting the show or becoming an abidible+ member through Buy Me a Coffee (linked below).

Introducing abidible+
☕ Become a Member ☕
☕ Buy Me a Coffee ☕

Important Links:

The Armor (Current Study)
Try our Free Demo Study
Abidible "How to Study the Bible" Course
Subscribe + Enter to Win a Free Study

Additional Resources for Study*:

"God's Devil" by Erwin W. Lutzer
"The Christian in Complete Armour" by William Gurnall
*As Amazon Associates, we may earn a small commission from your purchase at no additional cost to you. Thanks for supporting abidible as you shop!

----

Thanks again for listening. If you know someone who would be blessed by what you just heard, please share The Abidible Podcast with them. Help us spread the word so we can make MUCH of the Word. Be sure you are following our podcast so you’ll be notified when new episodes drop. And finally, if you’re enjoying this series, please take a moment to give us a review or become a monthly supporter.

You can:

Learn more about us at abidible.com
Follow us on social media
Email us anytime with questions: hello@abidible.com 

---
"Rhodesia by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/"

Transcript

Welcome And Abiding Mission

Kate 0:00

Hey guys, this is Kate from Abidible.com, and you're listening to the Abidible Podcast. I'm just a regular wife and mom who's had my life transformed by learning to study the Bible on my own. If I can, you can. On this show, I help you know and love God more by abiding in Him through His Word yourself. Hey, before we get started today, I want to speak a word of encouragement over us. As we step into Ephesians 6, 12 and talk about rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, and spiritual forces of evil, we may feel afraid. Let's name that for what it is: an attack. Because a spirit of fear does not come from God. And if we are in Christ, we have nothing to be afraid of. Second Timothy 1.7 says, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power. That word fear speaks of timidity, of one who shrinks back from battle. That's not us. We have not been given a timid, cowardly spirit. We have been given a spirit of power, the Holy Spirit. That word power is dunamis, and it means strength, ability, miraculous power. It's not our own strength, it's God's. It is a power that we do not have within ourselves. And that's the point. Remember, Ephesians 6:10, as we've seen, calls us first to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, not ours, his, before the armor, before the battle. Acts 1.8 says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. We have been given a spirit of power. So if you're asking though, why do I still sometimes feel afraid? It goes back to what we said last week for verse 11, right? Immersion. If I'm afraid, I need more Jesus. I need to more fully put on Christ and walk in what's already true about Him and about me in Him. We cannot be passive in a real battle and expect to feel strong. And this is a real battle. When we recognize that we don't have what it takes in ourselves, we stop relying on ourselves and start standing in the power we've been given from God. This is his power. It's given to us as a gift for this very fight. So we have not not been given a spirit of fear, but of power. So do not be afraid of what we're about to discuss today. Instead, remember the power you've been given and who Jesus is and where he is right now. We are told in Colossians 1, 15 through 17 that he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Ephesians 1, 20 to 22 says God raised Christ and seated him at his right hand, where? In the heavenly places, far, far, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and he put all things under his feet. Jesus is not competing with these powers we're going to talk about today. He is over them, far above them in authority and power. The ultimate battle has already been won over Satan, sin, and death. But there is a battle still being fought, and it affects us. You feel it, I feel it. Scripture tells us that for now, Satan is still the God of this world. The elements of this world that are described to us in 1 John 2.16, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life, all that which is not from the Father, but is from the world. The God of this world still wants to deceive, discourage, and distract you. So don't check out. Don't ignore this. Ignoring the battle doesn't remove you from it. It just leaves you grossly unprepared and terrifyingly open to attack. Again, this is meant to sober us, but not to scare us. If all scripture is God breathed, and it is, then God wants us to understand what we're up against for a reason. Our enemy is organized, strategic, and powerful. And God, in his kindness, is making us aware and giving us everything we need to fight. So let's wake up, suit up, and stand firm. Now we can jump into today's episode. But first, real quick, I know that you love God and his word because you're here. When you click Support the Abidible Podcast in our episode descriptions, you help us cover our monthly expenses so we can focus on helping more and more people know and love God by abiding in his word for themselves. Thank you for serving God by supporting our mission. You can donate once or on a monthly basis. Click Support the Abidible Podcast to learn more. Alright, now that we've established that we have not been given a spirit of fear but of power, I want to set the stage for our verse today by telling you about an extraordinary athlete. If you've seen any climbing documentaries, you've probably heard the name Alex Honnold. He is one of the most well-known free solo climbers in the world, meaning he climbs massive rock faces with no ropes, no harness, no safety gear. It's just him, the rock, and absolute precision. A precision that deeply matters because it's the difference for him between life and death. He rose to global attention through the documentary Free Solo, which captures his historic 2017 ascent of El Cap in Yosemite, one of the most dangerous and seemingly impossible climbs ever completed without protection. The documentary earned an Academy Award, but more than that, it left people stunned. I've watched it and I don't think I breathed the entire time. It's that intense. Since then, he's continued pushing limits, whether climbing massive rock walls around the world or taking on new challenges like scaling towering structures live where the margin for error is zero. Watching one of his most recent climbs, the Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taiwan live, with no ropes or safety equipment, waving at people inside the windows, including his wife, I found myself doing the same thing again, holding my breath, feeling the tension build with every move. And actually I cried, cried, tears of relief when he made it. Not because I understand free soloing, but because I can still feel the weight of what's at stake. But here's the thing. If someone asked me how to free solo, how to think like that, prepare like that, and execute like that, I would have nothing to offer. Sure, I've watched the documentaries, I've seen the climbs, but I don't have any firsthand experience. At best, I could point them to Alex, go listen to him, watch him, get your info from someone who's actually been there. And that's exactly the connection I want to make to our verse today. When Paul speaks about the spiritual realm, the heavenly places, he's not speculating. He's not speaking from a distance or just passing along secondhand information. From the moment of his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus all the way through his ministry, imprisonment, visions, and spiritual opposition, Paul is writing as someone who has lived in constant awareness of that unseen reality. So when he tells us to put on the whole armor of God or reminds us that our battle isn't against flesh and blood, but against rulers and authorities in the heavenly places, he's not guessing. He's speaking like someone who's been on the wall, because he has. He's been in the war, he's seen it all. And he's also writing to a city and to a population, Ephesus, who have also been in the war, people who have seen and experienced the spiritual realm firsthand. Now, I'm going to read you our verse for today, Ephesians 6, 12. And I want you to notice what Paul isn't doing here. He's not telling us to enter a battle. He's telling us that we are already in a battle. He's saying, This is your reality. This is what you are up against. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Paul knows what he's talking about. He has firsthand experience of just how thin the veil really is between heaven and earth. Here are a bunch of examples I've pulled from the book of Acts and from 2 Corinthians 12 to reveal to you the credibility Paul has to speak to us about the heavenly places today. The most important event of Paul's life is supernatural. Paul encounters the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. Jesus had already ascended to heaven, but he returns, blocking the path of Paul on a dusty desert road. This is a supernatural event. A light from heaven shone around Paul. So bright was the light that it blinded him, and he heard the voice of the risen Jesus. Then a man named Ananias receives a vision, prays over Paul, then Saul, and scales fall from his eyes so that he regains his sight. This is a supernatural miracle. As his ministry begins, Paul confronts a demonically possessed magician who is opposing the word of God and pronounces blindness upon him. Paul heals a man who has been crippled since birth. He casts a demonic spirit of fortune-telling out of a girl in Philippi, which gets him thrown into prison for messing with her master's source of income. And as Paul and Silas are praying and singing hymns to God, a great earthquake shakes the foundations of the prison, and immediately all the doors are opened and everyone's bonds were unfastened. We're later told that Paul was doing extraordinary miracles. Even the things he touched, like handkerchiefs and aprons, had power to heal the sick and cast out demons. Which brings us to Ephesus, where the spiritual authority at work through Paul caused a group of Jewish exorcists to be exposed as they tried to cast out demons in Jesus' name without the protection of Jesus over them. We're told that the man in whom was the evil spirit leapt upon them, mastered all of them, and overpowered them so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. And this becomes known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And the Bible tells us that fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. Word was out in Ephesus, a place steeped in occult practices. Everyone was talking about it, so much so that people came confessing their practices, and a number of people who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. Fun fact, the value of those books was around 50,000 pieces of silver, which would be equal to about a day's wage. So in today's economy, one source estimated that it would be the equivalent of $13 million in value. No wonder Luke, the author of Acts, points to this story and says, So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. These were all supernatural events. Paul was there to witness all of this firsthand. He saw people being delivered out of demonic bondage in Ephesus. And the Ephesians obviously knew the spiritual realm was real because they'd lived it firsthand, seeing demonic possession and exorcism with their own eyes, practicing magical arts, looking to oracles and fortune tellers, and engaging in the worship of pagan gods and goddesses in any one of their 14 temples, including the great temple of the goddess Artemis that we've already discussed. The end of Paul's ministry continues to be impacted by events in the spiritual realm. He raises Eudychus back to life. This was a young man who had been listening to Paul preach until midnight, fell asleep, and then fell out the window and died. But Paul went down, took him in his arms, and life was in him once again. Later, Paul recounts an earlier vision God gave him right after his conversion of Jesus, where he was standing in the temple, telling him to make haste and leave Jerusalem for his protection. And again, we're told that Paul has another vision, seeing the Lord who speaks to Paul, and Paul being called by Jesus to testify about him in Rome. An angel of God appears to Paul during the storm at sea and tells him not to be afraid and what to do. Paul survives a deadly viper bite with no harm befalling him. And Paul tells us of receiving a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to push Paul toward depending on God's sustaining grace. As if all of that weren't enough for Paul's resume, here's one final intriguing detail in Paul's story. It comes from 2 Corinthians 12, 1 through 4. Paul is taken