Your Place in the Spiritual BattleEsimerkki

Your Place in the Spiritual Battle Day 7 – Victory (Part 2) Today we wrap up our study spiritual warfare. We will look at a few more strategies to ensure our success in daily battles on the way to ultimate victory. Obedience: It does no good to spend time trying to hear God and reading His word if you are not willing to obey Him or His word. Some things He asks us to do may seem difficult or scary. Some may even seem silly or unnecessary. I firmly believe God asks us to do some things just to see if we are willing to obey. One day I was driving to work and passed a school parking lot which was strewn with trash. I heard God whisper in my ear to pull over and pick up the trash. I knew at the time it was God but blew Him off anyway. “I have to be at work.” “How is that really going to help anyone” were a couple of my excuses. Well, that job didn’t have a set time I had to be there. So that wasn’t an excuse. And who cares if it helped anyone (besides the person that eventually had to pick it up). God told me to do it, so I should have done it. I’m not sure there was any big purpose to cleaning up the parking lot. I think He was just asking to see if I would do it. But what if there was a big purpose? What if cleaning up that parking lot was a step to something great for someone? I won’t know because I didn’t do it. But there are other times I did what He asked me to do, not knowing why He was asking. A few years ago, a Christian radio station was having their yearly fundraiser. God impressed on me that I should give a certain amount of money. It was not a large sum but it was still not an amount we simply had laying around. I was hesitant but obedient that day. I went to the station website to make the donation. I put all the information and amount in. Then something happened to the site and I got kicked out before I could submit it. As I went to get back in, I heard God tell me He no longer wanted me to give. This was just as clear as the prompting to give in the first place. I argued with God (or maybe myself) more to not give than to give. I wanted to make sure this wasn’t just my wallet suggesting the website glitch was an act of God. But every time I expressed my willingness to give the money, I heard God say it wasn’t necessary. I believe this was God seeing if I would listen to Him. As far as spiritual warfare is concerned, obeying God will often put us on the enemy’s radar. It will undoubtedly make us uncomfortable at times. And it will always lead us to a reward from God. This reward may not come to us this side of the grave. But it will make it much more likely to hear “well done good and faithful servant.” It will give us the opportunity to stand before Jesus and learn why He had us do those things. Doing what God asks us to do will also lead to others being blessed through us. This may happen directly or indirectly. Obeying God will also allow us to be reinforcements to our fellow soldiers. Get trained: I am blessed there have been so many people who have invested in me and my growth in Christ. From the time I started attending church on a regular basis, until now, I have had people to teach and guide me. Wherever you find yourself, find a way to get trained. Soldiers in the military go through basic training, and then a series of other training activities to ensure they are ready when their time for battle comes. In the same way, we as Christians should be constantly training. This is done by being in the Word as well as finding those with more experience in spiritual warfare and other aspects of the Christian life. Reading books that are grounded in Scripture can be a great supplement to face-to-face education. If your church offers classes on prayer, spiritual gifts, or other aspects of Christianity do what you can to participate in them. If all Christians became well trained soldiers for God, we could get off the defensive and launch and all-out attack on the gates of hell. Matthew 16:18 reminds us those gates cannot prevail against God’s church! This is it church, no more timidity, no more neutrality, no more defense! Gear up and get in step with our Almighty General. We have already won it is time to claim our victory!