The Book of Ephesians unveils the mystery of the Church as no other Epistle. God’s secret intention is revealed to form a Body to express Christ’s fullness on earth; and to do this by uniting the people as one. It is the purpose of the church to equip and mature the people. To have victory over evil. The Book of Ephesians shows us that the Church is called to engage in battle with dark powers. But before the church is called to war, she must be taught how to walk; and before she is taught to walk, she is taught where to stand. The Book also teaches us about the government of God versus the hierarchy of the forces of darkness. It also speaks about order that needs to be established in the Body of Christ. The fact is WE ARE AT WAR AND WE MUST ENGAGE IN SPIRITUAL WARFARE! We have to fight for family, the relevance of the Church, that Government and Political order will not be taken over by evil and that nations will walk upright ethically and morally!
The Book of Ephesians gives spiritual revelation, tactics and strategies on how to dismantle the forces of darkness that is terrorizing a nation. We are not called to be defensive, we are called to function in the offensive!
Most of the negative things that happen around us daily is the result of the Church not engaging in Spiritual Warfare; but no one can go to war without being prepared, neither can one go to war without being fully clothed (with the Whole Armor). More than 50% of the Church does not believe in Spiritual Warfare. If one goes into warfare without being fully armored, they will be whipped by the enemy! That is why Paul the Apostle uses the metaphor of a battle dress of the first century Roman Soldier. Clearly the military metaphor is intended to show us that we are in active battle now – aggressive struggle – and only faith and our position in Jesus Christ will demolish these demonic strongholds that are coming against us.
To be effective in battle, we must first deal with the strongholds in our lives that we wrestle with on a daily basis. We have to engage and defeat the enemy and we have to - we must stand at the end of the day! After we have wrestled we must get the victory and prepare ourselves for the next battle.
One cannot go to battle looking for victory by mixing the clean with the unclean, the holy and the unholy. When we cook, we cannot mix the good food with rotting food, because the taste and smell of the good food will become tarnished and tainted by the aroma of the rotting food, and none will be edible. Any general leading God’s army must be fully loyal to God! They cannot serve God and Satan at the same time – while leading the people into battle, that only brings defeat! When Achan is in the camp (Joshua 7) defeat is inevitable. That is why people are saying that what is happening in the United States and Jamaica – the crime and other things taking over – prayer doesn’t work. Prayer works, but it is the lifestyle of the generals that will bring the defeat. They have the Babylonian things within their tents while they are leading the people astray. Unless we repent as a Church, and engage in Spiritual Warfare, I guarantee that what happened/is happening in the Middle East will extend to the West and darkness will take over.
The major keys to spiritual warfare are Command, Communication and Control!
In addition to that, we must win the battle in the air first before we can win it on the ground. Some of the prayers offered are not even passing the second heaven. (The Bible speaks about three (3) heavens)
Further to this, in spiritual warfare, we need to know who is the real enemy! Many times we are fighting with the enemy right beside us and we don’t realize it. The greatest enemy to the Church is the one within. So we have to wrestle (which indicates close combat fighting) first.
Understand that Spiritual Warfare is not a show – where you plan an event and bring in the media. Most of the warfare has to take place behind the scenes. Furthermore, every person engaging in Spiritual Warfare needs to know what kind of prayer is more effective in the particular season in order to dethrone the enemy. Oftentimes, you cannot engage in warfare if you are not taught to pray in the Holy Ghost, nor to embrace the different spiritual gifts that are given to the Church.
Finally, you can’t go into Spiritual Warfare in a jacket! It is time to take of the jacket if you want to see change!
