Thus far we have looked at two things that are critical to being a soldier in God's army, two very important truths that we must believe, or we will run when we find ourselves up against this very cunning and deceptive enemy whose sole desire is to destroy us. The first thing is that it is not up to us to win any battles, they are God's battles to win. He goes before us and our job is simply to be ready to do as He commands. And second, we need to prepare ourselves by being strong in the Lord (through prayer, and fasting if necessary), and to have full trust and confidence in the power of our Almighty God.
As Gurnall tells us, "We have seen that it is
God's almighty power and not our own weak strength that fuels our faith and
readies us for battle. Yet how do we appropriate this power in our own lives?
Paul tells us: by wearing God's armour. To
put on the armour of God is to appropriate His power in a most personal way. It
involves first and foremost a change of heart. The person who boasts that he
has confidence in God but does not truly believe with his heart will never be
safe in the war zone that separates earth and heaven. If by negligence or
choice he fails to put on God's armour and rushes naked into battle, he signs
his own death certificate."
This change of heart that he is referring to is that
we must be a soldier who honestly, truly has full confidence in God. It is one
thing to say that we trust God when things are going well, but it's when things
are not going well for us that we see just how much, or how little, we actually do trust God. It can be a surprising
thing to realize just how little we do trust God, but it is something that must
be reckoned with if we are to follow valiantly behind God into battle. You must fully trust in God as He needs to be
able to rely on you doing what He asks of you, without a second thought. The
soldier that doesn't trust their Commander in Chief will run at the first sign
of trouble or will find himself unable to stand against the enemy.
Paul tells us in Romans 13:14 , "Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not
think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh." Christ is being presented here as being our
armor, implying that until we put Christ on, we will be unarmed. We are not armed by being more moral, or
giving up certain habits, or following various religious practices, we are
armed by allowing Christ to truly work in our lives and change us on the inside.
In the
aforementioned Scripture verse, it should be noted that the Greek word for flesh
is sarx, which refers to
the sinful state of human beings, the power within us that is in opposition to
the Spirit. So one can conclude that if we are not following Christ in our
spirit, by allowing ourselves to be changed so we are more like Christ, but rather are following our fleshly desires,
then it would negate any armor, any protection against the enemy. However, by following Christ and learning how
to walk by our spirit and not our flesh, we will be transformed more into His
likeness and have the protection we need.
An important way that we
become more like Christ is to be a serious student of God's Word, as it will
teach us and help keep our spirit strong. We must also have a close walk with the Holy Spirit as He desires to
show us where we need to change. It is a serious thing to be shown where we're
allowing our flesh to have its way in our lives, and we must be willing to have
our weaknesses and the ugliness within us revealed. It can be a sobering thing when the Holy
Spirit reveals to us what really lies within our hearts, but if we are serious
about being transformed, this is a necessary step. We will need to pray that
God will change those things about ourselves that we despise, as we have neither
the strength nor the ability to change on our own. Our prayer, to be changed from the inside,
must be sincere and in humility as these are the prayers that God will gladly
answer.
I believe that a word of caution is needed at this
point because we can easily fool ourselves into believing we are just fine
where we are in our walk with God, and therefore draw the conclusion that we already
have what we need to be in God's army. We
all need to do a serious self inventory to see if we are truly where God would
have us, spiritually. Or are we like
many within the Church who are falling back on such things as church
attendance, good works, giving money to their church, or having a nice looking family
that goes to Church on a regular basis, things that to other Christians would
make them believe we are serious minded Christians. But God knows otherwise. We can't fool Him.
The lukewarm
Christian who relies on his works and good morals will find himself in a very
difficult and dangerous situation if he thinks he will be just fine in God's
army. A true soldier of Christ will be
one who stands before God, in a humble manner, fully aware of his need for
God's help. This type of soldier knows
that there is nothing he can do without God's help and is solely dependent upon
His strength. We must take great care not to trust in the armor of God, but to
trust in the God of the armor as all
our weapons are only mighty through God (Second Corinthians 10:4).
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