Truths of the Battlefield: Our Battle Plan

With Jesus as our commander, there are some basic steps we can live that helps us follow Him into the fight.  Before we ever put on our armor and engage in spiritual warfare, we must look at our position, our source of strength, and our stance.  These three things create a secure foundation that helps build us into active participants in God's army.

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Transcript

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Hey guys and welcome back. Get comfortable. As always, grab your coffee or whatever you're drinking and settle in as we begin episode three of Joining the Fight. I'm Kyle Clark from Standing Word Ministries, a Christ-centered ministry dedicated to equipping believers with solid biblical truth and practical training. We create scripture-based curriculum and resources like our workbook, Joining the Fight, to strengthen discipleship, deepen our understanding of the word, and to help every one of us live with purpose as we stand firm and carry the message of Christ forward. If you want to explore more teachings or grab this workbook, head over to standingword.com. Last time we fixed our eyes on our Commander, Jesus, who he is as the way, the truth, and the life. And wasn't there some great information, some real focal points for us as believers to follow Him? But today we want to take that beautiful reality that Christ presents us and turn it into something that we can carry into every single moment of our day, a strategy, a battle plan. No matter what we face, whether we're holding ground or pressing forward, three elements have to be a part of every defense and every attack as we fight this battle each and every day. And that is our position, which translates into spiritual vigilance, our strength, having faith in God and relying upon His Holy Spirit, and our stance, which should be Christ-like and courageous. Think of these as our standing orders straight from headquarters. When the alarms go off and chaos breaks loose, we don't scramble to invent a new plan. We simply return to our position, our strength, and our stance, and carry out whatever task needs to be accomplished. We're in this together. You're not alone on the battlefield, so let us lean in, open our hearts, and build this battle plan side by side. All right, let's start right where the fight is won and lost from the beginning, our position. We've all been there. Life gets loud, notifications don't stop, worries pile up, and suddenly our heart has quietly drifted off course. That's exactly why Solomon gives us this clear command we can all hang on to. In Proverbs 4, 23 through 27, he says, Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Here's what that looks like for us in three practical ways. First, we replace. We don't just stop bad habits, we don't just stop improper behavior, we replace it because we have a new life in Christ. Ephesians 4 28 tells us that we don't merely quit the old sinful patterns of our lives. We replace them with something that actually builds and blesses us because we said yes to Jesus and now we follow him. The guy who steals or abuses those around him. Once he has been transformed, he uses those same hands in that same time to serve others at a food bank or to volunteer at his church. The person who once tore others down with their words now speaks life and encouragement. This isn't cosmic behavior change, friends. This is a heart transformation by grace. We trade our old patterns for new practices, and suddenly our lives start producing fruit instead of us just surviving the weak. Second, we live ready with an eternity clock, a focus on eternity. Jesus warned us clearly in Luke twenty one, thirty four through thirty five. He said, Don't let your hearts be dulled by carousing drunkenness or the worries of this life. Readiness isn't anxious striving, it's staying light on our feet. We trim the distractions that dull our souls because our actions are aligned with that clock. We keep watch and we pray. When we live with eternity in view, we stay quick to obey, quick to repeat, and quick to step into whatever God has next. We become the kind of people that aren't caught off guard when the battle heats up. Third, we examine ourselves on a regular basis through Scripture. Psalms one through three paints the picture of the blessed person who isn't restless, because they are rooted like a tree planted by streams of water. That only happens when we keep coming back to the mirror of God's word and asking ourselves honestly, how do my thoughts, my habits, and the fruit coming out of my life line up with this? There's no self-loathing, just honest alignment. We do this daily and we watch ourselves become fruitful in the ways we never could on our own. And here's a small micro application for this week that might help. Something that is simple and doable. Pick one old habit you know needs replacing and decide exactly what good thing you'll do to put in its place. Cut one distraction that has been dulling your soul, whether it be social, the shows you watch, the music you listen to, your daily activities, etc., and choose one short passage of scripture to meditate on every single day in relationship to what you've picked. Write them down tonight before you close your eyes. Transformation can have small steps, but it leads to a big heart of obedience. With our position locked in, now let's talk about where the real power comes from, where our strength comes from. Our position can't be achieved the way Christ intended unless we are drawing from and relying on the right source. This is one of those freeing truths in our entire battle manual. Listen to 2 Timothy 1 through 7. