The purpose of all training is to develop forces that can win in combat. However, training should not stop with the commencement of war. This was a basic instruction I received as a young second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps.
I was in my early-20s when I started to receive instruction about warfare. It was also the same time when I was beginning my faith journey with Christ, so I wrestled to understand the physical instruction I was receiving about an oath I had taken to lay down my life in service to country. And I wrestled with the oath I had taken to lay down my life to a greater One, Jesus.
The clear spiritual and physical connection was this: when we call people to follow Jesus, we are indeed calling them into an offensive strategy to take a stand against a real enemy in spiritual warfare. You must prepare God’s people for war.
The weapons we fight with are not weapons of this world. On the contrary, we have divine power to demolish strongholds. When the Apostle Paul wrote about warfare in 2 Cor. 10:3-4, he didn’t say that believers shouldn’t fight. He wrote that as believers, there are certain ways in which we fight. There are certain ways in which we train. There are certain weapons in which we use. What is our strategy and tactics? What are our weapons?
This a short battle plan for mentoring and multiplying to take an offensive strategy in spiritual warfare.
The first tactic is this: Teach people how to pray. The disciples made this request of Jesus. And Jesus responded that when you pray, do so in this manner. It wasn’t His intent for us to memorize what we call “The Lord’s Prayer” and recite it with no thought for the words.
When we pray, we first acknowledge our Father who is holy. And when we pray for “Your kingdom come, Your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven,” this is a powerful prayer about our allegiance. It is a prayer and an oath that we stand on the Lord’s side. It is a prayer that we want to see His mission accomplished on earth now. Praying is an act of spiritual warfare.
The second tactic is this: Teach them how to praise. I’m a little concerned about some of the new contemporary ways of worship where worship leaders are on the platform while everyone else sit or stand and watch, and at the end we all smile, clap and go home. If this is our practice, then worship is not a corporate act. Corporate worship and praise as an act of warfare has become a lost art.
If we consider Acts 16, we find the words, “At about midnight, Paul and Silas were prisoners in jail praying and singing hymns to God.” This was an act of warfare that brought about an earthquake. The jailer was about to commit suicide. And Paul said, “No, don’t do that.” What we see as a result of praise and worship, is the person who kept them in chains got saved. The oppressor and his family got baptized, because Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. Many of the Psalmists and faithful servants throughout the Bible understood that praise was an act of spiritual warfare.
The third tactic is this: Teach them how to stand watch. Standing watch is an intentional practice of equipping people to persevere in the faith. Anybody can start a faith journey. Perseverance is about how well you finish.
One of the most critical times we see of spiritual warfare in the Bible happens in the Garden of Gethsemane. There the Bible says that our Savior, our Commander in Chief, was troubled in His spirit. The God-man Jesus did not want to be alone in this hour. So he called on His three closest friends and said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch for me.”
He called them to stay awake and pray as He pleaded with His Father to see if there was another way to win this spiritual war. He went away and He came back three times. And every time He returned, His disciples were asleep. It is a sinful and sad occurrence to be asleep when God calls us to stand watch. Everyday, Christians are losing battles because they are weak or lazy or tired or lacking in training. An undisciplined mind and heart is not spiritually awake.
We must root and ground people in the Word of God. Biblical illiteracy will surely lead to battle failure. Disciples must know the Word for themselves. Training our sisters and brothers in the Word helps them become vigilant and alert to all the ways God is at work in the world. It equips them to join in that great work!
We must call people to make disciples, to embrace the mission of mentoring and multiplying for God’s kingdom. Jesus has modeled for us the ways we become good warriors because he went on to faithfully fulfill His duties until the very end. Like a good warrior, he said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he would lay down his life for his friends. And you are My friends if you do what I command (John 15:12-14).” We must be willing to lay down our lives for the sake of this gospel.
We must be willing to lay down our lives for the sake of this gospel. We must be willing to lay down our lives for the sake of other people.
It is our duty as good warriors to prepare our brothers and sisters so they can learn how to persevere in the faith together. And we can take a stand against the enemy on this earth because we know who holds our future. We know our Commander in Chief, and in the end, we know who wins this war.
Natasha Sistrunk Robinson is the author of Mentor for Life: Finding Purpose through Intentional Discipleship and founder of Leadership LINKS, Inc. A graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary Charlotte and the U.S. Naval Academy, and a former Marine Corps officer, Natasha serves as a Bible teacher, speaker, anti-human trafficking advocate, and champion for education. Connect via her official website, blog, Twitter, or on Facebook.
This article is based on her talk at Creating Options Together 2016, a training event for Cru’s inner city ministry. You can listen to her whole message here and enjoy further media content from the Creating Options Together Conference here. Want to learn more about Cru's inner city ministry? Click here.
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