You cannot see them. They give off no peculiar smell to reveal their presence or nearness. They come and go without as much as a whisper of sound. They enter you with no taste to betray them. And you cannot seize one with your hand to bring to a neighbor or friend to prove that they exist. And yet the powers of darkness are very real and much of their evil work is possible and successful exactly because they seem so far removed from it, and as though they have nothing to do with it. And to deny their existence is only to prove that they exist. For such a denial reveals how really one is under their power.

The Word of God presents them to us as not only being very real, but as something against which we must be warned and must fight. Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:12 to put on the whole armor of God because we wrestle with such powers of darkness. He calls our enemy in this verse principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world. And to show their evil nature more graphically he calls them spiritual wickedness in high places. These are all one and the same enemy from different points of view. And since they are here called powers and rulers of the darkness of this world, we can and do call them powers of darkness.

Now the darkness of which the expression speaks is spiritual darkness. The whole verse makes that plain. When Jesus speaks in Luke 22:53 of the power (using the singular) of darkness, and Paul does also in Colossians 1:12, it is again evident that the darkness is ethical, moral, spiritual darkness, not physical. The powers of darkness stand opposed to Christ and to His kingdom. They stand opposed to God Who is Light and in Whom is no darkness at all. Darkness is not simply the opposite of Light. Darkness opposes Light. Wherever Darkness comes it drives Light away. Now, of course, the devil and his hosts cannot drive God away. But darkness, as spiritual darkness, stands opposed to God. That God is Light means that He is holy, without any sin in Him at all. And spiritual darkness is unholiness, the lack of all that which is holy and spiritually good.

That they are called powers means that they have authority over man. That they have strength and great ability we do not deny. But the word power which Paul uses in Ephesians 6:12 and Colossians 1:12 and Jesus uses in Luke 22:53 means authority not strength. And authority is right to rule. Get that!  The powers of darkness have the right to have dominion over man.

Although through the blood of the cross we are, according to Colossians 1:12 delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son, by nature we are in the dominion of Satan and the powers of darkness. Because in Adam we joined the forces of Satan, because in Adam we enlisted in Satan’s army to live in defiance and opposition to God, and because we willingly became the citizens of Satan’s kingdom of darkness, he and the powers of darkness may rule us as we are by nature. And without being born again we do not mind this dominion at all. For us it is not slavery to be under the power of sin. Whose flesh wants to walk in righteousness? Who is there that by nature wants to walk in love towards God? If only we can escape the punishment of sin, let us have all the sin we can get! It is the consequences, the wages of sin that we do not want. Sin we enjoy by nature. That the powers of darkness have authority over us does not bother us in the least. They are welcome in our homes and welcome in our hearts. We listen with interest to what they whisper in our ears. And if we are to be found in the kingdom of God’s dear Son, God will have to pluck us up and translate us into that kingdom.

Now note that Jesus uses the singular in Luke 22:53, and so does Paul in Colossians 1:12. And in both instances the word power has the meaning of kingdom. Jesus says to the mob that came to capture Him, “This is of you the hour, and of darkness the power (authority).’’ The idea is that the moment God decreed for the wicked Jews to bring Him to His cross has come, and they do this as under the influence of and belonging to the kingdom of darkness. Paul states that we have been translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son and delivered from the kingdom (power in the sense of authority) of darkness. But this does not change the fact that the powers (plural) of darkness are Satan’s henchmen, his evil companions, fallen angels who with him attack men and tempt them into sins of every kind.

How real are they? How real is their rule over mankind? Well, let us ask, How real is electricity, which cannot be seen running through the bare wires? How real are the sound waves which fill the room in which you are at the moment, and can be picked up if you have the proper AM, FM or short wave radio or television set? Paul warns us that we do not wrestle with flesh and blood in our spiritual warfare. We do not have an enemy that we can see, not even when he comes against us through the flesh of a mortal man whom we can not only see but also hear and touch. The Scriptures warn us of their existence not only but of their presence here on this earth and of their evil works which they perform. They go by other names than powers of darkness, as in Ephesians 6:12; but Scripture leaves no doubt about it that there are evil spirits here on this earth with power to deceive, mislead and influence us into sin.

Does Jesus not teach us to pray, ‘‘But deliver us from the Evil One”? Such is the better translation of His words in the Lord’s Prayer. And he has servants. He has those who even took such hold on the bodies and minds of men that in Jesus’ day there were many cases of demon possession. In Ephesians 2:2 Paul calls Satan the prince of the power of the air.  Satan is prince,

but this implies that he has those under him who are in the air all around us. These are the powers of darkness as well as powers of the air. Revelation 16:14 speaks of “spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the whole world to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty.’’ And not only are they alive and real today, but if they could be seen and heard they would not be as dangerous as they now are for us. They would still pose a great danger to us, because we have our sinful flesh; but could we as believers see them, we would be warned of their presence and know their intent, which now is hidden from us. The smile of a friend, whom that evil spirit uses, disarms us and deceives us as to his intent.

