Preparing For Battle (luke 4)

Preparing for Battle As believers, we have been saved for battle in the Kingdom of God against the spiritual forces of wickedness that arrogantly array themselves against us and against Him. We are the warriors of God Most High, and as such we must learn the Way to strength and victory as His champions for Christ. As our perfect example, Jesus left us a roadmap to follow, which can be found in the account of His Temptation in the Gospel of Luke. From this account we glean certain truths that will aid us in our training and work on the front lines of the timeless battle between good and evil. These truths are as follows:  The believer is a sinner with a sinful nature.  The believer has enemies in the spiritual realm.  The believer will be attacked relentlessly by these enemies and tempted toward sin.  The believer must prepare for these attacks by utilizing the full armor of God, specifically Prayer, Fasting, and the Word of God.  The believer’s enemies will flee before an effective defense.  The believer will struggle with the after effects of the attack.  The believer will be ministered to by God’s servants.  The Kingdom of God will be advanced and the kingdom of the devil will be diminished.

The Believer is a Sinner with a Sinful Nature That we are a people of sin ought be self-evident. Our personal experience informs us daily that the world is filled with strife, war, greed, lust, irreligion and apostasy. The world at large does not agree that these horrors are the result of sin, but the believer in Jesus Christ knows that sin is the culprit and therefore sees the need for faith in Him. Man must first concede the fact of his or her personal sin and recognize the violation that it is against a Holy God, then, after doing this, the sinner will clearly see the need for salvation from God’s just wrath and will look to the only place it can be found, in the goodness of the sacrifice of His Son Jesus. We learn of the truth of the presence and corruption of sin in the world not only through our experiences in this world but also in the Word of God. Scripture clearly details the origination of sin in creation, its effect in the world and in mankind, and the impending doom awaiting all those who die ‘in sin’. The presence of sin is a reality that must be granted. It is present in the world and in humanity; left unchecked it has the power to condemn all of creation to destruction. The believer must therefore come to grips with the truth that residing in him is his own sinful nature. It is true, praise be to God, that upon belief he was given a new nature, a nature that seeks to follow the Way of the Lord through the Spirit, but he still possesses his old nature, which seeks primarily to follow the way of the flesh through sin. These two natures, scripture tells us, are in direct opposition to each other. Neither nature desires what the other desires. The believer therefore has a constant struggle within himself as he tries to disregard his sin nature and choose to gratify his Spirit-given nature. We are told in Scripture to ‘walk in the Spirit’. This means that we have the ability to do so, we have the opportunity to do so, and we have the choice to do so. When we walk in the Spirit we are being led by Him and our

actions are pleasing to God and our work will stand His eternal scrutiny. If we abandon the Spirit and choose instead to satisfy our fleshly desire, we relinquish our struggle in favor of temporary sinful gratification. The first step to becoming successful in the battle against sin is to recognize its presence within oneself and to identify the struggle as it wages war against its enemy, the Spirit of God in us.

