The Way of the Warrior
A few years ago, I took note of a common, yet quite remarkable sight while I was driving along a busy street one morning. A little lady, bent with age, confidently walked out into the traffic. She raised her frail hands to the oncoming traffic. And what happened? Several tons of machinery, cars and large trucks, came to a halt. We waited while the children crossed the road, then when she motioned for us to go ahead, traffic flowed once again. She was invested by our local government with a position of authority as a crossing guard. A distinctive uniform and badge authenticate her authorization. For that reason drivers respect her directives.
As we continue in our discussion of the topic of Spiritual Warfare, it critically important that we touch on the subject of our authority over the evil powers that work against the Kingdom of God. Frequently Christians find themselves trounced by tempting situations and defeated by dug-in habits. Despite their best intentions, they are so neutralized by their own internal struggles, that they are incapable of influencing their world for God in any meaningful way. Their efforts against evil, both in the inner personal life and in their world, are feeble and fruitless.
I believe that their ignorance of the authority that Christ has given to Believers and/or their failure to live in a way that gives them confidence to exercise their spiritual authority is the reason that they are helpless in the face of evil.
Jesus said, {Luke 10:19} “I have given you authority to . . .overcome all the power of the enemy.”(NIV)
The Message says: “See what I’ve given you? Safe passage . . . and protection from every assault of the Enemy. No one can put a hand on you.”
Neil Anderson writes,
“You would have no authority at all if it weren’t for your identity as a child of God and your position in Christ. Who you are must alway take precedence over what you do.”
As Christians we must UNDERSTAND and ACCEPT our identity in Christ! Truth is one of our primary weapons! We break out into a new place of freedom when we understand what Christ did at the Cross and accept, by faith, our authority over the Enemy and his domain. Satan is a defeated foe. His power was seized by Jesus Christ when He died and rose again from the dead.
Why, then, is evil so powerful? Primarily because of the big LIE.
Satan is a master Deceiver, an arch liar. He will take as much from us as we allow him to take. He will bluff and bluster with displays designed to intimidate. He will work wherever he finds someone willing to co-operate with him. He manipulates events and people constantly in his attempts to appear as the master of the world, one who is successfully destroying the work of God, but it is an illusion based on lies.
Despite his best efforts, the kingdom of God grows; sinners become saints; hopeless people find hope; dying people find life! He may threaten and attack, but we are invested by Christ with a greater authority which the Evil one must respect and yield to. The Bible teaches us clearly, 1 John 4:4 “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (NIV)
Are you a Christian through faith in Jesus Christ?
Then you have been given authority to defeat evil. Don’t repeat the lies of Satan and his demons. Stop telling yourself and your world that you cannot change yourself or your situation. Stop speaking defeat.
Instead, begin to speak that which the Bible, the word of God, teaches as the truth. For example:
- I am more than a conqueror through Christ.
- Nothing can separate me from the love of God.
- God will provide all the resources I need today.
- I love you with the love of the Lord because He loved me to life.
Knowing your POSITION in Christ, is the first step to spiritual victory.
However, there is more.
While it is critically important to KNOW the TRUTH about who you are in Christ, you must also commit to living as a warrior. If your actions are not consistent with your words, you create a gap for the entrance of greater evil into your life. Your defenses will be breached and you will find yourself neutralized or worse, defeated— unable to exercise the authority that could be yours.
Achan brings defeat to Israel
A classic illustration of this is found in the story of Achan and the Israeli people in the book of Joshua. God promised His people that they would be successful in their war of conquest for the Promised Land. Just before he died, Moses went before the people and outlined for the last time the principles of God’s blessings. If you want to read that sermon, you can look at Deuteronomy 28.
Deuteronomy 28:1-2
If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God: (NIV)
Deuteronomy 28:15
However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: 25 The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. (NIV)
A year or so later, during the first battle of the campaign for conquest of the Promised Land, Achan chose to disobey God’s command that no plunder was to be seized. To keep the Israelis from becoming just another marauding band of thieves, God directed that all the wealth that they captured was to be placed in the national treasury. Achan, however, allowed greed to overcome obedience and took a little gold, a little silver, and a fine robe! He thought his sin was hidden, but God knew. At the next campaign the Israelis were soundly defeated by a smaller city and about 30 died in battle. Their divine authority and power had been neutralized by the sin of one in their company!
Want to read the story for yourself? See Joshua chapter 7.
What a powerful spiritual principle.
Our choices to reject the will and way of God render us weak AND have a ripple effect on our family, our church, and our circle of friends. If you live an inconsistent, undedicated Christian life, Satan and his demons will mock you when you attempt to speak with authority to them. They will heap shame on you that will most likely cause you to lapse into an embarrassed silence. When you pray, they will taunt you with vivid memories of your sin and try to convince you that God is no longer listening. They are lying, but their lies are quite effective many times!
Exercising the authority given us by Christ, requires that we are in an intimate relationship with Him, living as a person under His direction.
Turn with me to Matthew 16.
Before we begin to read, hear this thought:
The most basic sin is pride: that is, choosing to serve self and working to get others to serve your aims as well.
We work at getting a place of comfort,
at accumulating possessions for ourselves,
at gaining places of power within our family, our neighborhood, our community, and at work.
Underlying our fighting and struggling is the idea- “I am worth it.” In its most extreme expressions, selfish pride becomes self worship. The words are not verbalized but the attitude is clear: “I am a god, controlling my destiny and my world.” Think about it.
How many of the difficulties that you had this week were the result of your expression of pride?
