The Triumphant Churchscriptures, we don't really have the whole counsel of
God on the subject. What we need to do is get our
thinking straightened out and begin believing in line
with the whole counsel of God's Word.
For example, just reading verse 12, you can see how
people could become overwhelmed, thinking they have
to wrestle and overcome evil spirits. But that's how
people become devil-conscious. And instead of resting in
the finished work of the Cross, they try to wrestle a foe
who they forget is defeated! That gives the devil access
to hold high carnival in their minds, bodies, and lives
because they aren't believing what the Word says Jesus
already did for them.
By overemphasizing just that one verse alone rather
than the whole counsel of God, people place the
emphasis not on what Christ has already done for
believers, but rather on what the Christian must yet do
in order to get victory over the devil. That is
unscriptural because every believer already participates
in Jesus' victory over Satan.
We must constantly keep in mind the whole counsel
of God. Although Ephesians 6:12 says we do wrestle
against principalities and powers, the Bible says in
other verses that we are in a battle against a foe that
has already been defeated! So read Ephesians 6:12, but
instead of "camping" there and trying to build a
doctrine on that one verse alone always doing warfare
against the devil—look at the whole counsel of God on
this subject.
For example, read Ephesians 6:12, "We wrestle
against principalities and power," and read that
scripture with Colossians 2:15: “... having SPOILED
principalities and powers, he [Jesus] made a shew of
them openly, TRIUMPHING OVER THEM in it [the