If a battle goes down in the spiritual realm and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound?
More specifically, why should we even care?
Personally, I’ve never seen anything close to our military in combat. As I type this American forces are in Iraq, but my own eyes have seen none of it. And time to time as humans the skeptic in us says that if we’ve never experienced it for ourselves how are we sure it’s going on? It’s like the people who say we never landed on the moon because they’ve never seen anything but TV clips. Or the people who think 9/11 never happened because, well, they’re dense and everything is a conspiracy. And it would be plain stupid for me to think that there’s no war going on in Iraq simply because I’ve never witnessed any of it, but that’s not my point.
My point is that Paul says in Ephesians 6:12, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and powers and authorities of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” That’s a lot to wrap our heads around, and it’s easy to forget about or write off since we can’t see it. How are we supposed to actually believe that not only are there battles going on in another realm that we can’t see, but we’re actually a part of it? It sounds like something out of the Chronicles of Narnia, Peter Pan, or a similar children’s story. But if we truly believe that the Bible is more than a cute story and it’s the very Word of God, we should believe wholeheartedly that what Paul claims is reality. He says that we don’t wage war as the world does, but we still are in a battle with the Devil over our lives and the lives of those around us.
But if we’re actually in a spiritual battle day in and day out that’s both in this world and in some heavenly realm, what on earth are we supposed to do? Well if you want to read up on battles in the Bible all you have to do is turn to Joshua. The entire first half of the book is just battle after battle after battle as the Israelites, led by Joshua, take the Promised Land. And the entire 2nd half is similar to when Mufasa and Simba chill on Pride Rock just to look at all the land they had. The Israelites, with God fighting for them, were prolific in their campaign to take the Promised Land.
Joshua was the commander who led the Israelites. He was their George Washington. He was their Patton. That’s a big deal. But he took over after Moses passed away, and the Bible says that Moses was the humblest and probably the most righteous man on earth. God had chosen Moses out of everybody in the world to be the man who delivered his people out of captivity and to the Promised Land. And I can imagine that at times Joshua felt as inadequate and uneasy about leading the Israelites into battle as we do about the whole idea of partaking in some spiritual battles ourselves.
But if we feel overwhelmed with this idea of every day being a battle, we can rest in Joshua’s simple secret to victory. It’s the same act that will help you overcome any obstacle in your life. It’s the act of OBEDIENCE. Joshua 11:15 says, “As the LORD commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua did it; he left nothing undone of all the LORD commanded Moses.” Obedience is a recurring theme in Joshua, because again and again it says that Joshua obeyed what the LORD commanded. And eventually it says that each and every promise the LORD had given the Israelites was fulfilled.
We should be thankful that obedience is the key, because obedience is one part of our lives that we can control. We can’t always control our circumstances, and we certainly can’t control how we are treated by others. And often we can’t even control our understanding of what’s going on, because the battles are going on unseen by us as we pray and act here on earth. But we can always control our choice to obey God.
It doesn’t even matter how incompetent we feel when faced with a situation, temptation, or battle that will inevitably happen. In Joshua 23:3 Joshua reminds everybody that it was the LORD who fought for them, and in the same way God has done all the fighting for us. Jesus has already handed us the victory, as Romans 8:37 says we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. When we give our lives to Christ we are no longer slaves to sin. That’s why in Romans 6:12 Paul says don’t let sin reign in your mortal body. Temptation may always be there as an outlaw, but we can’t let it be king. Sin should no longer rule us.
It’s like how the Israelites took the Promised Land. They had escaped bondage in Egypt, and now that they were in and ruling the Promised Land they no longer had to fear. But they couldn’t be complacent either, because it didn’t mean nobody would ever attack. There were still people who raided the Promised Land, and when the Israelites forsook God and forgot what he’d done for them they lost it. In a similar way sin no longer rules our body and mind, but that doesn’t mean it won’t stick around to partake in guerilla warfare. Often in real life a defeated or beaten enemy doesn’t give up, but retreats to partake in guerilla warfare and attack from time to time. That’s why we need to be diligent in our obedience and our faith. When the Israelites forgot that living in the Promised Land and serving God would be a battle, they ended up losing parts of it. And we too can’t forget that after we’ve given our life to Christ that there will still be a battle to fight. We aren’t born again into a maternity ward, we’re born again into a battlefield.
