Sandals were always tricky. The big fat crayola crayons in my 6 yr old hand, or the remaining broken stumps of the smaller ones that I could hardly grip, as I tried to trace the lines of the straps that wound half way up the calves of the Soldiers we'd been given to colour in. And then there was the labels. Sword of the spirit (sometimes labelled "the Word"), shield of faith, breastplate of righteousness etc. But what did they put on the shoes? Where could they write anything? And, of course, what did they write. Some opted for "peace" some for "readiness". I don't remember ever reading the full label "the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace".
When we think of spiritual warfare, I think that our minds almost crave super natural knowledge of the workings of demonic hierarchies and angelic hosts; guardian angels, arch angels, avenging angels etc. Spiritual warfare seems to me to draw the attention of the type of Christians who, if they were not card carrying Christians, would be seen reading their horoscope and attending psychic readings. I am mindful of Paul's warnings about fascinations with angels. What do we need to know? They do Gods bidding. Simple.
So it sometimes comes as a bit of a disappointment to us that most of the hints we get about spiritual warfare are actually not overly focused on the enemy and more concerned with our character. That is as it should be, dull as it may initially seem. We as an army are primarily to be familiar with our equipment, with our tactics, with our chain of command and identifying and fulfilling our own role. An army is more than soldiers. It is mechanics and cooks and radio operators and officers and ground staff etc, etc. These roles are all part of the warfare. These are all, in a sense, warriors, wherever they fulfil their duties. Where would the men in the line of fire be without communications operatives, or when their vehicle broke down on the battle field, where would they be without direction from the officers, where would they be without food? You get my drift.
And so we come to this rather baffling phrase, which is hard to pin down and seems to address the least glamorous part of the armour (perhaps along with the belt). Are our feet to be shod with peace, or with readiness (that comes from the gospel of peace). I have thought long and hard about the significance of this, about how readiness and peace are linked via the feet. To be honest it left me scratching my head. But as I prayed and chewed it over I believe God gave me a couple of insights.
Firstly, the feet are linked to the concept of messengers. Isaiah 52:7 says "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those that bring good news". what is the link here? It's quite obvious. The gospel of peace, as it is here referred to, is other wise known as "the good news". I would argue that the "word of God", as Paul describes the sword of the spirit to be, is also the gospel. Paul refers to the gospel as the body of the whole teachings of the christian message. They are inseparable, the teaching and the term. When he speaks of church leaders being appointed, when he speaks of use of the spiritual gifts, when he speaks of being empowered before leaders of this world, to speak with great boldness, it is ALL the gospel. And Gods word, in its charismatic sense, in its eternal sense, in the now word of the spirit, be it rhema or logos, is the gospel, is good news. We warriors are message bearers, this is our sword against the enemy, this is the fight we are taking to Satan and his minions, the news of his defeat; that the head has been cut off and, though the body of the snake lies thrashing around in its death throws, its dominion of terror is at an end.
So our readiness is to be that which comes from the gospel of peace. I played with the idea, no I held the view, that the readiness was to come out of a sense of peace, that because we have made peace with God, we are somehow ready for anything. There may be a seed of truth in this. Peace means contentment and we are now content in him, we have need of nothing outside of God. If we have need of nothing it follows that we have nothing to lose and therefore we are in readiness for whatever comes our way. Nice theory. I am pretty sure now that the readiness comes from our commission as messengers, our readiness to bring good news. If the messenger was to be given urgent military papers, vital to the battle on the front line, and was still found reading his bible in his tent 2 days later, I think that the army may conclude that he was neither ready nor a suitable messenger.
What an odd image Paul chooses! In talking about spiritual warfare he employs an image of a soldier with sword, shield, helmet and armour and he throws in an allusion to a warrior entrusted, in the battle to carry a message of peace. I have a sense that if this message reaches its CO's at the front and they are verified and acted on, the message that these papers contain may just end the war, news of the enemies surrender, of his defeat. The rest of our warfare is just a mop up operation.
I have a confession. I hate being a "witness". Its not that I don't like talking about Jesus, its more that I don't want to engage in fruitless talk about Jesus. My attempts at witnessing, over the years, have been, at times, counter productive. I like to pick my battles these days, choose when to unleash it, at the time (and on the person) that I perceive it will be most effective. At work a few years ago I experimented with being a bit bolder and even ended up praying for colleagues to be healed. I saw a couple of amazing results and I had a bit of rapport with some of these people. There were times I held back when I should have spoken but there were a good few times where I spoke when I wouldn't have had before. It was getting to be quite good and then, a year ago, they moved me. To my shame I was reluctant to start all over again.
The very first of the new colleagues I met, on the very first occasion I met him said to the person with me, who was known to him, about how some customer had given him a bible as a way of saying thanks for his service, and he was joking about how it (the bible) was going straight in the bin and he would never believe any of that rubbish. I kind of knew, right away, that he was someone I was supposed to get close to and share the good news with. I could have done it then and there, on that very first occasion, but I didn't. I would be strategic, I thought. Wait for the right moment.
I have to tell you that over the last 12 months many moments came and went and I passed on them all, even the ones where I was bordering on denying Jesus by not taking them. In short I was not ready, not prepared to go. Like a much needed cleaning chore, my inactivity had allowed an unpleasant task to become almost unthinkable but so much more necessary.
And then this week, at my house group, we were studying 2 Tim 1 where Paul says That 'God did not give us a spirit of timidity but one of love, power and self discipline'. Familiar verses for us all but I had always neglected to see the conclusion of this argument was (v8) "So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord". This is the reason that he has given us a spirit of power and love and self discipline, so that we would not be ashamed. I knew after house group that night, that I would have to change. I am not ashamed of Jesus. In truth, I never have been. I am ashamed of me.
The very next day, the man in question gave me another of those opportunities and this time I took it. I was right, it has made me a little more uncomfortable but a damn sight less uncomfortable than keeping my mouth shut had been doing.
Previously I had not been ready. I was not ready for ridicule, I was not ready to make myself vulnerable, I was not ready to give an answer for the hope that is in me, I was not ready to live under the inevitable scrutiny that would follow such a revelation. Now I am ready, more ready than I have been for ages. Ready to inflict some damage, ready to speak about Jesus, ready to face the shame of how I do not live up to the message, ready for the scandal of grace, ready to share the good news that God comes to us (we don't come to him), and there is only one saviour, the man who won peace when he lost his life. The man who is God, Jesus.
Let the mop up operation continue. Let the devils unguarded concentration camps be liberated. Count me in.
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