“Surprised” or “Relieved” to find yourself FINALLY in the battle?

“For we do not battle 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.”

 - Ephesians 6:12 -

You proclaim to be Christian. Then, like it or not, you are in a battle - a war. "THE" War.

You may try to ride out the war in isolation but God will eventually have you out on the field. You are going to draw fire. Trials and tribulations will assail you.

Job was  a good man who trusted and honored God. All he had - family, wealth, legacy - was taken away from Job in a very breath-taking way. Job was rocked and broken by the experience, yet Job leaned into God in the trial to understand. His trust did not waver in the trial. You and I experience Job "moments" all the time. Perhaps you didn't recognize them for what they were, but they were trials and setbacks that were opportunities to exercise your faith and trust in God. Your sphere of influence, however small you may think it is, was watching your behavior through your trial. Did it honor God? Did you rejoice in HIS faithfulness on the other end of the trial? Or did you simply lament and feel sorry for yourself and shake your puny fists at God? Keep reading - it gets better.

Take courage from scripture which is full of encouragement in trials, against fear, against doubt, against trepidation.

Try: James 1:2-5, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”

Or try this corollary portion from Romans 5:2-8, “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

And what is "hope"? Hope is to cherish a desire with expectation of fulfillment.

My desire is to be used by God in the battle. I cherish that desire with expectation of its fulfillment. Warriors are familiar with hardship and struggle risk and pain. They know fear. They experience the spirit of fear but they practice courage. They prepare and they await orders. They exercise restraint. Their actions are deliberate. They are familiar with pain and trial and tribulation and waiting. Such are familiar companions in their life of overcoming.

Victorious warriors also know preparation. They visualize their battles. They anticipate enemy moves and prepare. They practice. They know their doctrines and they know what they are fighting for. They know the heart of their commander and they know the goal. They also ask themselves this question often and in the heat of battles, “What would my commander do and want me to do in this situation?” Victorious warriors carry their commander with them into battle. Their commander is on their mind, in their heart. They are in constant communication with their commander.

The truth is, if you are drawing fire from the enemy, you are on the right side. Drawing fire is proof of relevance. If you are not a threat to your adversary you will be passed by. If you are under attack you have the power of Almighty God, the Creator of the universe – WITH YOU!

I want to share some extraordinary statements made by military men that epitomize the heart of a winning warrior.

Lieutenant General Lewis Burwell “Chesty” Puller, United States Marine Corps. Born in 1898, General Puller served in may wars and military campaigns around the world. He is considered the ultimate "Marine’s Marine". Perhaps most notable are his exploits during the Korean War (1950-1953).

On being surrounded by an overwhelming enemy assault Puller was reported to have communicated this: “All right. They’re on our left, they’re on our right, they’re right in front of us, they’re behind us … they can’t get away this time. Now we can shoot at those b@%&!!s from every direction."

During the gruesome Korean War battle of Chosin Reservoir, Puller led a historic breakout from an overwhelming invasion of Chinese forces with remarks like this one, “Retreat hell! We’re attacking in a different direction.”

At a recent military conference held in California a seasoned veteran addressed the topic of Warfighting Readiness and "How to win in a gun fight" and reported on information from interviews with both "winners" and "surviving losers" of military combat scenarios.

Surviving losers, apparently, recalled having been overcome by this common thought in the midst of the fight, "they couldn't believe they were in this situation ..."

Winners, on the other hand, had the common recollection of being overcome by this thought, “a sense that they were 'FINALLY' in this situation ..."

Maybe you played sports and you recall contests in which you felt each of those sentiments. Maybe you have been in a real military battle and you know what that is all about. Maybe you are a soldier of God and you have experienced this.

The point is this; The relevance of your walk will be marked by your encounters with conflict.

In the midst of the hardship, in the midst of the encounter with conflict, in the midst of adversity; As for me and my house, I want to be overcome by the feeling that we are 'FINALLY' in this situation ..."

Guidance on preparation for battle is everywhere in the Bible. Here are but a few examples:

·         2 Chronicles 20:17

·         Psalm 27:3

·         Deuteronomy 31:6

·         Joshua 1:9

·         1 John 4:4

·         1 Peter 5:8-9

·         Zechariah 4:6

·         Isaiah 54:17

·         Romans 8:31

·         Isaiah 42:13

·         2 Thessalonians 3:3

·         Ephesians 6:10-18

·         Proverbs 27:17

·         Psalm 66:10-12

Forward – march!

