Weapons of Our Warfare -- Maintaining Balance

Weapons of Our Warfare

MAINTAINING BALANCE

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. II Cor. 10:3-4 

Imagine 2 boxers in a ring.  One is able to keep his balance.  The other keeps getting over extended one direction or another and loses his balance.  Which one is more likely to be victorious ?

In most of the martial arts, students are taught to use the momentum of the opponent against him.  Thus, if an attacker lunges at you, you do not attempt to stop him and push him back.  Rather you move to the side and grasp your attacker to pull him in the same direction he was already moving.  This puts him off balance and precipitates his fall.

Remember, that which is visible is made from that which is not visible.  The physical world gives us clues about how things work in the spriritual realms.

By every appearance Satan's greatest victory was when he seduced and deceived men into the horror of crucifying the first born son of God.  And yet, that was in fact Satan's greatest defeat.  A defeat verified just 3 days later in the resurrection of Jesus the King in whom all the fullness of God is now pleased to dwell.

Over the past couple of days I have been able to observe something I never before was really able to put into words.  

For those who do not know me well, a bit of background.  I generally dislike excessive displays of emotions.  In part because I was raised in a family that tried to be logical not emotional.  This aspect of my personality is especially triggered when the excessive display takes place in ministry situations.  In my view such displays are most frequently triggered by: either an imposter spirit of religion; by a self centered pride which wants attention focussed on the individual creating the display; or by a demon within the one receiving ministry which wants to create a distraction so that the sons of God will not cast him out.  Yes, I know that sometimes these are just natural expressions of the emotions that are being experience in the moment.  But, sadly, my experience is this is the least frequent cause.

With that background, here in Benin where I am currently serving the saints, I have noticed that such emotional displays are extremely common.  Last night as I was loving on some of the people, I kept seeing these displays.  It was tempting to allow myself to be irritated by them.  It was rising to the level of distracting me until Holy Spirit whispered to me, "What business is that of yours?"

It was only then that I began to recognize the scheme of Satan.  He saw that this stuff irritated me.  So he stirred it up to the point that I wanted to fix what was bothering me instead of focussing on what Father sent me to do.  Satan knew that if he could get me to do that I would extend myself in a direction where I would have no support.  Then all he would need to do is reach in and give a little tug on me.  I would have gotten so off balance that just a  little tug would precipitate my fall.

On the other side of the battle:  Satan has a great weakness of which we often, if understanding and observant, can take advantage.  Satan is an arrogant deceiver.  Because he has so often been successful at deceiving man, he has great confidence in his ability to continue to do so.  Thus, you will often find people who have been lead into deeper and deeper levels of deception.  But when too much deception is piled on top of deception, the whole mass becomes extremely unstable.  In this situation, often just one little bit of Truth spoke into the situation will precipitate the fall of the entire Satanic scheme of deception and destruction.

By way of illustration, last night I saw a man whose entire life had been structured on a nightmarish web of fears.  Fear of failure, fear of disapproval, fear of peoples' opinions and on and on the fears built and multiplied.  When, I spoke the love of God into him,  the entire fear structure just fell apart.  He was set free from the deceptive stronghold by just one simple truth.  Satan was over extended and off ballance.  One gentle love tug crashed his scheme.

Keep your balance as you serve people.  You will be safer.  The ones you serve will be safer.  The enemy will be upset.

His, thus yours,

  Stuart