This means WAR

I'm back. Been a long break and I'd love to be able to say that I have been on some kind of Internet fast or pilgrimage so as to have more insights to share with you...but that would be a lie. I simply got out of the habit of blogging (if indeed it had ever become a habit).

My new thought is that I should do this more regularly as a discipline of writing and a way of, what is so commonly referred to in church circles these days as "journaling". That is to say record my experiences and thoughts on this life of Christ following.

I had a dawning thought today as I drove between stations that I had much neglected this idea of being in a battle or, to be more specific, that there is an enemy. I have come to view (or always have viewed) myself as the enemy. Those old cliches about being your own worst enemy have always held true for me over the years.

The thought that has occurred to me today is that this is a down right lie. I am not my own worst enemy. My enemy is Satan, his weapons are sin and deceit. I have never joined his army (though at times I confess I have done his work for him) but the times in my life of self-sabotage have always been based on believing lies and untruths about myself, about what is really going on when I enter into those things which grace permits but love forbids. In short I have been deceived or I have felt too weary to fight. The battle is both a metaphor and a reality. Whether I believe in a personalised devil or not (I think I do) the sin and evil that he represents is the "enemy of our souls". C, S. Lewis wrote about how the greatest trick the devil ever pulled off was convincing people that he didn't exist. If there's no devil (whatever that means) we are not in a battle and docile unsuspecting Christians are easy targets as they continue in their life of grazing just enough to keep moving, navel gazing and questioning God when life does not deliver what they expect, or blaming him when it does deliver their negative expectations.
The battle is won in Jesus, the outcome is determined; Good wins, evil loses and death dies. But what we scrape from the ashes when the smoke clears is still being determined by how we live. Satan doesn't want to attack you, he doesn't want to alert you to his presence and (heaven forbid) have you fight back. He wants to erode your confidence in the Fathers love, he wants to undermine your faith, he wants to pollute your hope with despair.


Paul says in 2 Cor 2:11 that we are not "unaware of his schemes". Paul may not have been but I certainly am. We need to wake up and smell the spiritual coffee. He comes to steal, kill and destroy. He finds this so much easier when we are asleep to his activities. He has won so many battles by getting us to side with him in our naivety. I am saying to myself today to "wake up o sleeper, rise from the dead". I would urge you to do the same. In a war there are losses and victories but the fight must continue until the enemy is surrendered. We are fighting for our souls here and for the souls of our family. I'll be damned if I am going to stand aside and let his pillaging continue. I'm choosing sides today. You are a part of the solution or a part of the problem. I refuse to condemn myself any longer. I'll reserve the condemnation for the the one whose time is short. I am not my enemy. This fight is to the death.

I intend to commit a few more blogs to this subject over the coming weeks so stand by for a few more on spiritual warfare.

Love to you all