It's WAR!!!

Warfare in the Christian’s life is real. It can be the thing that comes after you when you least expect it, when you’re not looking, or the thing that is right in front of your face every day and never seems to go away. Have you ever had something come up in your life that totally blew you out of the water? You know, it is like the old adage, “When it rains, it pours.” I think that sometimes we chalk those things up to happen stance or coincidence, but what if what we are really fighting is not that ugly person that will not go away, or the situation that never seems to improve, or the burden that never seems to be lifted, or a million other things? What if what you are wrestling with today is actually a spiritual war? A battle between the God you serve, that lives in you, and an unseen enemy? Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”


As a pastor’s family, we deal with these battles non-stop. Sometimes the battles are so intense that you feel as though your knees are going to buckle under you. The enemy is real and your “real” enemy is not the person or the situation you might think it is! He is unseen, but there is one thing we know about him, and that is he is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet. 5:8) .


As I move through these battles in my own spiritual war, I try and always remember that my battle is NEVER really with a particular person or a particular situation. When I put a face to my battle, then I begin battling on an earthly level, but when I realize that what I am fighting against is a spiritual war, then my focus becomes diverted from what I can see to the one that sees all. God is always at work and His word says that the battle is not ours but His (2 Chronicles 20:15b ). The battle is with the enemy of God, which has become my enemy, because he knows that he cannot have my soul so he will try to take my witness, my joy, my peace, and my rest and reliance in the one who can give me victory in the battle. He is clever isn’t he? That is why in I Peter 5:8 the word says to be sober and vigilant. Without the power of God in our lives, we will never be successful.  It's only in Him that we gain perspective and have the wisdom and strength we need in order to fight these battles and win.


As I am reading the Old Testament, I cannot help but see a pattern on how the Israelites fought their successful battles. First, they did not move until God told them to. They made sure that God was going to be with them in the battle before they set out to do anything. As believers in Christ, we know that the Holy Spirit is with us in every battle that we go into. We are never alone. The thing we must do is pray and ask God “when” are we suppose to move so that we move in His power and not our own. The second thing I have noticed is that the Israelites followed the “plan”. If God said to march around the city for seven days ,and then on the seventh day to shout, then they did it. It did not have to make sense for them to do it. They just obeyed, because they knew that the battle was not theirs but God’s. As believers, we need to do the same. The bible says to love our enemies. If the battle that you are having involves someone and God tells you to bless him or her, pray for them, and do good to them, then you do it (Luke 6:27-28). It does not have to make sense on an earthly level because the battle is the Lord’s. If you are going to win the fight then you have to obey the commander and His orders.


In addition, we must always remember that we are not powerful enough to win on our own. I mean, let us be honest, how many of you really think that you can fight the powers of darkness without some SERIOUS help? Haha! We can’t! If we could do it and win, then we would think we were all that and a bag of chips! That is why we need God. That way we can move when He tells us, and we can do what He tells us ,and when we see the victory come, then our only response is to fall to our knees and thank God for His grace and His power to pull us through the storm.


Let us be real here. Some battles are harder than others and longer than others, but in the final analysis the thing that really counts on whether we will have victory or not is, did we wait on God for directions, and when we got the directions did we do exactly what He said to do? God’s word is FULL of battle plans. We need to be careful not to go out in the strength of the flesh and try to fight and then blame God for not fixing our messes. His word gives us plenty of directions and plans for dealing with these wars and once we find what He says, we must seek Him in prayer to know how to engage our enemy in a way that gives Him the glory and honor He deserves as our Commander. Now, let us put on the armor and follow our General into battle! It’s WAR!