Training

 You can run away from the fight or toward it. One is inherent; the other is training. You can run away from danger or jump headfirst into its maw, knowing that it’s having stood that was the test of your bravery, not whether you vanquished your enemy or whether he bruised you. Then, after a handful of battles are under your belt and you’ve fought your fair share of enemies, you realize the victory was never yours. You were just the servant the Master used to push back the darkness and advance the light.

Running toward danger is not inherent in us. It is a learned reaction, something we do after many repetitions because it takes training to go against your sense of self-preservation and ignore your baser instinct for comfort, safety, and warmth.

Many years ago, I went to work at Walmart for three months. I wanted the worst possible job at the worst possible hours because I wanted to cement my conviction that I never wanted to work for anyone for the rest of my life. I ended up working the third shirt, stocking shelves for ten hours straight and six days per week, and even that was something I needed a couple of weeks of training for. You take the item out of the box and put it on the shelf. It was pretty self-explanatory, but for two weeks, I had to answer surveys and watch videos about distance, proximity, expectations, and other such mind-numbing things.

Apparently, spiritual warfare is the one thing in the world you don’t have to train for anymore. You sign up for a course, pay your fee, and get your diploma certifying you to be a demon slayer extraordinaire even though you haven’t the slightest clue what it is or how it’s done. If you run across a demon, you just wave the diploma in their face. I hear it’s the diplomas printed on an old dot matrix HP that really scares them, not the power and authority of God.

Unscrupulous profiteers are telling people they have abilities they don’t and send them out to confront the enemy. Imaginary power against a real foe never ends well. That should have been the lesson we ought to have learned from the sons of Sceva, but then again, they didn’t have the degree.

We can’t butcher what Jesus said to suit our ideology. Yes, Jesus said we would heal the sick and cast out demons, but before that, He informed His disciples that they would be given the authority to do so. They weren’t being sent out on their own; authority had been given to them to do these works. Their authority did not come from a diploma or a course but from Jesus Himself.

Luke 10:18-20, “And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”’

No man can train you to do these things; Jesus must give you authority. Your training does not consist of sitting in a workshop listening to some bored gray-bearded individual drone on about theoretical authority. Actual spiritual training, the kind that is practically applied, the kind that makes the devil quake, is done on your knees, in His presence, building yourself up in the faith, learning to hear His voice, and walking in His authority.

Just as you can’t rush getting your doctorate in medicine, you can’t rush being ready to do battle against the darkness. There’s no fast pass, no skipping the queue, no cutting in line. You have to put in the time. You have to grow, mature, receive knowledge, have wisdom, and understand that it’s not you; it’s His authority in you that makes the darkness flee.

I’m concerned for folks who’ve been saved less than a month talking about tearing down strongholds and casting out devils. That’s like taking an anatomy class in Junior High and walking around telling everyone you’re a heart surgeon. It’s all well and good until someone talks you into cracking a chest open, and you have no clue what you’re doing. Not only will you likely have blood on your hands, but someone who trusted you to save their life will lose it to your hubris.

I keep thinking back to the sons of Sceva and how long they likely pumped each other up and worked themselves into a lather before they went to cast out a devil just because they’d heard someone somewhere had done it.

Either you’re walking in His authority, or you aren’t. There’s no in-between, and there’s no middle ground. You don’t hope you are or think you are; you must know that you are because finding out that you aren’t once you’re face to face with the enemy will not end well.

Individuals who feel the need to tell others how powerful they are, how anointed they are, how used of God they are, and how effective and world-changing they are usually aren’t. Those with actual power, those with true anointing, and those whom God uses are humble and self-aware enough to acknowledge it’s God’s doing and not their own. They won’t seek confrontation but won’t back down from a fight, either. They have a duty to perform, and they perform it. No bells, no whistles, no exaggerated mannerisms to draw the eye, no inflated sense of purpose or ego. It’s not a magic show; stop acting like it is.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.