Like a scene out of a blockbuster,
Imagine if you will:
You are an experienced soldier walking along the dry desert plain of ancient Turkey, back then just another part of the Roman Empire. It seems as though the parched ground cracks under your feet with every new step.You are the desert oddity, properly adorned with all of the accouterments of battle: all golden helmet, armor, belt, sword and boots which bear the symbols of your homeland: the fierce lion and the majestic eagle. And unfortunately with you also is the burdensome shield you have been dragging for miles since leaving camp.
The sun's heat has turned your costume into a golden pressure cooker. The sweat pouring from your head stings your eyes yet provides the only relief of the day.
"Seems more like detriment than defense", you say to comrades, wiping your brow.
But when there is no response, you turn your head and helmet right, and then left — no one, as far as you can see, for miles.
"How long have I been traveling like this? Where is everybody?"
Then,
'Pfft!'
It sounds like a bird crash landed into your shield but being a smart one , you know that not much flies in the desert except for vultures, and this was definitely not a vulture. You cautiously peek from behind the shield to investigate.
'Pfft!'
'Pfft!'
The second one was aimed at your head — " Fire? Arrows of fire", you surmise as the blaze builds off the top of your shield, your now beautiful and useful shield.
"Where about are they?” you anxiously question, considering all visible options.
Frozen and squatted into your defensive stance, you stand cautious, as not to move a single muscle.
"Just wait for it".
'Pfft!'
"North, atop that hill and by the delay, there must be only one archer left"
A long pause.
'Pfft'
The sound is less impactful this time. This is being shot from a shorter distance.
'Crack', 'Pfft'
He is approaching on foot. He must be cocky in his use of a bow.
'Crack', 'Pfft'
But you have done sword drills since before you could write your name and are confident in your wielding it.
'Crack', 'Pfft'
Your hand eases upon the sword's shaft as a hunter upon his quarry. Your breaths are steady and calculated.
'Crack', 'Pfft'
Remember what Captain said: "Trust yourself not, trust the sword".
'Crack', 'Pfft'
"Trust the sword". Tight grip.
'Crack', 'Pfft'
"Trust the sword". Hand steady as iron.
'Crack', 'Pfft'
Goodbye.
'Crack'
Go.
'Slick' says the sword.
And your adversary suffers a massive wound, fleeing he holds onto his side to delay the bleeding.
Such are the stakes of spiritual warfare.
The Helmet of Salvation, Breastplate of Righteousness, the Shield of Faith and the Sword of the Spirit allow us to do what James has prescribed.
"Resist the devil, and he will flee from you"
-James 4:7
But what are we to do post battle and trial? What else has James and the rest of the Word prescribed to us concerning this?
A Life at War
I write you truthfully friends, when I share that I have been living in full armor as of late:
last week facing a potential lawsuit against me at work; the week before experiencing personal betrayal and the week before that finding myself the subject of vicious libel.
Axiomatically, I had spent my time avoiding being pasted for so long that I had become content with just not having a bad day (a place many of us live) — “survivalism”.
“Survivalism” is the mindset which makes Heaven a fairy tale and God Pinocchio, he wants His presence to be real to us but is kept as something to attend to after the work of life has been addressed, a toy if you will.
We are left to pick up the pieces and become our own saviors. Overcautious we learn we must always look out for ourselves since no one else will, restless we conjure up our own potions for peace and joy for daily imbibing; hopeless we fashion stars to put up in our own skies in order to recapture some sense of awe, though the highest we seem to get is the flashing projection on the movie screen.
The worst tragedy for a survivalist is not satanic attack, but having to live another day. Life becomes the new enemy, for it was designed with dependence on God in mind.
God empowers us to battle the enemy. We were never made to fight off the entirety of our lives.
Surviving is never what God had in mind for his children. We were meant to subdue, conquer and thrive, anything less is living below His purpose.
Living below this line is hard human work and gives us legitimate reasons to 'ease up' and 'let it hang out', though what we unfortunately 'ease up' from are well placed convictions supported by the Holy Spirit.
I am not talking about legalism here; I am charging us to remember whose we are. When godly boundaries are misplaced or removed from our lives what flows out of that dam is 'us' unfiltered. Sin personified.
In attempting to heal my recent battle wounds, I began to allow myself so much slack; this garment lost much of its integrity.
But of course my defense was: "I am only human"
(Well not actually, for if you are in Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit dwells in you. So we are a bit more than that.)
I gave more openings for 'me' to creep in and make itself known in this new life. My speech was positive overall though tinged with 'just a bit' of malice, my deeds came off as upright overall but my intents were 'less than' compassionate; somewhere in this dark well of my heart I wanted others to hurt 'a little bit' more for how they had made me feel in the past. My heart was turning and therefore, I was turning into someone I never wanted or thought I could be.
Now back to James, what was he really saying at length?
"But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble." Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you."
-James 4:6-8
Tough business like resisting the prince of this world should go hand in hand with humility and submission to God. Why?
Because that is where the armor came from in the first place, it is where the true power lies.
Surely salvation and righteousness were not clever ideas had by men, surely these concepts were not created by some sleep deprived PhD. Our Advocate, the Holy Spirit comes to prove these truths (John 16:7-11). They are far above humanity, and their source is "far above all rule and authority, power and dominion"(Ephes. 1:21)
"And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good"
-2 Thessalonians 3:13
So how can we not tire of doing and being good and begin experiencing the lives of conquerors?
By asking our Lord to take us to where He is, a place above all of the muck and mire we can become so easily entangled with down here, a place of honest rest, where God is all there is. Like Moses for his 40 days on the mountaintop sans sustenance, God can take us into His cloud and show us real rejuvenation.
"Where about are they?” you anxiously question, considering all visible options.
