For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12 (ESV)

Fighting Our Haters – The Fighting Series – Part 5

Go to PART 1  |  PART 2  |  PART 3  |  PART 4  |  PART 5  |  PART 6  |  PART 7

The battle is within us. It's in the unseen. It’s “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

I’m not one to believe that there are demons in every corner, lurking behind doors and in dark places. I don’t spend much time at all rebuking the devil and casting out evil spirits. Although, I don’t discount that either. I’ve had some experiences, as I’m sure many of you have too, that I can’t explain. I’ve felt the presence of evil and something otherworldly close by.

So who is this enemy? What does evil do? What are the weapons of the present darkness in the world? Perhaps they are “things” more than a physical being. Things like hatred, fear, greed, rage, violence, abuse, selfishness… These things and more, when given the run of the house, are the source of so much pain. We can rebuke and pray against the “devil” all we like, and still ignore the hatred and fear that dwells within our own hearts.

“The devil's “quintessential being,” the source from which he draws his lies, is the violent contagion that has no substance to it. The devil does not have a stable foundation; he has no being at all. To clothe himself in the semblance of being, he must act as a parasite on God's creatures.” – Rene Girard (1).

The devil isn’t an evil underworld figure who might appear in your room in the middle of the night to terrorize and tempt you. It’s the evil lurking in your heart. “To clothe himself in semblance of being,” the devil manifests most powerfully in how we treat ourselves and each other.

I once knew a lady who said she could see demons and cast them out of people. That same lady treated me with so much hatred; I wondered if she might have been a devil herself! Ha! In our humanity, we are so focused on the tangible, so focused on having someone to fight outside of ourselves, that when it comes to evil we give it a personality, a body, and a name. Someone we can point our fingers and prayers at. But that in and of itself can be a distraction to the daily discipline of fighting hate with love, battling fear with hope and peace, bitterness with forgiveness, and wrestling out our worthiness with the grace and acceptance of God himself.

As we learn how to battle these things within ourselves (it’s a life-long struggle that morphs and changes with our differing seasons and circumstances), we can come alongside others and help them fight that same battle within themselves. And as love continually wins in our own hearts and lives, it starts to win in the world around us too.

“You can’t hate people into loving each other.” (Courtney Christenson from Preemptive Love.)

Instead of fighting our haters with more hate, we fight the darkness of their hate with love. Instead of fighting those who’ve caused us pain with bitterness and resentment, we struggle with the darkness of their affliction upon us with forgiveness and blessing.

What's more powerful? Beating someone with your fists? Or loving someone with their fists raised towards you?

The only power the ‘enemy’ has over you is what you give it within your heart.

Go to Make Your Whole Life a Prayer – The Fighting Series – Part 6 »

Written by Liz Milani

1). I See Satan Fall Like Lightning. Rene Girard. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2001.

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