Hello James
I did not say we are not in a battle or at war so to speak as soldier not as civilians as Paul put it .
But the PRIMARY purpose of prayer is "thy kingdom come ..........thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven"
If that was the be all and end all . as in "ye young men the word of God dwells in you richly or abides in you and ye have overcome the wicked one"
But it is not .
For we are to go on "Ye fathers ye know Him who is from the beginning"
When the Lord walked this earth .he had the primary temptations of the flesh at all points in the wilderness .He overcame the devils temptations by the Word of God and the Spirit of God and putting the scriptures quoted by the devil in context .
But his primary objective was not to fight the devil all day long and all his life. But to declare the name of the father and to manifest the kingdom of God and to show that all things are subject to God .
It was when he was opposed that he fought as and when necersary . If there was any battles fought it was always in prayer and nearly always on the mountains . But primarily who for?Himself or for the ones he came to seek and to save?
In that the devil only" left him for a season" and up until his dying day but now by the mouths of men "if thou be the Son of God......" he was tempted . Is a secondary matter .
His prime purpose was the salvation of men and that the prince of this world would be cast down and trodden under foot even as the promise was given in the garden of Eden.
If we resist the devil and submit ourselves under the mighty hand of God the devil will flee from us. That is for us .
But the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds ....." where? In the mind . and primarily for others .
For it is assumed that we are not at warfare with ourselves?
Though clearly the teachings of Paul were also to pull down the errors and misconceptions of some in the church.
Gerald, the Christian armour is made to be worn; and there is no putting off our armour till we have done our warfare, and finished our course. The combat is not against human enemies, nor against our own corrupt nature only; we have to do with an enemy who has a thousand ways of beguiling unstable souls.
Just as the cause of Christ was to seek and save the lost, the cause of Satan is to keep the Lost ---Lost!
Satan will assault us in the things that belong to our souls, and work to deface the heavenly image in our hearts. We must resolve by God's grace, not to yield to Satan. Resist him, and he will flee. If we give way, he will get ground. If we distrust either our cause, or our Leader, or our armour, we give him advantage. When Satan then gains an advantage, more people will reject the Lord Jesus and harm the cause of Christ there by Satan wins.
The different parts of the armour of heavy-armed soldiers, who had to sustain the fiercest assaults of the enemy, are described in Ephesians 6. Do you think that Paul gave us those weapons to NOT BE USED in the battle against Satan?????
Notice when you read about the weapons we are given in Ephesians 6 that there is none for the back; nothing to defend those who turn back in the Christian warfare. Truth, or sincerity, is the girdle. This girds on all the other pieces of our armour, and is first mentioned. There can be no religion without sincerity my dear brother.