The Believer has Enemies in the Spiritual Realm. Often we believers live as if the visible world is all that exists and all that we face as we march through our lives. If we are true to the Lord we seek to honor Him in the daily decisions that we make concerning our worship of Him, including the leading of our families, the occupations with which we make our living, and the individual activities that we pursue for entertainment and relaxation. In our endeavor to worship and seek Him in these ways we struggle against the sin we find both in ourselves and in the world and we oftentimes overlook the very real struggle that we are truly engaged in with an enemy who will use the inherent sin of mankind to destroy all of our work and the kingdom of God, if that were possible. Just as Jesus faced the devil in the wilderness and was sorely tempted by him toward disobedience and faithlessness in God, we too must, and do, face him and the very same temptations (it is only to his credit that we have largely diminished his role in the fruitlessness of our work for the Lord, instead giving the credit for our failures on sin alone). The example found in the account of Jesus in the wilderness clearly shows the presence of the enemy of God and his purpose to interfere and destroy the work of the Lord. The rest of Scripture also gives testimony to the fact that the visible world is not all that the believer lives and dies in. There exists a spiritual realm, vastly larger, vastly more dangerous, vastly more potent, in which a mighty battle is daily waged on behalf of God against the forces of wickedness. This battle, though hidden from our eyes, directly affects us and in fact is often waged through us. We are drawn into this battle by these forces of wickedness that attempt to use us as pawns to complete their evil designs. It is important to note here that the devil and these ‘forces’ are not roaming loose in the world without check. We must remember that God our Father remains completely sovereign and does not allow anything to happen within His creation against His own will. Having said that, He does allow these wicked ones to cover the earth wreaking their destruction, and attempting to foil the work of their own Maker. God Himself allowed the devil to go after His own Son, Jesus. God will also allow these evil ones to go after us, His children in Christ. He does this to test us, just as He did so to test His Son. He does this to glorify Himself; as our victory over these attacks prove to His enemies the sovereignty He maintains. He allows this pain in our lives in order to prove His own power to deliver us from it, and He allows it in our lives to show us the great strength that we can have if we truly rely on Him for help in these times of testing. To be successful in our service to our God, we must admit and recognize that we are not operating in a closed and human environment, but in an incredibly complex and mysteriously open and spiritual environment that extends to the ends of this earth and to the farthest reaches of heaven.

The Believer will be Attacked Relentlessly by these Enemies and Tempted Toward Sin At the end of the devil’s temptations and faced with the inscrutable gaze of Jesus and the power of the Lord’s words, he left Jesus and went off to wait for a more ‘opportune time.’ The devil had taken advantage of the opportunity which presented itself in the Son becoming flesh in Jesus, and mounted an attack on Jesus that was aimed directly at the nature of the relationship between the Son and the Father, and the nature of that relationship in the new context of the Son becoming flesh. The devil had sought to shake the faith of Jesus and to make Him waver in His trust in His Father. The devil had tried to destroy the work of the Lord before it was even started. And when all of his effort was spent he retreated. But he did not slink off to cower in defeat or to hide in his dark lair. The devil went off to wait for the next opportunity to tempt this Holy One again. He went off to plot his next attack, to spy out the lay of the land, to formulate a new plan to achieve his evil desires. He is not omniscient as our God is; he is not omnipotent or even omnipresent. He is only allowed to work within the constructs allowed Him by the Lord, but nevertheless, he attacks as if he actually has the possibility of being victorious. And he continues to attack, repeatedly attempting to do that which will not ever become successful. Against such a foe, one who is bent on not only our destruction but his own as well, what possible relief can we expect? We must expect that he will attack us just as he attacked the Son. We must readily accept that we too are the targets of his venom as Scripture declares. To be successful in our work toward advancing the kingdom we must anticipate and prepare for the repeated and ongoing advances of this spiritual enemy.

The Believer Must Prepare for these Attacks by Utilizing the Full Armor of God, Specifically Prayer, Fasting, and the Word of God Upon coming up from the waters of baptism, Jesus was greeted by the opening of the heavens, the descent of the Holy Spirit, and the joyful words of His Father in heaven. He was then ‘impelled’ into the wilderness by the Spirit for a period of forty days and nights, where he was led around by the Spirit as He was being tempted by the devil. If we look at the baptism of Jesus as His baptism of the Spirit then His wilderness trial is for Him His baptism of Fire. The wilderness trial is a prolonged period of deprivation where Jesus is to be tested both in body and soul. We, like our Lord, should also expect that our lives will contain these periods of testing by fire. It is evident in Scripture that as sons of God Most High we will be both tested and disciplined. The Baptism of Fire of the Lord is for us an example of the Way of survival through the flames of adversity. Jesus utilized three important weapons in His wilderness trial. He made use of the Spirit of God through Prayer. He practiced the discipline of Fasting. He brandished the Sword of Truth, the Word of God, and unleashed it on the enemy as His only tangible defense. With these three weapons we too can prepare ourselves for the impending battles that we must face in our lives as His followers.

