"Not Warring Against Flesh and Blood" There is a spiritual world that is every much as real as this physical world in which we live.  God is a Spirit—the Holy Spirit.  Angels and demons are spiritual beings. God created spiritual beings, such as the four living creatures (Revelation 4: 6-8), that continually offer praise and thanks to God before His throne.  Man is created as a spiritual being who inhabits a physical body.  Man was created for everlasting fellowship and service for God.  When Adam sinned, man died spiritually and he was separated from the life and glory of God.  In the fullness of time, God sent His son, Jesus, Who was born of a virgin, to die for our sins and satisfy the justice of God.  Jesus is the only way that we can be reconciled to God. Satan has already been judged.  He hates God and mankind with deadly passion.  He cannot touch God, so he goes after what God values and loves most—humanity.  Misery truly loves company and the devil wants to deceive and blind as many people as he can so they can share his fate of everlasting torment in hell.  “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age (Satan) has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God, should shine on them” (2 Corinthians 4: 3-4).   This is a spiritual battle and the spoils of this war are the souls of men.  Like Satan, fallen man is blinded with pride and rebellion. The Holy Spirit broods over mankind, convicting them of sin, righteousness and the judgment to come.  Many heed the voice of the Spirit and repent, finding salvation through Jesus Christ and eternal life.  They have literally passed from darkness to light.  The battle rages as unregenerate man does Satan’s bidding and persecutes the saints of Jesus Christ. The Bible instructs believers to stand firm in God’s ability to overcome the devil.  It also teaches that our battle is not with sinful men, who are merely the pawns of Satan; but Christians are to fight the evil spirits that inhabit people.  “Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of this dark age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” (Ephesians 6: 11-13). Our weapons are not carnal weapons, but are weapons given to us through the Captain of the Host, Jesus.  These weapons are the name of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, prayer and the spoken Word of God.  “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.  For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled” (2 Corinthians 10: 3-6). There are as many types of demons as there are sins that men commit.  These demon spirits are assigned to mankind to keep them in bondage and darkness so they cannot hear the voice of God that is beckoning them to repent.  People are oppressed and possessed by spirits of lust, perversion, greed, jealousy, pride, witchcraft, rejection, pornography, covetousness, idolatry, adultery, pornography, slander, despair, poverty, malice, murder, thievery, drunkenness, drug addiction, self-seeking ambition, suicide and false religions.  It is the will of men that chooses to sin habitually in these areas that gives demons “permission” to enter and enslave them.  If a person decides to repent and come to Jesus, no demon in hell can stop him from doing so.  Many times, the spirits will fight to regain control over a person, and that person will need to seek out mature, discerning, Holy Spirit-filled believers to pray deliverance for that individual.  A humble and repentant heart is needed for that person to remain free from their past bondages.  The good news is that “he whom the Son has set free is free indeed!”   Cry out to Jesus today and He will save you, deliver you, and cleanse you from all filthiness of the mind, spirit and body.  Jesus will preserve you holy and blameless until the day of His return.  Hallelujah! “A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive of him to do his will”  (2 Timothy 3: 24-26). “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour”  (1 Peter 5:8).