Strength for the Battle

Dannah Gresh: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth says we need to be careful about where we point fingers for society’s problems.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: The anger, the contention and discords of violence that we are seeing today, ultimately, these are not the result of guns or mental illness or inflation or supply chain issues or anything else. These are spiritual problems.

Dannah: It’s the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, co-author of Seeking Him, for April 17, 2023. I’m Dannah Gresh.

When you think about yourself, would you say you’re a strong person or weak? Are you full of energy or weary? What about spiritually? Would you like to grow in spiritual strength?

Today, Nancy takes us to a passage of Scripture that offers us exactly that—spiritual strength. Here’s Nancy.

Nancy: Well, as I’ve shared frequently on Revive Our Hearts over the last few years, I’ve been journaling through the entire Scripture. I started on Genesis 1:1 in January of 2018. It took me two years to journal through the Old Testament. I got a Bible with wide margins and lines so that you could write down insights and what He’s showing you through the passage.

Then I started into the New Testament two-and-a-half years ago. The New Testament is much shorter than the Old Testament, but I have gotten carried away. I’m in the book of 1 Peter now as I’m walking through the New Testament, and what a joy this has been just to soak in these familiar passages but to see fresh things in them that I’ve never seen before.

So I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the book of Ephesians not long ago, and there’s a passage in the last chapter of Ephesians that I’ve been meditating on quite a bit over the last several weeks. I want to share just some reflections on that passage with you today.

So, if you have your Bible, which I hope you do, let me invite you to turn to the Epistle of Ephesians, a letter by Paul to the Ephesian church, chapter 6, the last chapter of Ephesians. I think part of why this passage has so ministered to me is because I’ve been studying it and meditating on it against the backdrop of so much of what is taking place in our world today.

Now, I want to give you some context, because you don’t ever want to take a passage of Scripture and just jump in there and not have some idea of where it fits and what it has to do with what’s in the rest of the book and the rest of that part of the Bible.

So, this is a letter from Paul. The book of Ephesians is written to those who are in Christ. You’ll see that phrase a lot in Ephesians. To be “in Christ” means to be a Christian. It means Christ is in you, and you have been adopted into the family of God.

In the early chapters of Ephesians, there’s just one list after another of some of the blessings that come to those who are in Christ. You read Ephesians 1, and Paul has these great, long, run-on sentences. Like, you can’t figure out where to put a period because there is so much to say about the God who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And he just goes rattling on what those blessings are.

And some of those, just to highlight a few:

• He talks about how we’re seated with Christ above—in heaven with Christ.
• He talks how we’re saved by grace through faith.
• He talks how we are the workmanship of God created for good works that God has ordained in eternity past that we should walk in them.

When you get nervous about finding out what God wants you to do or God’s will, just remember God already knows how He wants to use you, what He wants you to do. He decided it in eternity past. You don’t have to stress about figuring it out. You look to Him, and you say, “Lord, You show me what You want me to do as my next step.”

• We’re members of His body—that’s another blessing—the Body of Christ.
• We’re children of light.
• We are dearly loved children.
• We are light in the Lord.

And on and on. We could do just a whole series on the blessings of being in Christ. It’s glorious. It’s encouraging. It’s uplifting.

And then we come to the end of this epistle, and Paul says in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10, “Finally . . .” You’ve heard the minister say that, the pastor on Sunday morning. He’s spoken forty-five minutes, and then he goes “finally,” and you’re thinking, Finally we’re at finally. (laughter) But in this case, you don’t want it to end because it’s been so good.

So what is Paul’s “finally” going to be? He says, verse 10 of Ephesians 6, “Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength.” Be strengthened by the Lord.

That word for strengthened there means “to be inwardly strengthened.” This doesn’t mean go to the gym and lift weights, though you may need to do that. That would be for other reasons. He’s saying, “You need internal strengthening of your soul, of your spirit, of your heart. Be strengthened inwardly.” How? “By the Lord and by His vast strength.”

