Never Give Up!

Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

Revelation 12:17

Those who have been to war tell the rest of us that “War is Hell.” And there is no disputing the ugly reality of war, but the first recorded instance of war was not in Hell, but rather in Heaven when Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.

War is not something that we dreamed up here on the earth. It is awful, but there are great eternal lessons we can learn from war.

When two countries are at war the decision to be at war was made by both parties. Both countries must decide to fight. If one refuses to fight then the other country takes over and rules them both. If they both fight then the outcome of that fighting will determine who will rule. When they both go their separate ways after the fighting is over then the conflict was an armed “spat” not a war.

Contrary to popular opinion when two countries are at war the “Geneva convention” is irrelevant. The winner will not be determined by a referee declaring to the world which one played by the rules and scored the most points. The winner will be declared by the winner after the loser is no longer able to make a declaration.

Satan is at war with the followers of Jesus. If you do not believe that then you have not stood in plain view of the enemy and declared the Lordship of Jesus. When you do you will be attacked.

There is a war game that my youngest son really enjoys. Paint ball guns give the sensation of really being in battle, but no one gets killed. And if proper protection is worn, then no one gets hurt beyond a few slight bruises. Paint balling is good practice for real combat but it is not war.

Christians today love spiritual paint balling. We love to talk about and pretend that we are in battle for Jesus. We pretend that Satan is hurling fiery darts in our direction and that we are dodging them all.

Real spiritual warfare is not a game. It is not fun and frankly, sometimes it is awful. There are war wounds in the battle with Satan. The Word of God is your offensive weapon and your salvation is your helmet.

If today you discover that the struggle with Satan is not a game then take heart. Take the Sword and let it do its work. Stand firm even if blows are landed on you. The words of Winston Churchill are great advice when it comes to being at war with Satan. He said, (and this may be a shorter version of his quote) “NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP!”