What in the World is a Christian? A Soldier

We all know the popular "Armor of God" scriptures:
 ¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  -Ephesians 6 10-17 NIV

...and a few of us know that this is a defensive set. If you don't know, now ya know. This set of armor as described by Paul even down to the sword is for the defense of that person that wears it. Not to say that that person can not be offensive, but the point here is to "stand against the devil's schemes" and that when"the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground". "How is the sword defensive CJ?"... good question... a sword can be used both offensively and defensively. Offensively to thrust or cut, defensively to block, parry, and on occasion to trap or break the enemies weapon.

The reason why I start this post with this is because it doesn't matter how well you can fight if you can't defend. Sometimes against a weak opponent there is no need to defend but that can only be deducted AFTER the fight. If you think otherwise you are opening yourself up to being surprised and killed because of a misstep in your core thinking. Only once the enemy has been defeated can you judge his strength or prowess.

Christians  are the Ultimate Soldiers here on earth! We have been given the ultimate defensive armor available handcrafted by God Himself. Truth, Salvation, Righteousness, Faith, Readiness with theGospel and the Spirit of God have all come together to protect us if we put it on. There are no "chinks" in our armor... no weak spots, no holes, no weaknesses. In other words... how did Isaiah put it? Lemme see... "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD." (Isaiah 54:17)

ok so IF we wear the armor we have the ultimate defense... but we still have to "wrestle" with all the powers and principalities and rulers of this dark world and the spiritual forces. If the General says we don't fight with flesh and blood... then we ought not fight against flesh and blood. Doesn't mean flesh and blood won't attack us though! So... we Christians are in the WORLD... surrounded by flesh and blood who want to attack us but we don't attack them because our weapons aren't even carnal, they are spiritual. So if I attack flesh and blood with my spiritual weapons then not only is it not effective, I am in trouble with the General because "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). That is hard.... when we look at it from a carnal mindset.

I can remember my little brothers and cousins getting mad at me and wanting to fight with me. I remember not wanting to hurt them, cause I loved them and because I would get in trouble if I hurt them. So I remember running around, holding their head, going to let an adult know.. something other than fighting em back. That is what we must do with this world. Their attacks are meant to hurt us and they are mad at us and don't like us at the moment, but we are bigger and "we know better". Even if they do manage to hurt us, doesn't mean we have to hurt em back. Being mature we have to act more mature... and instead target that spirit. The way we target that spirit is to remember when it came at us, when it worked through us, when it controlled us. Then we KNOW it... and we deal with accordingly. We pray against it, while loving the person... We all need to work on this... the world needs us to be mature!! They need salvation and healing and a relationship with God! We cannot be folding and buckling and acting like them! We have armor!! We should not be so affected by "what they did to me". We are SOLDIERS for Christ... He is doing the fighting.. we are doing the standing... Get it???!!


Our orders are simple... our orders are not to kill anyone but ourselves... because (just like in our physical Army) our identity is a hindrance. We follow the Commander's every command! So we need to leave us at the door and let Him tell us what to do!  Our orders are to love one another more than we love ourselves.. This is that special technique that defines us... this is how people know that they are dealing with the genuine article.... This is what people thirst for... REAL LOVE. God-breathed love.


Soldiers... we got a LOT of work to do.... we have a lifetime exercise in "Standing" ahead... Let's fall out and get to it!!!