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Archive of "Tasking" Category
Knowing When To Do What
"To better its chances, the special operation may have to work extremely fast, lunging straight at the heart of power; or it may require mind-numbing patience as its warriors embed themselves in a hostile city for months" (Leebaert. To Dare & To Conquer, p. 23).
When I’m thinking of a church, I sense that this is really important. I think there is a big challenge on either side of this issue. If we’re sensing that God wants us to strike quickly and that timing is the critical issue, then we’re facing the fear of the uncertain. If we’re getting the sense that God wants us to wait, then obviously our issue is patience.
I’m going through a bit of both at this moment. We (for the second time) moved the whole family in pursuit of what we sensed God calling us to do. We did not have a clear picture of "what" that was or how we would pay our bills, but we felt like God was saying, "NOW!" So we went for it. Now we’re one month into a church plant and still dealing with the uncertain. It’s not quite clear how this will all work out (and will it ever be?), but a picture is starting to form.
Most of all, this experience has been teaching me who I am and who I am not in the kingdom, at this point in my development. I’m starting to see things that were previously very unclear. God is speaking to me, I think. Ideas for how to go about raising the dead and reaching my generation are beginning to form. Now the challenge is waiting and listening for the When. And I’m discovering that this is harder for me than striking quickly.
Not having any ideas but a raw willingness to do "whatever" is turning out to be a bit more bearable than feeling like I know what I want to do and not sensing the spiritual green light to go for it. I’ve written before about patience as Spiritual power to control our thougths, desires and emotions during times of stress. Those lessons are becoming so real as I attempt to live them out. My hope is that God is doing things behind the scenes, both in my life and in the "field" to which He’s calling us. There are some great promises to those willing to wait:
Isaiah 64:4 (NKJV) "For since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, Nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him" (I added the emphasis).
What’s In A Name?
Hey! I changed the look and name on this site? What gives? Like most significant, spiritual breakthroughs in my life, I got a thought while getting out of the shower. It boils down to this: I don’t want to put an obstacle in the way of someone who might be touched or blessed by what we (I say "we" because your comments truly shape this site) write on this site. Anyone who spends any time here realizes that there is no, "We need to shoot missles at the devil!" nonsense, but why even give off the stink of it?
I’ve long since quit the notion that everything I write must draw upon some military parallel, so the name at the top of the page no longer matched the full content. Of course, this message is still in my heart and I’ll still be advancing the military special operations parable whenever I sense the inspiration.
As far as the organization, The Special Forces Group, is concerned – we’re still alive and well. If this is the first you’re reading about it, click this link to check it out. You can still get here using, www.thespecialforcesgroup.com for the next 90 days or so, but as of now the official site URL is www.scottbane.com.
I’m blessed by the connection we share through this site. Peace.
Independent Initiative
"Across all the years where we can document them, the warriors who compose a special force are likely to be those most deemed capable of independent initiative without orders" (Leebaert, To Dare & To Conquer p. 31).
I can envision a spiritual community where this sort of independent initiative is normative. People simply share the life of Jesus that lives within them because they want to. But for the most part, we’re not there yet.
There were some great insights on the comment section of the last post about what we really need to do church. In one comment, my friend Lisa wrote:
The church building and service should not seem like an exclusive club, but it’s sad that most of the time it does. I guess that’s my ideal. That’s is what I want from the "church". Teach me to live justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God, and then send me out with blessings (and the trust) that I will share Him with my life.
Jesus talked about both being His disciple and making new disciples. Whether it is "supposed to be" or not, church is for Christians. Very rarely do people that do not already believe ever find reason to go to church. They’ve been exposed to and offered church their whole lives and have consistenly turned it down. So in that sense, church is a gathering of believers. What I get most concerned about is what Lisa mentions as the sad reality in the majority of those gatherings – they get exclusive. The group becomes so Teflonized, as my friend Charlie says, that no one not already a part has a chance of sticking. I think we’re looking for something other than just a great place of Christians to enjoy one another and worship God. If that’s all we needed for evangelism to start happening naturally, it would have happened a thousand times over by now. But it has not. People still, in general, do not participate in evangelism.