up into the heavenly places. We're told that this event happens after his conversion on the road to Damascus, but before his first missionary journey. Paul is talking about himself here and a vision/slash revelation he received from God. He's just finished boasting in all of his weaknesses, trials, and tribulations, and now says, I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ, again, he's talking about himself, who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows, and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. What? What is going on here? Is this saying Paul went into heaven? Yeah, it is. Sit with that for a moment. I'll clarify these terms, heaven and third heaven in a moment, but while you're considering Paul somehow, either physically in his body or in a vision, being in heaven, let me ask you a question. Had this ever happened to anyone else before in the Bible? Had anyone else ever gone to heaven and lived to tell about it? And would it ever happen again? The answers are yes and yes. Paul was not the first person to visit heaven while still alive, and he wouldn't be the last. Can you name the others? If you're thinking of Enoch or Elijah who were taken up into heaven and didn't die, that's not who I'm referring to, though those are also actual biblical supernatural events. Jacob dreamt of a ladder to heaven with angels ascending and descending, but as far as we're told, he didn't go up into heaven. Moses experienced the supernatural glory of God on the mountain, but never went into the heavenly realm. But who did? If you're thinking about Isaiah or Ezekiel, you'd be spot on. Both were given visions of God on his throne, surrounded by glory. What about Daniel? Did he come to your mind? Yeah, he saw the ancient of days, the Son of Man, seated on a throne of fiery flames, where a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. Who else? What about the martyr Stephen? Paul, well, Saul, stood by while he was stoned, remember? What did Stephen see right before he died? He tells us, Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Then we know, here, as we're told, Paul is also brought up to the third heaven, to paradise. And finally, we have one more after Paul. Did you think of it? Yeah, our Bible ends with the book of Revelation, in which the Apostle John is invited to come up and he sees the throne room of heaven. Heaven is a real place. The spiritual realm is not a metaphorical location. The Bible tells us that repeatedly, and numerous people got to see and experience it for themselves, and then God inspired them to write down what they saw for us so that we would know it was real. By the time Paul is writing this passage on the armor of God to the Ephesians, he's already been taken up into the third heaven. He's already wrestled against these rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, and spiritual forces all throughout his ministry. He stands in the company of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Stephen, and later John, men with eyewitness accounts of the legitimacy of this realm. So my point in all of this is this. And God, through Paul's writing, wants us to have sound doctrine when it comes to the heavenly places and the demonic forces in them. Professor G. C. Birkhauer once said, there can be no sound theology without sound demonology. By this he means that if we take the Bible seriously, we need to take the demonic realm seriously as well. The Bible is a supernatural book, penned by men, but inspired by the Spirit of God. Have you ever stopped to really consider how otherworldly the Bible is? I want to take a minute to help you. Because as we've seen, Paul is very familiar with the spiritual realm, with what goes on in the heavenly places, and this did not only come from his personal experience, but also from his understanding of the God of the scriptures that he dedicated his entire pre-Damascus road life to. Consider how the whole Bible testifies to this unseen realm. From the very beginning in the Bible, we see that we are not in a purely natural world. A serpent speaks, angels appear. God himself walks and speaks with people. Heaven opens and people see it. Angels meet with Hagar in the wilderness. They visit Abraham. They warn Lot and lead him out of danger. An angel stops Abraham's knife mid-air. Jacob dreams of a ladder, as we said, reaching into heaven with angels going up and down. He wrestles with God. He's met by angels on the road. Moses encounters God in a burning bush. Plagues fall on Egypt. A destroyer passes through the land. A pillar of cloud and fire leads God's people and the sea splits in two. God descends on a mountain in fire and thunder. An angel goes before Israel. God speaks face to face with Moses. The earth opens and swallows people alive. A donkey speaks. The Spirit of God comes upon men. Joshua meets the commander of the Lord's army. Jericho's walls fall without a fight. Angels call Gideon. They announce Samson's birth. God calls Samuel in the night. An evil spirit torments Saul. Fire falls from heaven. The dead are raised back to life. Heavenly councils are seen. Chariots of fire appear. Invisible armies fill the hills. An entire army is struck down in a single night by an angel. Satan stands before God. God answers from a whirlwind. Angels guard, angels judge, and angels deliver. Prophets see visions of God on his throne with seraphim surrounding him. They see wheels within wheels, living creatures, glory departing and returning. A fourth Man appears in the fire. A hand writes on a wall. Lion's mouths are shut by an angel. Heaven opens again and again with visions, messengers, and spiritual battles unfolding. And then we get to the New Testament. Angels announce the births of John the Baptist and Jesus. A heavenly host fills the sky. The Spirit descends like a dove. The Father speaks from heaven. Jesus is tempted by the devil, and then angels come to minister to him. Demons cry out, they speak, and they recognize him. Jesus casts them out again and again and again. The blind see, the lame walk, the dead are raised. Storms are silenced, water becomes wine, Jesus walks on the sea, he is transfigured with his glory revealed next to Moses and Elijah. Angels are present, a dead man walks out of a tomb, legions of angels are available at a word, the earth shakes, the veil tears, an angel rolls away the stone, and angels stand at the empty tomb. And then the church