A Warriors Mindset

So I have been thinking a lot about the reality of being a soldier in the service to my King. It sort of started last week but I feel like it has been plugging around in my brain for longer than that. God gave me this sick new armor, like ridiculously nice! It's silver. I also got a new sword and shield which are pretty tight.

I guess it started with the start of school. I have been very taken up with the idea of how to live my life as a soldier. My model verse for my behavior is 2 Timothy 2:3 - 4 which says "Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier." Verse 4 really stick out to me, as an active service soldier I feel that it is an important mandate.

I have heard a lot over the years about the nature of the Armor. How it only covers the front so that we are forced to stand or die. But in a new way God highlighted something to me, which is sort of the whole reason that I am writing this post. He told me that as a soldier of the King, I am free from the bondage of Satan. That is pretty basic, I know but think about it. We are soldiers, not captives so why do so many of us carry ourselves as POW. We live in subjection to sin and in the will of Satan far more than in the strength and victory of Jesus. It is such any easy thing to say that we sin because of our old nature and I am as guilty of that as anyone. But Christ didn't come and shed His precious blood so that we live in oppression to Satan while still trying to wave His flag.

It's amazing how things have come to this. We claim the Spirit but reject most of the benefits that He offers us because it may result in an emotional response. That is so stupid, let me just get that out of the way! We cry at funerals of believers who are spending eternity with Christ, we cry at weddings of believers who are living in obedience and in a foreshadowing to the return of Christ and then we often dance at the after party. But the church building has somehow become so sacred that we won't do such a thing in those institutions, we have become a detestable and double minded generation that cling to grace but refuse the rest.

I have picked up my sword and have stepped out in a way that makes even me feel strange, but God is revealing Himself to me in new ways daily. We have the answer, and it is submission to the perfection of the Holy. Is this a rant, absolutely and am one small voice that will get lost in the clamor, most likely, but I must speak for the chance that even one person might hear me!