Spiritual Struggles

In the Scriptures we read many times that man is the enemy of God; but in no passage of Scripture does it expressly say that Satan is the enemy of God (James 4:4). However, the Scriptures say in many places that Satan is our adversary, the enemy of our souls (1 Peter 5:8); an enemy who by cunning and craftiness deceives and tempts men from the beginning -as happened to our fathers in the garden of Eden- and will do so until the end, until that day when he shall be cast into the lake of fire, prepared for him and his angels (Rev. 20:10; Matt. 25:41).

That enemy, more powerful than we are, we often see him as a giant; and we cannot defeat him by ourselves, much less with our carnal weapons. Those struggles are in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12). But we find a blessed purpose of God in this struggle, and we can even say that God Himself is the one who left those enemies to exercise us in battle: "These then are the nations which the Lord left to try Israel with them, all those who had not known all the wars of Canaan; only that the seed of the children of Israel might know war, that they might teach it to those who had not known it before" (Judg. 3:1-2).

Often, we attribute to Satan that which we sow in the flesh. We reap what we sow. If we sow in the flesh we will reap corruption, but if we sow in the Spirit, we will reap eternal life. Spiritual struggles are for the purpose of spiritual growth. As we saw in Judges 3, they are to exercise us in warfare, to make us mature spiritually and to make us know our Lord Jesus Christ, the victorious one (Rev. 6.2), the one who has written on His garment and on His thigh: "King of kings and Lord of lords". Hallelujah!

We have learned from the Lord that the time has come for us to stop being children and become spiritual youths. The child knows the Father, but the young man is strong and overcomes the evil one (1 Jn. 2:14). Many times we think that only with prayers we will overcome the evil one. Prayers are to put our weakness and our hope in our God before our enemies, but the victory comes by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of his testimony (Rev. 12:11); by the precious blood that forgave us, bought us, justified us, and by the word of God.

Prayers are to cry out to our God, the Lord of hosts, who fights for us against our enemies to save us (Deut. 20:4), but strength comes from the Lord, and for this he has prepared armor for us, that we may be able to withstand in the evil day, and also to enter the battle (Eph. 6:10-18).

This fight is not personal, because this armor is for the church, for the whole Body. That which is the foot, shoes the sandals; the arm wields the shield; the hand, the sword; the loins, the breastplate, and so on. Nor is the victory personal, but of the whole Body: "And they overcame him...". In all these things we are more than conquerors, through him who loved us, and the joy of triumph will be eternal. Blessed be our Lord!

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