It’s a bit of a rude shock for we hyper-secular Westerners having a phrase like “satanic powers” thrown at us. We train our minds to assume that spiritual powers aren’t real – evil or otherwise! This is a narrow-minded bias of the last 200 years of Western culture. It was not held by Western civilization before that, nor is it held by most of the world’s cultures today.
Jesus and the New Testament speak plainly of evil spiritual powers, and of the person of Satan, who heads up and organizes them (Ephesians 6:11,12; 1Peter 5:8; Matthew 13:38; John 8:44). Not being aware of them makes us vulnerable to their influence and harm, and less likely to access all the benefits of Christ’s power over them.
This lack of awareness of the reality of spiritual warfare and evil is a great danger facing us as present-day Christians in Australia.
Another danger is having an over-emphasis on the power of spiritual evil to keep us captive. Christ defeated and doomed Satan and all evil powers when He cancelled the power of sin by paying for it in His death on the cross (sin is the power Satan used to hold humanity and the world in his control through guilt). By faith in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can know our sins cancelled and forgiven, Satan’s power over our lives broken, and live in complete liberation from evil powers.
Jesus Christ has defeated all evil powers. Live by total trust in Him. Live in His victory over evil in your life.
Victory in Christ, Jonathan.