Strong in the Lord - Part 1

In His Mighty Power

Ephesians 6v10-12

1^st July 2016

Towards the end of his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul turns to the subject of Spiritual warfare:

Ephesians 6v10-12
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour 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.

There is a spiritual battle going on.

We know we?re on the winning side. Jesus promised, ?I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it? (Matthew 16v18) and He?s already won the victory; He rose from the dead, defeating sin and death. But the battle continues, and there are still casualties. People still get very hurt. So Paul says ?Be strong?.

But we need to "be strong in the Lord, and his mighty power", because you and I are not very strong - neither mentally, nor physically, nor spiritually, not emotionally. We can?t achieve much by the force of our personalities. In fact, I don?t believe we can achieve anything of lasting spiritual value by our own efforts. It all comes from God. I heard this saying recently:

When I'm worried it's usually because I'm trying to do everything myself. When I'm at peace it's usually because I remember that God is in control.

No matter how much you strive to win one person for Christ, you can?t do it. It?s impossible. No matter how loving, or prayerful, or eloquent you are, only the Holy Spirit puts saving faith in another person?s heart.

Be strong, but be strong in the Lord.

And when great temptation comes, we can try in our own strength to resist that temptation, but really we need the Lord's help most of the time.

Let's admit it - we're weak. But God's promise is that we can be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. The Holy Spirit is there for you, just as much as for any other Christian. But will you call upon Him?

Paul says, "Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes." Get as much defence and as many weapons as you can lay your hands on because you're going to need them. Don't leave one piece of the armour unused.

There is a devil, also called Satan.

A lot of people claim that there's no such person as God. I think that?s because they don?t want to believe that anybody has authority over them. They want to think of themselves - or of mankind - as autonomous, able to work things out for themselves, and act according to their own understanding. They're afraid that they might one day be called to account by their creator, so they deny His existence.

In the same way, people are afraid there might be a devil, so they deny that the devil exists. But the Bible states very clearly that the devil exists, and demons exist. Whether we like it or not, whether we believe it or not, we're all engaged in spiritual warfare. And our enemy ("Satan" means "enemy") has schemes. He's crafty. He's sneaky.

But 2 Corinthians 2v11 says, "We are not ignorant of Satan?s schemes".

John 8v44 tells us, "the devil... was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him... he is a liar and the father of lies."

2 Corinthians 11v14 says, "Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light" and the next verse, 2 Corinthians 11v15, says, "his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness".

We need the armour of God, and we need to know how to use it.