This season is all about the fight. Specifically how to fight. I’ve always known what to fight with but I’ve found that like a lot of people I have no spiritual endurance. I give up to easy.
Have you ever seen a professional boxing match? Those guys fight on long after most would quit. Sure, you could say that they’ve trained for years but without the want, without the passion, without that spark, no amount of training means anything. If they don’t want to fight they’ll do pretty poorly.
So now I have to ask myself (feel free to ask yourself to), when have I endured in a spiritual bout? When have I felt so burdened by something that I lost sleep over it because of prayer over that? When was I willing to take hits (lack of sleep, food, respect, etc) so that I would triumph over the Enemy? It can be confusing because Jesus usually spoke a few words and things happened but I believe that there are times in everyone’s life that whole hours or even days should be spent in communion with the Father. Times that we endure in order to see a spiritual matter through.
I say all this because God has taught me that I am a fighter but more than that I am my namesake. David (beloved) Alexander (defender of men). I am not just a fighter but a defender of men. I don’t pray and worship and invite the Holy Spirit to act just to push back the Darkness, but to defend others. When others are too weak to fight I should endure and fight for them. My cause should be their cause.
Endurance is a hard lesson to learn though. Oftentimes we want to quit because we are tired or hungry or worried about our appearance. What if praying for several hours would make something happen? What if replacing sleep, food, work, play, etc would change things? Is it worth the risk of putting ourselves out there and expecting God to move? Is it worth it? The lame walk, the blind see, the dead live again. Yes. Yes I think endurance might be worth it.
The whole reason in fact why I feel called to leadership is because I feel the need to fight for people the same way I was fought for. In May, 13 other men of God fought for me to bring me freedom. I want to do the same for others. Whether they are impoverished Ugandans looking for hope or an 18-22 year old using this trip as a way to get closer to the Father, I’ll fight for them. I’ll fight for their freedom.