Surely there are lots of reasons for this, but I think one of the roots is a failure in the disciple making process. It seems clear that to Jesus, being His disciple meant actively making other disciples, yet we have separated the functions. We have the stuff we do "for us" and then if we’re in the mood for it, we put on a little evangelism program. If our disciple being process includes teaching, training and regular practice at disciple making, then evangelism begins to form in our groups at the DNA level. So to me, churches are about evangelism in the sense that all of the new conversions that have happened "out in the streets" need a place to gather where they too can be disciple-making disciples.
So let me quote Lisa one more time: "Teach me to live justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God, and then send me out with blessings (and the trust) that I will share Him with my life." This is so good. I think with some changes to the "system," we can do this.
So my next question is: What changes need to be made in order for you to receive the trust and freedom you need to start sharing Him with your life?
As Much As Possible With As Little As Possible
“The special operation is not defined by size… What prevails is
the ‘Commando idea,’ as Churchill called it – of guile unified with
fortitude and imagination” (Leebaert, To Dare & To Conquer p. 22).Every move we make and every change we pursue in building the community of believers (called a local church) is in pursuit of God’s leading and God’s Spiritual power. That’s what I believe. I am very interested in reading and thinking about “new” ways of doing church, but I am not interested in building the next cool church or having the funniest little video clips or the hottest worship sound on the scene. Are lives being changed?
I’ve been looking into what causes a church community to get off track. Many churches I know get formed with the idea of pursuing God’s Spirit but then shift focus to maintaining the organization. What happens? Looking again at this fantastic book that brings me so much inspiration, To Dare & To Conquer, I think that churches get caught in a trap of having to pay the bills and keep the “staff” afloat. It’s very difficult to stay on mission when you have to make payroll or you have to pay the mortgage. So many churches that I have had the opportunity to work with or witness up close clutter themselves with so much unnecessary fluff that it’s no wonder they cease to be effective at reaching people. What does it really take to have a church? When planning a military special operation, there is immense pressure to drill down to the essential. They can do this because the overwhelming attitude within that culture is the dogged pursuit of effectiveness and efficiency.
I would love to see what could happen if a group of believers formed around this same, “Commando idea.” What do we really need to do what we need to do? And let everything else pass away.
What do you think we must have in order to have a church – I’m interested in your perspective.
Testing the Limits of Familiar
"The special operation keeps testing the limits of familiar procedure – its own side’s and the other’s" (Leebaert, p. 21).
I’ve been reading quite a bit and thinking even more about what I envision for a church. I’m involved in a church plant right now and we’re doing things differently to some degree, but for the most part it is church as usual. I’m so ready for something different, but I’m also very concerned about how we get there.
Inspiration continues to flow through this book I’m reading, To Dare & To Conquer. Special operations often evolved out of irregular problems that conventional military units do not have the ability to address. From my reading, there are a lot of people looking at the American church with the same mind – these familiar methods of "doing church" are not meeting the needs like they used to (if they every really did). There are plenty of books out to criticize and challenge the effectiveness of church methods and even some that outright reject the idea of having any kind of "church" as you and I would define it. What is coming of all these opinions?
I’m having a hard time putting my thoughts together on this concept of doing church differently. The ideas are everywhere but channeling them and making them readable is difficult. There are certainly many ways to build and sustain a spiritual community. I don’t think we’re in search of the right way. However, I do not believe that any way will work. This is part of what Paul imposes his apostolic authority to correct in Corinth. People were doing just about whatever they wanted to do and calling it a fellowship of believers. So Paul writes to them with instructions like, "Eat dinner at home. Don’t come to church and gorge yourself, calling it the Lord’s table."
So some Corinthians had their opinion of how church should be done. Paul tells them they can’t do things that way and call it a meeting of God’s house. Instead of changing, the Corinthians begin to express their opinion about Paul and his apostleship. Who did he think he was to tell them how they would put on their Christian community? What makes Paul think he can tell them how many people are allowed to prophesy or speak out in church? This is the "spirit of this age," if you ask me. We’re in the age of opinions, and no one is allowed to challenge the opinion of anyone else. Sure, we can "dialog" about it – we can have conversations but no one is going to change his opinion.
We just don’t have an apostle available to put the foolishness to rest. When Paul’s authenticity as an apostolic leader was called into question, he wrote back to the Corinthians and seems to be doing his best to give them the benefit of the doubt. His letter has the tone of, "maybe you haven’t heard some of these things about me…" But toward the end of his letter, Paul declares that all the signs, wonders, miracles and authority of an apostle had been demonstrated among them. Paul had legitimate power through God’s Spirit. He had the authority to put an end to the droning on of the opinions of the opinionated because his message was not composed of the enticing words of men’s wisdom, but of the demonstration of the Spirit and power.