Frozen and squatted into your defensive stance, you stand cautious, as not to move a single muscle.
"Just wait for it".
'Pfft!'
"North, atop that hill and by the delay, there must be only one archer left"
A long pause.
'Pfft'
The sound is less impactful this time. This is being shot from a shorter distance.
'Crack', 'Pfft'
He is approaching on foot. He must be cocky in his use of a bow.
'Crack', 'Pfft'
But you have done sword drills since before you could write your name and are confident in your wielding it.
'Crack', 'Pfft'
Your hand eases upon the sword's shaft as a hunter upon his quarry. Your breaths are steady and calculated.
'Crack', 'Pfft'
Remember what Captain said: "Trust yourself not, trust the sword".
'Crack', 'Pfft'
"Trust the sword". Tight grip.
'Crack', 'Pfft'
"Trust the sword". Hand steady as iron.
'Crack', 'Pfft'
Goodbye.
'Crack'
Go.
'Slick' says the sword.
And your adversary suffers a massive wound, fleeing he holds onto his side to delay the bleeding.
Such are the stakes of spiritual warfare.
The Helmet of Salvation, Breastplate of Righteousness, the Shield of Faith and the Sword of the Spirit allow us to do what James has prescribed.
"Resist the devil, and he will flee from you"
-James 4:7
But what are we to do post battle and trial? What else has James and the rest of the Word prescribed to us concerning this?
A Life at War
I write you truthfully friends, when I share that I have been living in full armor as of late:
last week facing a potential lawsuit against me at work; the week before experiencing personal betrayal and the week before that finding myself the subject of vicious libel.
Axiomatically, I had spent my time avoiding being pasted for so long that I had become content with just not having a bad day (a place many of us live) — “survivalism”.
“Survivalism” is the mindset which makes Heaven a fairy tale and God Pinocchio, he wants His presence to be real to us but is kept as something to attend to after the work of life has been addressed, a toy if you will.
We are left to pick up the pieces and become our own saviors. Overcautious we learn we must always look out for ourselves since no one else will, restless we conjure up our own potions for peace and joy for daily imbibing; hopeless we fashion stars to put up in our own skies in order to recapture some sense of awe, though the highest we seem to get is the flashing projection on the movie screen.
The worst tragedy for a survivalist is not satanic attack, but having to live another day. Life becomes the new enemy, for it was designed with dependence on God in mind.
God empowers us to battle the enemy. We were never made to fight off the entirety of our lives.
Surviving is never what God had in mind for his children. We were meant to subdue, conquer and thrive, anything less is living below His purpose.
Living below this line is hard human work and gives us legitimate reasons to 'ease up' and 'let it hang out', though what we unfortunately 'ease up' from are well placed convictions supported by the Holy Spirit.
I am not talking about legalism here; I am charging us to remember whose we are. When godly boundaries are misplaced or removed from our lives what flows out of that dam is 'us' unfiltered. Sin personified.
In attempting to heal my recent battle wounds, I began to allow myself so much slack; this garment lost much of its integrity.
But of course my defense was: "I am only human"
(Well not actually, for if you are in Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit dwells in you. So we are a bit more than that.)
I gave more openings for 'me' to creep in and make itself known in this new life. My speech was positive overall though tinged with 'just a bit' of malice, my deeds came off as upright overall but my intents were 'less than' compassionate; somewhere in this dark well of my heart I wanted others to hurt 'a little bit' more for how they had made me feel in the past. My heart was turning and therefore, I was turning into someone I never wanted or thought I could be.
Now back to James, what was he really saying at length?
"But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble." Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you."
-James 4:6-8
Tough business like resisting the prince of this world should go hand in hand with humility and submission to God. Why?
Because that is where the armor came from in the first place, it is where the true power lies.
Surely salvation and righteousness were not clever ideas had by men, surely these concepts were not created by some sleep deprived PhD. Our Advocate, the Holy Spirit comes to prove these truths (John 16:7-11). They are far above humanity, and their source is "far above all rule and authority, power and dominion"(Ephes. 1:21)
"And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good"
-2 Thessalonians 3:13
So how can we not tire of doing and being good and begin experiencing the lives of conquerors?
By asking our Lord to take us to where He is, a place above all of the muck and mire we can become so easily entangled with down here, a place of honest rest, where God is all there is. Like Moses for his 40 days on the mountaintop sans sustenance, God can take us into His cloud and show us real rejuvenation.
Even when we do not know what to say to our Lord, remember this:
“… the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”
-Romans 8:26-27
Sometimes my thoughts can be so offensive to God, I wonder if I should just ditch the whole holy living thing. Sometimes I get so tired of fighting off the dark and pressing influences of secular society, I wonder why I do not just conform. But when these thoughts come, it becomes evident what the real culprit is: the 'I' in them.
'I' was not there in the beginning, I did not hover over the waters of a formless earth, I did not speak light into existence, I did not separate the heavens, I did not make dry ground appear, I did not produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees, I did not say: "Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night", I did not create the creatures of the waters, the birds of the air or the beasts of the earth, and I certainly did not create myself.
Nope, as it so happened: God allowed and I was.
I write now because of the fingers he has given, attached to the muscles that run through the arm, that are governed by the mind, which requires the blood imbued by the oxygen that He freely provides and blesses me with.
We are always dependent upon God for the breath of our lives, how much sense does it make to attempt to live independently of Him in the breadth of our lives?
So the call, my friends is to rest our battle-lorn bodies in Him and repose in the verity that we need not assemble an oasis or some fairy tale land for ourselves, for it already exists by the name Heaven, a place as real as the eyes used to read these words, and one day by His grace, they will see the one who said:
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
-Matthew 11:28-30
In Him,
Jean-Marc
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