In his book, When Heaven Invades Earth, Bill Johnson has an interesting take on one element of spiritual warfare. He says, “First, God makes us strong and then he stirs up the devil’s hatred toward us. Why? It’s not because he wants to create problems for His Church. It’s because He likes to see the devil defeated by those who are made in His image, who have a relationship of love with Him by choice. We are His delegated authority. It is His delight to have us enforce the triumph of Jesus.”
I believe that statement is true but there is still a part of me that doesn’t warm up to that truth. I don’t like to be roused from my comfort zone to face an irritating enemy. I don’t like my world being rocked when I have just found the right balance and am peacefully coasting along. I find myself, like Rodney King, asking, “Can’t we all just get along?” Unfortunately, the answer is No. We live in a war zone and will until the King returns to cast the enemy and his angels into the lake of fire.
My problem is that while Jesus came to preach a selfless, other-centered gospel, I too often still make it a self-centered gospel. I too often seek the blessings for myself rather than relentlessly looking for others who need them more than I do. I too often worry about my comfort and security rather than the pain, poverty, and discomfort of those around me. As Americans, we tend to be self-centered consumers looking for a church that ministers to us and meets our needs rather than a church that is sacrificing and kicking down the doors of hell. That kind of self-centeredness robs the kingdom and us individually of both power and joy.
Regarding joy, Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit…” Those who are poor in spirit don’t demand much for themselves and often don’t think of themselves at all. Modern psychologists would say that such a mindset is a sure sign of self-hatred and a sure formula for depression. But Jesus said that those whose focus is primarily on others and not their own glory, happiness, entitlements, etc. are the truly blessed people of the world.
Philip Yancey put it this way. “My career as a journalist has afforded me opportunities to interview ‘stars,’ including NFL football greats, movie actors, music performers, best-selling authors, politicians, and TV personalities. These are the people who dominate the media. We fawn over them, pouring over the minutiae of there lives: the clothes they wear, the food they eat, the aerobic routines they follow, the people they love, the toothpaste they use. Yet I must tell you that, in my limited experience…our idols are as miserable a group of people as I have ever met. Most have troubled or broken marriages. Nearly all are incurably dependent on psychotherapy. In a heavy irony, these larger-than-life heroes seem tormented by self-doubt.
I have also spent time with people I call ‘servants.’ Doctors and nurses who work among the ultimate outcasts, leprosy patients in rural India. A Princeton graduate who runs a hotel for the homeless in Chicago… Relief workers in Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and other repositories of human suffering…I was prepared to honor and admire these servants, to hold them up as inspiring examples. I was not prepared to envy them. Yet as I now reflect on the two groups side by side, stars and servants, the servants clearly emerge as the favored ones, the graced ones. Without question, I would rather spend time among the servants than the stars: they possess qualities of depth and richness and even joy that I have not found elsewhere…Somehow, in the process of losing their lives they find them” (Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, p.117-1180.
It seems that Jesus knew what he was talking about and I think, in reflection, that the less we obsess about ourselves, our needs, our wants, our security, the more room we make for God and the love of God that we crave. The more of God we have, the more joy, authority, and even power we have to fight the inevitable wars on this planet against the devil. God does many things to get us to focus on him. He is not an egotist. He simply wants the best for us. When we are full of ourselves or even full of concern for ourselves there is little room for Jesus.
If we truly want to excel in spiritual warfare, then we must fix our eyes on Jesus not on ourselves. Greatness and joy in the kingdom, come when we seek it for others more than ourselves. The cross is the ultimate example of that truth. In the days ahead, it would be a good practice to check my “self-ometer” from time to time to make sure that there is truly room for God. The more of me that is in the tank, the less room there is for the very things I say I want most that can come only from the Father. Sometimes my own self-focus and concern for self is a more formidable enemy than Satan.