Some of your translations say, “By the power of His might.” That’s the one I was more familiar with growing up. “Be strengthened by the Lord and by the power of His might.” It’s mighty strength, mighty power, vast strength that God has. It’s limitless.

I suppose this passage, this verse, struck my heart initially because I just feel needy so much of the time. I feel weak so much of the time. For starters, I’m getting older, and I’m not getting stronger. I feel more of my weakness, my neediness. I’m sometimes overwhelmed with deadlines and responsibilities and opportunities.

I feel deeply and greatly the encroaching darkness of evil in our world. We’re engaged in the battle day after day in different ways, we are, but that battle takes a toll. It’s easy to become weary in doing good.

Here we are in a women’s ministry, and people today are arguing about: “Is there such a thing as a woman?” I mean, I’m reading those things, I’m listening to . . . Is anybody feeling needy and weak? Or is it just me? Okay, I see a lot of heads nodding. “Finally, be strengthened by the Lord.” The implication here is that we are weak, that we need strength.

So, what makes us weak? Why are we weak? These are the kinds of questions I asked myself as I studied the Scripture.

Well, first of all, there’s obviously our own flesh. We are finite. We are human. We are frail.

We have limitations. We have to sleep. We have to eat. We can’t do everything. There’s no superwoman in real life.

And, to add to that, we’re sinful creatures. We have sinful flesh. We have desires of the flesh. I mean, we’d rather eat and watch TV than read our Scripture or pray. There’s that battle with our flesh.

And then we live in a world that is fallen. It’s dangerous. It’s sinful.

And we’re living in difficult days. Now, Christians in every era could say that. It doesn’t make it any less true today. There are powerful ideologies at work in our world that are working against those who hold to the truth. So today, up is down, and down is up.

And as I said, you’ve got this huge argument: “What is a woman?” I saw on TV the other day an OBGYN (and you’ve seen it from congress people), they’re saying, “Men can get pregnant. Men can have abortions.”

And I’m going, like, “Am I crazy? Or is the whole world crazy?” In this world we cancel and reject the things God cherishes and loves. And we take pride in the things that are destructive and that are anti-God.

And not only our flesh and this world in which we live, but also, as we’re going to see here in Ephesians 6, we have a powerful, unseen enemy who is out to defeat and destroy us.

So, we’re weak, and we need a source of strength that we don’t naturally have. So that’s why Paul says, “Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength.”

I want to just give you a little parenthesis here for a passage that came to mind. It’s not related directly to Ephesians 6, but it brings the same point to us. 

Back in 1 Samuel, David had this whole season of his life where he was anointed to be the next king, but there was a king in the way—the maniacal King Saul who hated David and was doing everything he could to get rid of him.

So David was running from King Saul, and 1 Samuel chapter 23, says, “And Jonathan, Saul's son, [who was a dear friend of David’s] rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God” (v. 16 ESV). Saul’s son did this for David. He strengthened his hand in God because David was feeling weak and scared and running for his life.

And then several chapters later, 1 Samuel 30, it says, “David was in an extremely difficult position because the troops talked about stoning him, for they were all very bitter over the loss of their sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God” (v. 6).

You see the progression there? First, a friend came and strengthened his hand in God. He came alongside him and said, “God is for you. God has chosen you. I know that you’re going to be the next king.” He strengthened David’s hand to believe the promises of God.

The next time we read this phrase, David’s by himself. His friend is not there. And it says, “David found strength.” Some translations say, “David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.”

I want to strengthen you in the Lord today as others have strengthened me in the past twenty-four hours. This is something we can do for each other. I want to strengthen you in the Lord today. And my prayer is that when you are in an extremely difficult position in days to come, as David found himself here, that you will find strength in the Lord your God—you’ll know how to find strength.

So Paul says back to Ephesians 6, “Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength” (v. 10).

