A Call to Arms Part 6

The life of a soldier is not an easy one. The Word of God forewarns us that if we desire to be soldiers of Jesus Christ, we will have to endure hardships, we will have to be molded, matured, refined, trained, and battle tested, because all these are necessary steps to making a true soldier.

Not only does a pretend soldier pose a danger to their own person, because they are untrained, ill equipped, and likely fearful of the enemy’s advances, the pretend solder is a danger to those around him as well. Much of the time a pretend soldier serves as a distraction for the true soldiers, because what they are doing is so out of step with what ought to be done, that even the most seasoned warrior is surprised by their actions.

Yes, I know, we like to tell each other God is doing something new all the time, so it’s perfectly fine if some knucklehead is kicking cancer patients in the stomach, but in reality, such individuals are a distraction, and often times a source of shame for the household of faith because of their actions.

 It’s one thing to suffer for righteousness’ sake, it’s quite another to suffer due to the actions of some conman which the world automatically associates with you because he calls himself a Christian just as you do.

The Bible tells us our God changes not. He remains the same in perpetuity, and if something worked perfectly well a thousand years, a hundred years, or a day ago, God is wise enough not to mess with it, or try to improve upon it. How can one improve upon perfection? How can one improve upon something God Himself created and put together?  

Yes, men take it upon themselves to try and help God, to improve the ways and means by which we reach out to the lost, or attract the world to the household of faith, but these are gimmicks God neither sanctioned nor approved. We do these things of our own volition, driven by our own vanity, unimpeded in our actions by the reality that God is not in it.

It is important to go through basic training, it is important to be taught war, it is important to know how to wield the weapons in your arsenal, so that when war does come, you are prepared, you are ready, and rather than flee from before the enemy, you will advance against him as a true warrior ought.

God even allowed certain enemies of Israel to remain in the olden days, simply so the children of Israel might be taught war.

Judges 3:1-3, “Now these are the nations which the Lord left, that He might test Israel by them, that is, all who had not known any of the wars in Canaan (this was only so that the generations of the children of Israel might be taught to know war, at least those who had not formerly known it), namely, five lords of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites, who dwelt in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Ball Hermon to the entrance of Hamath.”

We cannot shy away from battle, nor can we shy away from the training implicit in every soldier’s life, so that he might be able to not only defend himself, but advance into enemy territory and vanquish him.

God did not want His people to forget what war was like, nor did he want them to forget what being a soldier implied, so He allowed certain nations to remain for this specific reason.

Nowadays we’ve come to believe that just because our fathers knew spiritual warfare, it is enough. Since they knew it, in our mind there is no need for us to know it, not realizing that every generation and every individual must stand on the battle field, and on that day all that will matter is whether or not you’ve learned warfare, or just pretended at it.

History is rife with individuals who counted on their pedigree to see them through, only to find themselves fleeing from before their enemy in fear.

By the same token history is also rife with individuals who overestimated their skills, who thought themselves superior soldiers to the point of disregarding the orders of their commanding officers.

Nowadays we are seeing untold numbers of believers disregarding the direct orders of their General, thinking themselves wiser, and more astute than He. Though they’ve never been in battle, though they’ve never seen a skirmish, though most have never even held a sword, or strapped on a breastplate, they are certain of their intellectual superiority only to become as fools when the consequences of their shortsightedness come to fruition.

Whenever we utter the words ‘I think’ and do so knowing full well that what we are thinking contradicts what the Bible clearly says, we are ourselves become the shortsighted fools I speak of.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.