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green eyedEverywhere I go there has been this ad running in the background on the TV for a Spiritual Warfare Kit. I have no idea if it’s good or bad or even who puts it out. All I know is that it costs 39.95.

For that much money you would think it would come with a light saber and a ninja mask? That is what I have often wanted, a mask and a weapon. I get it, you put on the armor of God and pick up the Sword of Truth, but just the same, I would like to have a light saber and a ninja suit, too. An asbestos ninja suit.

I jest here, but actually spiritual warfare is some really serious business, which leads to my first complaint or concern. The spiel in the ad is all about what YOU can do,  as in, you will gain the power to defeat the enemy. No. Actually, that’s really dangerous. YOU will simply be flattened out like Wiley Coyote in a  Road Runner cartoon.  YOU haven’t got the power. YOU alone just aren’t big and bad enough. Know your own limitations.

This kind of thing actually scares me, first because it’s bad theology, so it’s like sending someone into a gunfight armed with blanks. Jude is a good place to start if you want some biblical precedent for that truth, “But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

Michael is a pretty powerful angel and yet he did not dare, but instead said the magic words, “The Lord rebuke you!”

It’s an issue that really bothers me, I guess because it’s such a recipe for disaster and it really underestimates the power of darkness.  There is no competition there, no fair fight. Without Jesus Christ we are simply toast. Road kill. Flat squirrels.

There’s another ninja trick we can learn from Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

Power in weakness. If you are like me it is very counter intuitive to surrender all and call on the name of the Lord when you are under attack.  It’s often our natural instinct to fight, resist, struggle, and that’s all well and good in the physical world, but remember Ephesians 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

For goodness sakes people, don’t go into battle alone, and don’t go into it with a kit you bought for 39.95, even if it does come with a light saber.

lightsaber