I found myself sharing this verse with many people recently in all kinds of situations.

I was texting with an eighty-one year-old friend who’s had some physical issues. They thought it was a cancer diagnosis. She was in a great deal of pain, waiting for this diagnosis. And I shared this verse with her. I said, “Be strengthened by the Lord and by His vast strength.”

I was emailing with a woman who has spent forty-five years in the pro-life battle. That’s a long time in a difficult battle. I sent this verse to her because I was soaking in it. I was living in it. I felt like it applied to everybody I was talking to. “Finally, be strengthened by the Lord, and by His vast strength.”

We have a Ministry Partner I was texting recently whose husband is battling terminal cancer, and she’s the caregiver. And I said, “This is the verse that’s been ministering to me. I want to share it with you: ‘Finally, be strengthened by the Lord, and by His vast strength.’”

Well, I’ve been sharing it with others because it’s such a strength-giving promise and verse to my own heart. And I’m thinking maybe you need it as well, which is why we’re having this session today because I think we all need it.

So, how do we get this strength? “Be strengthened by the Lord, and by His vast strength.”

Well, verse 11 tells us, “Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil.”

We need this armor because we have an enemy, because we’re in a battle. And verse 12 talks to us about that enemy and that battle:

“For our struggle . . .” This is the only place that word used in the entire New Testament. It’s a word that means “wrestling.” You can imagine these wrestlers, arms and bodies locked into fighting against each other. Our struggling, our wrestling “is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.”

This is not just, like, old-time language, religious language. This is the reality in which we live.

I thought of this verse the other day when I heard on TV a high-elected official in our country speaking to victims after a mass shooting. This official said, “Evil will not win; hate will not prevail.” As I listened to that, I had a little bit of a disconnect. I thought, The problem is: evil is winning. And you just had it illustrated here. Hate is prevailing.

But here’s what we need to realize, and this is the prospective a Christian can have about what’s happening in our world. The anger, the racism, the contention and discord, the violence that we are seeing today are ultimately not the result of guns or mental illness or illegal immigration or inflation or gas prices or liberal DA or supply-chain issues or anything else that might be at the top of the news when this program ends up actually going out on the air.

These are spiritual problems, and they’re not going to be solved by putting a Band-Aid on them or by one political party or another. They’re not going to be solved by government policies—whether you consider yourself progressive or conservative or . . . These things are not going to change the hearts of men.

These problems are not going to even be addressed by more or better laws. We want better laws. We want good elected officials, but those don’t solve problems that are heart, spiritual issues.

We are in a serious, all-out battle against evil and the evil one. And the enemy—remember this when you’re feeling bombarded in the battle:

• The enemy is not your husband.
• The enemy is not your kids.
• The enemy is not the people out there who don’t have any interest in Christianity or in what your church has to say.
• The enemy is not liberals or conservatives.
• The enemy is not the media.

This is a battle that cannot be fought with human weapons or human defenses because our battle is not against flesh and blood enemies.

The battle is against unseen “powers of darkness,” the Scripture says, against the devil and his minions. He comes against us with cunning, deceitful “schemes” they’re called, methods, devices. He’s a formidable opponent, and none of us is strong enough to resist him or to withstand his attacks on our own.

I don’t care how spiritual you are. I don’t care how godly you are. I don’t care if you’ve got the whole Bible memorized—I hope you do memorize it. I hope you are godly and spiritual. But you cannot fight this enemy yourself, nor can I.

Martin Luther has that famous hymn:

Did we in our own strength confide, 
Our striving would be losing; 
Were not the right Man [capital “M”] on our side, 
The Man of God’s own choosing,
Christ Jesus it is He!

(“A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” by Martin Luther)

He’s the one who wins the battle. Our strength in this battle comes from the Lord who imparts His “vast strength” to us.

And so the apostle says in verse 11, “Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil.”

Verse 13, he makes the same point, “For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, [Would you say this is an evil day? Do we need help resisting the enemy?] and having prepared everything, to take your stand.”

