We Are at War

9/15/1996

And so basically, what I want to talk about for a few minutes here and read is basically a little bit of a follow-up on that paper that Kevin read to us, and we distributed with those various scriptures on it before we left. You would not know how useful those scriptures ended up being and describing to us just enough of God’s truth to help us hold on and to save our lives through some very, very difficult encounters with satan wanting to kill us on the inside while we were gone.

Except for the first paragraph or two, these are thoughts that Mariam wrote down as she was sorting through all of these things, the life and death encounters that all of us went through. I mean, to an extreme, you just wouldn’t even believe the torment and the torture, the pain, the agony that we all went through in terms of being pummeled by the enemy. But these are, with just the exception of a little bit in the beginning, her thoughts about it all.

“Then I heard a great voice in heaven cry, ‘Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come. For the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down from this place, where he stood before our God accusing them day and night.’”

Does that sound familiar? That sounds like what happened with Job, right? And lest we think that stopped happening with Job, it’s here for us in Revelation 12 to remind us that is still the case.

“Now they have conquered him through the blood of the Lamb, through the word to which they bore witness. They did not cherish life even in the face of death. Therefore rejoice, oh heavens, and all of you who live in the heavens, but woe to the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you in great fury, knowing that his time is short.”

If you want to know when Jesus is coming back, there are several ways you can know that. Some have to do with prophetic writings. Some things have to do with the preparation of the bride, the church becoming more full of life, more like Jesus. Another way you can know that Jesus is coming back soon is because the Bible says when satan’s time is short, he has great fury. So when you see major fury, major hatred by the enemy, major opposition that defies all reason, defies all explanation, when you see that you know his time is short. It’s either short in Malawi, or it’s short on planet Earth, or it’s short somewhere. But the fact is that’s when satan throws out his most fierce wrath and brings out all of his weapons and all of his demons and all of his ways of twisting and contorting and confusing and lying and accusing. And just slings all that in such a mad pile that it’s almost suffocating. It’s impossible to even get a breath in the middle of all that. It’s just beyond belief as those that were there would attest very quickly. But the fact is time is short, and his wrath is a clear demonstration of that.

“Then the dragon raged with fury against the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her children.” Now who are the children? Who is it that he makes war with? Who is it that his wrath is poured out on? “Those who keep the commandments of God and bear their witness to Jesus.”

There’s no mistaking, particularly after this trip to Africa, that we are at war. This planet exists as a battleground and while clearly this is a biblical fact, never before had we experienced the reality of this fact so personally. The details are not important since satan can attack through any number of means. How he does it in any particular situation is immaterial. He’ll use whatever opening we have given him. The devil attacks our emotions. He attacks our physical health. He attacks our sleep, our relationships, our communications with one another, our perceptions of one another, our feelings about the past, our feelings about the future, our finances, or anything else he can get ahold of. God means this for our good, to take us to another level as with Job. However, if we will not turn vertically and learn, as James said in chapter one, perseverance and ultimately fullness, then the enemy will devour us and render us useless. We will encounter pain in the Kingdom of God, in fact Paul said “much tribulation.” But within His walls, the pain is unto making us mighty warriors and compassionate, discerning lambs deep in fellowship with the Father. If we give in to the enemy’s invitation to “curse God and die,” and step outside of obedient submission and the way of the cross, dying for others, obeying God in all things, whether we get anything out of it or not, then our pain is for nothing, and the wrath and the judgment of God, the curses of the enemy are all upon us with no remedy. We must turn to Him in the midst of it in reverent submission. We are in a war. But it’s okay.

Someone asked me what I walked away with from the time in Malawi. It took me a minute or two to answer. I write this in hopes not to sound hyperspiritual, but in hopes that we can all see that life is bigger than what we see and hear. And because of that bigger picture, as a sister said, that is what gives us the courage to run into battle that has a high chance of ending our lives. That’s what gives us the courage to run into the battle that has a high chance of ending our lives.

