My dear warriors,

Take a moment to read through the apostolic prayers in the New Testament. What do they all share in common? All of the apostles prayers were positive prayers. You will not find a negative prayer—and you most certainly won’t find any venting prayers! What do I mean by a positive or negative prayer? I mean that you will never see them ask God to remove a negative. Instead, they ask God for an impartation of a positive.

Dear warriors, 

A few weeks ago in For the Honor of our King, I wrote about the fact that our lives are not our own. Our lives belong to God, and God alone. One of the greatest weaknesses of our fast-paced, tech-driven, control-your-destiny culture is the fact that we feel the need to be in control of absolutely every part of our lives. From controlling when and how we watch TV shows, to trying to control, manipulate and micro-manage other people in our lives and their decisions—as if that were our call to make. 

Control is first and foremost an illusion. You are not in control of your life. And neither is anyone else. Putting other people in control of your life simply becomes a means of passing blame onto someone else when things go wrong in your own life. Trying to control other people will only lead to frustration and heartache. Have you ever felt like the more you tried to control a situation, the less grip you had on things, and the more you felt like things spiraling out of control?

My dearest warriors,

Last week, I touched momentarily on the difference between condemnation and conviction. I’m finding more and more that people do not understand the difference between these two things, and are unwittingly submitting themselves to lies that keep them from moving into their God-given potential. Rather than becoming warriors, they stay foot soldiers at best, and are casualties of war at worst.

To refresh: Conviction is from God. Condemnation is from the enemy.

Conviction is when God points to a very specific thing in out lives that is not right; he points to a flaw in our character, an ungodly trait in our lives that He wants to fix. He wants to upgrade us constantly, to remold us and reshape us into the image and likeness of Christ. Though there may be a sting here for not having lived up to His expectations, it is no more than when alcohol touches a wound. It may sting for a moment, but then He applies the soothing salve, a healing balm to make us whole. When God convicts us, He is encouraging us to run to Him, so that we can partner with Him and move forward in our development!

As believers, we all understand that we should confess our sins. At least, that is my hope. Confessing our sins and forgiving one another are vital parts of our walk with Christ. We cannot walk in step with Him if we are clinging to unforgiveness, clinging to anger and bitterness towards other people for having wounded us. Scripture tells us not to quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19). One of the ways we quench the Spirit in our lives is by harboring unrepented sin in our lives. It creates a rift between God and us.

The first question for you then, dear warrior, is this: is there any unforgiveness in your life?

If your answer was ‘Nope!’ then sorry, try again. This time, ask the Holy Spirit to bring to mind where you need to forgive others; where you have unresolved anger, bitterness or hatred towards someone. Ask Him to point out things for which you have not forgiven yourself, or where you are mad at God, Himself.

My dearest warriors,

Have you ever considered your greatest weapon? your strategy? Have you contemplated what it must look like to be on a spiritual battlefield? Perhaps you have. Perhaps not, but you are inexplicably finding yourself drawn to these thoughts, and finding yourself wanting those answers.

Warriors are always prepared. They are always armed with their weapons, and are never caught without. The fruits of the Spirit are a warriors greatest weapons. Love, joy, peace, patience/long-suffering, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. To add to those are rest,  humility, meekness and lowliness of heart. These are qualities that Christ himself exhibited; He Himself is the greatest example of the kind of a warrior we should be. Today we begin with rest, but we will dig further into the others in the coming weeks. 

As warriors, we must prepare ourselves: we must first learn peace, rest and stillness. It is in the midst of a storm, in the midst of trial, turbulence and turmoil that God wants to teach us peace. He won't ever teach us peace before, or outside of battle. He will introduce to it - but it is on the battlefield that our peace is established. You see, you can never learn peace unless you practice it in the midst of turmoil. Just like you cannot learn patience unless you practice being patient when your patience is being 'tested.' The secret you must understand is that it is possible to enter into rest, and to hide in a place of stillness where the enemy cannot touch you. A place where you are so deep in God's rest and stillness, that there is nothing the enemy can do to disrupt your peace. 

When we talk about the old nature, or the flesh, or our personality, or soulish nature, we are referring to a lost person who only has life through having physically been born. But the moment we are saved, the old man is crucified with Christ, and we gain a new spirit by a spiritual birth! That is why believers are called born again! However, we are told that we will face conflict between our flesh and our new spirit. Galatians 5:17 says “What your corrupt nature wants is contrary to what your spiritual nature wants, and what your spiritual nature wants is contrary to what your corrupt nature wants. They are opposed to each other. As a result, you don't always do what you intend to do.” Since our old nature is at work against our new nature, we must renew our minds, earnestly desire holiness and live by the fruits of the Spirit. We are told specifically what to avoid and oppose in our walk, and what to cherish and cultivate.