When I was a kid, my mom led my sister and me in a special morning ritual every day before we headed off to school. We’d pretend to put on our spiritual shoes-equipped with the readiness of the gospel of peace. We’d strap on an invisible belt of truth, a breastplate of righteousness, and an imaginary helmet of salvation, all before grabbing our sword of truth and our shield of faith.
Sometimes, honestly, we’d roll our eyes at the routine. But looking back, this daily practice instilled within me a deep sense of how I was meant to enter the world each day — prepared, equipped, ready, and protected by God.
All of us have real spiritual armor from God to fight our very real spiritual enemy. The Apostle Paul points to this fact when he says, “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil” (Ephesians 6:10-11).
This is the key to spiritual battle — it’s not our strength and it’s not our armor. The armor belongs to God. We are invited in Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and the love of the Father, to put on God’s Mighty Strength — the same strength that raised Jesus from the dead.
Most battle strategists will tell you that to experience victory, knowing who you’re fighting against is half the battle. The problem is, so often, we don’t know who Satan (or spiritual enemy) is, and therefore we don’t recognize his attempts to thwart us. Often, we don’t even believe we have a spiritual enemy. Let’s look at what Scripture tells us:
1. The Enemy Is a Tempter
In Matthew 4, Jesus finds himself in a desert for 40 days. As you can imagine, he was experiencing a wide range of human emotions: hunger, exhaustion, and isolation.
At a time when Jesus was at his lowest, Satan tempted the Son of God to distrust the promises of God, the provision of God, and the power of God.
Satan’s battle plan hasn’t changed much in the past few thousand years because the same temptations are dangled in front of us each day.
He tempts us to doubt God’s promises, power, and provision, and entices us to go after unhealthy or sinful means, to fulfill our souls’ longings. But we can stand firm, knowing that God is faithful.
2. The Enemy Is an Accuser
Revelation 12:10 offers a picture of what is to come when the final battle comes to pass. It says, “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.”
This idea that the enemy of our soul is an accuser is an important one because, as others have said, there is no activity at which he is more skilled. Satan loves to whisper his opinions about our weakness, our brokenness, our “not-enoughness,” or our “too-muchness.”
The enemy carefully crafts his accusations to trigger our shame, so that we don’t live freely, as the holy and blameless children of God we are in Christ. But we can cling to this truth: those who look to God are radiant; their never covered in shame (Psalm 34:5).
3. The Enemy Is a Liar
One of the most fitting descriptions of the enemy is that of a liar (John 8:44). His lies have especially been targeted to divide the body of Christ.
Satan spins false narratives that misrepresent the character of sisters and brothers in Christ to destroy our unity in Christ and undermine the image of God in one another.
The enemy knows that keeping us from unity can keep us disconnected from our purpose to make disciples of Jesus and love one another. But we can stay strong and unified and gracious to each other through the blood of Jesus.
4. The Enemy Is an Oppressor
In Matthew 13, Jesus tells a parable of a farmer who plants seeds only to have weeds choke out the good and flourishing ones. The enemy uses various forms of oppression to choke out the flourishing of God’s people.
In fact, any structure or system that subjugates, abuses, starves, traffics, and/or commodifies image-bearers, well, that is always the enemy’s work. But in Jesus’ mighty name, we stand against the oppressive powers of darkness in this world.
It is no coincidence that Ephesians six, where Paul tells us to put on our spiritual armor, bookends Ephesians one, where Paul roots our identity in Christ:
“Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. That is what he wanted to do and give gave him great pleasure.” (Ephesians 1:4-5).
That’s the foundation of who you are in Christ. You are chosen. You are dearly loved. You have been made holy. You are seen as blameless in Christ and through Christ.
You have no reason to fear the enemy’s tactics because of this profound truth: you fight from and with God’s unmitigated love for you.
As you prepare for what is ahead today, put on your spiritual armor, God’s armor. You have been given everything you need to withstand the enemy’s attacks.
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