JMJ
I think the most fundamental necessities of going in to a battle are as follows:
- define the enemy: to actually have an enemy is absolutely essential
- determine your allies: know who is on your side
- know what victory looks like: have clear stated objectives
- amass the weapons and tools: go into battle well armed
- understand the battlefield: where you are fighting
- employ tactics to achieve an overall strategy: do not confuse these two concepts
- fight down to the last man and never surrender: if you go in with surrender on the table, why bother?
Over the next few posts I will be exploring the idea of spiritual warfare. This is a battle fought both at a spiritual level and in the physical world. Since, as Human Beings, we are both spiritual and physical beings, the battle between good and evil unfolds equally in both realms simultaneously, thus we are called to fight in both realms. Strangely, this is a battle that must be fought now and in real time. I say “strangely” because the outcome is determined, is already known, yet, it must be thus. All that is for a person to do is to choose which side he is on, and then fight with all his mind, with all his body, with all his heart, with all his will, with all his spirit, and with all his soul. There can be no half measures; no hedging of bets. This is not a battle that can be sat out. Every person is in this battle: willing or not. While you may be sitting there wondering which side to choose, I’ll give you a small point to consider: In the end, the side of good, God’s side is resoundingly victorious. There is no second place prize.
Know Your Enemy-The “Evil One”
This is a “no brainer,” right? The enemy is Satan, the Devil and his demons. What kind of stupid question. . .? Not so fast, Yes, Satan is the “prince” of this world and his demons do hold high office, but Satan is a master recruiter and has brought billions of humans into his army willingly albeit often unwittingly. Satan’s false promises of freedom, of self-determination, of self-actualization, self-this, and self-that that only leads to self-destruction. Satan offers egocentricity. Satan is about “self-empowerment, self-affirmation, self-esteem.”
Before continuing, let me say: I know there are countless books written on these subjects. What I am attempting do do here is merely touch on some lesser discussed or overlooked elements that I think essential to the battle.
Contrary to popular new age spirituality and Christian justification for excess, there is no such thing as detachment from that which is possessed or called “one’s own.” If it belongs to you, admit it or not, you are attached to it and responsible for all outcomes, intended or not, of your possession. If you have a silo of grain (and really would not “feel” a great loss should it be burned down a common claim of one who fancy’s one’s self detached), you are still guilty of letting another starve to death even if you planned on giving it to charity after you die. You are as responsible for that life as if you had driven a spike into the starving man’s skull. This applies to grain and money. All of us who have savings accounts are murderers. I don’t like that statement any more than the next person, but if we meditate on it, we find it to be true. I save and another man starves.
The “Evil One” is not a single entity. The Evil One is a kingdom set in opposition to the Kingdom of God. The Evil One is a “oneness” a collective of evil. The Evil One is a society in which we become immersed when we become complacent, spiritually asleep ,and unresponsive, when we delude and lie to ourselves. Our savings starve other people, about this we should have no delusion, admitting we are sinners and begging God’s Divine Mercy. When we begin to lie, to justify, to split hairs, to twist and writhe the truth, this is when we become corrupt and irredeemably evil. This is where we call “evil, good and good, evil.” Once this happens, we are truly lost.
Adjust your eyes and begin to see the elegant structure of the worship of the material. See the countless altars in stores and online commerce sites; view innumerable icons in television and digital ads, on billboards and posters. Hear the endless sermons in marketing pitches and commercials overt and hidden in movies, newscasts, videos, etc. We are not surrounded, we live in Babylon. We are citizens to an evil kingdom, to the Evil One.
It is time to renounce this citizenship to the Evil One. It is a time to rebel. It is a time for revolution. Christ has called us. We are not defending, we are attacking. The Evil One is here. The Kingdom of Heaven was born in Jesus and now it is for us to attack and bring down the Evil One. It is for us to build up the Kingdom Christ established, or it is for us to die trying. There is no surrender. There is no middle ground. You fight for Christ or you resign to being a citizen in the Evil One. No Self-determination. No self-actualization. No self-empowerment. No self-affirmation. No self-esteem. You are One in Christ or you are in the Evil One. You choose God and His promise of eternal life, or you oppose Him and opt for Hell with the Devil and his demons consigned to the outer darkness where there is eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth.
All the remains is to answer a single question: Which side are you on?
(C) Copyright 10 August 2020
For Lourdes Sake 