Spiritual Vietnam

Spiritual Vietnam

10/8/16

It is a common cry that no one likes to be involved in wars.  War symbolizes everything opposite of the peace initiative and wrecks every family involved.  But if war does come to that group or nation must be able to sustain the ability to fight appropriately and according to traditional warfare, battle lines must be drawn in order for movements to accurately be determined.  It is the wish of every commander that their lines be strong and continuously defendable with the adequate amount of effective fighting soldiers, but for those who have been in combat know this is just not the case.  This type of occurrence happens in the spiritual realm as well and while our Supreme Commander wishes His children and properly prepared He knows that the lines of His Kingdom are filled with holes and move in both directions on a constant basis.

My military career was a routine four-year hitch that lasted from 1988 – 1992.  I was in the United States Air Force and while I had orders to be deployed overseas at one time, I never stepped foot out of the USA.  It was a period of ups and downs but I managed to end my career on a positive note and have no regrets about my stint in military terms.  When I was in med tech school the skirmish of Panama broke out but was not in any condition to be activated for this deployment.  Plus, this type of operation was pretty much cut and dry and within a few days the objectives had been reached and most of the hostilities had died down.  A quick and effective military maneuver to catch a wanted military dictator with a drug cartel history, some say useful others say unless.

After my schooling was complete I went to my permanent base and after a certain period of time the first Gulf War broke out. Our reserve unit was on base and all pre-orders were being implemented so that when the festivities began we would be ready to deploy to Germany.  As one knows, this war was quickly decided in a matter of weeks and no further action on our part was needed; however, our base did suffer a single casualty when one of our pilots was killed in an unusual crash.  This ended my “combat” involvement in the military and my tour ended in 1992.  I wanted to establish this setting because in both instances battle lines had been drawn up and decisive figures put into place for these engagements to work.  Some agreed with this motive and others did not, just as every other US military involvement.  No fluidity of the lines was rendered and every combat team’s mission was cut and dry.  The might of the US military was witnessed and quick installments completed. 

The Vietnam War is the latest long long-term that our nation was involved in that most of the current population remembers. Many remember its causes and almost everyone remembers its consequences.  Many families throughout this country were touched in one way or another through this war and for many people only bitterness remains.  When this tragedy was over many soldiers returned home to horrific settings with hardly anyone proud of their return, many newscasts had portrayed these men and women as baby killers, home destroyers and nation destructors.  The general population could not understand that in most cases there were no battle lines defined and that each operation had an objective and when that objective or allotted time period ended the troops were taken away and returned to their established base.

Many times they would be redeployed into the same area some days later and have to fight for the same territory again just to leave it when that day’s fighting was over.  How can anyone win a war or battle with tactics of this sort?  It is difficult enough to hold a line with little personnel involved but holding the line may be tough but it has been proven a worthy accomplishment for centuries.  There are many facets that this war entailed and most of these diversions came from the political standpoints which hindered our men and women from doing their job properly.  No one can for sure say that if the military was allowed to complete their duty continually that the war would have ended sooner, but due to the choices that were made it is known that many lives were needlessly sacrificed on both sides of the fighting table.  A point to think about for a moment about this type of fighting and positioning, it is this type of action that describes an addiction, an addiction that takes hold of a person’s life and does not release.  It also describes how the Church is fighting the kingdom of Satan, one that we should be able to handle quite easily but struggle to even survive a small skirmish.

Over the decades of listening to interviews, watching documentaries and personally talking with Vietnam veterans it is easy to see that the lack of solid battle lines had a devastating effect on our men and women.  Advancing to a position and then pulling back had no real completion only a minute tactical scene and then that positive position was taken away almost as soon as it was secured, only the major outposts and bases were properly placed and defended.  It is this setting that the Church has adopted as well and it has proven to be just as disastrous as the Vietnam position was as well.  The world would love to convince you that there is not an eternal war ongoing for your life and for the most part the world and its leader has convinced the Church that this lie is actually the truth.  Thus, the Church accepts the fluidity of kingdom battle lines and accepts the fact that she can operate with lines moving back and forth instead of a continual advancement.  It is this tactic that cost countless civilian and military lives and the same tactic is being carried out in church settings today.  When a commander took out a squad or platoon after its battle the mission was officially cancelled and therefore completed but no one was left to make sure that the conquered territory remained in “our” possession.  It was given back to the enemy instead who then reinforced the positions that we had driven them from and resulting in an overall defeat of our military.

God has NEVER intended for Hs people to stop the advancement of His Kingdom.  This truth of our existence was given to Adam and Eve and has been in our buildings ever since.  It was established in the Garden of Eden that there are two kingdoms that are vying for our livelihoods Genesis Chapters 1-3 gives us these details.  The examples of this fighting are easily obtained when one studies the Bible, the entire Bible.  When we allow the position of God’s Kingdom to be compromised through worldly acceptance in our lives the battle lines are pushed backward and thus allows our enemy to gain territory around us.  This makes the kingdom lines fluid instead of a complete line moving forward.  This is a dangerous tactic because this fluidity of the spiritual battle lines strictly depends on our choices.  For God shall never force His will on our lives which means it is our choice to obey His ways and thus advance His Kingdom.