begins. The spirit comes in power. Tongues of fire appear. People speak in languages they've never learned. Angels release prisoners, they direct missionaries, and they strike kings. Demons continue to be cast out. Fortunes are told by spirits, miracles happen through ordinary objects. The ground shakes again and prison doors fly open. Jesus appears in glory, visions of heaven are given, angels speak to Paul in the middle of the storm, and he writes a letter to remind us. There are rulers, authorities, powers, dominions, angels, both fallen and faithful. And then we have revelation. The heavens open wide, angels are everywhere, demons are unleashed, cosmic signs, spiritual war on full display. Do you get it? This kind of activity is not rare. This is not occasional. This is the world of the Bible. And that's the point if we're paying attention. When Paul talks about the heavenly places, he's not introducing something new. He's pulling back the curtain on a reality that has been there the entire time. That's why we can't say we take biblical revelation seriously and not have sound doctrine about what happens in the spiritual realm. So, to develop our theology of demons or our demonology, as R. C. Sproul puts it, we're going to rely on Paul as our guide. But first, we must acknowledge that we've got a little problem. Well, not really a little problem, a big problem. We can know that the Bible is filled with evidence of the supernatural, but because we cannot see, hear, or touch anything in the heavenly realm, it can not only be hard for our natural minds to comprehend it all, but to believe it really exists and live as if it's so. In C.S. Lewis's screw tape letters, the fictional demon Wormwood explains to his nephew how our struggle to comprehend what we cannot see works to their advantage. He says, thanks to processes which we set at work in them centuries ago, they find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes. The natural world is familiar to us. The heavenly places, the spiritual realm is not. We think that our natural world is ultimate and permanent. Look around you. Everything that you see, you think is ultimate and permanent. But the Bible tells us the exact opposite. The present world as we know it is temporary. In fact, it's passing away quickly. On the other hand, the heavenly realm is what is ultimate and eternal. Understanding this is meant to change how we live in the here and now. It certainly did for Paul, and that's why he pens this passage now. Paul tells us that we are in a battle, but that this battle isn't in the natural realm where flesh and blood exist. It's in the realm that we can't see, that we can't hear, and that we can't touch. It's in the heavenly places. We've got some learning to do. The very first thing we have to acknowledge is that God is spirit. Gotquestions.org says he exists outside the bounds of time, space, and matter. His home is called heaven, but this is a distinct place, not to be confused with the heavens. So his home, heaven, the third heaven, paradise that Paul talked about, that's God's home. But that's not to be confused with the heavens, which refer to Earth's atmosphere, or the heavenly realms, which encompass all spirit beings. In God's heaven, the third heaven, paradise, he sits on a throne surrounded by adoring angels who exist to serve him and minister to his saints. Angels, as we saw in our Into the Wilderness series, also have the ability to appear as men who are sent to deliver messages from God. But there is a dark side to the heavenly realms. This dark side belongs to Satan and his evil spirits. What happens there on the dark side of the heavenly places? A battle. There is an ongoing battle, God questioned says, with fierce warfare taking place at all times. Satan and his demons are actively working to thwart the plans of God and destroy whatever they can see. Which brings us to this group of fallen angels Paul now lists in Ephesians 6, 12. They exist in the heavenly places, specifically on the dark side of the heavenly places, following Satan and constantly trying to destroy God's plans. We can't see them, but they're there and they're active. And Paul wants us to know about them. The devil and his demons are spiritual beings. They are part of God's creation. The part that rebelled against him because they wanted to be like him, actually above him. So they were cast down out of heaven where God's throne is, but they still exist in the heavenly realms on the dark side. Matthew Henry says they are said to be in high places or heavenly places, spreading out of the air between the earth and the stars, the air being the place from which the devil assaults us. That's who they are and where they are. Now, Paul tells us they have some sort of structure. This is why Paul doesn't just say that our battle is against demons. He gives us a list of four categories: rulers, authorities, cosmic powers over this present darkness, spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Our word study gives us a little more information. The Greek for rulers can mean first in a series or chief in rank. Authorities can be translated as superhuman delegated influence or spiritual potentates with great power, authority, and sway. The phrase cosmic powers over this present darkness carries with it the idea of the devil and his demons as world rulers over ungodliness and immorality, or those in whom darkness becomes visible and holds sway. This is an idea of shadiness. And finally, spiritual forces of evil can refer to a spirit being higher than man, but inferior to God and full of depravity, iniquity, wickedness, malice, and evil purposes, desires, plots, and sins. Paul has clearly been inspired by the Holy Spirit to categorize these four groups separately, but as far as we're able to tell, we don't know exactly why he does this. Believers Bible commentary says we do not have sufficient knowledge to distinguish between these. Perhaps they refer to spirit rulers with differing degrees of authority, such as presidents, governors, mayors, and so on on the human scale. Commentator David Guzick says Paul used a variety of terms to refer to our spiritual enemies. We should regard them as being on many different levels and of many different ranks, yet they all have one goal: knock the Christian down from their place of standing. Collectively, they are all members of spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. They