The Day of War

Imagine a battle scene. This scene is taking place deep in a jungle. There are sounds of thunder as explosions occur all around. Bullets rip through the palm branches as splinters from trees fly before your eyes. There are cries of pain and agony, shouts of urgency and sometimes panic. Let your mind go for a minute in all of this. Imagine the smell in the air. See if you can feel the earth shake beneath your feet as a mortar shell explodes not so far away. As the smoke clears from before your eyes, you see something just ahead that looks strangely out of place. It is a small cradle. There is a baby blanket carefully folded and draped over the edge. With curiosity, you move stealthily up to the edge and peer into the bundle of blankets and there to your surprise are . . . YOU! With all the special effects, that Hollywood has to offer it is still impossible to portray the violent spiritual warfare that has been going on all around you since the moment of your conception. By the time you reached your cradle, many who were conceived at the same time you were had already been violently murdered in a process called abortion. Some of you may have felt the tremors of shock as your mother considered whether she would carry you and give you life or end it. As you made your way through family issues, battles on the playground, struggles in the classrooms, conflicts in relationships and all the other noises of life, you learned how to react and respond mostly by what you could see and feel with you five senses. Yet many of the things you can see and feel are driven by spiritual conflicts in the unseen world. Ephesians 6:12 “For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world.” (NLT) I once rented a home that had a plum tree planted close to the drive where we parked our car. This home was in California where the climate was ideal for the tree to produce fruit nearly year around. These plums were not good to eat. The tree was a beautiful purple color and had been planted for its aesthetic value. We hated this tree. The plums would fall off by the dozen. It was impossible to get to the front door without stepping on them. They would stain the carpets in our cars. They would track up the tile in our entryway and, if you were not careful at times, stain our clothing. We were tenants and not homeowners at the time. It was not our choice to cut down the tree, so we were left to deal with the fruit. My son and I would shake the tree and sweep up all the plums, but no matter how hard we worked, the tree could outproduce our efforts. Our struggle with the plum tree provides a perfect picture of trying to fight spiritual battles in the natural. It is like pulling the fruit of a tree instead of taking an axe to its root. You have heard of, “getting to the root of the problem.” The root is unseen. When fighting the battles of life always remember. “The things I can see with my physical eyes are often a distraction. The things that I cannot see are most significant in this war.”