Fight the Good Fignt
It’s important to spend time alone with the Lord. Pete is thankful that he was able to spend some time in Colorado with his friend Jerry Leachman to reflect on the series of messages God has for our Influencers Band of Brothers. God reminded him, “just do what you’ve been doing and teach what you’ve been teaching.” We believe in a Sovreign God who has a design for his men of God. However, the devil also has schemes and designs to ensnare God’s men. We have a choice in the spiritual battle. Our job is to keep our eyes fixed on our Lord Jesus Christ.
These are the times that try men’s souls. Paul’s letter to Timothy contains God’s revelation about men in the last days. According to 2 Timothy 3:2-5, “For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3. Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4. Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof”. How do we combat the enemy’s spiritual army? The answer is in the next phrase: “from such turn away.” We must turn away from the powers of the darkness of this world and unto our Lord Jesus Christ.
This sounds like today’s generation. The darker the night, the brighter the light of the word of God shines. In the midst of the spiritual battle, we can choose either to fight the good fight or to acquiesce to the devil’s schemes and become casualties of war. Casual Christians are casualties in the spiritual battle.
The devil’s design is to take men off the spiritual battlefield. The devil’s ploy is to fire fiery darts into the hearts of God’s spiritual warriors. According to Ephesians 6, the defensive armor is the shield of believing faith whereby we are able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. The devil’s fiery darts are fear, doubt, anxiety, guilt, and discouragement. The battlefield is in the mind. These fiery darts are designed to break down spiritual strongholds through unbelief. However, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (of the flesh) but spiritual to the pulling down of spiritual strongholds. We must defend the spiritual strongholds of our minds by believing faith according to the Word of God; casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God (according to his Word), bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
The devil is the deceiver and the accuser. His ploy is to focus on the stragglers in God’s flock. He picks off the sheep who separate themselves from the flock. Our fellowship of believers is designed to strengthen one another with the connection of brotherhood within the body of believers.
The devil has emasculated and convinced men of this world that they are worthless, insignificant, relegated and marginalized… that they don’t really matter and are worthy of guilt, shame, fear and death.
The devil’s ploy is to defeat America as a God fearing nation. The world says that America is falling apart. However the Lord is soverign overall. From God’s perspective, things aren’t falling apart; they are falling into place.
If America looses her Judea Christian foundation, then America will disintegrate from within. This is the fulfillment of Paul’s prophecy in 2 Timothy 3. When men turn their hearts away from God and become lovers of self instead of lovers of God, they will proceed down the path of the devil’s destruction.
The devil uses the Godless spirt of death and destruction to subvert the hearts and minds of individuals. In the midst of the spiritual battle, we must understand that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness from on high. Our challenge is, having done all to stand. According to Ephesians 6:10-14, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles (schemes) of the devil. 12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 13. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; 15. And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 17. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;”
How do we engage the spiritual battle? How do we take the fight to the enemy? The offensive weapons are the sword of the spirit which is the word of God and prayer. When our confidence is in the Lord, then it is God who works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure.
Jesus said, that until you die to yourself, you cannot live for me. If you have nothing to die for then you have nothing to live for. As the Apostle Paul said, “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” For I was crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life that I now live, I live by faith in the one who loved me and gave himself for me.
If God must break our heart in order that we might be conformed to his will, then thank him for breaking our hearts. He’ll pick up the threads of our broken hearts and weave them together again. Pete lamented after the death of his wife Suzan, “Lord, I feel like I loved her more than I loved you.” God answered Pete’s prayer with a word of encouragement: “You loved her because you loved me, you loved her with Christ’s heart behind your heart.” We cannot love others without the love of God. For truly our fellowship is with God our Father, his son Jesus Christ, and then those we love within the body of Christ.
A disciple is a disciplined follower of his lord. The question is, “do you want to spend the rest of your life learning to become just like Jesus? A man of God is God’s man. His identity is in his Lord Jesus Christ. Lord means owner. It’s not who we are but whose we are.
Our bond as a band of brothers is the blood of our big brother Jesus Christ. He shed his innocent blood for us…in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for the ungodly. He who was without sin became the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him.
And as we fight the good fight standing in His strength alone, may we ever live to the praise of the glory of his grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael