Hold Down the Fort!

Jesus is the “word of the truth of the gospel,” the One who brings “forth fruit.” If you’ve accepted Him as your Lord and Savior, the good results of your life belong to Him; He has “delivered us from the power of darkness.” Colossians 1:5-6, 13.

On our own, we’re swimming, mostly drowning, in the enemy’s sea of darkness. When we accept Jesus, He pulls us out of that darkness. Unless we jump back in, it no longer has any power over us. I cannot count the number of times I’ve jumped back in, but I’m eternally grateful that every time I’ve cried out for Jesus, He’s pulled me out again.

Jesus is perfectly able to save us from the darkness, to cut off and revoke its power over us because “by Him all things were created,” “whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.” Colossians 1:16. Who better understands how to control anything than its creator?

That is why He tells us to “stand” when we put on the whole armor of God. Ephesians 6:10-18. He repeats this command because it is so vitally important. Our job is to “stand,” “withstand,” and “stand” as we “put on the whole armor of God.”

“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.” Ephesians 6:12. On our own, we can’t even see what or who is really behind the forces against us. Occcasionally, the Holy Spirit gives us a quick glimpse of the real enemy, a flash of a snapshot of the perpetrator. That momentary peek comes with no other clues or context, and we don’t see the cohorts or chain of command.

But, as we accept the armor He’s created especially for us, we get to participate in His line of defense against the real enemies behind our problems. Standing with other believers who have also volunteered to put on their armor, we serve as a line of defense, a bulwark, a barrier, a citadel and a stronghold through which the enemy cannot penetrate. We stand in the light, arms linked, guarding those we love, all those to whom He’s connected us. We don’t fight the battle ourselves, but we get to hold down the fort while Jesus fights for us.

Amen and amen.