are all part of a spiritual army that is organized and established into ranks and under the headship of Satan who comes against us. We see a glimpse of this in Daniel chapter 10. In this chapter, Daniel is praying, and an angel finally arrives after a delay, explaining that he was resisted for 21 days by the prince of the kingdom of Persia until Michael came to help him. This isn't talking about a human ruler, but a spiritual power operating behind an earthly kingdom. And Michael is the angel of God. Got questions says if a mighty angel on a mission from God could be detained by demonic forces and need Michael's help, then demons must have great power. So what Paul lays out in Ephesians 6 rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, spiritual forces of evil, it's not abstract. Daniel 10 shows us that there are real, organized spiritual forces with differing levels of authority influencing what happens on earth. It pulls back the curtain just enough for us to see that there is structure, strategy, and resistance in the unseen realm. R. C. Sprohl says Satan does not appear to us as the grotesque and hideous figure he is, or as he is depicted in folklore, or as caricatured by Halloween costumes. Rather, Satan is metamorphic. He likes to appear subspecies bonum under the auspices of the good. He is, as he is introduced in Genesis, the most crafty and subtle of creatures. He is the quintessential con artist working his scams via camouflage. And Paul is telling us he doesn't work alone. We already know Satan as the crafty serpent in the garden, as the father of lies, as the thief who comes to steal and kill and destroy, as the god of this world, as the one who disguises himself as an angel of light, as the prince of the power of the air, and as a prowling lion seeking someone to devour. But again, he doesn't work alone. There is an organized, structured, hierarchical army of rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, and spiritual forces of evil who reign over this present darkness and who wreak havoc on the world from their position on the dark side of the heavenly places. The ESV study Bible says this list of spiritual rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers gives a sobering glimpse into the devil's allies, the spiritual forces of evil who are exceedingly powerful in their exercise of cosmic powers over this present darkness. Listen to how Matthew Henry describes their activity. Our enemies strive to prevent our ascent to heaven, to deprive us of heavenly blessings, and to obstruct our communion with heaven. They assault us in the things that belong to our souls and labor to deface the heavenly image in our hearts. Thus, you see your danger. You see what Paul is doing by his word choice here? He's not saying that they stay put up there somewhere in the heavenly places. He's not saying they keep their distance and fight us from afar. To explain our interaction with them, he's using the Greek word polle, which means to wrestle. This word describes a contest between two in which each endeavors to throw the other, or the kind of physical sparring match where the victor is able to hold his opponent down with his hand upon his neck. Paul is saying that it is this kind of intimate battle we are now engaged in with the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. One of our cross references for Pale was another athletic type reference from Luke 1324, where the word strive, agonizomai, means to literally enter a contest, to fight, struggle, and endeavor with strenuous zeal. H.B. Charles says, Wrestle is hand-to-hand combat to the death. It is a death match. So you got that? The spiritual realm is real, it's eternal, it's ultimate. The Bible is a book filled with supernatural, and our guide Paul is an expert in the heavenly places. He's been on the wall a lot. And he's telling us that the devil and his demons are organized and strategic and active and very real. And that we're in a death match against them. Against, against, against. Paul repeats that word six times in two verses here. Stand against the schemes of the devil. Our struggle is against rulers, against authorities, against cosmic powers of darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Our danger, Henry says, is greater from our enemies because they are unseen. But they're not unseen to God. We'll be right back after this message. Hi, friend. Today's message is short and sweet. I want to invite you into studying the Bible with me. Don't just listen to me doing the work because you are capable of studying the Bible yourself. At Abidible, that's our heart to help you actually abide in God's Word and hide it in your heart. So if you want to take a little leap of faith and work alongside me, you can grab this study, The Armor. There's a digital version for 10 bucks or a printed workbook for 20. And use this podcast as your companion as we walk through it together. Inside the study, you'll find QR codes that link to simple how-to posts to guide you as you go. And if you're brand new to studying the Bible this way, our 20-lesson How to Study the Bible video course is another option you can consider to help walk you through it step by step. I'll link both in this episode's description for you. God calls us to love him with all our heart and to treasure his word. And now back to the show. Alright, so before the break, I quoted Matthew Henry saying, Our danger is greater from our enemies because they are unseen, but they are not unseen to God. Author William Gernall says, When God says stay, Satan must stand like a dog by the table while the saints feast on God's comfort. He does not dare to snatch even a tidbit for the master's eye is always upon him. Author and pastor Erwin Lutzer opens his book, God's Devil, by saying, Let us boldly affirm that whatever mischief Satan is allowed to do, it is always appointed by God for the ultimate service and benefit to the saints. Should I say that again? Whatever mischief Satan is allowed to do, it is always appointed by God for the ultimate service and benefit to the saints. Think of the ending to Joseph's story in Genesis. After being betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, taken to a foreign land, propositioned by his master's wife only to be falsely accused of rape, sent to prison, forgotten in prison, after all that, Joseph eventually rises to second in command next to Pharaoh over all Egypt. Because of this