Have you ever watched a movie about the revolutionary war?  Did you wonder why on earth the soldiers in those armies would just march right at each other, wide open, with no protection?  As if they were daring an enemy round to hit them. 

Look at a movie depicting warfare in a medieval setting and it is even crazier.  They just all dive in at each other, slashing and hacking away.  I wonder how they even know who they are killing. 

Somewhere along the line, as far as warfare tactics go, some smart soldier came up with the idea of cover.  Learn how to present as little a target as you can to the enemy.  That definitely seemed to make sense. 

Military institutions have underwent a lot of change since those first armies, with whatever they used for weapons, charged and started pummeling each other. The constant search for better equipment and weaponry is a never-ending necessity for those who engage in battle. If they intend to overcome their enemies, that is.  

When I joined the US Army in 1983, they were just finally wrapping up some of the equipment exchange programs they had initiated a few years prior to my enlistment.  Some of the new recruits were outfitted with the new battle dress uniforms, BDU’s, while others got a few articles in the old standard olive drab uniform.  For the first year of my enlistment I was issued the old “steel pot” helmet instead of the current Kevlar head protection.  The equipment is constantly being exchanged as the warfare strategy of the enemy changes. 

Weapons, tactics and strategy also constantly evolved while I was enlisted.  Mercifully I served my five years in peacetime.  But we still trained constantly.  Practicing and learning so we would be ready at all times.  A new weapon meant a lot of extra training.  Tactics and strategy was constantly revised and updated to counter any new threat.  The whole concept was known as combat readiness. 

Are we, the Church, combat ready?  I wonder.

We have been in a war against darkness of the most desperate kind, for the whole history of the Church, but not all seem to understand this.  I don’t think much of the Church even realizes they are at war.  This has to change.  We must do our duty to inform all of the body of the necessity of battle.  And even for those that are seasoned and battle hardened warriors, it looks to me like somewhere along the line, we failed to realize the enemy was changing his warfare strategy and we failed to see any need to update ours. 

We not only must teach all disciples the reality of spiritual warfare, but how to recognize the tactics of the enemy.  What is the goal of Satan?  Is it to rule in hell, so in essence, he can to take as many of us down as possible to rule over?  I don’t think so.  Satan as ruler of hell is a misconception.  He rules over this domain, because we gave him this rule. 

He is not dumb.  I believe he knows that he will suffer judgment and punishment.  Maybe he fights so hard to somehow try to change the inevitable outcome.  He has to know he cannot win.  But he can hurt God by making a whole lot of us follow his path to judgment. 

As far as tactics are concerned, do you think he is still employing the same methods he did one hundred years ago?  Or even fifty or ten.  I don’t.  I believe he adapts and adjusts every time we do. 

A little over one hundred years ago something happened that had been hidden for almost two millennium.  Some faithful followers of Christ realized something was missing.  They earnestly sought answers and were graciously answered.  The precious and powerful Holy Spirit of God came on the scene after being unwelcome for quite a while.  When He filled those early Pentecostals with a new power and a revived spirit, the Pentecostal movement was born.  And spiritual warfare was recognized once again as a reality. 

Through the gifts of the spirit, the enemy was pushed back and defeated in many areas and lives.  The movement has grown into the third largest group of confessing Christians.  And actually is believed by some to be the largest of those groups that actually try to live in a Christlike way.   

Those early Pentecostals were a force to be reckoned with because of their humility, their hunger, and their love. 

The enemy had to change tactics.  He had had many successes, mainly by manipulating the church into its concerns with the world, culture and government.  But these Pentecostals and their pursuit of holiness instead of the world set him back.  But he responded.  How?

He slowly seduced us.  Through acceptance by the rest of culture, though entertainment, through false manifestations and manipulations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, through pharisaical legalism, through a false gospel of the pursuit of happiness and wealth, through academics and the pursuit of knowledge, and finally through a misperception of relevance.

We have become in many ways the very thing our founders wanted liberation from.  A worldly religious system.  And worldly religious systems do no harm to the enemy and sometimes even advance his campaign against our King. 

My church, the Alabaster Church of God, is in a revival at the moment.  My pastor, Robert Barnes, and the evangelist, John Ritcheson, seem to be putting forth a message from God that we must go beyond a simple personal refreshing.  Instead we must come back to our roots, which are humility, hunger and love.   

(2 Ch 7:14 ) If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

We must change our tactics and strategies from what they have become.  Instead of the elevation of self, and a pursuit of pleasure, and an attitude of hatred and judgment, we simply must humble ourselves before God, hunger for His presence and instruction, and turn back to the love for God and the love of all that He loves. 

The things that the enemy has used to divert us that I listed above are not all inherently bad or bad for us.  It is sometimes just the misuse or improper esteem we place on things and ideas and movements.  If we are to be effective in defeating the tactics of the enemy at the moment we simply must come back to the proper place in Christ that we should be. 

And if you know anything about current events, you know we must not tarry.

Combat readiness.  In my peacetime army training that simply meant sweat, lack of sleep, weariness and monotony even. 

In this real war between the forces of heaven and hell, it means life or death

Love you all