(Ephesians 6:10-12).

Our battle is not against flesh and blood, that is, not against men, but against principalities, against powers.

Against what authorities, what authorities?

Of course, it is not about those authorities who govern the state, but about completely different principalities, that the holy Apostle Paul speaks, as he himself immediately explains: "against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual wickedness in high places," against the demons, against the angels of Satan, for they can truly be called the rulers of the darkness of this world.

All the darkness that you see in human life is the work of their hands, it is the work of that prince who dominates the air, of whom the Holy Apostle Paul speaks in another epistle. And who is this prince who dominates the air? It's Satan himself, it's the devil. He dominates a huge number of hearts.

And it is against him, against his angels of darkness, against the spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places, that St. Paul commands us to be strengthened by the Lord and by the power of His power.

We ourselves are not able, not at all able to fight this terrible prince who dominates the air.

If we were left to our own strength, we would fall from his malice.

Only then can we fight if we are strengthened "by the Lord and by the power of His might."

We must put on "the whole armor of God, that ... it was possible to stand against the wiles of the devil."

Only when we put on the whole armor of God, when we do not rely on our own strength, only then will we stand against his wiles. And what are these intrigues of his?

This is all that he seeks to destroy us, to distract us from faith in God, to distract us from the path of salvation shown to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. He and his angels, the spirits of darkness, are busy only with destroying us. Against all people, and especially against us Christians, he plots to destroy us. None of us is left alone. He sends His demons to all of us, so that they may guide us to the path of perdition, to the path of serving our lusts and passions, to the path of impiety and even blasphemy. These are strong, dangerous and terrible enemies.

And do you not understand that every enemy is the more dangerous the less we think about him, the less we watch him, the less we notice him?

And, on the contrary, it is all the more powerless, the stricter, the more tirelessly we always watch it, all its intrigues, all its actions and undertakings aimed at our destruction.