Prayer As creatures we are inherently separate from the Father in heaven. We live physical lives and are subject to creation’s physical laws. As such we are in desperate need of some means of connection to our Father if we are to maintain the link that was forged between us

when we first believed in His Son Jesus. That connection is made available to us through the act of prayer. Prayer is the means by which the believer seeks out the face of God throughout his daily living. Prayer is the gift of an open door to the throne room of heaven and the promise of a listening ear from the God who resides there. Scripture shows that our God is not deaf and mute as the idols are. No, our God listens to the calls and thoughts of His people and He promises to answer each and every prayer. When the believer makes use of prayer he begins to lay paving stones along the thread of sonship that Jesus won for him at the cross. He begins to build upon the link between himself and his Father and he begins to deepen the understanding that he has of His Father, the kingdom, and his own place within it. If the believer continues in prayer the thread becomes a road and is traversed continuously day and night by the believer seeking to know His Father more. The wiles of the wicked ones seek at all times to disrupt this incredible link. They want nothing more than for the prayers of the believer to cease, for the road to become abandoned, and for the connection to be lost. They work to distract the believer in his thoughts even while praying. They work to hinder the believer so that the time to pray is lost. They work to undermine the understanding gained through prayer by implanting lies and deception in the believers mind. All of this makes prayer difficult to maintain, but we have our example in Jesus of a life lived with prayer at its center. There are numerous times where Scripture records Jesus going off alone to pray. He would regularly spend entire evenings in prayer to His Father. His life was marked by prayer and as such His life’s work was unimpeded by the exploits of His enemies. In addition to the interference from our enemies we also face the internal interference that stems from our own sin and our own weakness of the flesh. Prayer is a discipline and as such it must be practiced in order for the believer to get ‘good’ at it, to be successful. Praise be to God, we are not alone in our attempts to strengthen our discipline and to follow our Lord’s lead in prayer. He has given us the guidance of the Holy Spirit who comes alongside, if not inside, and helps us to formulate the words we need to say to God and the praise we desire to give to God. Often we feel inadequate in our prayers, we fumble and mumble our thanksgiving, petition, and praise, wishing that we might be more like David with all of his power and eloquence. But God is not holding our stiffness of tongue against us. He is not evaluating the technical merits of our prayers. He has instead sent us the Holy Spirit to intercede for us in prayer. He interprets for us the desires of our hearts, the ones that we can’t seem to find the words for, at all times relaying to the Father our very needs and desires and helping us to build that connection between us. The Father in return sends us His answers, His comforts, His understanding, sometimes in words that we can hold on to, but often in words implanted into our hearts by the same Spirit. We are blessed tremendously in our prayers by these words that we cannot hear but that we instead feel in our hearts.

Fasting Jesus fasted in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights. The length of this fast is unimaginable to those of us who are used to a world where food is available on demand and its use is not strictly for nourishment but also for entertainment, consolation, and diversion. To fast is to go without food for a set period of time as an act of willful sacrifice to the Father. The fast is an expression of the believer’s love for the Father and possibly the only true gift from self that he is able to offer to the Father. To fast requires that the believer intentionally ignore the demands of the flesh in favor of the gift of sacrifice to God. To fast requires that the believer exchange personal gratification for the spiritual gratification that marks this discipline.

The discipline of fasting can be used to give to God what He doesn’t already have, our love and affection. At the same time it gives to us the gift of discipline over our bodies. When we make it a practice to fast, as those in Scripture were wont to, we embark on a journey toward the sublimation of our bodies to the control of our spirits. We strengthen the spirit by denying the body. We become stronger spiritually when we learn we can survive without what we hitherto thought necessary for survival. When we are strong spiritually we are better equipped to engage our enemies in battle, and we are more likely to succeed as our hero Jesus succeeded.

