Weapons of our Warfare

"For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete." -2 Corinthians 10:3-6

Pretty deep, powerful verse, huh? It sounds pretty intense for how most of us view faith. Most often we view faith as a 1990’s cheesy, fake Sunday school idea that people ascribe to because they grew up in it. It brings us images of an effeminate, calm, hazy-looking Jesus demurely holding a lamb in a painting. Aw, He’d never hurt a soul. How sweet. Sigh.

The reality is-faith is hardcore. It’s deep and deafening. It’s sobbing and praying in the middle of the night. It's your heart falling into your stomach so palpably that you feel sick, but somehow trusting. It’s Jesus at war against all evil. It’s blood and warfare and demons and angels, battling for the only thing worth fighting for. Good over evil.

In Revelation 19:12-16, Jesus is described returning to the Earth to fight:

“His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems; and he has a name inscribed that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, wearing fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron; he will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, “King of kings and Lord of lords.”

A robe dipped in the blood of his enemies?

A tattoo of His name on his thigh so all his enemies know who is coming for them?

A rod of iron?

Fury of the wrath of God?

Damn. Hardly sounds demure and effeminate to me.

This real raw desire for battle against good and evil is in every single one of us, men and women alike. We know it’s real. We know it’s going on around us. We can feel it. We can sense it. We watch it play out in our own lives and the lives of those we love. We constantly feel good and evil tugging at our souls, often feeling too weak to stand up and fight, or maybe not thinking we're worth it or that we matter much in the battle.

But we intrinsically and deeply want to be part of it, too.

Men scramble after the feeling-chasing adrenaline, excitement, lust and greed. They feel the weight of the battle on their shoulders and the call with which they’re called to as they sit in their cubicles wearing slacks, day after day, living a life of monotony and boredom. and eating fast food and watching porn to numb the pain of living a life of mediocrity when they’re called to greatness. They wonder: "there's got to be something more."

Women fight against the order of things, distracting themselves from the True battle. They either work against their male counterparts and make it all about them by focusing on their own rights, their own careers, and their own names or they quell the strength and passion they possess as fellow warriors alongside men because they’re "not supposed” to be seen or heard- they're to be quiet, calm, and unopinionated like a good little Godly woman.

We truly have so much of a role to play. And there are practical steps we can embrace to fight alongside God in this battle.

Firstly, stay focused.

Make civilized the mind, make savage the body. Build muscle and strength. It will help you remember daily that you are a warrior training for battle. Eat well, love your family, read God’s Word. Be intentional about how you spend your time, whatever that looks like for you. Work hard for the glory of God in whatever vocation you find yourself in, wether it be delivering mail, making music, selling real estate, or working on cars. Keep your eye on what truly matters and the real purpose of life. That is your foundation.

Secondly, pray.

The Word says “The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles..” (Psalm 34:17).

Prayer is such a magnificently underrated gift to all of humankind. Before Christ's death on the cross, we had to have an intercessor to pray on our behalf that had to ensure they followed protocol before a Holy God so as to not be struck down dead before His glory. Since Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, He is our intercessor. No longer do we have to follow any protocol. We are holy and blameless before God when we are in Christ. This means that we can pray, anytime, anywhere, in any way, without pomp and circumstance and without any rules, requirements, or regulations. We can simply talk to the God of the universe and Creator of all things. And He listens. What an incredible gift.

Thirdly, fight the battle of your own mind.

As I’ve dealt with my fair share of heartache in my short 29 years of life on this Earth, I have been barraged, like all of us are, with negative thoughts.

The truth is,

life experiences become feelings

feelings become thoughts

thoughts become beliefs, and

beliefs affect our behavior and how we interact with the world,

building up strongholds in our minds as fortresses for our Enemy in the battle we face. These strongholds become ingrained in us about what we believe and how we view and approach the world and those around us.

All of, and I mean, all of, our feelings are valid. Feelings matter. God gave us all of our emotions to feel. Jesus certainly felt His full range. He cried tears of blood, He celebrated weddings with drinking wine and being merry, He chased people around a temple with a whip, and He felt the insurmountable physical pain of being nailed to a cross and the depths of heartache of becoming sin itself so it could be put to death and not enslave us anymore.

Feelings are good. And they matter.

So the goal here is not to deny our feelings. But we are also not enslaved to them. We are the only ones that control our thoughts that come out of those feelings. We are the only one's responsible for doing so.

We are not powerless.

We are not victims.

We get to choose what we believe.

Most of us either don’t realize that or the process happens so naturally that we don’t even realize the lies we’re believing, let alone that we are believing any at all. The lies become negative self-talk, hindering us from living life the way God has called us and given us the ability to live: free, joyful, and impactful.

The goal is filtering through our feelings and “taking every thought captive to obey Christ.”

So. Anytime you have a feeling, pay attention to it. Validate your feeling. But then be an active participant in what you choose to believe. Ask these questions:

1. What am I believing about this negative feeling? (I’m unloved, I’m not good enough, I’m unworthy, they are the worst human being ever, and so on)

2. Is this belief true or is this a lie?

3. If it’s a lie, you know you can toss it aside in the recycling box of your mind and actively choose not to believe it. If it’s negative and painful, yet not at all constructive, it’s a lie.

4. If it’s a lie, you can search scriptures for the truth that combats it and meditate on the truth to fight back.

5. If it’s true, then you know you can hold fast to it and allow that to bolster your heart and identity.

I’ll show you how this works with my own example.

I have a feeling: Pain of rejection or disapproval from a parent.

Thought: I guess they don’t love me.

Belief: I am unworthy of love.

Question: Is this truth or a lie?

Answer: It’s a lie.

Truth: Truth says “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8).

He says "Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians. 4: 1-6)

This says we are chosen. We are adopted. He loved us before giving us a solution to our imperfection. We can’t be unworthy of love if we’re chosen! And us being chosen is not up to us if it's Someone else choosing it. He died for us before we come to repentance. While we were STILL sinners, He died on our behalf.

Once we apply the truth against that lie we are believing, whatever it is, we begin to deconstruct the enemies fortresses in our own minds and we are able to take our identities, our hearts, our souls, and our minds back. We are able to be in control of our beliefs, our thoughts, and sort and organize our feelings to be in line with what we choose to believe about ourselves and the world.

Try this sometime. When you're feeling any certain way, how does that feeling stand up against truth? It's for you and you alone to bring that to light for yourself.

It takes practice, but you have all the time you need.

It’s never too late to fight your own battle and build your mental strength and fortitude.