“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:10-17 NASB1995)
Do we have physical enemies? Surely we do. We have human beings who are against those of us who are biblical followers of Jesus Christ who are speaking the truth of the gospel of Christ to the people. And they will fight against us verbally, or by taking unjust actions against us, or by trying to stop us from speaking the truth of the gospel to the people. They may lie about us, falsely accuse us of wrong, persecute us, cast us away, turn others against us, put us in jail, or put us to death for our testimonies for Christ.
And do they sometimes use physical military forces against us, the people, as a means of persecuting and killing Christians? Some of them do, yes! And do they sometimes use physical military forces against all people, Christian or not, as a way to take absolute control over nations and peoples? Yes! And we can read about this all throughout the Scriptures, and especially in the book of Revelation, and particularly in Revelation 13 where we learn about the working of “the beast,” who is conquering people for world domination.
I believe this is where we are presently. At what stage exactly, I do not know, but some of this has been going on for many years with the ultimate goal of bringing the entire world under a one world totalitarian rule of law. And if our eyes are opened to what is going on all around us, and if we are not easily distracted by all the preplanned distractions we see daily in the news, we should be able to see that what the Scriptures prophesied concerning these last days is a present reality in the times in which we live.
But who, really, is behind it all? Satan, alias the devil. Although some of this is fought with physical weapons of warfare, this is truly spiritual warfare against God and against his people. And we are to fight back with the spiritual weapons of warfare provided for us by God, and not with physical weapons. For we are to love our enemies, and do good to them, and pray for them, and speak to them what is for their good spiritually. And we are to be sharing with them the truth of the gospel and refuting the lies of the enemy.
But for us to have the correct biblical approach to enemy forces, whether in physical or just spiritual form, we need to be those who have died with Christ to sin and who are now living to God and to his righteousness in walks of obedience to his commands. And we are to be spreading the truth of the gospel to the people of the world for the salvation of human lives from their slavery to sin so that they can now live for the Lord and have the hope of eternal life with God, provided they continue in those walks of faith.
Especially we should see the critical nature of us getting the truth of the gospel out to as many people as possible before the world as we know it is no longer the world that we once knew. We are already seeing that in stages, but a time is coming, and it is near, when a beast will take his throne and all who do not worship him will not be allowed to buy or to sell, and many Christians will be slaughtered (killed) for their testimonies for faith in Christ Jesus and for the truth of the gospel of our salvation, which is:
Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).
[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:23-31; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]
Just a Closer Walk with Thee
Hymn lyrics by Anonymous/Unknown
Music by American Melody
“For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God directed toward you” (2 Co. 13:4 NASB).
I am weak, but Thou art strong;
Jesus, keep me from all wrong;
I’ll be satisfied as long
As I walk, let me walk close to Thee.
Through this world of toil and snares,
If I falter, Lord, who cares?
Who with me my burden shares?
None but Thee, dear Lord, none but Thee.
When my feeble life is o’er,
Time for me will be no more;
Guide me gently, safely o’er
To Thy kingdom shore, to Thy shore.
Just a closer walk with Thee,
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
Daily walking close to Thee,
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.
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Be Strong in The Lord
An Original Work / September 19, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