As a church, we need to be testing the limits of familiar. We need to be willing to take risks and bear criticism for the sake of getting on board with something fruitful. But the pursuit is toward a demonstration of the Spirit and power. I’m not looking for the next really cool church. I have no intention of being part of something void of God’s power. How can we call it a spiritual community without the power?
Striking Directly
Some time ago, I started to write about a book that is inspiring my ideas and ideals of church planting. It’s been about 4 months so I might as well get around to all that writing I promised.
A great passage that I highlighted reads:
"The special operation often finds its peculiar advantage in targeting the enemy’s most heavily defended positions – striking directly at his confident strength and dignity" (To Dare & To Conquer. Leebaert, pg. 22).
Starting a church is an intensely spiritual enterprise. So why is so much time and energy so often spent on strategizing how to do it all on our own? One book I read, and benefited from reading, spent a few pages saying basically, "You better have a calling from God or you shouldn’t even get started," but then devoted the entirety of the rest of the book to raising money, gathering your team, doing marketing / evangelism, and managing your Sunday morning meetings. I believe the Holy Spirit could inspire any of those efforts. But come on! You know what the author is really saying. Below the surface is the assumption that if we’re "called" then God must want us to put a great plan together and start working our network so we can buy LCD projectors and burgundy, velour offering bags.
I wrote in the introduction to my thoughts from this book (back in October) that I am no longer interested in making my living as a pastor - I want to raise the dead. I want to enter a place that has been "enemy territory" for a long time and start leading people out. Isn’t this the mission Jesus was launching in Luke 4:18-19? I don’t think we’ll be able to develop a strategy to do that. It has nothing to do with organizing or business models or market research. I just don’t believe God wants to give birth to a calling inside of me so that I can go on to manage it (or manipulate it) with my own ingenuity. Uzzah figured out what happens when you try to put your human hand on God’s glory.
I’m a long way away from being able to develop an exhaustive "how to raise the dead" list, but one possibly-overlooked weapon to turn death into life does come to mind.
Repentance & Forgiveness
As Jesus was being wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, he cried out, "Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." As Jesus gave up his life for the salvation of others, "…graves were opened; and many bodies of saints who had fallen asleep were raised."
When we feel the call to start a church what if we started pleading the cause of the community before the Lord? What if instead of doing market research and probing our connections for "start up capital," we started repenting for the way we (not other, nameless Christians who had it all wrong, but me… and you… us) have misrepresented Jesus to the people around us. This is my notion of targeting enemy held territory. This is what I think of when I read the words, "…striking directly at his confident strength and dignity." I imagine graves opening and the "dead" coming out and into the light as a result of a group of people spreading that news.
We’ve made a big mistake in trying to introduce people to God. We’ve made Him look religious and cold, but He isn’t. We’re asking God to forgive us for misrepresenting Him to you. I’ve seen people accept that as some actual Good News from the church.
SERE Part 3: Resistance
In a fantastic new book, Chosen Soldier, Dick Couch makes the following comment about the Resistance portion of SERE Training:
In addition to survival and evasion training… the students are subjected to a detention phase that involves resistance to tactical interrogation in a realistic POW setting. Few courses in the military are as physically and emotionally challenging as the captive phase of SERE training… This five-day detention training is all about how to resist all forms of exploitation and about the conduct expected when a soldier becomes a captive warrior (2007, pp. 368-9).
Every time I come across a news item about someone being taken, whether it is a kidnapping situation or a part of the ongoing war on terror, I immediately begin to pray for the captives. I pray for their safety and their release. At the time stamped on this article, I am praying over the search for three U.S. soldiers in Iraq. In making parallels to our spiritual condition though, I want to approach the idea of Resistance from a completely different angle.
We do have the verse from James that commands, “Resist the devil…” I have spoken on that subject in the past, and I have recently written about resisting his assault on our minds in an article titled, “Taking Captives.” Spiritually speaking, there is no such thing as preparing to be taken captive by the enemy. Although it is something that happens, we are not given biblical coping mechanisms. The answer is emphatic and always, “Escape!” So, this will not be about dealing with the mental and even physical turmoil of being a spiritual prisoner.
