We do not fight against flesh and blood...which means our battle is not against our fellow man.  It also means we do not war against our own flesh as well.  The adversary has duped us into concentrating our whole focus and energy in fighting the battle over our own personal sin.  If we do what God’s word tells us…”make not provision for the flesh”… then our focus will turn outward.  And we can enter into the true war, the war for the souls of other people.  This is the fight that God has commissioned us for.  Personal sin in our life is a hindrance to that war, but not the war itself.  The battle is not to be Christ-like, that comes through the power of the Holy Spirit when we yield to Him.  When we sin we have a Heavenly Father who has promised that if we will confess our sin He will forgive us and cleanse us.  Our own personal effort will not get us there, so we should focus our attention on ministering to others and making disciples.

The devil has turned us into introspective, truth-seeking, couch potatoes.  Our adversary understands far more than we do what this spiritual warfare is all about.  Satan clearly would like us paralyzed by our sin, but why would the devil spend so much effort trying to ensnare us, when God clearly states that He knows we are sinful creatures with wicked hearts and knew so when He sent His Son to die for us.  Why then all the energy to trap us?  The devil knows that if he can make us fall then it shatters the life of those who have wrongly put their faith in man.  And in destroying us, he kills the influence of Christ in the hearts of those who had other people as their focus.  But there is a second and more deceitful reason for Satan to exercise so much energy and power in trapping us in sin.  That reason is that we begin to wrongly believe that it was the battle Jesus called us to fight.  The devil cleverly has forced us to fight a war over and over again that Jesus has already won.  We spend countless time and energy on inward cleansing when Jesus said that He will cleanse from all unrighteousness.  We cannot do it.  We simply allow the convicting work of the Holy Spirit to show us when we are being sinful, sincerely confess it to God and others if necessary, and move own with the real fight.  This fight is for the souls of our family, friends and neighbors.

Now as you understand the real fight is not with the flesh and blood the next step is to commit to the battle that God has truly called us into.  The great commission is our marching orders and those orders are very specific.  Our strategy is not to get them to church where we can leave the work to the preacher.  We should have a focus of love and caring and a desire to see relationships develop.  When people know that we care for them, instantly we have an open door to...”give an account to those that ask about the hope that is in us.”  Share your testimony, share Jesus Christ, study God's word and pray with them.  Allow the Holy Spirit to work in their hearts and when they accept Christ as their Savior tell them of our commission and walk with them into battle.  Week in and week out you must pour into your disciples just as Jesus did.  And soon that small group of disciples, empowered by God, will become an army.  An army fighting the real fight, the war over lost souls.

Jason Dillingham
jason@jesusworks.com 

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