Ephesians 6:11–14: “Clothe yourselves with the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. For this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand your ground on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand. Stand firm therefore…”
So we have the call to just stand. One of the things I want you to know is that nobody here is called to go and “fight the devil.” The devil is already fighting you, so your call is to stand, to maintain your ground. That is what you are supposed to do: maintain your ground.
We really do not know how challenging it is just to stand—to not be moved—but that is the call: to stand against the enemy's schemes. Not to react in the flesh, but to stand. Not to be moved, but to stand. Not to be distracted, but to stand. Not to chase the shining thing that the enemy puts around us, but to stand.
We have been called to stand. We see that Jesus Christ did not go looking for the devil. Even though we are told that after He was baptized with the Holy Spirit, He was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, we are not told that He went out looking for the devil (see Matthew 4:1). No: “the tempter came” (Matthew 4:3). So your calling is not to go and look for the devil to chase. Your calling is to stand, because the enemy is going to come against you.
It is called “schemes of the devil,” and Paul speaks of rulers, powers, world‑rulers of this darkness, spiritual forces of evil. Behind all of this is the devil as the ultimate influence. Somebody might say, “What about you—you, just a small Christian in one corner somewhere—why would you think the devil is after you?” No, the devil is after you, but maybe not in the way you think. The devil is not after you “fulfilling your destiny.” That is not the point. It is about your stand in Christ. It is about maintaining your stand. The devil wants to weave an influence over you. That is what I am talking about. It is called schemes.
He says, “Take your stand.” Paul lists all kinds of things there, but let me go to Genesis 3, where we see Eve, where the devil came up with a scheme to move her away, to ensure that she did not stand. That is it.
“The Bible says that God made mankind upright, but they have sought many evil schemes” (Ecclesiastes 7:29). You are already complete in Christ (Colossians 2:10). You are already fulfilled in Christ. So anything that creates that sense that “there is something I must be chasing” becomes a scheme that the devil has spawned, apart from Christ, and the rest you are supposed to have in Christ. That is all we are talking about. That standing—he wants to move you away from it.
When you see the list of things Paul mentions in Ephesians 6, you know it is all about Christ and how you should have rest in Christ: salvation, truth, righteousness, faith, the gospel of peace. “Your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace” (Ephesians 6:15) is about Christ—your stability in Christ, your settlement in Christ.
Somewhere else in the book of Hebrews, we read that “it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by regimens of food, which have not benefited those who are preoccupied with them” (Hebrews 13:9). It is about Christ. It is about moving you away from your stand in Christ. Whatever the devil can do to move you so that you start seeking something else—that is the scheme of the enemy.
We see it with Eve. We see it with Jesus. “If you are the Son of God…” (Matthew 4:3, 6). Begin to seek validation. Begin to seek confirmation of who you are. Begin to seek something else. So the call is to stand in the truth of God. The struggle is to move you away. It is not to “hinder your destiny.” There is this language of “enemy of my progress.” No. It is not progress. The devil may not have a problem with you making progress in earthly things. The enemy has a problem with you resting in Christ. That is his problem—that he cannot give you a race that you will be running. He does not like that. He wants to cast an influence.
What does Eve need? Nothing. But the devil wants to convince you that you need something. That was the scheme. She was not standing. That is all. That is the scheme: for you to be convinced that there is something you should be chasing, for you to not simply be at rest, because he is not at rest. “He roams about on the earth and walks on it” (Job 1:7). He is going to and fro. So he wants you to be like him.
God bless you.