Spiritual Battle plan

I’m not really into talking a lot about spiritual battles.

I think my church background and my experience of some people who seem to always be casting demons out of things mean that I am a little suspicious of that kind of language..

One of the speakers at Arrow, though, gave me some real food for thought.

His name is Jossy Chacko and he is the founder of a church planting organization called empart.

He spoke about his journey and what he considered the wrong foundation that the Western church is built on.

His view is that there is a heresy in the Western church that Christianity is about inviting Jesus into your heart, and then church is gradually about extracting more and more of you for Jesus. He pointed out that the bible is very clear that Jesus doesn’t just want your heart, but all of you.

He finished his time by briefly unpacking Revelation 12:11 and the spiritual battle plan.

The passage tells the story of the battle between the archangel Michael and Satan, and verse 11 spells out how the battle was won:

Revelation 12:11 (NIV)
They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

Its a simple verse that I have passed over numerous times, but as Jossy unpacked it, the lightbulb went on for me.

Firstly, the central key to winning the spiritual battle is not through anything we do.. its simply by the blood of the Lamb.

Too often my faith moves to being about me and my experience. Revelation makes it clear that the only way to win the battle is to make sure it is Jesus and not me that is the focus. It is His blood, not my faith that wins the spiritual battle.

Secondly the battle is won by the word of their testimony . The word “testimony” brings up intense feelings of boredom for me as I recall sitting through peoples long and uninteresting personal narratives.

Jossy, however, pointed out that we get the word “testimony” from the word “test”, and perhaps the reason so many people’s testimonies are boring is because they have spent their lives avoiding the tests.

It reminded me of a verse God seems to keep bringing me back to:

Romans 5:3-4 (NIV)
Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; [4] perseverance, character; and character, hope.

One of the things that became clear during the week of Arrow, was that one of the main questions facing the church is the question of character. As we dialogued it was clear that most of the real failures in leadership we had seen were to do with character and not competence.

Character is developed as we face the tests of suffering and not avoid them.

I can see in my life there are tests that I have avoided, and as I have I have been made smaller as a person, however the tests where I have stood my ground and held on have made me a bigger and better person.

The final element of the battle plan was that they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

Jesus says:

John 12:24-25 (NIV)
I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. [25] The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

He says something like this five times in the gospels, as though he is trying to get it through to us.

I think this is what Jossy was saying about the foundation of Western Christianity being wrong. Its easier to talk about a faith that mainly requires an intellectual assent to four philosophical propositions, rather than a faith that requires your whole life.

I know that one of the continual questions for me is whether I am willing to give up the things that make life more enjoyable or more comfortable. Am I willing to give up my life for Jesus?

Later in the chapter, Revelation talks about the kinds of people who are targeted in this spiritual battle:

Revelation 12:17 (NIV)
Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

One of the things that strikes me about this verse is that Satan isn’t targeting Christians generally but only those who actually obey God’s commandments and hold on to Jesus.

It seems that the Devil isn’t that concerned with people who simply turn up to church on Sundays, or even those who know their bible well or lead worship. The people he is really worried about are those for whom faith is more than a philosophy, those whose lives demonstrate that Jesus is actually the centre of all they are and do.

I’m not always like that. I wish I was. But I can see that one of the Satan’s main goals is to get me away from that place and sometimes I don’t need his help in that goal.

I find Jossy’s perspective very helpful in understanding the reality we find ourselves in.