I read something not long ago that I instantly bristled over. “Most Christians are so far out of touch with the world around them that they know little of its fears, problems, concerns, or issues” (Conspiracy of Kindness. 2003, p. 233). I know those words are true – for nearly 10 years I existed in an entirely Christian bubble. When I left high school to attend “preacher school,” I left all my non-Christians friends behind. Time and circumstances separated all of us. Even though I started my career in ministry in the same town as all my “old friends,” I made literally no effort to reconnect with them. If I am honest, I have to admit that I even avoided the few I did know where to find.
4 years of Christians-only college + almost 6 years of working on a church staff and hanging out exclusively with church people = completely out of touch with the pains of the world around me.
I was in graduate school when, for the first time since high school, I had genuine relationships with people who think and believe differently than I do. In fact, this is where I met my first, real atheist. I say “real,” because anyone making that claim prior was really too young and not nearly well read enough to come to any conclusions – they were more like “Christian haters” than actual atheists. My mind was blown to hear this very intelligent, very articulate, very biblically based deconstruction of every doctrine I hold dear. Did you realize that the majority of true atheists derive most of their belief (or lack thereof) from the Bible? I didn’t! What is my point…? I had put myself so out of touch with a person who thinks this way that I had no frame of reference and no right to offer input into her life.
Let me state it another way: My Christian bubble had crippled me and put the life changing power of Jesus that abides within me absolutely out of reach to this person in dire need of an authentic God. Sure, I knew how to argue with her. I learned that in school. I knew how to cop an “I’m better than you” attitude with her. I learned that from years of church experience, but how do you actually reach a person like this? How do I take the shackles off the Holy Spirit, who lives within me, and who desires to heal hurts and bridge the gaps that have driven people from the Lord?
When I first started thinking and writing about this thing that I call “the special forces group,” the verse that got lodged in my mind was Galatians 6:1. “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted” (NKJV). This verse is communicating that my level of usefulness in helping people relates directly to my ability to approach those people with a spirit of gentleness. The words “spirit of gentleness” are critical here. Gentleness is among the fruit of the Spirit – it is not a human quality. Jesus says in Matthew 11, “learn from me, for I am gentle.” The sting of the quote above about being out of touch with the issues of the world around me is conviction. One of the first observations you can make about Jesus is that He surrounded Himself – constantly – with people that did not yet know God.
My take on Resistance is that we need to viciously resist the temptation to cloister ourselves and become out of touch with the hurts, struggles and issues of the world around us. I have written already about repenting for the Pharisee-attitudes I discovered in myself. Repenting is the start, but actually breaking the bubble and forcing myself to get around people that make me uncomfortable is what it takes to truly offer Resistance.
There is another powerful quote at the end of Conspiracy of Kindness. “An atmosphere of anointing, freshness, and vitality comes upon believers when they spend time with non-Christians.” Is it possible that some of the problems you are facing right now could be covered and healed by breaking out of your Christian bubble?
Like the other articles in this series, I am going to continue talking about this at www.sfgpodcast.com. I hope you will tune in there.
Peace.
SJBTaking Captives
Authorities in Munich, Germany have issued arrest warrants for 13 suspected US Intelligence agents accused of kidnapping a German national. Although the US has not yet responded to the arrest warrants, this case and a similar case in Italy has brought the implications of taking captives into the field of discussion. Noise is coming from both sides – those who feel that this is a necessary part of the war on terror and those who believe that it’s kidnapping and should be viewed as criminal. (Information taken from Reuters: AlertNet 09, Feb 2007). Despite the eventual outcome of these incidents, the snatching of prisoners will always be a part of the entanglements of war. Captives are often invaluable sources of intelligence about enemy plans, positions and actions. Special Operations warriors will likely always be called upon to gather human intelligence even if it means taking captives. It’s among the weapons in our arsenal to thwart the evil intentions of our enemies.
Without making any assumptions about this case in particular, it makes sense to me that our enemies are not held to the borders of the nations in which we’re at war. Within the borders of an ally nation, there is no threat of bombs dropping – no restrictions on where to travel – no military checkpoints to have to navigate. The enemy grows bold under the protection of this ally nation’s sovereignty. He meets with conspirators openly, thinking that no one is watching. How are his actions and movements changed by the threat of being snatched off any street at any time? How free do our enemies feel to plot horror against us if they know that our Special Operators are watching and listening? One night our enemy lays his head on the pillow of a false sense of security. Believing that his intentions have gone unnoticed, he rests patiently, waiting for the right opportunity to unleash hell. But he’s wrong. We have guys on our side who don’t sleep. His quiet is decimated by an awful violence. The door explodes off its frame – a flash of intense, white light blinds him. The thunder and the lightning struck at once, leaving him helpless and confused. With stunning speed and ferocity, he is ripped from his bed, bound and in custody. In and out. It’s over in minutes.
