Christians are presently engaged in a battle against powerful angelic rulers in the spirit world.  These angels, ruling in the kingdom of Satan, are striving for the souls of men; and the outcome of this conflict, like any conflict, is determined by proper or improper preparation as one engages the enemy.

 

A properly prepared Christian can enter the conflict and consistently win battle after battle, but an improperly prepared Christian entering the conflict can only experience defeat time after time.

 

Victory is achieved through engaging the enemy within the framework of the Lord's instructions in Ephesians 6:10ff.  A Christian though who engages the enemy after any other fashion is entering the conflict apart from the Lord's instructions, leaving himself in a very vulnerable position, one in which the enemy can consistently achieve victory.

 

Thus, in this respect, victory on the one hand or defeat on the other is determined by the Christian's preparation for the conflict at hand.  A Christian can either heed the Lord's instructions or he can ignore the Lord's instructions.  There is no middle ground (Matthew 12:30; Luke 11:23).  The former will produce readiness for battle and result in victory, but the latter will leave the Christian very vulnerable to attack and can only result in defeat.

 

Victory for the Christian will actually be determined by how badly he wants to win.  The overriding thought in Ephesians has to do with individuals being saved for a revealed purpose.  Christians have been saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8) in order to realize an inheritance in heavenly places (1:3, 11, 18; 2:6, 7; 3:1-6).  The task of a pastor-teacher is to lead Christians into a mature knowledge of this inheritance, a mature knowledge of the things surrounding the purpose for their salvation (4:11ff), resulting in their being filled with the Spirit (5:18ff) and being able to engage the enemy after the fashion given at the end of this epistle (6:10ff).

 

How badly do Christians really want to achieve victory over the enemy and one day realize the proffered inheritance with God's Son?  That is the question that will determine what a Christian does about the Lord's instructions concerning proper preparation for the battle at hand.