2 Timothy 2:4
"No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer."
Why did God wake you up this morning?
If you are born again, dying in your sleep would have been the best thing to have happened to you...In dying, you would be with Jesus. Absent of any pain, sorrow, or tears, without the stress of alarm clocks or bills, the worries of this world would disappear in an instant, and you would find yourself at the end of the road, resting in your ultimate destination, experiencing the fullness of life for which you were created.
If God's purpose and plan for you concerned chiefly your comfort or happiness, you wouldn't have woken up! You would be much more comfortable and exceptionally happier if you were with Him in heaven.
Your waking shows that God's chief concern is not your comfort. An army moves and rests by the judgment of its commander. Likewise, Jesus, the Commander of the Lord's Armies, determines the movements of His followers.
Just as a soldier does not expect comfort while in a foxhole, under enemy fire, but rather, accepting his position, prepares himself for battle, neither should we be naive concerning our current situation.
We are told that our enemy, the devil, is like a prowling lion, constantly searching out those whom he can devour.
Make no mistake, if you are alive and breathing, you are an active combatant on the battlefield. You are behind enemy lines. How foolish would a soldier in this predicament be to have their focus on anything other than the mission at hand?
What is spiritual warfare?
Ephesians 6:12
"For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places."
Spiritual warfare is a term that could be used to encompass every second of your existence on this earth, starting with your conception... The prevalence of abortion, with an estimated 74 million children being murdered each year, before they take a single breath, shows that our enemy's strategic objective is nothing less than total annihilation and genocide.
For an unbeliever reading this article, I offer only one instruction: "Give up your life for Jesus's sake. If you try to hang onto your life, you will lose it. If you are willing to give up your life for His sake, you will find it."
Apart from The Holy Spirit, you have no weapon sufficient, no tactic adequate, no ally acceptable, to escape, much less thwart your enemy. He is the "god of this world," and you can not outmaneuver or overcome him.
Except that you turn from the path you are on and come to Jesus to be saved, you are utterly doomed. Your grave is dug, and you are slowly walking toward it.
For those who are born-again, who stand already victorious, with the enemy trampled underfoot, covered by the blood of the one who holds the keys to death and the grave, I offer practical advice, not for the war as a whole, but as to how to handle the individual battles in which we find ourselves.
While we carry with us an internal enemy, which is our sin nature, that is constantly at odds with ourselves, frequently exhibiting behaviors and producing feelings which we find detestable, causing us to groan inwardly as we await the redemption of our bodies, we certainly do face an outward threat, which is Satan.
Outside of our normal condition of moodiness and rebellion toward God, oftentimes we will find ourselves assailed by an outside force. Whereas our regular complaints can be traced back to a set of circumstances, such as an event at work or hurtful words spoken by another, we periodically find within us agitation without a clear cause. In this scenario, existence itself suddenly becomes tiresome. Rather than being dissatisfied with certain aspects of our lives, we find ourselves desiring to shed the entire affair.
Suddenly, the motivation we had yesterday fails us. Along with it, our memory follows. We quickly forget the sweetness that comes from fellowship with our Father. We lose track of His faithfulness and the promises made. We do not recall seeing His strong right hand in action. We overlook the walls that were torn down and the chains that fell off.
Absent of the spirit of gratitude, which is a natural result of witnessing God's clear involvement in our lives, we succumb to hopelessness and despair.
When these things seem to come out of nowhere, pouncing on us suddenly, we can know that we are in the middle of a battle. Being ever-aware of the fact that we are in a war, we can know that it has found us and that we are now being put to the test.
How To Fight
The world would describe this state, in which we have persistent sadness and disinterest, as "depression", and would offer, as a solution, medication whose function is to numb you. Like a medic on the battlefield, unequipped to treat a mortal wound, the world offers to provide morphine in order that you would at least have comfort while you wait for the inevitable.
Though we may be wounded, even deeply so, there is a physician who is equipped to provide healing for those under His command. We must be careful not to shortchange ourselves, removing ourselves from the battle due to misdiagnoses. We must not let fear skew our judgment, causing us to call what is a non-incapacitating wound, mortal. We must hold off on those things that numb us, putting away the morphine we carry, and trusting that our physician will come when we call. He will give us the proper treatment. Being both medic and commander, His determination, again, will not necessarily be the one that addresses mainly our comfort, but rather the objective as a whole.
Once the initial shock of first contact has worn off, when we find our bearings and recognize that we are still in the fight, we must quickly resolve within ourselves a question that will determine our combat effectiveness.
The question is this: "Where does my loyalty lie?"
The bible tells us that a "double-minded person is unstable in all of their ways", and that "this person should not expect to receive anything from The Lord."
Knowing the battle we currently find ourselves in originates from an “unseen world”, waged by an enemy possessing "mighty powers" which we know nothing of... It would be expedient for us to immediately go to God and request His support.
If we are to go to Him, and if He is to support us, there is a condition. We must "believe and not doubt."
From the moment we are born, we are creatures who seek to justify our own actions. We exhibit selfish tendencies, and then, when faced with the consequences, offer a list of excuses that supposedly license our behavior. In reading the stipulation that we must "believe and not doubt", there arises in us a voice that cries out, "Not fair!" There is a plethora of excuses that you can offer as to why you find it difficult to follow this command, but all of us know the value of excuses.
The fact remains that this is a command. In the same way that a sergeant gives the command "move to such and such position," God commands "believe and do not doubt". In the same way that a soldier undergoes training and drill so that he follows, without hesitation, the commands of his leadership, so too should we submit ourselves to the training of our commander.
It is said that a soldier "does not rise to the occasion but rather falls to the level of his training." If we do not take seriously the discipline our training attempts to instill, we will find ourselves unprepared in the midst of the battle. We will be told "take such and such a position," and instead of moving with violence of action, we look around us, and, being in fear of what we see, we will fall victim to doubt. When this doubt overtakes our mind, we will break. Unable to advance, we become useless as soldiers, simply taking up space on the battlefield.
We have all been there. The good news is that our past failures do not disqualify us from being useful in the future. The fact remains, regardless of our participation in this specific battle, the war still wages... We will find ourselves coming under attack in the future.
Let us then enter our next training session with earnestness. Maintaining an attitude of readiness, continually possessing a sober mind, not entangling ourselves in civilian affairs, but rather acting in a way that pleases our Commanding Officer.
Let us decide where our loyalty lies today. Let us conclude that our former methods and aspirations were ill-advised. That they are unbecoming of a soldier and therefore must be put off. That we must prepare our minds so that they do not break, betraying us in the moment they are most needed.
If we do this, if we determine ourselves to be soldiers in Christ and act accordingly, we will not be caught off guard when the enemy appears. Standing watch, already donning the armor of God, we will follow the command given to us. We will ask, correctly, without wavering, that man of war, who is the LORD, to come and fight for us. Then the earth will reel and rock. Smoke will go up from His nostrils and devouring fire from His mouth. He will send forth His arrows and scatter them; He will flash forth lightnings and route them. He will trod them in His anger and trample them in His wrath; their lifeblood will spatter His garments.
He is the one who makes wars cease. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear.
For it is not by strength nor by might that we fight our battles, but it is by His Spirit.
Our command is simply this: To be still and know that He is the LORD.