TRAINING TO FIGHT

Pastor Harry led us through the preparation for putting on the armor of God this past Sunday.  Without proper preparation, we don’t know how to utilize the armor God provides.  We can try without training but as an example, how do we use the sword of the Spirit (the word of God) if we haven’t studied it?  It would be like going into physical battle as a soldier without knowing the fundamentals or being in the proper physical shape.  There is a reason that soldiers go to boot camp for at least eight weeks prior to going to the battlefield.  Trying without training proves fruitless and frustrating as we face the spiritual foe that is the real enemy.  

As Pastor Harry pointed out this week and as Pastor Mark showed us last week, our struggle is not against flesh and blood (see Ephesians 6:12) but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of the dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  We must train ourselves with God’s word before we try to fight the battle.  And it’s not something we can do for a short period of time with the expectation that we can maintain it without training, which must become like breathing, a natural part of everyday life.  The Accuser is always looking for an opening and will find one if we let our defenses down. What happens if we stop training to be Christlike?  Satan has a foothold.

Now what does that really mean?  It means that I have to make the desire to be Christlike the number 1 priority in my life (He says no other Gods before me).  Then I would have to sustain that lifestyle change for a long period of time.  I would need to keep the first things first, making reading, internalizing and meditating on Scripture a regular habit in order to keep myself disciplined.  Training would begin to come naturally with fruitless trying being out the window, and execution of God’s plan in my life succeeding in the battle against Satan’s attacks.