Principalities, Powers & Rulers

Last Sunday morning we began a new sermon series entitled, Principalities, Powers & Rulers. One of the first choruses I learned as a child was, “I may never march in the infantry, ride in the calvary, shoot the artillery, I may never fly ‘or the enemy, but I’m in the Lords’ army.” There is an enormous amount of truth in that chorus. The Bible is full of military analogies. Throughout the Psalms, David talks of God preparing him for battle, of God going before Him in battle, of God being our leader in battle.

Somebody wrote a parody of the second verse of the Christian song,"Onward, Christian Soldiers," several years back. It goes like this:

Like a mighty turtle moves the church of God.

Brothers, we are treading where we’ve always trod.

We are much divided, many bodies we,

Strong in faith and doctrine, weak in charity.

Paul writes, "For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms" (Ephesians 6:12). While we exist in this present visible world, we also exist simultaneously in the unseen world that Paul describes here. The unseen world is described as the place where evil beings exist, but it is also the place Christ, and all believers exist. He also states, "God...has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we belong to Christ" (Ephesians 1:3b).

Beyond this world of our senses is the unseen world where all that is of a spiritual nature dwells -- both good and evil -- and it is in this invisible world that spiritual warfare takes place -- it is in this unseen world that we fight against the principalities and powers that seek to do us harm.

Like pieces on a chess board that have no function with being moved by a higher power, we can only win this spiritual battle through God's help. It is time that we stop fighting against one another, and engage our true enemy in spiritual warfare.