position, he is able to provide for the people, but in particular his own people, his brothers and his father, during a seven-year severe famine. All the evil that was done against Joseph, God appointed for ultimate good. God never once took his eyes off the spiritual forces of evil trying to come against Joseph or against God's sovereign plans. And in the end, God's plan prevailed. Joseph gets it. He says to his brothers, You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. Satan made a terrible decision when he turned God from friend to foe. The moment he sinned against God, he'd already lost. Lutzer says he was defeated strategically, spiritually, and eternally. Strategically, the devil was defeated because as a created being by the creator of all, the devil would forever be dependent on his creator for continued existence. Quote, any power he would exercise would always be subject to God's will and decree. He cannot even now make his own first move without God's express will and consent. Second, he has already been defeated spiritually. Lutzer says there Christ was guaranteeing a part of fallen humanity, so this is at the cross, would be purchased out from the kingdom of darkness to share in the kingdom of light. Creatures who had fallen into Satan's trap would eventually be exalted above the angelic realm he once led. And third, Lutzer says when he is thrown into the lake of fire, he will be defeated eternally, in that he will forever be cast away from the divine presence. There, in shameful agony, he will unendingly contemplate his foolishness in standing against God. His humiliation will be public, painful, and endless. Satan and his allies, the rulers, the authorities, the cosmic powers of darkness, and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places have already been defeated strategically, spiritually, and eternally. So, if they've been defeated, why are we still battling against them? Why is Satan still prowling around like a roaring lion seeking people to devour? The answer is that we are living in the already but not yet phase in God's story. Satan's ultimate defeat is certain because of Jesus' finished work on the cross, but the end has not yet come in which Satan and his allies will be eternally cast into the lake of fire. Until that time, he is a defeated yet active foe. He's like a convicted criminal who's still free prior to lockup and is acting out of rage and increasing in evil because he knows his time is short. But just like with Joseph, God only permits Satan to do what God allows and what God uses for good. God is able to use temptation and testing for the spiritual sanctification and growth of believers and for ultimate good. Our struggle, our wrestling against evil is one of the ways that God develops us, grows us up into spiritual maturity so that we learn to rely on God and his armor rather than our own strength. Satan, his allies, and evil can be and are redempted tools in God's hand for the good of his children. How humiliating to the devil. This brings us back to one of my favorite verses, Colossians 2, 13 to 15, and what Jesus accomplished in his battle against his adversary, Satan, and all of Satan's host. It says, And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. The realm that we cannot see, the dark side of that realm, was completely disarmed and humiliated by the cross of Christ. Calvin said, There is no tribunal so magnificent, no throne so stately, no show of triumph so distinguished, no chariot so elevated as the gibbet, the cross, on which Christ has subdued death and the devil, the prince of death. Martin Luther perfectly calls it, he says, the devil is God's devil. The prince of this world, Lutzer says, has become the slave of the Prince of Peace. That's why being strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might is the critical first step before we ever. Even touch the armor before we attempt to fight back in this battle. The pinnacle of the Lord's strength is the victory won for us on the cross. We fight an enemy who has already been defeated strategically, spiritually, and eternally. In Christ, our enemy has been completely disarmed. John Piper powerfully notes just when people thought Jesus was being stripped of his clothing and shamed in nakedness at his final trial and led in triumphal procession to Calvary, what was really happening was the reverse. Namely, Satan and his demonic forces were being stripped. They were being shamed. They were being led in triumphal procession. That is what happened behind the veil. This is the battle that was being fought in the heavenly places that we cannot see, hear, or touch. Here's the big idea, and I got it from Lutzer. Satan always loses even when he quote wins. Those of us who have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light are therefore able to stand against him because of Jesus' victory on the cross. And here are Lutzer's two supporting premises to this claim that Satan always loses even when he wins. First, God has absolute sovereignty in his universe. Even evil is a part of the larger plan of God. Now we know that God does not do evil and cannot be the source of evil, but as quote, creator and sustainer of the universe, God is the ultimate, though not the immediate, cause of all that comes to pass. This just means that he is able to use all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose, even evil, even the schemes conspired against him from Satan and his allies on the dark side of the heavenly places. Ironically, Satan tried to rebel against God in order to no longer be God's servant, and yet he is still serving God because of God's sovereign ability to use even evil to bring about good. He still loses, even when he wins. Second, Lutzer says that God uses our conflict with Satan to develop character. Our struggles against Satan and evil sanctify us, grow us, and give us the necessary opportunity to have our faith tested and strengthened. Lutzer says our spiritual war is a classroom. God could have banished Satan to another planet or cast him immediately into the lake of fire, but he chose to use the devil to give him a role to play in the divine drama. God knows that we must fight before we can celebrate. We must learn before we are approved. And he gives us, as we will continue to see in our study here of Ephesians 6, everything we need to successfully overcome the devil. Lutzer says that we are in a winnable