2 Corinthians 10 addresses the issue of our spiritual warfare and the weapons in our arsenal. Verse 5: "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." How deliberately do you practice this verse? Do you take every thought captive? Or does your enemy have safe haven and unrestricted movement in your thoughts?
I’ve become acutely aware of my own laziness in the business of taking captives. I was recently shoveling snow from around my car so my wife could get in and pull out without having to trudge through it. As I hoisted the shovel-fulls over my right shoulder, I failed to notice that I was throwing the snow onto the front walk that I had already cleared – creating twice the amount of work on this 11-degree morning. When I realized what I’d been doing the first thought in my mind was, "You Idiot!" I’m often guilty of this sort of thing, but this time it struck me. Where is thought really coming from? Do I actually believe that I’m an idiot or is this a cruel lie about me that I’m giving unrestricted access within my mind? How would I feel I witnessed some one call one of my boys an idiot because of a mistake he made? Then how do I think my Father feels when He hears this verbal assault against one of His kids?
It’s a simple thing and it even seems harmless since, "we all do it." However, I cannot allow enemies to plot against me in seemingly "friendly" territory. If give this kind of thought unrestricted access to my mind, what will happen next? How long before instead of a random foolish thought, I’m dealing with a constant barrage of self-abuse? Now instead of feeling stupid over an easily avoidable mistake, I live with a perpetual sense of low worth.
Here’s what I’m trying to convey: We are at war. Our enemy is merciless and is on the lookout for any foothold that we’ll allow him. What seems like a small thing in one moment can compound over time when granted unrestricted movement in our lives. It usually happens too fast for me to stop it from entering in the first place, but 2 Corinthians 10:5 makes me responsible to mount a violent assault against these intruders. I have to take this thought captive and refuse to allow it to build a network, plot an assault and wait for an opportunity to unleash hell in my life.
In closing, two important discoveries I’m making about taking captives:
1) There is a big difference between "thinking it" and "saying it." Taking a thought captive means not allowing it to gain a voice. Stop muttering under your breath. Stop giving a voice to the pointless sarcasm. Stop steering your life into danger by allowing enemy thoughts to become evil words.2) Lies are dispelled by Truth, not avoidance. My 1st grade teacher told me about bees: "Just ignore them and they’ll leave you alone." Yeah, well I got stung twice in 1st grade! If you ignore these thoughts, they won’t leave you alone – you just won’t know you’re about to be stung until it’s too late. Once an enemy thought is captured, we force it into submission by the Truth. If I’m not an idiot, then what does the Truth say about me? According to Philippians 4:8, that’s what should be filling my mind.
Peace.
SJBThoroughly Equipped (Part 3)
In the first & second articles in this series I wrote about a Special Forces A-Team that found itself amazingly outnumbered and out-gunned by an Iraqi infantry force. Just more than 30 Americans in Humvees took on about 150 well trained Iraqis in armored personnel carriers and T-55 main battle tanks. Most ordinary light infantry units that found themselves outnumbered over five to one and outgunned by such a heavy armored force would have turned and run. But Green Berets don’t like to run. This team in particular, from the 3rd Special Forces Group, had decided before the war began that they would never run from a fight, and they didn’t run from this one – despite the apparent odds (Information taken from Roughneck Nine-One, by Sgt. 1st Class Frank Antenori and Hans Halberstadt).
The way most believers have been led to understand the preparation for spiritual battles is actually a set up for frustration and failure. Despite urges in Scripture that we don’t “wrestle against flesh and blood,” or “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal,” most of us still feel like we’re supposed to be able to facedown the forces of darkness through our own grit and intensity. I know I’m guilty of this. The real tragedy is I used to teach other people to make the same mistakes I was making.
