By: Larry Young
We are caught in the crossfire between two powerful armies at war, but we can’t see them. We are being constantly challenged to decide which of these two armies we are being controlled by, but we can’t direct them. There’s a life and death struggle going on inside each of us, but we are often confused who we are fighting with or for. The first army is assuring us that they are always here for us; the other army keeps assuring us that they don’t really exist. The captain of the first army tells us that we will win by surrendering completely; the captain of the other army tells us that we will win through our own efforts. The first army is telling us to love and pray for those under control of the other army; the other army is telling us to hate and kill those under control of the first army. There’s twice as many soldiers in the first army as there is in the other army. Are you confused yet?
If you think you are too well-informed and too smart to be fooled by any of this, think again:
• King David who killed Goliath and wrote many of the Psalms was easily fooled numerous times.
• Peter told Jesus that he wouldn’t let anything happen to Him, but then Jesus told Peter “get
thee behind me Satan.”
• Peter denied that he would deny Jesus, but Jesus told Peter he would deny Jesus three times
before the rooster crowed, and that’s exactly what happened.
• A third of God’s mighty angels were convinced by Lucifer to follow him because God was
“unfair and unjust;” Jesus sacrifice on the cross proved that Lucifer lied and was actually the
one who was “unfair and unjust.”
• Just when I think I can claim victory over a particular sin and have laid it at the foot of Jesus’
cross, I blow it again.
• Just when I start judging someone else’s sins, I end up saying or doing the very same things.
• Just when I begin to think I’m better than someone else, I end up proving that I’m just as bad or
worse than they are.
We may not be able to see it with our physical eyes, but it’s the Lord Jesus’ army who we must
surrender to and be controlled by:
• The life and death struggle we face is not the battle with sin, but the battle with self. We win
those battles and the war by putting self at the foot of the cross and making a complete and
total surrender.
• As a member of Jesus’ army, we need to be the ones who love and pray for those who are
enslaved by Satan’s army.
In the most important sense, the “war” was already won by Jesus at the cross, but the devil continues to tell us that the battle is to hate and kill those who oppose him, and to take matters into our own hands. In that sense the “war” continues to being waged in every heart, so there are still battles that must be won or lost, until Jesus, the captain of our army stands up… and declares that “it is finished,” and victory is assured. Procrastination to make a decision whose army you are actually with… could be self-defeating, not defeating self.