The Devil has been playing the same games for centuries, and his biggest game is to make us forget that there’s a battle going on at all. He wants us thinking that everything is peachy keen so we can just be cool and keep living as usual. He wants us to turn off the good news and replace it with some amusing fluff like Lifetime or Oprah. Anything that won’t remind us of the battle that is raging for our soul and the souls around us. Because it’s a beautiful lie to believe that there’s no conflict spiritually, but all of us know that’s false.
And the same way a soldier is diligent to obey his commander, we’ve got to be diligent to be in the Word obeying God’s commands. We’ve got to fan the flame. We can’t just let our mind and heart go on empty and passive, we have to fill ourselves with God’s Word and diligently seek God and follow his commandments. If the Israelites weren’t diligent in their obedience, or if they forgot they were at battle, they would fall. And eventually, they did. Eventually a couple books later they get Kings who the Bible says “did what was best in their own eyes,” totally rejecting obedience to God, and the entire kingdom gets split and goes into exile.
With the eternal consequences of the battle we’re in it’s easy to get flustered or feel overwhelmed and blow it off. But what we fail to realize when we get anxious is that we already have victory. God’s already won. All we have to do is be obedient in the Promised Land he’s given us. Romans 8:28 says that God works all situations and every battle for the good of those that love him. And I think a lot of the time people think that means everything will work out perfectly, and they lose sight of that last phrase, “those that love him.” Well how do you know if you’re included as one who loves God? The Bible spells it out clear as day in 1 John 5:3. It says “This is love for God: to obey his commands.” It’s clear to us, to others, and to God that when we obey God we show our love for him. And it’s then that Romans 8:28 applies and every battle will be won just as Joshua took the Promised Land through his obedience.
But guess what, just like everything else God calls us to, it’s bigger than ourselves. Because there are people who don’t realize that there is a battle going on. It’s not just about us. I’m not trying to be a Debbie Downer, but the reality of things is there are people losing battles and turning to substances, sex, and even suicide instead of God’s love. It’s part of our calling to let the people around us know not only that there is a battle going on for their souls, but there is also a God that loves them and wants to give them victory.
Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is forcefully advancing, and that forceful men lay hold of it. There’s no room for passive minds and passive hearts. Those that will lay hold of it will have a strong desire to have it, and desire to see everyone else following with the same passion. God wants none to perish, he’s a general with a no man left behind policy. That’s why his greatest commandment is not only to love him but to love others, and that’s why his great commission is to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations.
To obey the great commission sounds intimidating, “making disciples of all nations”. But it starts in the circle of influence we already have. We’re called to our schools and our neighborhoods, and trust me there are enough Christians in the world where if everyone just took care of their turf we’d be well on our way to “all nations”. If everyone took care of their own bubble the whole world wouldn’t be far off. It’s really not that mindblowing.
You will live victoriously in your Promised Land when you learn to live a life of obedience. And a life of obedience might as well start with the greatest commandments, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and to love your neighbor as yourself. The first takes care of us, and the 2nd takes care of advancing God’s kingdom. It’s simple. Start obeying God’s commands by not only loving him with all your heart, but beginning to share that love with the people around you.
Stay diligent. Never forget that we as Christians are in a battle, for our souls and the souls of those around us. Be like Joshua, who obeyed everything he was commanded to do, and saw every one of God’s promises for the Israelites fulfilled. Because each and every one of us has a calling that goes beyond what we could imagine, and we too will see it fulfilled as we walk in obedience.