The Church cannot sit back and just defend the buildings it possesses.  Keep in mind that the Church is you and when God says that it is useless to defend buildings this means that He recognizes that we are sitting in the pews instead of out in the world advancing His Kingdom by telling people about Him.  Church buildings serve a purpose, that is not in question but when we stay inside those buildings instead of going out to the world we are allowing the enemy to close in around us so that he may begin the direct assault on these buildings and consequently you!  This is what the modern Church has accepted as a defensible position and it is costing not only the lives of those who do not know God but the ones who are succumbing to the lies of the enemy that surrounds them.

In Vietnam one of the main issues that our men and women faced were that the lines were broken up and never consolidated into one single aggressive line.  I have read about references where lines were so broken that the enemy could have – and did – walked through the lines to the rear and had their advance commit to the front and rear of our soldiers.  Whatever army faces this type of condition it is a hopeless case because there is no defense from bullets coming at you from two directions.  Not many people recognize that it is this type of surrounding that our spiritual enemy has against us; not because God has allowed it but because we have volunteered it into existence.  The kingdom battle lines are alive and continually trying to advance and if we allow ourselves to retreat or to break the lines into small segments we will soon face attacks from behind.

An important concept to keep in mind here and it one that we need to understand for our spiritual survival; a few days ago God shared with us about the Armor of God and how important it is that we put on the entire armor.  If we study this passage – Ephesians Chapter 6 – then we will find out that the armor that God intends for us to wear is designed to protect the front of our spiritual bodies, not the back.  This means that God intends for us to keep a unified line while we are fighting our enemy and as long as we have this continual battle line we do not have to worry about the enemy being behind us.  It is through this description of the Armor of God that gives us the fact that God’s Kingdom and Satan’s kingdom can never mix and it also illustrates to us how important it is that ALL Christians be united as One Church to fight our enemy.

It is obvious that the Church has not allowed these battle lines to stay congruent by what they deem as important and acceptable.  Their doors are open to sin instead of the sinner and their walls are seeping with the remnants of such sin.  She fails to recognize that this infiltration inside her confines is the enemy taking measures of points inside defining his striking points so that his weapons will be most effective when used.  The only way that this can be occurring, through the definition of the Armor of God is that our lines have been voluntarily broken and the enemy allowed to legally infiltrate our bases (churches).  In other words, the embassies that God has established for the advancement of His Kingdom have been overrun and are under constant attack and its inhabitants are sitting around watching it unfold and not doing one thing to change the situation.  How can we fight an enemy that we do not recognize as the enemy?  It is impossible to do so.

God wishes to refresh our memories and hearts with an important Scripture to show us who our enemy is and what his position is around us.  Matthew Chapter 4 gives an account of when Jesus was being tempted in the desert by Satan himself.  He took Jesus up on a mountain top and made a startling claim.  Satan told Jesus that he (Satan) would give Jesus all of the kingdoms of the world if He only bowed down and worshipped him.  Jesus did NOT ARGUE THIS POINT!!!  This means that Satan was actually telling the truth when he made this claim.  Through this claim and admission by Christ, our enemy is defined and he operates through the kingdoms of the world as his own which in turn defines his kingdom.  If we accept any part of this kingdom into our lives we are voluntarily allowing God’s Kingdom to be pushed back and to be broken.

If our lines are intact and we are completely under the protection of God’s Covenant then we have no worries that the enemy will be able to attack us from the rear.  Our Commander has guaranteed that He will be right in the midst of the battle if we follow His commands continually.  If we obey His commands then we shall know who our enemy is and we will be able to recognize the attacks that he brings.  I find it very intriguing that God’s Word states that only when we have on the full armor of God that we will be able to fend off the attacks of Satan which means that it is in this fully dressed armor that we can recognize these attacks as well.

Church, you represent the foundation that the dying world needs and it is your responsibility to make sure that the true, unadulterated and 100% of God’s truth goes out to these nations.  We must recognize that we are almost completely surrounded by our enemy and our perimeter is being steadily enclosed around us.  We shall not survive this overall attack unless we clean our walls and our pews and get back to the only way possible for an advance.  God desires that no one perish and eternally be separated from Him, but God is warning us that not only will those who do not know Him perish but those who sit on the pews and do not advance His Kingdom are in the same boat as those who do not know.  The Church is alive and she needs to act accordingly just as the battle lines of the spirit are.  These lines cannot mix only be advanced or pushed back.  Stand strong Church and fight with the full Armor of God on us for it is through this condition only that we can survive.  God knows that we cannot fend off our enemy through a spiritual Vietnam tactical position, only a complete and continual advancement shall defeat this enemy.

DLB