THE BATTLE FRONT
Posted Wed, 02/09/2011 - 10:51pm by Dr. Carolyn Tennant
Read Ephesians 6:12-18
Often as leaders we find ourselves wrestling. We wrestle with problems. We scramble around the issues. We try to pin things down. We throw our weight behind what we want to see accomplished. Our goal is to win the match.
When we start wrestling with people, it can be quite a scene. Folks can take sides. They yell and scream for their favorite, boo and hiss for their antagonist. When people are of equal weight, it can be quite a match indeed.
Paul, however, reminds us that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. When we are in the midst of a fight, the comment seems ludicrous. It is a person who is causing us the grief, that is for sure. He is not a Martian. She is not an elf. Certainly we must be wrestling with an individual...and a wild one at that.
So what was Paul saying? He stated that we were wrestling against principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness, and the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. This is quite an array indeed.
A leader must have double vision. He must look at a person who is causing spiritual grief and realize where the problem is actually originating. This allows us to love the individual, because the difficulty is not arising out of their own core as much as it is out of the gates of hell. We can all succumb to it unfortunately.
Why should we see things this way? Because it allows us to pray properly. Verse 18 points out that we should be praying and making supplication at all seasons. It is important to pray for our own challenges, as well as to realize when our colleagues are in a spiritual battle. We are asked to intercede for them also paying attention to each other's needs. So often when we are in the battle, we can't see straight, and we need the prayers of others who can see the spiritual battle array more clearly.
Furthermore, we must keep on our armor. Any time we take off a piece, we are opening ourselves to vulnerability, and our enemy the devil will find the soft spot to throw his poisonous spear. We must remember the basics. We are saved. We need to have faith, keep sharing the gospel, stay at peace, maintain righteousness, and believe the Word. Let's not forget. We're in a battle, and leaders are right there in the fray.