Called to battle. Called to become a warrior. Called to fight the good fight of faith.
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.”
—Ephesians 6:12-13
During our LDW (Leadership Development Weekend) which was right before we came to Honduras, our SQL (Squad Leader) lead us in an exercise to help us encounter God. As I begin to press in closer to God to truly encounter God, my mind is drawn back to the series of images I got before launching on the Race. If you haven’t read the series, I suggest you go back and read them here. (There are a total of 4 blogs: the Valley, the Ascent, the Summit & the View.) So as I focused my thoughts my mind picked up the image of flying on the dragons. Jesus and I are no longer playing in the clouds; we are on a mission and it is no longer Jesus on white dragon but the Lord.
“The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name.”
—Exodus 15:3
The Valiant Warrior is beside me; we are flying into war. We fly long and hard to the point where my legs are sore. As we continue charging through the sky I realize that I am not ready for war; I am inadequately prepared for war. I am not prepared because the weapon I am currently holding is a dagger. A dagger. What good is a dagger going to do? The Lord asks me to surrender, to let go of my small dagger. I give the Lord my dagger and He throws my dagger into the clouds. Then He pulls a great long sword and gives it to me. Now I have the Lord’s sword instead of my dagger, but what good is a sword if I don’t know how to use it? The Lord responds to my question, that is why we are headed to battle training. I am first going to teach and equip you how to use a sword before we enter the war. That is what the next 8.5 months on the Race are—it is my training ground. It won’t be easy, training for war never is. There will be times were I will have to fight, to use the weapons God is teaching me to use. All this training is preparation for the war that lies ahead. This war is the mission field God is calling me to, whatever it is. I still don’t know. I know that God is beginning to pull the strings of my heart. And I know that my training will never fully be completed, there is always more that I can learn from God. However, there will come times in my life where the battle is harder and the war is relentless and I have to be prepared to fight alongside the Valiant Warrior. The good news is that we know the outcome of the war—victory!
