You don’t send ‘babies’ and young children into war to do battle; well, not if you are ‘civilized’ country, you don’t. I use that term loosely as I think of how we hear of many tribal conflicts that take place in other countries, Africa in particular. Villages are raided and young boys are kidnapped and then armed with guns and sent out to do battle with other tribes, many of these boys still being in a single digit of age and not much older. It’s a tragedy that probably happens more often than we’d care to believe. And then, I think about all the 18-19 year olds who we sent over to Viet Nam decades ago to fight a useless ‘conflict’ and I don’t take that much solace in suggesting we are that much more civilized in some ways; but now I digress once again.

So it’s safe to say that when it comes to spiritual battles and conflicts and wars, the same thinking would apply- you don’t send ‘babies’ in to do battle. (Luke 10:1-20 can be discussed later) And if you don’t believe followers of Jesus are not involved in a spiritual ‘war’, then I don’t even know what to tell you from here on out. Paul speaks extensively on this subject in 2 Cor. 10:1-6, Eph. 6, and 2 Tim. 2:1-4.

I should also point out that our war, while spiritual in nature, is not with external groups that exist among us. Your enemy is not the ‘liberals’ or the media or the ‘entertainment’ industry, (Olympic shows included). Peter tells us clearly who our enemy is in 1 Pet. 5:8, as does Paul in Eph. 6:12. And Revelation 12:17 adds to the commentary as well. But that is not to suggest we should be engaged with chasing after and ‘fighting demons’ in the style that Frank Peretti might have described in his book series years ago, either.

Peter writes: “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which ‘war’ against the soul...” (1 Pet. 2:11). Overcoming this flesh nature should be our primary focus in the early days of our walk in following Jesus as He leads us into the wilderness (boot camp) to put this thing to death. (Rom. 8:13-14). That really is a ‘thing’, you know? Putting to death these ‘earthly members’ (Col. 3:5) was not a metaphor or symbolic language. That is exactly what those who genuinely ‘belong to Christ...have done(or were supposed to do). (Gal. 5:24)

Do you know what else Paul had to address repeatedly in his letters? He was constantly calling out the ‘carnality’ that existed in the early church, citing for example those ‘babes in Christ’ at Corinth who ‘should have been on meat, but were still on milk’. (1 Cor. 3:1-4) And what was the evidence of this? They were still bearing carnal fruit like ‘envy, strife and divisiveness’. We also read in Hebrews 5:12-14 of others who ‘should’ have been on meat but were still on milk and rebuked for it. Even James had to address carnality in the church before encouraging them to pray effectively for healing among the sick there. (3:9-10; 44 5:13-16)

All this to say that we should not expect to be endued with ‘power’ (supernatural) to go out and do the ‘ works of God’ if we can’t even overcome the petty things like our flesh nature. Jesus was not anointed with power until He demonstrated His heart was wholly committed to the Father, and we’d be foolish to think it would be any different with us. (Luke 4:14)