The Real Wrestling Match

[HKHaugan]

Eph.6:12 “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

Years ago there was a movie called “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” It was about seedpods that traveled across the universe arriving on earth. Each pod carried the copy of an existing earth person. When that person fell asleep, an alien force absorbed and replaced it. The body looked the same but something else controlled it. The takeover wouldn’t happen if they didn’t fall asleep.

This is much like what happened when the devil tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve chose to put themselves ahead of God in their minds and hearts the Holy Spirit was replaced by the devil’s unholy spirit called sin. Spiritually, Adam and Eve had fallen asleep. They found themselves in an atmosphere of spiritual aloneness, which made them conscious of their physical separation from God and each other. This opened the door to the spirits of fear, defensiveness, rationalization and self-justification. After this came the spirits of blame, division, regret, remorse, jealousy, envy, anger, murder and self-pity. Now they were snoring (recall the sequence of events from the Fall to Cain’s endless wandering).

If anyone has doubts about the existence of evil spirits, the devil and demons, one has only to survey our immediate social environment to see the attitudinal base out of which many people operate. There is a sense of being overpowered by words and actions that are just seconds later regretted. Then also the sense in which the atmosphere in a relationship is broken and can never be recovered. Consider the bitter anguish that follows unforgivable behavior as though a great storm has swept away everything in its path. Take those moments of impetuous behavior and callous remarks, the effect of which can never be undone. While we say we just lost control or that the regret we have was not being more responsible or sensitive in the moment, that in fact it was something more, something egged us on.

Think about how we have a need to be right, get everything we do right, get others to agree with what we think is right, ready to correct others in the midst of their ‘unrightness’ and ready to excuse ourselves for the same infringement. Our steady inconsistencies and subtle hypocrisies of the moment all mark more than personal sin with its fear and pride.

There are situations in which we feel powerless, unable to resist and just ‘roll with the flow’ of the moment. While all these are viewed as weaknesses that can be controlled if we just got a grip and moved in a different direction, it is not that simple. Guilt, remorse, regret and resentment seem to magnify the moment along with the revelation of personal inadequacies. The consciousness of self, of self alone, of self in a downward spiral where nothing exists but frustrated isolation, no one to trust, no one with whom to share the hidden reality of an out-of-balance heart. I find in the moment I desire to share I fear. I fear that if I dared to share I would be rejected for my exposed imperfections, my so-called ‘real self.’

All of the above happen in the spiritual dimension. Mankind has fallen asleep. All this is the sleep of death from which Jesus came to save us. They are the devil’s playground where he taunts us with his spirits to encourage self-doubt, self-denial and self-indulgence to erase the unerasable. The more he can get us to think about and concentrate on ourselves the more lonely and isolated we feel. This is the situation of the lonely sinful heart where the devil’s main agenda is to isolate and alienate that heart from God and one another. This is the reality into which Jesus came to wake us up, to rub our eyes, let in His light, to recover and restore broken hearts.

Jesus chose to live in an alone body like ours to show what a Spirit-filled heart looks like and what a Spirit-filled mind thinks like and how a Spirit filled person acts. He lived to reveal the reality of the spiritual dimension, His control over it, our part in it.

Jesus went to the Cross allowing the devil to use his plan of death so that when Jesus rose from the dead it would show the devil’s final weapon, the fear of death, had no power. That fear exposed the devil and showed that all the devil’s spirits operate in an 'atmos-fear.'

Jesus came to recover us from the evil corruption of that fear dimension. Through Jesus we are able to see sin exposed as the spirit of the devil exploiting our loneliness with fear. We can see how sin isolates the heart making it susceptible to the spirit of fear and its accompanying spirits. Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit to reside in our mind and heart to recognize and rebuke the devil and his spirits.

So we carry on with where we started in “Eph.6:12: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” In that struggle we are never alone, for as Jesus said, “...when He, the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all truth (Jn.16:13).”