Stepping up to the fight

 

As children, the Holy Spirit guards and protects us. Here is where we establish our relationship with God. However, after years of milk and cookies, the sweeter things that draw us near to Him, we are expected to learn how to feed ourselves. We are expected to learn how to prepare a meal, set the table, and serve it to those around us.

Then… There comes the day, when hiding and waiting for God to fight our battle, doesn’t work anymore.  There comes a day when we are expected to fight for what has been placed in our custody. 

I meet people all the time that are being beaten by the Devils cohorts. They retreat to isolation, and they are even held captive, in the many prisons of our enemy. In our walk as believers we are expected, at some point, to grow up, to strap on the armor, and fight.

Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies and tricks of the Devil. {12} For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms. {13} Use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil, so that after the battle you will still be standing firm. (Eph 6:11-13 NLT)

No… God does not expect us to dive into the mix alone; not always.  There are those times we must stand, with our armor and battle face. 

I had a dream, years ago:

I was standing on a big rock, overlooking some blank rolling hills of sand.  I was a Watchman… standing guard over a territory I was responsible for.  Every now and then, something would pop up over one of those little hills, and I would see a fiery dart heading in my direction.  Bang… Bang… Bang… those darts hit my shield; sometimes more than one or two at a time.  The enemy got really good at disguises, and would get pretty darn close before opening fire; POW! they hit my shield hard and yes, a few got by my shield. My armor saved me, but it hurt. 

After a barrage of darts and arrows, I heard something new.  Like a storm off in the distance… a faint roar at first…

It got louder and louder.  I stood tall, up on my toes, looking out over the rolling hills.  With my eyes strained on the horizon, I caught a quick glimpse of something on fire and coming fast.  It was hugging the surface… disappearing behind the hills, only to pop up  again, as it got closer, and closer. 

Suddenly… there it was.  I could see it clearly.  It wasn’t a dart, an arrow, or a spear.  It was a missile, a rocket of some sort. I barely had a second to raise my shield when it hit.  The explosion was deafening, and there was fire and smoke; but I was still standing. 

One by one… several more rockets hit.  They were not hitting my shield every-time. They were hitting the rock I was standing on as well. Then I noticed, just before the rockets hit, the sky filled with arrows. More and more of these arrows and darts were getting past the hills, the rock, and even my armor.  After a while I was on my knees, my shield was battered, burnt, and full of holes.  My armor was smoldering and I was in pain. 

The roar was louder than before and I couldn’t tell which direction it was coming from. I stood up, and scanned the horizon. I spotted one, two, three… There were four rockets coming from four different directions.   I pulled my shield close and in the back of my mind I thought this was the end. 

I closed my eyes and a few seconds later…  BOOM!… A giant cloud of fire, smoke, and fragments went everywhere.  Stunned, I realized I had not felt the impact.  I opened my eyes to see my friends, they were standing all around me, with their shields acting like a wall.  One by one they turned to me and winked.  As the rockets, exploded and air filled with arrows.

It was only a few minutes, but it seemed like hours, before silence and a cool breeze cleared the air.  Hurting, like I never thought possible, my friends tended my wounds. 

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I tried to keep this story short and have left out a lot of details. One lesson to be learned here is…

Well.. there might be more than one lesson here. 

 

Greg Ewert