How would your life have been different
∙ if you had been willing to allow your spouse’s needs take priority over your own?
∙ if you had let the other person go first?
∙ if you had stopped thinking of your own comfort and wishes and served somebody?
∙ if you had consciously chosen to do God’s will over your own?
So as we read, you will find that Jesus addresses not specific actions but rather establishes the principles of submission and surrender to God’s mastery as the way of the warrior.
He doesn’t speak to symptoms. He speaks to the root cause, the pride of self.
Take a look at Matthew 16: 21-23. {READ}
We have the advantage of time and can more clearly see the over-all plan of God in the life and death of Jesus. Peter, on the other hand, heard Jesus talk about dying and it hurt. He wanted to preserve and protect his friend. So he tries to stop Jesus from talking about the coming encounter with death at the cross.
Did Jesus see Peter as simply misguided or mistaken? NO! Take a look at Matthew 16:23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." What a stunningly harsh rebuke. But it goes to the heart of the matter. Listen to the way it is stated in the NLT. “. . .You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, and not from God’s.”
We cannot effectively serve the purposes of God IF we are intent on protecting ourselves and our interests. We are warriors, sent out by the Lord to do His work, often at great personal cost. We are men and women under orders of another called to serve selflessly.
Go with me once again to the text. {READ vv. 24-27}
In that passage there are some key statements that create a foundation for the exercise of the authority given to us by Christ. When we commit to understanding and implementing these demands of Christ, we will gain ever more ability to defeat evil through the power of God.
# 1- Deny yourself.
What does Jesus mean?
Is He talking about the self-denial that is practiced by people who are fanatical about their goals?
∙ A world class ice skater practices self-denial. She gives up the comfort of her bed early in morning to go the rink for practice. She sacrifices time with family and friends to condition her body. She ignores the pain of muscles that ache with exertion to get her routine perfect.
Is this what Jesus talking about?
No. Self-denial as it is commonly practiced is just a means to achieve one’s OWN GOALS. It is an ultimate way to out-perform those with whom you are competing. Most self-denial is a way of achieving self-promotion.
Jesus calls for denying Self, meaning that we dethrone self will and take Him as the undisputed Lord of our lives. How I wish this were a once-for-all-time decision. But, Believer, it isn’t. Just about everyday, you will be confronted with the choice: Who am I going to serve today? Self or Christ?
Successfully making that decision will involve the next choice of the warrior.
# 2- Take up your cross everyday.
What a powerful image for those first disciples. Those condemned to death by the Roman government were first made to carry their own cross to the place of crucifixion. The crossbeam laid across their shoulders made the statement, “I am under the sentence of death, judged... my fate is sealed.”
There is no denying self without the cross. To attempt to overcome self by your own will leads to frustration. The inner conflicts that follow are terrible and eventually selfishness finds a way to be expressed even if must do so under the disguise of religion. The key to denying self is to take up the sentence of death, embrace it, and carry it prominently! Here’s how Paul expresses it.
Galatians 2:20-21 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" (NIV)
Picture a crucifix. Can you see yourself hanging there in the place of the figure of Jesus?
Are you so given to God that you will allow others to strip away your dignity, torture you, and ultimately take away your life for the cause of Christ? Some of you are wincing inwardly. What an awful way to live, under the sentence of death. No, friend, not at all. For death of self through identification with Jesus Christ is not the end of the story. It allows us to take the next step in the way of the warrior.
# 3 - Follow Christ.
The way of the world is to make one’s mark. “Express yourself!” “Do your own thing.” “Create a legacy.” “Make your name known.” “Feather your nest.” “Create a place of comfort.”
Let’s assume you succeed. What then? What have you really accomplished? You are still a mortal human being and when you’re gone someone else will take what was yours and memory of your life will be erased steadily by time. Eventually all that will be left will be a marker at a grave and even the elements will gradually obliterate the etchings in the stone.
The way of the warrior is to carefully consider the ultimate outcome of life.
Matthew 16:26 What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? (NIV)
When we follow Christ, embracing His identity and cause as our own, we gain immortality and give ourselves to a cause far greater than ourselves. As a person under His command, we have authority and power to overcome sin, demons, and even Satan himself.
It makes me think of men and women who served in the military during World War II. At great personal cost, young men and women went to fight to preserve the world from tyranny. They left safety, security, loved ones, and all that was familiar. They began to live under orders— even eating and sleeping by another’s wishes. Yet, when you speak to many of these veterans, now a half century later they will tell you that those days were a time full of a sense of destiny. For many, the rest of their life has not equaled those 3,4, or 5 years back in the mid- 1940’s. They were part of a greater cause and it gave their life a sense of purpose and destiny.
Take your authority from the Lord.
Begin to live a consistently surrendered and submitted life without gaps in your spiritual defenses.
The result? Victory!
You will see situations changed, habits defeated, and a new freedom to live joyously in God.
The disciples had this experience. Sent out by Jesus, they found power and authority to do the work of God. Their reaction is recorded in Luke 10:17 — The seventy-two returned with joy and said, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name." (NIV)
But Jesus quickly adjusted their attitude. Note His reply to their report: Luke 10:18-20
"I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." (NIV)
The excitement is not in the power over demons! It is not in being able to do great miracles or to exercise control. What does Jesus say is the real cause for rejoicing? That they are children of God, safe and secure.
In The Message, that passage is written in these words...
“The great triumph is not in your authority over evil but in God’s authority over you and His presence with you. Not what you do for God but what God does for you... that’s the agenda for rejoicing!”
Amen.
