The SPIRITUAL BATTLE described in this passage is a battle that has been going on since the beginning of time… Even as I speak, there is fighting going on all over the world and all over our nation. But, we can’t see the fighting—because it’s a spiritual battle, so we have a hard time believing that there really is such a thing as spiritual warfare. From a personal, human perspective, a large part of the battle goes on inside OUR MINDS. The devil is a master manipulator of the mind.
Somehow, Satan is able to force (or project) thoughts into our minds… Very subtly he pushes his devilish, dirty thoughts, and sinful suspicions and suggestions into our minds to try to control us, to defeat us, and to use us. So we’re told in (v.16-17) to take ‘the shield of faith … and …the helmet of salvation…’ so that we might protect ourselves and save our minds.
Bryan Wheeler Pastor Bryan Wheeler was converted to Christ in 1973. For most of the 20 years that he served in the U.S. Air Force he was actively involved in church-based preaching and teaching ministries in the U.S. and overseas. Pastor Wheeler was ordained into the gospel ministry in 1987 and was called into full time ministry in 1989. He is the pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Verona, VA. He and his wife Maureen were married in 1968 and the Lord has given them 6 children and 4 grandchildren.