Rev. Jason K. Pankau and John B. Donovan

We should have no doubts that we are in a spiritual war. Many are in denial about that – but then experience the adverse effects anyway. The great irony is that God doesn’t want us to engage in this combat with grim faces and depressed spirits. He wants us to know that He will do the fighting in us and through us, as He enables those who serve Him to draw on His peace.

As in secular warfare, moving away from certain protections can increase our vulnerability. A good friend of Life Spring Network was sent to Vietnam as an infantry marine in the early months of that war and found himself assigned to a remote outpost. As he sat out on a bunker each night, he actually felt quite safe because of the open area surrounding the outpost and the availability of artillery from other locations. But each time he was sent outside the outpost on a patrol in the nearby jungle, he felt more vulnerable than he ever imagined he would over there.

The fortress we need in our lives is God, and that is the fortress we are promised at all times (Psalm 46). We need not – nor should we dare to venture out beyond that into the realm of sin or self-leadership. If we are attacked while we are inside the fortress, the key is to focus on God’s authority and power, rather than on the threats.

We have the opportunity to live in a condition of what might be called general authority, that is, authority that prevails whether we are threatened or not. If we are a royal priesthood (1 Pet 2:9), then we can live in that state of general authority. We’re not pretending that spiritual enemies don’t exist, but it’s best not to focus more than momentarily on them before affirming the fullness and holiness that are ours through the blood of Christ.

If we focus on the negatives and enter new situations fearful of adverse consequences, we are more likely to encounter adversity and less likely to overcome it. By contrast, if we prepare ourselves each day by focusing on the Spirit of Christ, filling us and surrounding us, we find ourselves experiencing the abundant life, taking hold of the life that’s truly life (1 Tim 6:19). If we do encounter dark forces, we will be focusing automatically on God’s guidance and power, which renders dark forces powerless.

Begin each day by asserting the fullness of the authority that God has invested in us as Christians. It’s an authority that is consistent with humility, because it’s grounded in our dependence on Almighty God. We’re not “lording it over” others, and yet we will not be allowed by adverse circumstances to be knocked out of our standing of being much-loved children of God. As we use God’s authority in us, claiming His protection, we can expect to move in ever-higher planes of true freedom.

We can move in His protection as well. As American poet J.G. Whittier expressed it: “I know not where His islands lift / Their fronded palms in air; / I only know I cannot drift / Beyond His love and care.”