What does it mean to be a Christian?
To be a Christian means to believe in Jesus Christ … and to follow Him!
Who is Jesus?
Jesus Christ is God.
Jesus Christ is the Creator of all things – on earth and in heaven … physical seen things … and unseen spirit things.
Jesus Christ rules and reigns over all! … physical seen things … and unseen spirit things.
There are many unseen spirit beings who hate God! These evil unseen spirit beings do not want Jesus Christ to be ruler over all … so they rebelled against God and started war in heaven.
War first began when unseen spirit beings rebelled against God.
God created all things … and God rules and reigns over all things … even unseen evil spirit beings. And God kicked the evil unseen spirit beings out of Heaven!
These evil unseen spirit beings, led by Satan, brought war to the earth! These evil demonic spirits hate God! And their sole mission is to destroy everything good God has made.
Why is there war in the world?? Why can’t everyone get along?? Why are there evil people in the world, who do great evil … killing and destroying innocent people??
Because they are led and empowered by unseen evil demonic spirits.
In yesterday’s blog post I shared about the rescue of a little girl in Mosul, Iraq. (from the documentary film: Free Burma Rangers)
At the bottom of yesterday’s blog post I included a link with the follow-up story about how this little girl was reunited with her grandmother and aunt.
If you watched this follow-up video, you heard Dave Eubank share about how this little girl’s grandmother told him of a vision she had had, in which she saw her granddaughter lying among heaps of the dead … and in front of her little granddaughter was a very foul, black, evil, dark river … … then through the river came a brilliant shining man, all in white! … and he picked up her little granddaughter and carried her across the foul black river to safety.
That was Jesus Christ!! Make no mistake … that right there was Jesus Christ!
For sure He used the American forces to drop in heavy smoke to provide a shield of cover for the rescue attempt.
He used the Iraqi tank to go in advance, shielding and protecting the small band of rescuers.
He used Dave to actually run out into the line of fire to pick the little girl up and bring her back to safety.
He used the fellow rescuers to provide cover-fire as Dave ran to go get her.
But Jesus Christ Himself, High Commander of Heaven’s armies, rescued that little girl! … and you can be sure there was a whole battalion of spirit beings as well, doing battle against the unseen spiritual forces of evil!
This world we live in is both physical and spirit. There are things we see … and there are unseen spirit beings we can’t see.
If we are a follower of Jesus Christ, we are part of a great spiritual war! … war which first began in Heaven when the evil demonic spirits first rebelled. And which still continues to this day … as evil demonic spirits try to take people captive to Satan’s power.
Make no mistake … this is war!
The Christian life isn’t about sitting around “looking perfectly holy” … in order to impress everyone else who is also sitting around trying to “look perfectly holy.”
The Christian life isn’t about sitting around endlessly discussing and debating theological doctrines and beliefs.
The Christian life isn’t about nicely packaged Bible studies … forever absorbing more and more Biblical information.
The Christian life is about war! Spiritual warfare!!
The Christian life is about being changed and transformed by the Bible!!
If we are going to do war with the evil demonic forces of darkness, we certainly can’t do it the way we are now. We need God to change us, to make us strong, capable spiritual warriors … and God does this by the power of His Word!
The Christian life is about obedience!! Unquestioning, unwavering, immediate obedience to our High Commander, Jesus Christ!
When God tells us we need to do something (just as God told Dave he needed to go rescue that little girl), we (just like Dave) need to obey! … immediately! … completely!
We might not know what other unseen spiritual forces at also at work battling in the same rescue effort to which God has called us. We will never know the full extent of the spiritual conflict to which God calls us. But whatever He is calling us to do … it’s important! It matters! And we must obey!!
