The warfare in which every believer is engaged is real and requires preparedness and intentionality. Believers must be conscious that they must constantly protect themselves. Everything has been provided for the believer’s success.

The battle for a believer is not with humans but rather with ruling authorities and powers all around. The battle can be fierce, but it is winnable. Every believer must put on all the armor of God. Every protection and every weapon for a believers success is available, and we are encouraged to face the world and life with everything that is available to us.

Today’s passage is not an invitation to the battle, but the acknowledgement that if we are in Christ, we are in a struggle against our adversary, The Devil, and all the principalities and powers that fell with him from heaven at his rebellion. We need to understand that the battle is not with people but with spiritual forces of wickedness.The weapons we use for our victory are spiritual and not human. Yet they are divinely more powerful than the weapons of our enemy.

The Apostle Paul calls all believers to live in the fullness of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. The first place to which he calls us to live a Spirit-filled live is in our homes and in our workplace. Before we fight principalities and powers of darkness, we must win the battle for our homes and families.

God has divine order for our marriages and our homes. We are to bring our homes into blessing by the husband understanding his role in bringing love into the marriage, and the wife respecting her husband and his role. God wants each home to be rooted and grounded in love.

In the book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul is addressing a church existing in a sexualized culture. The influence of immoral behavior cannot infiltrate their church without affecting the unity of the Spirit. Each member of the church must imitate God by walking in purity.The desired result is that all of us would be filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18).

We are called in Ephesians to rid ourselves of our old self and old way of life and embrace our new born-again self created in righteousness and holiness. Today’s text gives us practical ways to imitate Christ. We are told to not lie, to not hold onto anger, to not steal from each other, to only use wholesome words, to avoid things like bitterness, slander, chaos, and malice and embrace kindness, compassion and forgiveness.

Often Christians will see it as hypocritical to “practice" godliness even though there are areas of their life that they are working on. It’s not wrong to work on the new man while crucifying our old nature. Actually, the believer will find that his victory is dependent on moving forward in the disciplines of the faith until it becomes natural to do what is right.

Christ Himself has ordained the leadership in the Body of Christ. Though we can see their humanity, we also receive them from the Lord as called and equipped. Leadership in the church is there to facilitate unity of faith, teaching and vision. Every believer who comes in alignment will be blessed.

Every gathering of believers must do everything they can to preserve the unity of their group. Unity is where the spirit dwells and unity is the environment where God releases blessing.