Spiritual Warfare: Are You Wrestling or Resting?Cross].”
And then look at Luke 10:19: “Behold, I give unto
you [the Body of Christ] power to tread on serpents and
scorpions [the devil and his evil forces], and over all the
power of the enemy: and NOTHING SHALL BY ANY
MEANS HURT YOU.”
Yes, we are in a battle all right, but it's against
principalities and powers that Jesus already defeated in
his death, burial, and resurrection! Notice also in Luke
10:20 that Jesus admonished the disciples not to rejoice
in their authority over the devil but to rejoice in their
relationship with God and in the fact that their names
are written in the Book of Life. So our focus is not to be
on a battle with a defeated enemy, but it is to be on a
relationship with a mighty and loving God.
Some people are advocating that the Body of Christ
is to fight devils. But why would we have to fight an
enemy that has been dethroned from his place of
authority!
Yet some folks are coming to church dressed in army
fatigues, and instead of worshipping God, they spend
all of their time yelling, screaming, and trying to do
"battle" against the devil in prayer. They use scriptures
such as Second Timothy 2:3,4 to justify these practices:
“... endure hardness as a GOOD SOLDIER of Jesus
Christ. No man that WARRETH entangleth himself
with the affairs of this life....”
Actually, in both Second Timothy 2:3,4 and in
Ephesians 6:12, Paul is speaking symbolically. He is
using the words "soldier," "warreth," and "wrestling"
figuratively. Paul was using an illustration from the
Roman army of the day so people could relate to what
he was saying. Paul used concepts that the people of the
day could understand. We can see this when we read