RENEW

All who stand for good must wage a constant battle with the forces of evil. The demons still have power in the world. This is why Christians are to put on the qualities listed as armour in Ephesians 6.

Spiritual warfare is about obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ and other scriptural truths, it’s about a prayerful, persevering life of righteousness, where we’re clear headed and on target.

There is no way to take the Bible seriously and not see that the demonic is an active part of life. It’s why we are called to participate in a specific way of warfare which defeats them.

To rebel against order and fullness is to embrace chaos and emptiness. Demons are chaos monsters. When demons attack humans, their plan is to empty them of good and to destroy their shape, both material and spiritual.

What is needed, especially in our day, if we are to be changed and if we are to be instruments of change around us, is for the reality of the resurrection to become our own living reality.

At the death of Christ, that curtain separating man from God was torn in two—ripped by God himself. The angelic centurions were called off duty. The flaming sword was sheathed in Christ’s heart. The threat of judgment hanging over those who dare enter God’s presence fell on his head. In their place, condemned he stood.

Angels have inspired all sorts of imaginative stories and depictions, but what’s left when we separate fact from fiction? In order to know the truth, we have to ask, what does the Bible say about angels?

Adam and Eve in the garden and the curses handed down. The sinful corruption of humanity at the instigation of demonic powers, culminating in the flood in the days of Noah. And the sin of humanity at the Tower of Babel and the division of the nations. Each of these “falls” produced a problem for and within humanity.

The biblical authors believed that heaven and earth are parallel realities, each inhabited by creatures that have been delegated with God’s blessing to rule and oversee these realms.

The Bible asks us to believe a lot of strange things about the spiritual world. And if we say we believe the Bible, well, then we can't avoid these concepts.