Keep Your Armor On

When there’s an emergency and a police officer arrives on the scene, sometimes he or she will call for backup.

We need to do the same thing in the spiritual battle. We need to call for backup, and that backup is the Lord himself.

We cannot overcome the Devil in our own strength. The Book of Acts records a time when some men identified as the sons of Sceva tried to cast out a demon. (By the way, the Bible never validates exorcists. It validates casting demons out of people, but there’s no real biblical office of an exorcist or the specific gifting of an exorcist.)

These sons of Sceva tried to cast a demon out of someone because they had seen the apostle Paul do it. And they thought they could do it as well, like there was some magic formula. So, they said to a demon-possessed man, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches” (Acts 19:13 NKJV).

But the demon in the man answered, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” (verse 15 NKJV). Here’s what happened next: “Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded” (verse 16 NKJV).

That’s what happens when you try to take on the Devil in your own strength. So, don’t go there.

The Devil is a powerful fallen angel, and we’re no match for him on our own. We must recognize this is a spiritual battle, and it must be fought with spiritual weapons. And we need to put on the full armor of God and never take it off, because we’ll be in this battle until the final day.

The spiritual battle ends when we get to Heaven, not before. So, keep your armor on.