Vanquished, not Destroyed

I had a dream in which I was in a very brutal confrontation with a foe.

And the war was very bloody, to say the least.

But the battle was very unusual in that I would batter the enemy so conclusively to the point that I would leave him dead and bloodied all over.

Interestingly, in a very short while, the same (probably a similar) enemy would be up and ready for war and I would need to urgently, not only to get new strength, but readiness for combat.

The same repeated for several times before the dream ended.

Does this not indicate what spiritual warfare is all about?

Does it not show how life in the spirit is like most of the time?

But I want us to look at what I feel is the main message in this dream.

And it is the fact that, though we will at all times have complete victory over the battles God allows to grow our relationship with Him, we will never completely finish fighting for our faith. We will all the time be on the warfront.

But there is another reality we must look at.

And it is that once we defeat one enemy, we will graduate into another level of warfare.

In short, we will earn a promotion in the spiritual realm.

Which means that our next enemy will be of a higher rank and have better ability and skill than the one we have vanquished because our status has been elevated.

This directly means that the more spiritual battles God will send our way, the higher our spiritual rank becomes and the more powerful the enemies we must deal with.

At the start we will be dealing with personal temptations, then personal issues until our spiritual rank grows to the point that we will be dealing with kingdoms and empires.

It is comic to see people called (or calling themselves) spiritual generals hiring physical bodyguards as if the spiritual is subject to the worldly.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12)

This is the reason the Bible looks at our faith in a military way.

You may remember Jesus commending the faith of a military commander seeking the healing of his servant because he applied military dynamics to his faith.

Authority goes with ranks. And ranks are not given; they are earned. Like is said someone must earn their stars.

That is why princes must join the military so that they would be able commanders in chief when they take over their kingdoms.

Like I have said severally, kings in the past led from the front.

This means that they must have the knowledge of war as well as earn the respect of the armed forces as they are knowledgeable in their leadership.

I hope you realise I am still dealing with spiritual realities. I am dealing with our faith.

Being knowledgeable in all the arts of war without any exposure to actual warfare might appear very useful. But a gun is never fired in a classroom.

This means I cannot gain any spiritual promotion in that classroom. I must get those stripes and stars on the warfront. I earn them through conflict. I earn them through the bruises and bumps I receive as I confront a world at war with her creator.

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18)

Is a gate the only fortification someone puts up against intruders?

Of course not.

A gate is meant to give someone time to organise his defences against attack. You might call them the first line of defence.

The actual defence lies behind those gates. The gate is the activating factor in their release.

Someone attempting to get past those gates must be ready to deal with a more formidable defence, a defence they could not see due to those gates, from booby traps to hidden weaponry.

But the gate will many times say what kind of defence someone should anticipate just as a gate will indicate the kind of treasure it is protecting.

As an example, how many people are killed in their compounds if it was not an inside job? How many banks are robbed without insider involvement?

Someone thinking of breaching the gate must therefore have infinitely superior arsenal than the simple ability of breaching that gate.

I hope you now understand the implication of Christ’s statement to Peter.

It was a promise of a victory so complete against the powers of darkness that the gates of hell would more or less open on their own accord at our advance. That because the power entrusted to us would render those gates a minor obstruction against our advance.

And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. (Jude 1:23)

Our goal is not just blasting those gates. It is snatching people from hell.

The gates are there for the purpose of keeping those imprisoned from any rescue whereas the Gospel and its ministers’ responsibility is to get into hell through breaking those gates and snatching some out of hell itself.

I know there are innumerable arguments that can be made for or against this statement and so will refuse to add fodder to them.

But the bottom line is that God has given His obedient servants power and authority to break through the gates of hell and rescue some.

I am sure some of you have looked at someone and almost seen the fire of hell in their eyes and desperation.

The drug addict, the alcoholic, the sex maniac, the corrupt.

Their bravado is completely impotent to hide the helplessness in their spirits.

Though they may use everything in their power to shield them from the Gospel, they are unable to resist their craving for a better life, a God-ordered life.

I am saying this as someone God has at times sent to the dumps where the most hopeless side of humanity can be found. And their cry for help is always heartrending.

But they are in prison with forbidding gates.

However, God has always broken through for some to experience the rescue that the Gospel is.

Very few hearts are like Jezebel’s whose response to a revival is a murder threat to the tool God used.

Remember that even that legion of demons could not stop that character in Mark 5 from running to Jesus?

But this is a warfare post, the part of the Gospel in it being essential.

God will not send you to breach gates for which you have not been sufficiently trained and armed to breach.

This means that victory is assured only when we go to the gates we have the capacity to breach through our training and equipping.

It is essential that we clearly hear God’s orders before venturing out for those missions. Otherwise, we could become victims instead of the victors we had thought we were.

There are pastors and evangelists who have sent themselves to the gate called harlotry and ended up becoming customers instead of rescuers. Ther are pastors who have gone to rescue people from drinking dens and ended up becoming drunkards.

Yet we have others who are very successful in those ministries.

And we have many ministers who have sought to deal with corruption by joining politics and ended up becoming as corrupt, if not worse.

It is therefore supremely important that we know our capacity before approaching those gates.

I remember once leading a team to visit some Hindu temples and after the exercise we were so exhausted we did not think we could continue with the rest of the week’s program. Some of the team actually became sick and stopped. But God strengthened us.

Later visits were not like that because I had prior spiritual preparation.

Our spiritual capacity determines whether we will become victors or victims.

Going to the gate God sends you will give you victory just as going to a gate you have not been prepared for will bring disaster.

Do you know your spiritual capacity?