The War to Adore

“1 These are the nations that the Lord left in the land to test those Israelites who had not experienced the wars of Canaan. 2 He did this to teach warfare to generations of Israelites who had no experience in battle.” (Judges 3:1-2, NLT)



We war against two things.

I know a while back Rev. Billy Graham classically stated we fight against three hostile forces: The flesh, the world, and the devil. Absolutely. However, in the context of Judges 3, I see one thing we war against (which could be the sum total of Graham’s observation) and One Thing we war for.

First, we war to adore. We fight for the presence of the Lord. I wholeheartedly believe we spend too much time talking about who or what we’re fighting against, but really, have no perspective concerning what we are warring for. What’s on the other side of victory… in this life? Many would say blessing, breakthrough, healing, miracle, successfully resisting temptation, prayer answer, etc. Those are victory byproducts, sure, but what or Who are we really fighting for?

Before I even examine this point further, NO, we don’t war to be saved. If anything, God wages war on us to bring us to salvation. He supernaturally intervenes and interferes with our sin-loving, self-exalting existences and wrestles us to the ground to where we have no choice but to say a spiritual “Uncle!” to the Holy Ghost. No wonder Jimmy Buffet sings, “Vampires, Mummies and the Holy Ghost, these the things that terrify me the most.” Rightly so, for that Holy Ghost comes in and wrecks havoc on everything dead in our lives. He’s the God who wars and wrestles with the sinners heart, and believe you me, when you are His agenda, He’s going to get you and render you sweetly broken before the cross of Christ. So, no, we don’t fight for our salvation.

We war, however, to behold and experience our Sanctifier. Let me specify. God supernaturally places His Warrior in us at salvation. He is the Holy Spirit and He is what makes us long, yearn, and pine for the presence of God in our lives. We don’t want it. Our flesh doesn’t want it. Our flesh loves quick fixes. Our flesh loves simply being “okay” with what God deems intolerable, and that is living amidst “ites”—addictions, sin, religious deceptions—we are being groomed to simply be okay with these things, and listen, the institutional church ain’t doing a whole lot about it. Why? They’ve ceased fighting for His presence and instead, decided to finance their programs. When we’re in the Spirit, however, the lesser things disappear into the background and our heart’s longing is to feast upon Christ alone.

Jason Upon has a beautiful, spontaneous, prophetic anthem entitled “The Cost of Intimacy.” One of the lines is “We’re fighting for the presence of the Lord—a generation of warriors!” The Spirit of Jesus sanctifies us, don’t misunderstand me. However, we war to be with Him. We war for Him by Him. We war with His weapons, His arsenal, His grace, His enabling.

I’m not a proponent of “God saved you; now it’s all up to you” theology. Not true. However, now that we are saved, we’ve been enlisted in the army of God and we’d be stupid to believe that as an army, we’re called to sit around and scrub spiritual toilets all day.

Secondly, we war against the “ites” we examined previously. We war against the flesh, the devil, the distractions, the temptations, the sin we struggled with prior to our salvation that wants to stay in the land.

When we reject Jesus as Lord over every sphere of our lives and refuse to place Him at the center of our world, we are basically agreeing with the Israelites of Judges. “God, we want your blessing. We want you to have a part of our lives. But we want our own thing. We’ll do what (we think) You expect of us. We’ll do the Christian stuff; however, there are things we want to do and you keep your hands off those parts of our lives.”

I say that to God. I hate that I say that, but I do. We live with an old man called the flesh and let me tell you, this is dude selfish, cranky and boisterous!

Ultimately, our enemy conspires to thwart us from engaging Almighty God. He’s done this so strategically, most of all, through silencing the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. Why? When we grasp the Gospel, we understand a myriad of Truths that all stand side-by-side, and upon believing those Truths, we are privileged to access the very presence of the Most Holy God Who delights in undoing us in His majesty.

We are called and equipped to wage this war. Unfortunately, we’re being told two lies. One is that we do absolutely nothing now that we’re saved and whatever happens…happens. Then you have “those” people on the other side of the fence fighting and rebuking the devil from sunup to sundown. Oh, he must love the attention and delight in his duel-success—keeping the army of God asleep, or making them maintain their defensive (as they fight, unaware of Who and what they’re actually fighting for.)

We are inexperienced in true, Scriptural, spiritual warfare. Ah, but I believe the Spirit of God is awakening us. The sleeping giant is rising and the reality of His glory covering the earth is becoming an ever near reality.