This concludes SK 6202, God’s Eternal Purpose, Number Four.
Very strangely, if you do not know the eternal purpose of God, perhaps in your own life you will not meet much spiritual battle. But if you know the eternal purpose of God, then the spiritual battle becomes more and more severe, because now you are on the battleground.
But, dear brothers and sisters, what kind of battle are we engaged in? It is a mopping-up operation. The battle is already won, but when you go into the city, you still find snipers, and there you have to clean up. So this is the work of the church.
Now we come to be the helpers of Christ. Dear brothers and sisters, the Bible tells us that woman was made as a help meet for man. Not only are we His counterpart, but we are also His helpers. Now we have a vocation: we have to subdue all things and put them under the feet of Christ.
Of course, if we want to do this, we have to obtain this power. If the church does not count Jesus as the Head, if we do not hold fast the Head, then we will have no strength or power to bring all these things to the feet of Christ.
Today we are called to engage in this spiritual battle. What does the Bible tell us? It says that, in order to fight the spiritual battle, you have to be strong in the Lord and in the might of His strength.
Here we see the first thing: we have to be prepared inwardly. Our internal preparation is to be strong in the Lord. It is not merely through Him that we become strong men, but that we are strong in Him. We are in Him, dear brothers and sisters.
You know, in a battle there are strategic points that you have to gain. When you stand on a higher point, your fighting is like splitting bamboo—it is easy. So the position where we stand in this battle is very important.
When we fight the spiritual battle, what is our position? Our position is in Christ; it is in the Lord. Ephesians tells us that He has raised us up from the dead. We are raised with Him, and we are ascended to heaven with Him.
Our Lord is sitting at the right hand of the throne of God, and that is our position. Our position is a position of resurrection and ascension. We are standing up there, looking down.
What is our strength? It is not that we are strong in ourselves. On the other hand, whenever I am weak, I am strong. I know my weakness, and His power is perfected in my weakness.
Dear brothers and sisters, the first thing we have to see is that we are in the Lord. You cannot fight the battle in yourself, because in yourself you once were a defeated man. Adam was defeated. But if you are in Christ, you are standing in Christ, and His strength is your strength. His triumph is your strength.
Here it says, “the might of His strength.” What is this strength? It is what is said in Ephesians 1:19:
The exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.
This is the might of His strength:
Which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead,
and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly places,
far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion,
and every name that is named,
not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.
This might of His strength has already been manifested in Christ. Through this might and strength, He was raised from the dead. He is now sitting at the right hand of God. In other words, He is the Head of all things.
Now this might is going to operate in the church, so that all things in heaven and on earth can be subdued. As Ephesians 1:22 says:
And He put all things in subjection under His feet,
and gave Him to be head over all things to the church.
That is to say, He is the Head of all things for the church. He has given this to His church so that the church can subdue all things and put them under the feet of Christ, because the church is His body, the fullness of Him Who filleth all in all.
If we want to fight the spiritual battle, we have to know clearly our enemy. Paul says that we are not fighting against flesh and blood.
We know that Satan is indeed crafty. He does not show his own face; he has a cover-up. He uses men, the things of this world, and everything else to attack us, because he is the ruler of this world. Sometimes he uses men, sometimes things, to deceive us and attack us. He hides himself behind them.
If we do not know this, we think that this man is against us, this matter is against us, or this circumstance is against us. Brothers and sisters, it is not so. We are battling not against flesh and blood, but against the thing behind them.
Satan has his own kingdom and his own organization. He has his own hierarchy: principalities, authorities, the world-rulers of this darkness, and spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
This is my personal opinion: under Satan there are hierarchies among his messengers. Perhaps the highest are the principalities. In Daniel 10, we read of conflict with the prince of Persia and also with the prince of Greece. These are probably principalities.
It seems that Satan has a prince in each country, and then there are also authorities. Personally, I feel that the authorities refer to what is said in Daniel concerning the command of the watchers and the holy ones.
So, in the kingdom of Satan, there are these authorities, and they give orders. When they give orders, then the men of this world follow.
There are also the world-rulers of this darkness. Satan uses darkness to rule the world, so that the men of this world live in darkness.
This darkness refers to lies, because Satan is the first liar. Under him there is this series of lies. For example, in 1 Kings 22, you see these spirits of lies. He deceives the world with lies.
The whole world is under the lie. The whole world is a big lie. In that way, he puts us under darkness.
There are also the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. He rules the world with wickedness. Satan is the source of wickedness, and he rules the world with his evil.
So we are battling against these evil spiritual powers. You cannot fight with your own flesh and blood, and you are not battling against flesh and blood. You are fighting with evil spirits.
Therefore, you have to abide in Christ. You have to stand on high ground. You have to partake of His power, and you have to put on the whole armor of God.
We do not have time to describe this in detail, but I want to remind you, brothers and sisters, that strictly speaking, this is what the church puts on. The warrior here is the church.
The church has to gird herself with truth. If the church loses the truth, the church fails. The church must also put on the breastplate of righteousness. If there is sin in the church, then the church is under the attack of the enemy.
First, the church has to put on the sandals of the glad tidings of peace. In other words, the church has to stand on the gospel. If we do not stand on the gospel, then we fail.
The church has to use faith as the shield. It is not only a matter of creed; it is a matter of living faith.
We have to put on the helmet of salvation, because the enemy often puts various thoughts into the minds of brothers and sisters. “You turn me down; I suspect you.” “You are suspicious of me; I am suspicious of you.” Then the church is in trouble. We have to put on the helmet of salvation.
The church has to use the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Brothers and sisters are often deceived concerning this. The word of God is the sword of the Holy Spirit.
In other words, it is the Holy Spirit Who uses the word of God. But today, we in the church sometimes use the word of God to kill men—to kill brothers. If we are unhappy with a particular brother, we use the word of God to strike him.
The word of God is not your sword. The word of God is like a two-edged sword: it is going to pierce through you and separate your soul from your spirit. The Holy Spirit alone uses the word of God. In this way, the enemy is struck down.
Also, the church has to pray at all seasons and watch incessantly. In this way, not only can we stand, but we can execute the will and calling of God. We can overcome every resistance.
We can bring the purpose of God under the feet of Christ. The Holy Spirit says, “Stand, stand, and stand.” After the battle, if you can still stand, that is victory.
So, dear brothers and sisters, praise God. His eternal purpose is so glorious. We thank God that He is willing for us to receive grace to such an extent that we can grow in life to be like Him.
And in service, we can be His helpers. May the Lord bless us. Let us bow down and pray.
Our Lord, our God, we bow down before You. We have to say, “What is man, that You are mindful of him?”
Our Lord, we thank You and praise You, because this is what You have accomplished: that we can receive Your grace, that we can be united with You, and that we can be used by You.
Our Lord, what else can we say? We can only say, “Lord, may You be above all.” In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.