How great is their influence upon the world? And how free are they to influence us? That passage in Revelation 16 indicates that they have power to work great influence upon the world. In fact the verse teaches that because of their influence the whole world will be gathered to the battle of Armageddon, in that great day of God Almighty. However their influence is limited to that which God in His sovereign decree and counsel has prescribed for them. They cannot influence God nor force Him into repairing what is damaged, or to change His plans. What they do comes out of God’s counsel. Jesus teaches us that not even one hair can fall from our heads except it be according to God’s will. Certainly then these powers of darkness are not going to gather the whole world to the battle of the great day of God Almighty except God has planned all this. In fact it is the great day of God Almighty, the day toward which He has been working all through history. It is His day in which He will show the whole world, and that includes also the whole fallen angel world, that He is God Almighty. Yet according to God’s counsel they have authority and influence to the realization of all that God has decreed in His good pleasure, and that shall come to pass in the history of this world.

Satan entered into Judas Iscariot because God had decreed that in this way His Son would be nailed to the cross for the sins of His people. Jesus Himself declares in Luke 22:22, “And truly the Son of Man goeth, as it was determined, but woe unto that man by whom He is betrayed.’’ And Peter says on the day of Pentecost, according to Acts 2:23, “Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and with wicked hands have crucified and slain.’’ But Satan influenced Judas. And his cohorts, the powers of darkness, do influence men. In the case of those afflicted with demon possessions the evil spirits even forced them to fall into the fire and into the water. Mark 9:22.

However we had better be careful lest we blame the devil and the powers of darkness for all the sins which we commit. They have influence over men. They do tempt and many an event in world history is due to their influence upon world leaders. Yet there are so many sins that we commit simply because of our depraved natures. “The devil made me do it” is an expression that most of the time is not true. First of all it may be pointed out that Satan never bothers us personally. We are not important enough for that. He personally got into Judas Iscariot to be sure that his deviltry succeeded. He may attack men in high positions of government or of the church. But most of the time it can be left to the lesser evil spirits who still are far more clever than we are, and are indeed powers of darkness. But there are also so many sins which we commit without an evil spirit working directly upon us or personally attacking us.

To influence us they must speak to us. And to speak to us they may, and so often do, use men of the world. They move them to write or paint or to present photography that will influence us. And I am not thinking merely, or in the first place, of pornography and filthy books, television programs and magazines. That important and sadly neglected tenth commandment plays such an important part in our lives, and is behind so much of the evil which we commit. I mean that the breaking of the commandment against sinful coveting is behind so much of our sins. Who can deny that coveting is behind all the dishonoring of the authorities in the strikes that plague our country? The union members themselves boldly express it that they see what management makes and what profits they have, what salaries the owners get; and in a coveting of what management have, they call a strike to get some of what it has. Then too how advertising, how catalogues and the like influence us to covet what we do not need and want because the neighbor has it! Yes, the powers of darkness do influence the child of God. Would Paul warn us against them, if they did not influence us to sin?

And our calling becomes plain. We are to put on the whole armor of God and fight this invisible enemy. We are to resist all the evil that they dangle before our eyes and the pleasures wherewith they tempt us. We are to walk in the light, for there they will not come. The light they hate. And we ought not fellowship with the children of darkness whom they have in their power. Our calling plainly is to do all we can to avoid all the temptations which these powers of darkness use to lead us into sin. And the way to do this is to “come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. . . II Corinthians 6:17. We have a calling to be isolated spiritually from the world that is ruled by the powers of darkness. We must work next to them and with them in the office or shop, but that must be as far as our association with them must go. They must not become our friends and companions. The psalmist expresses it correctly in Psalm 119:63, “I am a companion of all them that fear Thee, and of them that keep Thy precepts.’’ And with us it ought to be as he writes in verse 136, “Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not Thy law.’’ Shun their companionship and the powers of darkness will still attack, but it will be far more difficult for them to hit you from a distance than in the closeness of being companions of the worldly and ungodly.

Another matter that is our calling and an excellent way to escape the snares of these powers of darkness is to let your light shine there at the office and shop before the unbelievers who are only interested in your flesh. Testify of your faith and they will separate from you and want no friendships with you.

You will still be attacked by the powers of darkness. They will use all you see and hear and experience to stimulate your flesh to sin. And that is why Paul exhorts you to put on the whole armor of God and to keep it on! Day and night you must be clad with it. Take it off and you are not only liable and in position to receive a mortal blow, you reveal that you have already been conquered by these powers of darkness. They succeeded in making you careless and unarmed.

Be convinced that the enemy is there, and keep on the armor God made for you and gave you, so you may walk as children of light.