Winning Your Unseen Battles

For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.
–Colossians 1:16

“There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call ‘The Twilight Zone.’” Every Friday night, Rod Serling would open up his series “The Twilight Zone” with that introduction. The program dealt with that middle ground where the visible and the invisible forces of this world intersect with one another. I remember watching that program in the ’60s. I will never forget episodes like the one in which the airplane passenger looks out the window and sees a demonic creature fiddling with the engine. Or the one in which a father discovers that his life is really a motion picture, and he is actually an actor playing a role. Beyond the natural entertainment value of “The Twilight Zone,” I think one reason it was so popular is that it tapped into that sensation we all have from time to time that there is more to this world than what we can see.

Rod Serling was correct–there is another dimension, but it is not “The Twilight Zone”; it is the spirit world. It is the world in which God and Satan, demons and angels, reside, and it is a world that is responsible for the major struggles you and I face every day. Not everybody believes that there is an invisible spirit world out there. The naturalist says that only what you can see and measure is real. But think how foolish that is even in the world of science. For example, it is only in recent history that we have known about the existence of germs, atoms, and electricity. We could not see or measure them, but they had been around since the beginning of time.

There is another world out there. What is that world like? And more importantly, what is our place in that unseen world? Although this parallel universe is not visible to the naked eye, God has given us an instrument through which we can see this unseen world: His Word. It is through the lens of Scripture that we are able to see a raging war between good and evil in this unseen, invisible world. Paul said in Ephesians 6:12, “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.” That word “struggle” in Greek referred to a wrestling match. Paul was saying that you and I, whether we realize it or not, are engaged in a life-and-death struggle. And who is our adversary? It is not flesh and blood. Paul said our greatest struggle in life is against those “spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” We are in a spiritual battle, and the outcome determines our eternity.

Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Winning Your Unseen Battles” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2010.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.