war. So Satan loses even when he wins. In light of all this, how do we go about our lives in the natural realm, knowing that this battle rages on in the heavenly realms and that we are the target of demonic attacks by getting a quarter and staring at the sun? I'm just kidding. Don't actually stare at the sun. But listen to this super helpful illustration Lutzer shares from another writer. A single quarter lifted to the eye can obscure the light of the sun, a star whose diameter is 865,000 miles. Just so, Satan, if we let him, can cause us to block out our vision of God. He can give us the terrifying optical illusion that, at least in this life, he is just about as big as God. Lutzer says, Satan is just as strong as we believe him to be. And then listen to this poignant comparison he makes to the Old Testament story of Jericho, where Israel's entrance to the Promised Land was delayed because the people chose to view their enemies as greater than their God. He says, because the Israelites believed the city of Jericho to be unconquerable, it was. The citizens of Jericho saw it quite differently. They were terrified of the Israelites and were puzzled as to why they did not come and claim their inheritance 40 years earlier. Indeed, Joshua and Caleb, remember who had gone ahead and spied out the land. Joshua and Caleb knew that God had removed the protection from the city. It was not the strength of the city, but the unbelief of the Israelites that postponed the victory. It is not the strength of Satan, but our unbelief in God's strength that can delay our own victory against our enemy. This is why we must make less of the devil and more of God. We do not deny Satan's existence, but we also do not give him more power than he has. Otherwise, we will believe him to be bigger and greater than he is. Lutzer says this is why we must never see Satan without seeing God. The greater our God, the smaller our devil. Not only does our God win in the end, he's also winning every day, in ways that we see and in ways that we cannot. It can feel like evil is winning when we look at the world around us. It isn't. It just simply isn't. God is crushing Satan, redeeming his evil plans for good, and moving the entire universe toward the devil's final defeat and Christ's glorious return. The devil is losing ground every single day, even when it seems like he's winning. He's not. We must get this because how we see the devil impacts how we fight him. If we see him as invincible, how will we ever stand against him? But if we see him as losing and having ultimately already lost, we will not only stand but fight. Lutzer rightly points out that we can have a proper theology of the devil only if we have a proper theology of God. Only when we stand in awe of God will we find it unnecessary to be in awe of Satan. Satan is great to us, but not great to God. We must stand in awe of a God who can use a rebel to glorify his name. Satan and his allies are formidable to us, but not to God. And this is why we abide. This is why we seek to rightly divide and understand God's word. This is why we must know him so that we can rightly know our enemy. Satan is God's devil. The more we know and rightly see God, the more we will know and rightly shrink our enemy. The smaller he correctly shrinks in God's shadow, the more courageously we will fight under the shadow of our Father's wings. Behold, Jesus tells us in Luke 10 19, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Paul climbed the wall. Paul encountered the demonic. Paul saw the heavenly realms, and he didn't shrink back. He stood firm. He got it, and he wants us to get it too. For, as he pens in 2 Corinthians 10 4, the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have the divine power to destroy strongholds. What are those strongholds? I'm going to close by naming a few of them. To do this, I want to look at Christ's letters to the churches in Revelation. He calls out some strongholds in each church that are still very relevant to us today. Perhaps as you listen, you can consider where these demonic strongholds may have taken up residence in your heart. Here's one. We see a stronghold is built when our first love is lost. This often doesn't usually look dramatic. It looks like going through the motions. It's opening your Bible out of obligation, not hunger, and not love. It's more excitement about a podcast, a routine, or even ministry itself than about Christ. It's when your mind drifts to everything else during prayer, but not to him. It's when Jesus becomes boringly familiar and that familiarity slowly turns into distance. You've lost your first love. To destroy this stronghold, remember how you used to love Jesus, repent and return to him. Second, we see the stronghold of false teaching. This one is everywhere right now and it's often subtle. It sounds like truth, but it's truth twisted. It's teaching that says God exists to make you happy, healthy, and successful. It's messages that avoid sin, repentance, and holiness altogether. It's the blending of Christianity with cultural ideologies where Jesus is no longer Lord, but a means to promote a political agenda, a personal platform, or a self-focused life. It's any message that centers you instead of Christ. And if we're not rooted in the Word, we will not recognize it. To destroy this stronghold, repent and return to Christ-centered biblical teaching. Third, we see the stronghold of tolerating sin, what Revelation calls a Jezebel spirit. Tolerating sin is about a pattern of calling what God calls sin acceptable. It looks like normalizing sexual immorality because that's just the culture. I recently saw a clip shared on social media. Thankfully, it was criticizing the host of the Call Her Daddy podcast. I've never listened to this podcast, but was not surprised to learn that it's frequently number two out of all global podcasts with an average of 5 million weekly listeners. In an April 2026 episode, so last month, the host Alex Cooper advised listeners to disregard prude dating rules and engage in first date sex if it feels right, stating, so kiss them on the first date. Fing sleep with them the first night. Like, I don't care. You have to go based on what feels good to your body and what feels right to you. That is just one example of our modern-day Jezebel spirit of sexual promiscuity being eaten up by our culture. Behind it, spiritual forces of evil exist in the heavenly places. Are we tolerating