Victory in Spiritual Warfare

The term spiritual warfare refers to the spiritual battle being waged against us by the devil and his spiritual army. This battle involves the reality that certain things that happen in this world may be "caused, controlled, or instigated" by spiritual beings aligned against us and against our Lord.*

The spiritual beings aligned against us and against our Lord are led by none other than Satan himself. He is "the prince of the power of the air" (Ephesians 2:2). The word "power" in this title is "exousia", which indicates authority based on having freedom or the ability to act. This does not mean the devil has unlimited authority. He is the prince of the exousia "of the air", meaning his position of authority stands for now in relation to the other fallen angels. He is like an immediate supervisor over them; however, he is not an authority over us.

The Book of Job, chapters 1-2, illustrate that God can and does place limits on the activity of the devil. Moreover, Jesus used the same word, exousia, to describe His own authority as Lord over all. He said: "All authority (exousia) has been given to me in heaven and on earth" (Matthew 28:19). So the Lord Jesus possesses unlimited, unrestricted freedom or ability to act everywhere; whereas, the devil is merely the prince of the exousia "of the air."


That Satan is "the prince" of the power of the air indicates that he is chief over all fallen angels. The etymology of the original Bible word for "prince" shows a connection with a beginning or starting point. The idea is very similar to the expression we use to describe someone's ultimate responsibility: "the buck stops here." The Bible refers to the possibility of a large number of angels who fell along with Satan at the time of his rebellion against God. We don't know exactly how many there are, but we do know Satan is "the prince" among them. The buck ultimately stops with him.

As frightening as all of this can sound, we who know the Lord as our Savior can live in victory. The prince of the power of the air is a defeated foe. I like how Chip Ingram expresses this in his book, The Invisible War: "We do not fight for victory; we fight from victory...The Bible gives us numerous promises of victory of power over the enemy." One of those promises is what Jesus had to say about his own exousia in Matthew 28:18. Another comes from James 4:7: "Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." One of the greatest weapons we wield in this battle is our submission, our obedience to the Lord. Our obedience sparks the fulfillment of promises such as the one given in Leviticus 26:7: "You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you." 

May each of us resist the prince of the power of the air this week with our submission and obedience to the Lord of Lords!


*See J. Robert Clinton in The Making of a Leader.