Blessings,

Bill

Five Disturbing Questions

Take a moment and pause to consider these five questions;

1)      What have you been doing or are you doing for God?
2)      What have you been or are you doing with God?
3)      Which of the two has power and is bearing fruit?
4)      In which do you sense GOD’s pleasure or YOUR pleasure?
5)      In which do you experience the greatest frustration?

As you ponder, do you ever wonder if God is not even noticing what you have been doing FOR Him? Yes – that GOD MAY NOT BE NOTICING?

How many times have you heard it preached that God is the God of ALL resources? He does not need your offering. He does not need anything. He is in the business of providing for need. Matthew 6:8, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”

What God wants is our hearts!

We can never forget what it is to have been lost and to have been found! God pursued US! Not the other way around. His Holy Spirit hounded us and God orchestrated the circumstances of our lives which brought us to the end of ourselves until we resorted to Him who was there all along loving us. All we ever had to bring to Him was our hearts.

Philippians 2:13 says, “For it is GOD which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” (KJV)

All we can do is yield to Him, His will and His doing. This is a hard thing to hear. We want control, sense of accomplishment – a measure of credit. We have our pride.

Several recent conversations and moments of personal reflection on Christian leadership had me coining the following phrase; “Leaders often confuse the intersection of personal ambition and the coincidence of an opportunity with inspired vision or a prompt from God."

Truly divine inspired vision only comes from outside; not from one’s own self-interest or notions of progress or success.

The older I get the more I experience the same frustrating outcomes for many of my efforts. I also see this in others around me of less experience. Less experienced does not necessarily imply younger. There are many older than I who have not learned from their experiences and so they get to experience the same outcomes again and again. And even at my age I am destined to experience again and again what I refuse to learn. This is the beginning of wisdom.

There is a form of obstinance in proud people that reveals the true condition of their heart. I think it was Thomas Edison who said that insanity is doing things that same way and expecting a different outcome. Some of our brethren never gain from their experiences. Experience is only good if one learns from it. That requires humility and the selflessness of a truly receptive and submitted student. Live long, bend not enough to the will of God and you will certainly experience things over and over again. Ecclesiastes strikes again! “Ground Hog Day” – the movie ….

Coincidental to my musing on this topic, Peter Scazzero (see: Emotionally Healthy Spirituality and Emotionally Healthy Leadership) recently wrote the following in one of his email broadcasts promoting a podcast: “As people who lead in the name of Jesus, we are not to enter every open door or seize every new opportunity. Why? Doing so prematurely, i.e. outside of God’s timetable, damages both ourselves and his long-term kingdom mission in the world. We see this in biblical examples such as Jesus’ limits on the authority of the Twelve as he discipled them as well and the seven sons of Sceva’s premature attempt to drive out evil spirits for Jesus without a life with Jesus.”  Scazzero goes on to note that “exercising a role of leadership for Jesus is weighty”. It should be troubling to us.

And that brings me to the subject of this piece: What are you doing “for” God and what are you doing “with” God? How many times has the world mocked your efforts “for” God with words of rebuke similar to the words spoken by that evil spirit in Acts 19:15, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are YOU!” before beating you up and sending you fleeing away naked.

What we do FOR God may come from a place of pride within us that revels in self-accomplishment or a sense of competition with others whom we observe around us. Such is apart from God. We are to run our own race that God has set before us. Like every other counterfeit god or altar we set up for ourselves, no peace is ever derived from such a competitive spirit. We look around at others. We compare. We observe an individual in their calling and witness their joy and we compare. Then we strive. It has been said that comparison is the killer of peace. There is a fine line between “doing for” and “doing with”. It has to do with the condition of one’s heart.

As this year comes to a close and I consider the year ahead I am going to be more deliberate to incorporate a more submissive spirit to my goal setting and ambitions for what lies ahead. It is beginning to occur to me that I will sense God’s pleasure more in the things that I undertake that HE prompts, that HE guides and that HE provisions. This is going to be hard to do because I was raised and my life has always been predicated upon action, accomplishment and doing. Faith without works is surely dead as James so urgently professes in his epistle. But there is an order or sequence to works that involves God’s instigation and God’s power that my heart needs to more fully embrace with greater expectation of a joy and contentment in the "doing" part that I have only occasionally experienced.

And to Jesus Christ be all the credit and all the power and all the glory.

Blessings,

Bill