That word “resist” I looked up in my Greek dictionary. It’s a word that if you were to transliterate it into English, it would sound like “antihistamine.”

I’ve been taking some of those because this is allergy season. Antihistamines block histamines. Histamines are a chemical that’s found in some of the body's cells and can cause some of the symptoms of allergies. So when you take antihistamines, it blocks the histamines. It resists them.

That’s what Paul is saying here. “Take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to resist the evil day.” Resist the evil one.

Now, it seems to me that Christians in this world operate as if we are helpless in the face of the onslaught of evil that’s going on all around us. And I get why we feel that way. I have those feelings myself.

Sometimes we just try to hunker down and insulate ourselves in our little Christian holy huddle so that we don’t have to deal with it. Like, “Keep that out there, but barricade our walls and our homes and our churches so none of that can get in here.”

Scripture calls us to resist, to stand, to be firm, to engage with the powers of darkness, to take on the full armor of God, to resist, to withstand, and be used by God to extinguish the works of the evil one.

In 1 John chapter 3, verse 8, the Scripture says, “The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the devil’s works.”

That’s what God’s about in this world. Now, it’s a process. We don’t see it fully yet. It’s a process that was assured at Calvary where the devil was defeated, but he’s still writhing. He’s still causing havoc. And not until that day when he and all those who follow him are thrown into that eternal pit with the judgment of God will we have a world that is free and clear from opposition and evil.

But God is in the process of overcoming, of destroying the devil’s works. And He has put us here to be instruments through whom He can do that work in this evil day.

Now, the devil is powerful, and we ought not to underestimate him. But he is not all-powerful, and he doesn’t hold a candle to the power of Christ. We need to realize that we do not have to be run over by his schemes, by his deception, by his activities. God has given us the resources that we need to stand against the devil’s devices. He has given us the armor, the weapons that we need to be victorious in this battle.

This armor, and we’ll look at it just briefly in our next program, this armor is both defensive and offensive. God protects us with the armor of God, and He enables us to stand in every situation. As you read verses 10 through 20 of Ephesians 6, you’re going to see that word “stand” several times.

Stand. And it says in verse 16, “in every situation.” There’s not a situation you will face today or tomorrow or next day or next year that God has not given you what you need to stand, to withstand evil, and to overcome the evil one. God will give you the strength that you need. God gives me the strength that I need in this battle. And He provides the armor and the weapons that will overcome the evil one in these evil days.

So, we’re not to be passive in this battle. Like, “Okay, God, just come and deal with the devil.” God’s put us here. He wants to work through us.

We’re not to just be reactive. Sometimes I think as Christians we’re very reactive. Somebody says something that’s so contrary to God’s Word, and then we come, and we boycott, and we react.

No, we’re not supposed to be passive or merely reactive. We’re to proactively “put on” this armor. Be ready for battle. “Take up” each piece, it says in verse 12 and further in the passage.

We need to be “prepared,” verse 13 says, for these days of battle against evil.

We need the “full armor of God”—not just a few pieces, not just a few parts—because each piece (and we’ll take a quick look at these tomorrow) is designed to protect different parts of our minds, our hearts, our souls. We need it all. And we cannot afford to live in this world of evil without every piece in place.

These are evil days. We see that throughout the book of Ephesians. We’re not to compromise with evil. We’re not to cover it. We’re not to ignore it.

As you read through Ephesians, you’ll see that our interaction with evil is not to be that we’re taken in by it. We are to recognize evil as evil. And we’re to let the light of Christ expose evil, expose the darkness. And we’re to stand against and resist the devil who is behind the darkness and the evil.

So, we’re not to flirt with evil; we’re not to dance with it. And we’re not to be overcome with it. But we are to overcome it by the power of Christ.