As we were on our way home on the airplane, I started to read the scriptures Kevin passed out before we left. When we read it before we left, it definitely rang true. But somehow reading it after all that transpired in Malawi, it became life. “And the word became flesh and dwelt for awhile among us.” The following are pieces of excerpts from different versions of the scriptures, as well as my own version.

2 Corinthians 1:8-12 I think you ought to know, family, about the trouble we went through in the province of Africa. We were crushed and completely overwhelmed, and we thought we could never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result we learned not to rely on ourselves, but on God who can raise the dead. And He did deliver us from danger, and we are confident that He will continue to deliver us and continue to preserve us even as satan continues his battle on the homefront. On Him we have set our hope that He will continue to deliver us as you helped us by your prayers and continue to. That many will give thanks on our behalf here and in Malawi for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many. Now this is our boast—our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with the Malawians, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so, not according to worldly wisdom, but according to God’s grace. It was clearly evident to us, and even Howard and Joshua, that God’s grace and your prayers sustained us through times that were crushing. Satan fronted us at every line, but we took him down. With much travail but by the power of God, we overcame.

2 Corinthians 4:5-18 For it is Christ Jesus as Lord we proclaim, not ourselves. We were yours and their servants for Jesus’ sake. God, who first ordered light to shine in darkness flooded our hearts with His light so that we could enlighten men with the knowledge of the glory of God as we saw it in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power was and is from God and not from us. We were hard-pressed on all sides, but were never frustrated. We were puzzled, but never in despair. We were persecuted, but never deserted. We were knocked down, but we were never knocked out. Every day we experienced something of the death of Jesus so that we might show the power of life of Jesus in these bodies of ours. For we who are alive are always given over to death for Jesus’ sake so that His life was revealed in our mortal bodies. So then death was at work in us but life is at work in them and you. It is written, “I believed, therefore I have spoken.” It wasn’t by our own life that we walked and talked among the Malawians, but only by His grace. With the same spirit of faith, we also believed and therefore spoke because we knew and know that the one who raised Jesus from the dead also raised us with Jesus and presented us with you in His presence. All this is for their benefit so that the grace that’s reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we did not lose heart, though outwardly we wasted away, inwardly we were renewed hour by hour. For our light and momentary troubles were achieving for us and them an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fixed our eyes and encouraged them to do likewise, not on what was seen, but on what was unseen. For what was seen was very temporary, and what was unseen is very eternal.

2 Corinthians 5:11 God has shown us His face, and we trembled before Him with reverence and awe. This inspires us to tell others about Him. God knows our hearts and we hope you do likewise. We are not trying to get credit for what God is doing and has done. If it looks like we are out of our minds by what is being said, then it’s done for the glory of God. Not looking at what we see, the way the world sees it, but looking through the eyes of our heart as He reveals to us His glory. I want to rejoice in what was suffered for His body. God has given us the responsibility of serving His church by proclaiming His message in all of its fullness to the Malawians and us. This message was kept secret for centuries and generations passed, but now it has been revealed to His own holy people. For it has pleased God to tell His people that the riches and glory of Christ are for you and the Malawians. The secret that Christ in them and us is the hope of glory. We therefore proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we might present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end we labored and struggled in Africa.

Acts 20 They know the whole time we were with them in Africa we served Jesus with great humility and with tears, although we were severely tested. We did not hesitate to proclaim everything that would have been helpful to them, but we taught publicly and from house to house.

1 Thessalonians 2 We toiled and worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we proclaimed Jesus to them. They bear witness to how blameless we were when we were with them, encouraging, comforting, and urging them to live lives worthy of God who was calling them into His kingdom and glory. We thank God that when they heard us, they heard it as the very words of God and not as the words of mere men.

Family, what can I say, except this is only a taste of what’s to come. I feel for a period of time, which was 17 days but seemed like 17 years in reality, that Jesus tipped the cup to give us a peek of what was inside. Jesus was right when He said, “You don’t know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup I’m going to drink? Or be baptized with the baptism I’m baptized with? It will cost you everything. Here, take a peek. Do you really want to drink this? It will kill you.”