With my words I would say, “You don’t fight spiritual battles on your own,” but I didn’t really understand how you do engage in spiritual warfare. All my passion about the subject was just coming out as intensity. To the people listening it sounded like, “You can’t do this on your own! You have to pray super hard and you have to memorize lots of verses! You can never doubt and you can never say a negative word or you’ve just undone everything!” Basically telling people that they just had to try harder.
Here’s my new mantra: don’t try any harder. In fact don’t try at all. Here’s the key to fighting spiritual battles: Don’t fight them. If you haven’t read Parts 1 and 2 of this series, I encourage you go back and take a look at them.
Being thoroughly equipped for the trauma thrown at you in this life is truly about finding a place of rest in God’s love and care for you. Of course things will happen to us. We’ll make mistakes that cause us to become vulnerable, but mostly we simply live and move upon a fallen planet. It seems to me that the devil’s tactic is to pull a believer out from behind the safety and peace the cross. This might be common knowledge amongst this refined crowd of readers, but it might be worth writing too. The cross is the place of victory, not the empty grave. Colossians 2:15 states that the devil was disarmed, defeated and embarrassed in the cross. In John chapter 12 Jesus connects the judgment and sentencing of this world and this world’s ruler with being “lifted up” on the cross.
The reason I think this is an important point to clarify is that it changes the way we see our own desperate situations. Can we believe that God is still working things out according to the counsel of his own perfect will even when we feel completely forsaken by him? When these moments or hours or seasons of trauma hit our lives the darkness creeps in, taking the form of confusion. Why is this happening? Why would God allow this? Then, that same familiar but hideous voice starts providing you with answers too. You haven’t prayed enough. You’ve been making a lot of negative confessions lately. You don’t read your Bible enough.
So, if we start to believe that God is somehow against us and somehow behind the horrible things, we’ve been pulled from behind the cross. The cross says, “He was wounded for our transgression, bruised for our iniquities and the chastisement for our peace was upon him. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.
If that scheme won’t work – you’ve come to far to start doubting at that level – the next trick is to get you fighting. That’s it! I’m going to beat this. I’ll fast until I get a breakthrough! I’m getting up at 5 AM to pray every day from now on! I’ll memorize the entire book of 1 Chronicles! You can’t stop me, devil!
If you start down that path, I think you’ll hear some familiar words of Jesus. “Put your sword in its place. All who live by the sword will die by the sword.” If Colossians 2:15 says that the devil has been “disarmed,” why would we allow ourselves to be drawn into a fight with him?I wrote in Part 2 that our only thought should be rest. Jesus says, “Come to me.” I think our unconventional weapon against the confusion and the angst is authentic praise and worship. Authentic in the sense that it comes from our heart and from the reality of the horror we’re facing. I certainly don’t mean you should be able to whistle some peppy church choruses while your life is falling apart. Authentic worship can guttural – it’s visceral. Read the Psalms. The “man after God’s own heart” has no qualms about pouring it all out. There are plenty of David’s Psalms that are spleen.
My true inspiration for this comes from – expectedly – the cross. Think about Jesus’ words from Golgotha. “My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?” “I’m thirsty!” “It is finished!” I’m just now beginning to see these words as worship – authentic worship. My encouragement is to be just as honest and vulnerable in the midst of your own suffering. God can handle it. The result is going to be rest – an overwhelming wave of peace and calm despite the chaos swirling around you. The voice of rest is praise and worship, authentic and from the heart.
Peace.
SJBThoroughly Equipped (Part 2)
In the first article by this name I wrote about a Special Forces A-Team that found itself amazingly outnumbered and out-gunned by an Iraqi infantry force. Just more than 30 Americans in Humvees took on about 150 well trained Iraqis in armored personnel carriers and T-55 main battle tanks. Most ordinary light infantry units that found themselves outnumbered over five to one and outgunned by such a heavy armored force would have turned and run. But Green Berets don’t like to run. This team in particular, from the 3rd Special Forces Group, had decided before the war began that they would never run from a fight, and they didn’t run from this one – despite the apparent odds (Information taken from Roughneck Nine-One, by Sgt. 1st Class Frank Antenori and Hans Halberstadt).
The Green Berets in the story above decided they would never run from a fight. That decision influenced the way they trained and prepared for deployment. For the Special Forces team in Iraq being thoroughly equipped meant trusting their training and refusing to be intimated. It meant putting their weapons to perfect use based on the capabilities they’d learned during their preparation.