Evil operates in darkness. But the light of Christ exposes and reveals what the darkness conceals. In these evil days it is tempting to concede the day to evil, to stand by and groan and moan and lament about all the damage that evil is doing or to yell at the perpetrators of evil.

Have you ever found yourself wanting to yell at your news outlet? Like, “Stop it! That’s not true!” You’re talking to somebody who can’t hear you anyway and doesn’t care what you think. (laughter) 

But this is sometimes how Christians are known—just being yellers and screamers. But in Christ we have been given strength and weapons to stand against and resist evil and the evil one.

 

By His grace, verse 16 tells us, we can actually “extinguish those flaming arrows of the evil one.” It says, “Extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”

Truth is more powerful than deception.
Truth is more powerful than lies.

Everywhere Jesus went while He was here on this earth, He shattered the darkness and overcame the power of the evil one. And Jesus lives in us. He has given us all we need to do the same.

Now, that doesn’t mean that the battle will be easy or that it will be easily won. War is hard. War is costly. But it does mean we operate from the certainty of victory. We know who wins. We know the end of the Book. And we know that the powers of darkness will be defeated by Christ who’s our Champion, Warrior, the Lord of Hosts, the Lord of armies. And so we go “strengthened by His strength and by His mighty power.”

Where do you need strength today? Not just physical strength, but where is your heart weak and weary and frustrated? Maybe angry at sin and the damage it’s caused. Some of you have sons and daughters, grandkids, or family members, close friends who have been taken in by the evil one, and you hate it. You hate seeing how sin is so destructive.

But don’t just get mad. Don’t just get angry. Don’t just throw things. And don’t just hunker down and say, “Oh, we’ve got to . . . well, you know . . . keep me, Lord, until the storm passes over.”

No. We’re in the battle. We don’t have a choice. But you can operate from a perspective and a posture of faith.

Lord, You said I can stand. You said You’ll make me strong. I am weak, but You are strong. So, Lord, be strong in me. And, Lord, would You be strong in these precious friends who are here today and those who are listening to this weeks or months from now. May we be strengthened by the Lord, by You, and by Your vast power and strength. I pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

Dannah: Amen. I don’t know about you, but I sure feel the need for more strength as I fight the spiritual battles I’m facing.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth has been encouraging us from Ephesians chapter 6. We’ll hear more about that armor of God tomorrow.

You know, one of the weapons in the fight against evil is the weapon of prayer. But let me ask you this: how often are you using that weapon? Are you feeling kind of stuck in your prayer life? I know life is busy. But, like Nancy said today, we need to be more than merely reactive. We need to be proactive. It’s time to pause and pray on purpose.

And we need to enlist others in the battle on our knees. So I have two things to tell you about.

First, on the front of having others pray with and for you, why don’t you head right now to ReviveOurHearts.com/prayer and let us know a specific way that we can pray for you. We have a whole team of people ready to lift your request to the Lord. That web page is ReviveOurHearts.com/prayer.

And second, on being proactive on prayer and getting out of your prayer rut, the new book from Revive Our Hearts is written specifically to help infuse fresh energy into your prayer life. It’s called, Finding the Words to Pray: 50 Scriptures to Guide Your Prayers. There’s nothing like using the Bible to inform and shape your own prayers, and this book will help you do that.

Right now, we’ll send you a copy of Finding the Words to Pray when you make a donation of any amount to support the outreaches of Revive Our Hearts. It’s really just our way of saying, “Thank you so much for giving. We’re so grateful.”

To make a donation, head to ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 1-800-569-5959. Ask about the book on praying the Scriptures when you call.

Tomorrow on Revive Our Hearts, Nancy will tell us more about what she calls the “indispensable weapon in our spiritual warfare.” We’ll take a closer look at prayer and how we can utilize it to fight against the darkness. I hope you’ll be back tomorrow for Revive Our Hearts.

Inviting you to submit your prayer requests at ReviveOurHearts.com/prayer, this is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, calling you to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

All Scripture is taken from the CSV.

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