It Is Time to Defeat the Enemy

Now, when we confront evil, and we look to the Bible for guidance and wisdom, we find there one revelation of God’s Word which is a key to our whole conflict with evil. If we do not grasp this key and use it, we will be continually frustrated and ultimately defeated.

Now listen carefully, because I’m going to put in your hand now this key, this revelation of Scripture which is so vital, so essential. The key is this: evil is not something, it is someone.

I can remember when I read that simple sentence in a book, the revelation and the transformation that came to me through it. Let me briefly relate a personal experience, not in great detail. For many years, as a preacher, I had a tremendous ongoing struggle with depression. I’m sure none of you have ever had that struggle, or have you?

And I used every means I knew. I used prayer, I used fasting, I used Bible study, I made resolutions, but I never gained full and enduring victory until a revelation came to me by the Holy Spirit out of the Word of God.

The revelation came from a verse in the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 61, verse 3, where the Lord promises that He will give His people

“the garment of praise in place of the spirit of heaviness.”

And when I read that phrase, “the spirit of heaviness,” something came to me by revelation, by a flash of insight. I saw that my problem was a person, an invisible but very real person, a person without a body, a spirit, a spirit of heaviness or depression that was systematically attacking me.

And when I realized that I was not dealing with something but with someone, I was 80% of the way to victory. Almost immediately after that, I gained complete victory over that awful force of depression which was seeking, actually, to destroy me and to ruin my ministry. But the victory didn’t come without the revelation that I was dealing not with something but with someone.

And this is consistent with the whole revelation of Scripture. Behind all evil, there is a person. And the Bible clearly reveals the identity of that person. That person has two main names or titles. In the Old Testament, he’s called Satan, and in the New Testament, he’s called the Devil. Each of those names has a meaning which is significant.

The name Satan means the one who resists or opposes, the one who resists and opposes God, God’s purposes, and God’s people. So as the people of God, we have one who opposes us: Satan, the adversary, the resister.

In the New Testament, the title the Devil means the slanderer or the accuser. So one main weapon that Satan uses against us is slander or accusation. The New Testament gives us a clear picture of Satan’s rival kingdom, where it’s located, how it operates, and the spiritual beings that are members of that kingdom.

We’ll begin with the New International Version, Ephesians 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.”

Notice, there are spiritual forces of evil, and they’re associated with rulers, with persons who have authority and seek to exercise it, and to dominate, and to rule.

Now, in the Living Bible, this is the translation:

“For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against persons without bodies.”

Lay hold of that phrase, “persons without bodies,” spirit beings who are in opposition to God and His people.

The Living Bible then goes on to specify these persons without bodies. It says,

“The evil rulers of the unseen world, those mighty satanic beings and great evil princes of darkness who rule this world. And against huge numbers of wicked spirits in the spirit world.”

So our enemies are persons without bodies. They’re led by one person without a body, Satan, and they are located in the spirit world.

That’s the nature of our warfare. That’s the conflict we’re engaged in. Unless we understand it, we cannot possibly be fully successful in it.