The Revolution Brigade

Carnal warfare is a dangerous proposition.  Casualties can be expected, but must be balanced with the burden of accomplishing tactical and strategic objectives.  In short, people are valuable but everybody is expendable.

This is one scenario in which spiritual warfare differs greatly from carnal warfare.  Just as the nature of our victory in Christ is absolute, the nature of our protection in Christ from the dangers of warfare is also absolute.  Not one Christian needs to ever experience defeat or suffer a wound in the prosecution of the warfare to which we are called.  In the natural, armies consolidate their resources into “forts” or “bases” where they can be protected en masse. In spiritual warfare, the phenomenon is known as “rest.”

9) So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

10) For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.

11) Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.

12) For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  (Hebrews 4: 9-12)

Think of the place of rest outlined in the scripture above as a fort.  We’ll call it “Fort Rest.”  It’s surrounded by huge walls that are made of the word of God.  The enemy, despite his best efforts, can’t get past these walls to attack you.  So long as you remain within the walls of Fort Rest, you have absolutely no chance of being harmed, defeated, or psychologically effected by battle.

The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him,
And rescues them. (Psalm 34:7)

In an earlier post, I briefly discussed that spiritual warfare was a cleverly crafted deception that the enemy has been force feeding the church for centuries.  I said that there is no force-on-force combat routinely taking place as if the battle had not yet been decided, but that the enemy is attempting to subvert the church into open agreement with his wiles in order to attain a portion of the power delegated to the church by God.   If that’s true, then why do we constantly see “casualties” of war in our congregations: those who are frustrated to the point of leaving the church, those who are sick and broken-hearted, and those who are defeated to the point of depression?

The answer is that the enemy, unable to reach the saints who dwell in Fort Rest, focuses his attacks on those caught “outside the wire.”  The enemy actually lies in wait outside of Fort Rest and springs his trap upon the first unsuspecting soldier to wander outside of the safety of the Fort.

When a soldier proceeds out of the safety of the Fort without specific orders from the commanding general to do so, he leaves behind his provision, his access to timely intelligence, his ability to communicate, his reinforcements, and his comrades. Similarly, when a Christian chooses to engage the enemy outside of the place of rest, he chooses to fight behind enemy lines.  The Christian enters into “striving” outside of his divine provision in an attempt to “advance” upon the enemy, and actually opens himself up to attack and potential defeat.

Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8)

This scripture effectively illustrates the point that I’m trying to make.  The enemy “prowls around” the outside of the walls of Fort Rest seeking someone to devour.  Who can he devour except those who venture outside of the safety of the fort?  Here’s the same scripture in the King James Version:

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

I quite like this translation of the verse because it emphasizes the permissive nature of the enemies search:   “seeking whom he may devour.”  In this case, the victory of the enemy requires the permission of the prey.  How can we agree with being devoured?  By simply agreeing to venture alone outside of the place of rest we inadvertently empower the enemy to devour us.

This is a good place to talk about a phenomenon which I feel is as dangerous as any currently faced by the Church in this age.  We have, among our ranks, certain preachers and teachers who don’t possess a level of knowledge on the topic of spiritual warfare equal to their zeal for the Kingdom.  These well-meaning generals often encourage the rabid, emotional lines of thought on the topic that promote “taking the fight to the enemy.”  With lines such as the ones in the famous song, “I went to the enemy’s camp and I took back what he stole from me,” we form a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of spiritual conflict that causes our brothers and sisters to make themselves vulnerable to the wiles of the devil.

Simply stated, we have no reason to go to the enemy’s camp to retrieve what has been “stolen” from us.  The restoration of the saints is a redemptive work of the cross, and not some crusade for the saints to embark upon consequent to their salvation.  The truth of the matter is that preaching of this nature encourages believers to charge forward of their provision, to leave their place of rest, and subsequently to venture outside of the provision of the absolute protection of the Lord.

There is a time and a place for offensive operations in our spiritual conflict, but it is important to note that these operations will always be coordinated en masse by the commander in chief.   Those who are to participate will be given specific orders for their mission, and will be provided with the intelligence support (prophetic), provisions (equipping), and reinforcements (the angelic host, etc) required to accomplish the mission.  There is a big difference between wandering outside of Fort Rest on a whim and being ordered to advance by the commander and chief (King Jesus).

One of the primary objectives of the enemy is to, through the use of propaganda and “siege weapons,” lure the saints from their place of rest.

“Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” (Ephesians 6:16)

Throughout the warfare of antiquity, fire has always been employed as a siege-breaking technology.  The idea is to provoke an army to leave a fortified structure and cause them to be vulnerable to counterattack.  It works primarily on a psychological level, since fire does very little to damage stone walls.  The idea is to use archers, shoot flaming arrows over the walls, and cause the wooden structures within the fortification to catch fire.  Fire makes people panic, and panic causes them to come out from the protection of their fort.

Likewise, the fiery darts of the enemy are designed to move us from our place of rest.  The fire has no effect whatsoever on the stone walls which protect us (God’s word), but may have an extremely profound psychological effect upon those who are exposed to it.  We must avoid, at all cost, the temptation to run from the protection of the walls of our rest.< >< ><–>