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind. God didn't wire us for fear, he wired us for power, love, and self-discipline. Let that sink in right now. First, we choose truth over fear. John 8 32 says the truth sets us free. Fear shrinks our world and whispers a what if, trying to paralyze us. But when those fear phrases start screaming in our heads, we answer them with what God has already spoken. We stand on what's true, not what's loud. That single choice changes everything in the middle of a fight. Second, we harness the power of love. 1 John 4 8 reminds us God is love, and 1 Corinthians shows us what that looks like. Patient when everyone else is losing it, kind when the world is harsh, refusing pride, keeping no running tally of the wrongs around us, and never giving up. Love isn't a soft option, it's the operating system of this kingdom that we belong to. In this spiritual warfare, love is what our courage is actually for. When we operate in love, we become dangerous to the darkness because the enemy has no answer for the kind of love that comes from the Father, that comes from the sacrifice of Jesus. And third, we cultivate self-discipline. Second Peter 1, 5 through 7 lays out the training sequence. Add to your faith goodness, then knowledge, then self-control, perseverance, godliness, brother affection, and love. This isn't white knuckling our way through the day. This is stacking grace upon grace until our lives move naturally in the step with the Spirit. If we want God's power to be our source, we must act like we belong to Him. We build these qualities one choice at a time, and suddenly we find ourselves standing firm where we used to waver. Because God is our strength. And relying upon Him and the Holy Spirit helps us to cultivate these things. When we realize that we've been given a spirit of power, of love, and of sound mind, that is what we focus on, not what we fear, not our failures, but on the source that we draw from. God. Here is a small application for this. And let's put this into practice right now. Name the fear that's been the loudest in your life lately, and answer it with one specific truth from Scripture. Then plan one concrete act of love towards someone that is difficult this week. Finally, pick one quality from 2 Peter 1, like perseverance or self-control, and practice it every single day for the next few days. This is a part of your training. We do small, consistent steps to build ourselves into the warriors that God is asking us to be. We rely on his strength, and that strength rises within us the more we rely on it. But now let's talk about how we actually stand when the pressure hits us. We have our position, we have our strength. But what is the stance we take every day when we face those conflicts, those difficulties, and those battles? Isaiah 117 calls us to learn to do right, to seek justice, and to defend the oppressed. Now when we talk about our stance, we talk about being Christ-like. And so when we talk about being Christ-like, we must first walk in the boldness that Christ has redeemed us and made us into new creations. Joshua 24, 15 and 1 Corinthians 16, 13, give us that backbone we need. When all the world around Joshua was turning against the Lord, Joshua said, As for me in my house, we will serve the Lord. And 1 Corinthians, be watchful, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. Boldness isn't loud or arrogant, but it's quiet clarity with a backbone. We declare our allegiance to Christ and we hold that line, even when it's countercultural. Second, the love that we talked about in our strength, we grow in that love. Mark 12, 30 through 31 brings us right back to the great commandment. Love God with all you have and love our neighbor as ourselves. In the middle of conflict, we never drop love to win. If we think of love as like an ammo can, we have to carry that ammo can into the fight because love is the win that Christ is after. Love is the ammunition that we use in that fight. And third, above all things, we pursue harmony. Colossians 3.14 and Ephesians 4.3 tells us to put on love, which binds everything together in perfect unity, and to make every effort to keep unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. Courage and love are not opposites, they belong together in the fight. As a small application this week, make one bold, God-honoring yes. Do one costly act of love to someone around you and take one practical step to be a peacemaker. It's maybe an encouraging text, having a conversation with someone that you're at odds with, or even an apology to help bind the body and community you live in. Let us pray right now. Father, establish our position, guard our hearts, clear our eyes, and set our feet on the straight path that you provide. Strengthen us by your spirit, replace every fear with your truth, flood us with your love, and train us in your holy self discipline, and form our stance. Make us courageous and Christ like, people who choose you every day, who love without quitting, who fight for unity in your church, and where we drift call us back, where we're weak be our power, where we're divided make us one. We place every defense and every advance under the command of Jesus Christ, our King and Commander. Amen. Now here's our simple battle plan for every situation. When we recognize the enemy, when we acknowledge Jesus as our commander and we follow him, we must adopt a battle plan that focuses on our position, our strength, and our stance. We guard our hearts and stay alert. We draw our power from God and the Holy Spirit, and we stand courageous like Christ, acting and mimicking his behavior. Don't overcomplicate what you do every day. Because when the fight gets hot, complicated things go out the window. Just come back to these three things. Focus on your position, focus on your strength, and focus on the stance that you take when you engage in battle. Here are some quick challenges as we close. When it comes to our position, which habit are you replacing this week? And what are you replacing it with that is a good thing? When it comes to strength, what fear will you answer with truth? And which verse are you going to pick? When it comes to stance, where will you take a peacemaking step in the service for God? We're in this together, you've got a commander who never loses, and a family of believers walking right beside you. And if you don't have that family, you need to find one that is pursuing God alongside you. See you next as we step into the real life scenario and practice this plan under fire. Next week, we're going to talk about the armor and the equipment that God issues us to participate in this fight. But until then, stay vigilant, stay strong, and keep joining us in the fight. Thank you and God bless.