Being in the right place at the right time is only useful in a war if you’re the guy with the guns. Otherwise you won’t be of much use, even if you arrive at a battle in progress. This is the importance of firepower. Firepower, as defined in Army field manual 3-0, is the destructive force essential to overcoming the enemy’s will and ability to fight. For the purpose of spiritual warfare, firepower is the word of God and personal revelation. We’ll call them divine truths or absolute realities for the purposes of our little task.
Core Competency: Learn the Word of God and internalize it to the point that it is ready to be utilized at a moment’s notice to combat deception, confusion, and inferior realities.
If spiritual warfare is an endeavor during which a defeated enemy solicits the agreement of the saints in order to empower his schemes, then absolute reality (the truth of the Word) is the bullet that will end his combat effectiveness. The enemy will spin elaborate tales designed to keep the saints all wrapped up in intellectual nonsense, psychological uncertainties, and self-doubting confession for the sole purpose of getting his target to confess something that will empower him to take dominion over the subjects life. For instance, a man who’s feeling under the weather confesses, “I’m sick, so I can’t go out tonight.” The sickness is an inferior reality which points to the divine healing provided by Christ on the cross, but the enemy has successfully trapped the man in his own misery to the point that the confession never progresses beyond saying “I’m sick.” The man, having confessed his own sickness, empowers the enemy to dominion over his body through his own agreement for a season.
The same man, when presented the absolute reality of God’s word, would never be deceived into confessing his sickness. Let’s say the friend with whom the man is speaking, upon hearing the man’s confession of “I’m sick,” responds with absolute reality: “No. You’re not sick. You’re healed by the stripes of Jesus.” Can you see how the friend possessed the firepower needed to solicit a change of confession and thus stripped the enemy of the power of agreement?
Just having a friend on the phone (as a result of divine inspiration, thus maneuver) would not be enough to keep the man from confessing his own sickness. The fact that the friend had knowledge of the absolute reality of the word of God (firepower), combined with his presence at the right time, enabled him to affect the outcome of a tactical engagement in the spirit.
Maneuver and firepower compliment one another. Firepower magnifies the effects of maneuver, and maneuver creates the optimal circumstances in which firepower may have the desired effect. In order to achieve the maximum battlefield effect of decisive victory, we must have both. The right Christian with the right word of knowledge or memory verse at the right place at the right time equals certain defeat for the enemy in his little game of soliciting agreement from the saints.
Increasing firepower should be the goal of every believer. We should endeavor to learn the word of God and internalize it to the point that it is readily available at the first signs of spiritual combat. Think of scripture memorization as a license to carry a concealed weapon. The enemy will never see it coming.
More importantly, think of every trial that you encounter as a grenade on your belt. Why a grenade? If the enemy ever decides to pull the pin on that situation again, it should blow up right in his face. Take every trial that comes your way as an opportunity to add ammo to your fighting capability. Study the word as it applies to every situation that you encounter, and you will begin to learn the absolute reality of God’s word in the context of life. This is a truly lethal combination for the enemy.
