According to Sun Tzu’s Art of War, the very first act that must be done before engaging in warfare is to commit yourselves wholly and fully to the battle. There can be no doubts as to the cause you are going to fight and sacrifice your life for.
Once committed to the battle, Sun Tzu then goes on at length to talk about securing resources for the army.
Now many would probably skip these chapters (as I have at first), dismissing them as mundane administrative matters that are too menial to discuss.
But any planner would tell you that while admin work may be mundane, the results of good admin planning is anything but.
You must deal with the matter of securing supplies to fight your battle because your supply line is your life line.
Let me re-emphasize that again: YOU WILL LOSE THE BATTLE IF YOU ARE NOT WELL EQUIPPED AND SUPPLIED FOR IT.
Here again, we’ll point to Scripture – to the very words of the Messiah Himself – admonishing those who profess to want to follow Him to count first the cost of doing so.
"If you want to be My disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be My disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow Me, you cannot be My disciple. "But don't begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. They would say, 'There's the person who started that building and couldn't afford to finish it!' "Or what king would go to war against another king without first sitting down with his counselors to discuss whether his army of 10,000 could defeat the 20,000 soldiers marching against him? And if he can't, he will send a delegation to discuss terms of peace while the enemy is still far away. So you cannot become My disciple without giving up everything you own.
(Luke 14:26-33 NLT)
These verses deal with cost, the real cost of waging spiritual battle.
Admin work is literally about computing and counting the costs to sustain the larger endeavor. Many at this point would remember the popular catch phrase: “No money, no honey.”
If this is true of worldly warfare, it is true of spiritual warfare as well.
The only difference between the two, is that the other is fought in the unseen realms. As the Apostle Paul says to the Corinthians:
We are human, but we don't wage war as humans do.
(2 Corinthians 10:3 NLT)
And to the Ephesians:
For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
(Ephesians 6:12 NLT)
So if money is the currency for waging worldly war, what is then is the currency for spiritual war?
The answer of course is faith.
The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews writes:
Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.
(Hebrews 11:1 NLT)
You see, faith, like money, stands for something.
Money, stands for actual resources, like food, services, raw materials etc.
Most of the time, we cannot carry around these resources in our pockets. So practically speaking, you would have to have something easier to carry around: some kind of temporary replacement for these things so that your mobility would not be compromised. That is what money is for.
Money by itself has no value if it does not represent real goods and services.
Faith is exactly the same. It stands in for something.
Faith stands in for something that you believe in with all of your heart and you will do anything in order to accomplish.
In other words, FAITH REPRESENTS YOUR GOALS.
If money is worldly currency, then faith is spiritual currency.
When we have to, we can trade in our cash for real goods. Likewise when we have to, we can trade in our faith for spiritual benefits.
FAITH THEREFORE, IS OUR SPIRITUAL LIFELINE in our spiritual war.
How many times have we read the Messiah in Scripture berating His followers: “You have so little faith!”
There are very few instances where Jesus is amazed. Usually, He is the one doing things that amaze everyone else.
If He were indeed God, then you would think that it would take something REALLY BIG to amaze Him.
In this case, however, it is quite the opposite.
Scripture records that when Jesus came back to His worldly hometown of Nazareth, He tried to preach and perform miracles there as well. But since the people there knew Him from birth, they could not believe that “that carpenter’s son” could be anything more than that, much less be the Messiah.
And because of their unbelief, He couldn't do any miracles among them except to place His hands on a few sick people and heal them. And He was amazed at their unbelief. (Mark 6:5-6 NLT)
Here you have the Hebrews of Nazareth. Being Hebrews, they were the descendants of the people of God whom He rescued from slavery from Egypt. They were His chosen ones. They were His people.
If anyone would and should believe the words of Scripture, it would and should be them. Scripture after all, is their history: a history of God’s relationship with them since the time of Moses.
They should have believed.
They of all the peoples of the earth, should have had their spiritual pockets overflowing with the spiritual currency that is faith.
But they didn’t.
And so our Lord was amazed.
How can I raise an army for God if there are none, even among His chosen people who have faith in Him? The Messiah must have thought. How many on earth will I find who have faith?
You cannot wage war without money. And you certainly cannot wage spiritual war without faith.
My dear friends, are you prepared for the war for Life? Are your supply lines secure? Have you counted fully the cost of this campaign?
Or have you already lost the battle?
I pray that the Creator open your hearts and minds to this message as we begin the battle anew this year.
God bless you all!
No comments:
Post a Comment