In the last article I wrote about the Christian’s need to be thoroughly equipped for life’s battles. In that article, I suggest that this “equipping” is actually a lot different than most of us have been conditioned to understand it. In terms of spiritual warfare, being ready for a fight doesn’t mean spending long, intense hours on your knees and straining your vocal chords by the ferocity of your rebuking, binding and loosing. Our life began with rest. Our strength is renewed through rest. Our burdens are relieved when we rest.
Do you believe me? Ask yourself this question… What was mankind’s first day of life? Adam was created on the sixth day. So his first full day of life was actually the seventh day, and on the seventh day, “God ended His work which He had done, and He rested” (see Genesis 2:2). Our life begins in rest. Isaiah chapter 40 goes to wonderfully descriptive lengths to illustrate the size and awesome power of God. The anchor and last verse of that chapter says that as we “wait” on the Lord, our own personal strength will be renewed. In Matthew chapter 11, Jesus urges his followers to come to him so that he can give them rest. He says that he’ll lift their heavy burdens – he’ll lighten their load.
We win spiritual fights when we refuse to fight them. I don’t mean pretending that problems don’t exist. “I’m not sick, I’m not sick, I’m not sick…” Those of you (like me) who’ve tried that know that it doesn’t work. By refusing to fight spiritual battles I mean abandoning the notion that we’re able or even supposed to be able to take care of ourselves. When terror strikes your life God is not expecting you to dig in your spiritual heals and clench your spiritual fists and grit your spiritual teeth. He simply says, “Come to me…” (see Matthew 11:28-30).
I think this is what Jesus was trying to teach his followers and best friends as he urged them to pray with him in the Garden of Gethsemane. As you recall the story, he takes his 3 closest disciples with him and instructs them to pray. In verse 41 he says, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” If you’re like me, you’ve interpreted this verse to mean, “Pray or else you’ll be tempted to run away and abandon me! I know your spirit is willing but when you see the army coming your flesh will get scared and you’ll run for it.” Is that pretty close to what you’ve always thought? I’ve certainly heard this verse taught that way.
The story that follows completely contradicts that interpretation. Verse 47 says that Judas came with a “great multitude,” armed with swords and clubs. In fact, all 4 Gospels make special mention of the fact that Jesus was arrested by a multitude of men who were armed for a battle. Instead of the disciples being scared and running for their lives, what do they do? Verse 51 says that Peter pulls his sword and attacks! By reading this same account from the other Gospels, we understand that the followers of Jesus only had a total of 2 swords. Unless James or John had the other sword, Peter was the only one near Jesus with a weapon. Despite the odds, Peter pulls his sword. Didn’t Peter boldly confess that he would never leave Jesus and that he was prepared to die with him if necessary? It seems that Peter is making good on that promise. He looks at this armed mob and thinks, “Either God is going to get Old Testament on these guys or this is where we die, fighting for Jesus!” Peter isn’t afraid to fight. He surely must know that this is a suicide mission, but he’s willing to fight it.
I’ve been meditating on Jesus’ next words to Peter for several months now.
Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? (Matthew 26:52-53 NKJV).
If you pull the sword, you’ll die by the sword. I think that Jesus is saying, “If you want to fight, you’ll be in a fight for the rest of your life.” I’ve tried the angry-at-the-devil prayers, and I’ve done all the rebuking, confessing, declaring, binding and claiming I can handle. You know what…? Jesus is right. There’s no end to that process. The moment you think you’ve won some sort of victory you’ll be drawn into something else. Your Christian experience will be a constant drain – always bouncing from one fight to the next.
The amazing thing is that Jesus also says, “If you want to fight, God will even help you, but it won’t accomplish his will for your life.” The key word in verse 53 is, “Now.” Jesus says, “Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?” Even after Jesus knows for certain that he must drink the cup set before him – after he’s been strengthened by angels – after he’s assured himself that it is God’s will for him to go to the cross – he says, “I can ask God to get me out of this and he’ll do it!”
I think that Jesus was trying to prepare his disciples not to fight. He knew that they were violently loyal to him and that in their flesh, they’d never allow him to be taken by an angry mob. Their weak flesh would want to fight the enemy no matter how long the odds. The temptation he wanted them to avoid was the temptation to break their rest and break their trust in the redemptive, capable hands of God.
I’m going to extend this series into an unprecedented 3rd Part in which I write about the voice of our rest – Praise and Worship. Stay tuned!
Peace.
SJB
