Christian Deconstruction 3 - We do not wrestle against flesh and blood...

An absolutely essential lesson for anyone who's feeling called towards Christian Deconstruction as a discipline.

'For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.'
Ephesians 6:12

This world is an extension of the heavenly realm. The bible shows us that the two places interact heavily, what happens in heaven effects the earth, what happens on earth effects heaven. The warning here from Paul is simple: 'Get your target right!'

I'm not going to labour this point because I think it's fairly obvious. I'm going to point out two things from the verse.

Firstly, there's the one I've already mentioned in part 1; the implication that we DO wrestle with the stuff which isn't flesh and blood! Paul's saying: 'We're not fighting against this... but we are fighting against THAT!' and he's got a huge finger pointed at Satan and his demons.

They are always there, always lying, always deceiving, always at work and you cannot underestimate them but, above and beyond that, you cannot be scared of them! You're a soldier of light wearing the armour of God, he has not given you a spirit of fear but of love, of power and of a sound mind... so that he can send these liars packing through you!

Secondly, look at the impersonalisation that Paul brings in. He doesn't talk about men and women but about this spiritual plain of corruption and deceit and the principalities and powers that they have installed on earth in futile opposition to God.

Let's get one thing straight, God isn't struggling against them. God isn't wrestling. He is calmly and calculatingly crushing some and raising others up for his purposes. God allowed them and there will come a time when he destroys them. Get this, it's a big one and I'll be doing an entire post on it next week: Even the demons exist by God's grace.
Think about it; he's Lord of creation! If he wanted them out, they'd be out! They ARE there for a purpose, and I know that part of that purpose is to drive us ever forward in our lives with God by fighting alongside him in a war that he has already won.

So we're not picking on single people, on Richard Dawkins or Nick Griffin or whoever your personal boogieman is, we're fighting Satan and his legions of fallen angels! It would be useless to write an essay for Christian Deconstruction and attack a person, to blame them or target them. For illustrative purposes, I've named names to get you thinking but we really have no issue with Richard Dawkins; we LOVE the man!
We absolutely love him and if we don't, we don't know Jesus as we should. What we do take issue with is the work which the enemy is doing through him. the lies and the clever deceit which the enemy is using his powerful intellect, that mind with which God blessed him, to establish. Are you beginning to see just how hateful Satan is by the way?

The people, those little shells of flesh and bone like you and me, those fragile little things whose lives are as dust, here one day and blown away the next, are the surface symptoms of spiritual corruption. You're dealing with the lie, not the mouth from which it's uttered. You're engaging the falsehood with the truth of the word of God and with the help of God himself.

So, now we know WHO we're fighting, are we ready to get strapped up for battle? Keep reading, more articles to come...