The Word of God Lastly, Jesus used the Word of God as His only external weapon against His spiritual enemy. In direct response to the darts flung at Him by the devil, Jesus simply stood His ground and firmly delivered the crushing blow from Scripture that in all things God is Sovereign, His will is not to be tampered with, and man is reliant on Him and Him alone for all things. To this defense of the Lord’s the devil had not a single response. There is no response to the Truth of the Word of God. In these three recorded responses Jesus threw in the devils face the fact that he would never find himself in the place of God and that his work would never amount to more than a footnote in the annals of the History that God has written. Jesus reminded the devil and He reminds us, that the Word of God is Truth, it has been written and it will never be changed. It can never be changed. Our understanding of this fact and of Scripture as a whole will give us a decided advantage over this enemy who pretends that somehow his lot in life can be altered. We also learn from Scripture that our part in the battle between good and evil is not offensive. We are not told to attack our enemies with the weapons and armor we have been given. We are clearly told instead to firmly stand our ground in the face of our enemy’s direct attacks. Our posture is to be defensive. We are to prepare our selves for the inevitable battle by donning the armor of God and then we are to firmly stand our ground using our shield and our sword to protect ourselves against the enemy’s advances. This spiritual picture of the battle we must wage offers up an exciting image of the advance of the Kingdom of God. As we stand our ground, as our savior showed us, the devil must eventually flee. When we stand and do not yield ground we possess, we are able to step into the territory the devil vacates when he retreats. Our standing firm allows us to advance the Kingdom of God while the devils dominion of darkness steadily diminishes. Oh that the church would learn to stand firm in the evil day, what a glorious kingdom we might have the privilege of ushering in!

The Believer’s Enemies will Flee Before an Effective Defense Faced with a believer who has prepared both body and soul for combat and who wields the Word of God with accuracy, the devil has no other alternative but to flee. Our understanding of the incredible advantage that this affords is vital to our standing firm during the attack. We are faced with a formidable enemy, one that angels’ themselves dare not revile, and yet we know his weakness. He is a defeated foe who will run away from a believer who knows his weakness. This does not diminish the intensity of his attack nor the wounds that he is capable of inflicting, but it does give to us the comfort of knowing that we will survive. We are protected by a God who will never abandon us nor burden us beyond what we can endure. We can and will be victorious if we use the tools left or us by the Lord Jesus.

The Believer will Struggle with the After Effects of the Attack In battle warriors expend energy not only in the attack but in the defense. It takes strength to stand and not yield. It takes strength to lift our weapons and armor to ward off the blows rained down on them from the enemy. It takes strength to jealously guard ones territory and to never yield it to the advances of another. And these advances are not without effect either. The warrior is guaranteed to take some of those blows directly, for no soldier returns from every battle completely unscathed. The truth is that battle is ugly, it is dangerous, it hurts, and it is wearisome. The truth is that in battle warriors are sometimes flawless in their tactics but also sometimes prone to the mistakes that inflict great harm to themselves and others. The truth is that the warrior is human and has human imperfections. The truth is also that our enemy is exceedingly well prepared for the work that he has chosen to do. He is singularly expert at aiming his attacks directly at the soft and unprotected underbelly of our faith. He knows where to poke and where to prod. He knows when to offer up scintillation and distraction. He has the ability to catch us unawares and cast his seeds of disease upon the soil of our hearts. And because of his skill at working his iniquity we often take direct hits that cause us much pain. When he finally breaks off his offensive maneuvers we might feel close to defeat. We might wonder at the point of our continuing to stand after what feels like a poorly fought battle. We might give in at just the moment when our enemy is planning to leave. Our understanding of the expectation of pain and hurt, both physical and spiritual (mental), will greatly aid us in our defense plans. We should expect to be attacked, we should expect that attack to hurt, and we should expect to feel that hurt even after the sharp jabbing pains of his darts have left us. To know the difference between the pain of the thrusting darts of the evil one and the pain of ones healing wounds could be the difference between overcoming the attack and giving in to despair.