this spirit, subtly agreeing with it in what we watch, what we listen to, what we laugh at? Ladies, the novels that we read with graphic sex hidden inside the pages disguised as romance, or the straight-up porn that's available at the click of a button. What are the things that once grieved us or that grieve God that we now tolerate? What are we justifying and compromising or saying it's not that big of a deal about what God clearly calls sin? We tear down these strongholds by repenting and burning it all down to the ground so that we can hold fast to Christ alone. Fourth, we see the stronghold of dead works. This is doing the right things without the right heart. It's serving, leading, posting, attending, but with no real dependence on God. It's outward activity with inward drought. It's checking every spiritual box while your heart is far from him. Everything looks alive, but there's no real life. We destroy this stronghold by, you guessed it, repenting and waking up and strengthening ourselves by depending on God for all that we do. And finally, we see the stronghold of what Jesus calls being lukewarm, not cold, not hot, just indifferent. It's wanting enough of Jesus to feel secure, but not enough to surrender to him. It's comfort over conviction. It's blending in, staying safe, and avoiding anything that would cost you something. It's a faith that never quite catches fire. We destroy this stronghold by coming to Jesus to ignite our zeal. We repent and let him fill us with zeal. These are not just issues in ancient churches, as you can see. They are our present realities. These are our current battlegrounds. These are strongholds. Again, scripture tells us the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. So we don't ignore them. We don't excuse them. We bring them into the light through the gift that we have been given called repentance. God, please forgive me for where I've forgotten my first love, for where I've tolerated false teaching or a sinful Jezebel spirit, for where my works are dead and for where I have grown lukewarm. We repent and we let God tear those strongholds down. And that is because when we do, our very real enemy has no advantage over us in the real battle we are ultimately fighting against him and intimately fighting against him. It's no wonder Paul says just a few chapters earlier in Ephesians 4.27 do not give the devil a foothold. The very areas where you have allowed demonic forces to build strongholds in your life are the same areas that God wants to redeem for good. No decision you've made puts you too far gone for our God. Surrender those strongholds to God today. Repent and agree with what is true. Satan always loses, even when he wins. Satan may seem great to us, but he's not great to God. We serve and therefore can stand in awe of a God who can even use a rebel to glorify his name. And that's it for this episode. If you know someone who would be blessed by what you just heard, please share the Abidible podcast with them. Keep spreading the word so we can make much of the word. Drop us a review, tell us what you love and what you're learning. Check out the link to learn more about partnering with us by buying us a coffee one time, by joining our Abidible Plus women's Facebook membership community for $10 a month, or by becoming a monthly supporter. For those of you following along in the workbook, go ahead and begin working on our next verse in the series, Ephesians 6.13, on pages 24 to 27 in your study workbook. You can also complete your recap session on Ephesians 6.10 through 12 found on pages 20 to 21. Ideally, you would have these sections done before you listen to the next episode number 96. Again, the verse next week is Ephesians 6.13. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm. There are parts of this verse that sound familiar to us, as Paul already told us in verse 11 to put on the whole armor of God. In verse 11, he also mentioned the result of putting on the armor as we discussed, being able to stand against the schemes of the devil. The fact that Paul is now repeating the phrase whole armor of God means that we ought to draw our attention to this phrase as well as to the command to stand. By the time we wrap up next week's verse, Ephesians 6.13 and begin Ephesians 6.14, Paul will have told us to stand four different times. If Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to repeat that word four times, we ought to be on high alert. Standing sounds important. We'll get into all of that together next week. Don't miss it. I'll pray for us and then close us out with our memory work for verse 11. Father, we come before you acknowledging what is true. We are not in a small or simple fight. Your word makes it clear that there is a real battle in the unseen places and that left to ourselves we would be overwhelmed. But you have not left us to ourselves. You have given us your spirit, power, not fear, strength, not timidity. And so we ask, would you anchor that truth deep in our hearts? Where fear tries to rise up, replace it with a steady confidence in who you are. Open our eyes to see rightly, not just the reality of the battle, but the greater reality of your authority over it. You are seated far above every ruler, every authority, every power, and every dominion. Nothing is outside of your control. Teach us what it means to abide in Christ, not to stand in our own strength, but to live fully immersed in Him, to put Him on, not as something external, but as our very identity. Search us, Lord. Please reveal any place where we've given the enemy a foothold, where we have strongholds that have tolerated sin, believed lies, or drifted from our first love. Do not let us be lukewarm. Give us hearts that are quick to repent and quick to return. And as we walk forward, please remind us daily the enemy we face is already defeated. The cross has disarmed him, the victory is secure. Help us to stand not in fear but in faith, not in striving, but in surrender, not in ourselves, but in Christ alone. We love you, we trust you, and we fix our eyes on you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Let's close by doing our memory work together. I'm going to repeat Ephesians 6 12 five times. Say it out loud with me or quietly to yourself. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Ephesians six twelve. Remember, you are able to abide in the Bible. I will see you next time. Until then, let's abide.