Battling Spiritually & Clashing with the Unseen part 9  Eph. 6:10-12

Enlighten Us to Manage Our Adornment v.10

Enlighten Us to Measure Our Adversary v.11-12 

    Satan Is a Defeated Foe

  Satan Is a Destructive Force

He’s a Twisted & Devious Schemer      the wiles

Wiles, is the Greek term methodia, where we get the English word method.  The invisible forces of darkness employ a legion of methods that are rooted in nitpicking manipulation or what could be referred to as duality maneuvering.

Wiles signify the craft of deceit. It’s the joining of two root words, meta, “after,” hodos, “a way”.  This is a cunning device, a wile is a tactic employed to pull us into personal blunder and mental inaccuracy.  If we tracked back into our personal errors and private failures we could unearth a wile we’ve gotten tripped up and snared with.

In Eph. 4:14 we have this warning initiated in this way.

That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. 

These individuals who employ cunning craftiness are the minions of the unseen forces of darkness.

God’s design is to get us stable and grounded.  He doesn’t want us to live like naïve children who are at the whim of every chance of wind.  When we’re in this condition, we’re vulnerable to the slightest breeze of teaching and lewd jockeying of those who’ve developed an expertise in the craft of the presentation of lies.

Phillips says, we’re meant to hold firmly to the truth in love, and to grow up in every way into Christ, the head. For it’s from the head, that the whole body is a harmonious structure knit together by the joints with which Christ Spirit provides, and grows by the proper functioning of individual parts to its full maturity in love.

Proverbs 12:1 says, whoso loves instruction loves knowledge: but he that hates reproof is brutish (insensitive & oblivious).

If we love to learn truth we are going to love the discipline that goes into learning.  The rigors and need of consistent application of our mental faculties will be a passion in our heart.  When we’re challenged by the critical ridicule of others and the questioning skeptics intrusion, we will thrive.

Now if we despise the disciplines of study.  If the pain of digging for meaning in life from God’s word is a bore to us, we are vulnerable.

It’s awfully strong to say the there is no gray area here but that’s the way Proverbs is written.  We are either those who love instruction or ones who hate reproof.

To hate reproof, really means we scorn prayerful meditation in God’s Word.  This leaves us with the personal designation of brutish.  To be brutish means we’re insensitive, oblivious and even unconscious to the various wiles of the Devil.

Proverbs 12: 2 goes on to add, a good person obtains favor of the LORD: but a person of wicked devices will he condemn.

A good person, could be rendered, a wise individual, or one who has opened their heart to the Lord Jesus. To obtain favor is to have a drive to delight in God.  To revel in His grace and cultivate sensitivity to God’s Spirit.  This is living in the conscious presence of God.

The contrast in this Proverb is a person who is soaked and dripping in wicked devices.  Wicked devices are twisted wiles that are full of warped artificiality.

Proverbs 12:3 a person can’t be established by wickedness: but the root of the righteous shall not be moved. 

There’s no footing in a bottomless swamp of ruses and guiles.  We have to grow our roots in God, sink our foundation in His Word and secure our footing in the truth of Jesus.

It’s withering to be under the tyrannical barrage of demonic lies.  By withering, what I mean is we subject ourselves to personal weakening, as we wilt under an onslaught of disapproving reproach and scolding accusation.

This disapproving reproach and scolding accusation erupts into visibility by inner guilt.  Our guilt gushes over with its maladjusted family of blame, criticism, skepticism and cynicism and all the negative uncertainty and distrust that collide in our feelings.

These are the wiles of the Devil to exploit our feelings and inner drives.

Our delivery is found in the loving forgiveness of Christ.