The Believer will be Ministered to by God’s Servants Jesus, our example, did not stand before His tempter and survive the experience without a physical and spiritual consequence. He was weakened considerably in His body by His fast, and He was weakened spiritually by His struggle against the evils of the devil. Just as our Savior stood firm and was gloriously victorious, He also paid a dear price for His efforts. We too must therefore expect to pay a similar price for our attempts to stand in the evil day. It is a common misconception that the believer need only to do what Jesus did with the Word of God to ward off the enemy and the trial will then be over. We don’t realize the importance of the fact that Jesus was ministered to after His ordeal in the wilderness. He was ministered to by the angels of God because He was in need of care and attention. His struggle against the powers of darkness had hurt Him, He was weakened and He needed restoration. If the Son of Man needed to be cared for, how much more so we, who are nowhere near Him in His spiritual perfection? We can learn from the care that Jesus needed after His trial that we too must expect to need some care as well. This means that we must necessarily expect to be in pain after our attempts to stand for the Lord. We must realize and expect that we will take hits from the evil ones, we will suffer loss, we will break in places, and we will feel weak. Our battle is much the same as the warriors. We are in a fight for the Kingdom of God, therefore we must expect to walk away ‘scathed’.

Understanding this aspect of the battle is important for the believer. If the believer assumes that he is expected to stand firm before the enemy and provide an unflinching defense before him, he will in the end be disappointed in himself and sadly misunderstand the feelings God has for him. The believer who does not accept the hurt he feels as natural, but rather calls it a weakness in himself, will assume the displeasure of God toward him and entirely miss the loving attention that God showers upon him. Instead of the displeasure of God, we can instead make our way from our battlefield, favoring our sore muscles and dragging our bloody limbs behind us, back to the camp of the Lord where we know He is waiting to minister to us, with love and affection and with words of encouragement for our needy hearts to hear. The ministering of God to our hurts shows us that He does not expect anything more from us than our attempt to stand for Him before those who seek only to destroy. That Jesus Himself needed to be cared for tells us that without a doubt, we who are merely men will need to be cared for as well. How well we do to withstand the trial is dependent on our spiritual strength and maturity, but in the end it is enough that we have attempted to stand; for that God will surely tend to our hurts as only the God of Heaven can.

The Kingdom of God will be Advanced and the Kingdom of the devil will be Diminished When Jesus remained standing before the vileness of the devils taunts, He showed us that it is possible to hold our ground. We are taught in Scripture that as believers we speak in the name of this same Jesus and in doing so we give the devil little alternative but to flee. When our example, Jesus, stood, the devil had to back down, for in the end the Kingdom of God will be victorious and the devil will gain not even a foothold. The devil was forced to leave our Lord, for there was nothing else for him to do. He had to retreat before the weight of the authority Jesus commanded when He wielded the mighty word of God at this enemy. What is startling though is the realization that with the retreat of the devil Jesus was free to step up and out into the place the evil one had formerly occupied. Jesus took the ground that the devil had been holding. Jesus stood where the devil had stood. The kingdom ushered in by Jesus now began to occupy the territory that the devil had for so long considered his own. And it will be the same for the Church of Christ. With each step we take we advance the kingdom, but with each trial we withstand in the name of Christ we cause the devil to lose ground. When we do not yield, he must retreat, and when he retreats we then advance. Scripture says that the devil left Jesus and waited for a more opportune time at which he could strike again. He is going to be like that, striking and retreating, then striking again. Due to his own designs he is bent on repeating his attacks, believing, we can presume, that someday he will find the one crack in the armor of God that can be exploited and cause the Almighty’s ruin. But he will never succeed! His doom is foretold in Scripture, the very same Scripture that he selectively avoided when he was shouting at our Lord. He will fail. With each retreat that he tells himself is only careful and patient planning, we are stepping forward and occupying the ground that he has given up. The kingdom of God is expanding. We, the warriors, are not attacking, we are defending; we are not stepping into battle, we are standing our ground. And as we stand, the devil falls- as he falls, we move ahead. Praise be to the God of Heaven and Earth. Amen!