Mighty Warriors

2 Corinthians 10:3 “ For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh”

My children love to annoy one another quite often. The other day my daughter felt like it was necessary to persistently annoy my son. He, on the other hand, was not a willing participant and quickly lost control of his emotions. His bad attitude resulted in his loss of certain privileges for the rest of the day. He, of course, proceeded to get extremely upset, and by that I mean he was ANGRY; really ANGRY! After his fit of anger, I spent about an hour talking to him (much to his dismay).

I explained to him that the reason I must discipline him is to train him. I went on to tell him that everyday we are in the battle of our lives, and the battle is lost or won with every step that we take. I do mean that literally. Every time we inhale or exhale, every word that proceeds from our mouth, every decision that we make, every thought that we think, every moment that we live on this earth, we have a choice. We can either speak, decide, think, choose, and walk in His (Jesus Christ's) way, or we can speak, decide, think, choose, and walk in our own way.

Isaiah 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

I told my son that it is my job as a parent to train him for WARFARE, SPIRITUAL WARFARE. Because whether we believe it or not, we are “smack dab” in the middle of one. We, in every choice, choose to be on one side or the other. It comes down to choosing the Spirit or the Flesh (Galatians 5:16-26). Gal 5:17 “ For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition (at war) to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.” So often we, as Christians, end up fighting for the other side by being selfish. All choices made against God’s will always boil down to selfishness. I explained to him that we have to “loose” ourselves and let go of everything that we think that we have to be, do, and have, and replace that with what He would have us be, do, or have. All we have to do is give it all to him (Romans 12:1). It is so simple, but then again, so hard. (The hardest part is letting go of our self.)

Anyway, I wrapped up our talk, after several analogies, with this… God has called us to be Mighty Warriors! That is why we are here. He has given us a mission, to glorify Jesus Christ in all of the short days of our life while in this war zone called Earth. But, because of selfishness in the heat of the battle, we pull off His incorruptible armor (Ephesians 6:11) and put on our own old corruptible garb (the flesh). Without question, when we fight this battle in the energy of the flesh, we find ourselves either fighting for the wrong side,we become a POW (prisoner of war), or we become a casualty of war. In all three instances we become ineffective in our mission and lose that particular battle.

We need to put on the full armor of God and train effectively in order to "stand firm" and win every battle that takes place in this invisible war. We need to assist our fellow soldiers (Christians) when they themselves fall down and have become wounded. We need to rescue those who are POW's or are confused and fighting on the wrong side. My point is this… we are in a moment-by-moment, continuous battle. KNOW IT, TRAIN FOR IT, STRAP ON HIS ARMOR, STAND FIRM and FIGHT. If you fall, get wounded, confused, or captured I will be there for you because we are not only fellow Christians, we are fellow soldiers. 2 Corinthians 10:5 “ We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ”