The War Within

Matthew 11:12, “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.

At a recent meeting of Iwo Jima one of our beloved members was confronted about a perceived attitude which in fact turned out to be nothing more than apathy. Perhaps the apathy was created in part by seeing the hypocrisy of self and men, perhaps a flight from the fight that rages inside of each of us. But whatever the reason, the discussion charged Jim Spivey who asked with red face, “Don’t you know you are in a war?”

I for one know that I am in a war. But I asked Jim, what is the war?

His response was, “Jeff you of all people I expect to know what the war is.”

For me the war is with myself. For me the war is the violent way the kingdom expands inside me forcing out all that is self, demanding I crucify those things, those thoughts, that character that is not Christ, or to be crushed under the weight and storm of the expanding kingdom. Some days I war against apathy like our friend. Some days I war against greed, or lust, or power, or control. Some days I war against the war itself. But the truth is the war within is a battle we must all fight, all of the time for it is this violence; it is violently fighting for surrender that we experience and take the kingdom of God.

Of the experience Jim wrote, “I battled yesterday, again, in a battle that couldn't be won, unless, of course, I could choose to lose.  The battle was not external.  This is an inner revolution.  The battle was and is to be ALL of me - as He made me, which ultimately is His Son at the very core - in the face of the world’s required and relentless resistance.  It is a losing proposition, either until victory (through choosing defeat) or death (through avoiding it).  Through “pushing against the rock,” as we’ve been told (because we all have our immovable rocks), we grow and mature.”

We have another friend that feels like he is supposed to sell everything, buy some sort of RV and spend a year traveling the country with his wife and two children. The caveat is that selling everything probably means having enough money for the RV, and a tank of gas, not the money to travel worry free. He shared the fear he has in obeying this godly compulsion.

The first thing that popped into my mind was, “what will he do for God as He travels?” And then as suddenly as my flesh asked the question the Spirit says, “what does that matter if I have told him to go?” If he does nothing but travel nothing matters if it is in obedience to God. Because the journey is the point. The battle is inside him, there is nothing “out there” to go and do. There is no more important fight for God than our own daily fight to bring our soul in alignment with the Spirit of God. So to our friend I say, “God Bless you.” Even to have the thought is more faith than I have.

All of which gives new meaning to what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,” Where is your knowledge of God? Where are your thoughts? That is where the war is. Won’t you join us in the battle?