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How to Be a Spiritual Soldier in Active Service
Episode #527
January 8, 2017
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
This is the continuation of a series of Podcasts started in Episode #523.
(John) I don’t know about anybody else, but the blog, the devotions, the article series, the podcasts, they just consistently and repeatedly prick my spirit to make me hungrier and hungrier and hungrier to go further and deeper.
(Martha) Ok, the way you get to this is you go to Article…
(John) You go to the bottom on ReadMK.com.
(Martha) Go to the bottom of the page.
(John) You’ve got Articles, Books, Booklets and Devotionals.
(Martha) Ok.
(John) You go to the Article section,
(Martha) OK.
(John) And it’s at the bottom. Those are the lists of the series, and at the bottom is “Waging War.”
(Martha) Umm, ok. So, I’m just going to read the first couple of things from it. “Paul called Timothy to be a soldier, detached and focused.” But this is the interesting thing. “From his second imprisonment, a prison without freedom, Paul wrote to his son in the Lord and trained him for the life of discipline as a soldier. 2 Timothy 2:4 ‘No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the One who enlisted him as a soldier.”‘ I’ve had that verse, but I’m telling you, I’ve been under attack for several years to get away from that, because that’s one of my life scriptures. “Not entangled with the affairs of everyday life.” An important phrase, ‘active service.’ “Spiritual warfare is being compared to active service on current duty fully involved in military assignment today. Such an on-duty believer lives as restricted a life as does a soldier at war, not enmeshed in politics, not a part of emotional rallies, not interested in petty opinions, nor swayed by lesser occupation. The spiritual soldier as trained by Paul was no self-important spectator puffed up in endless talk. He was in the battle, in the race, and squarely in the ring of frontline action.”
(John) The cool thing is, is that a soldier, a true soldier is always connected to his authority, the platoon leader and the colonel and the chief in commander. You know, he’s always connected.
(Martha) Oh, good point. Always under authority.
(John) He’s always under authority.
(Martha) That’s what he learned in order to be a soldier.
(John) Yeah. If you’re not under authority, you’ll be distracted by everything.
(Martha) And endanger everybody and threaten the loss of the battle.
(John) But if you’re under authority… So, what I’m seeing is that in your warfare, your spiritual warfare, you have to be under authority. But you also have to have your ear on the Commander-in-Chief, who is God. You have to be listening to Him. You have to be in relationship with Him and listening to Him. You have to be involved with Him on a regular basis.
(Martha) Umhmm. Wow.
(John) It’s relationship, but with the authority and with THE AUTHORITY.
(Martha) The delegated authority and the principal authority, being God.
(John) Yes, and…
(Martha) Wow!
(John) And that’s how you go into war.
(Martha) And you go in together.
(John) You don’t go in as a renegade. You don’t go in as a maverick.
(Martha) No, as independent. You’ll be shot.
(John) And rightly so. You need to be.
(Martha) And rightly so. Umhmm.
(John) But if I’m literally… And see, there’s where the love is again. I love the authority I’m under, and I love Him as my authority. And I love that chain of authority. And I love the… My ear is hearing, and I’m not involved with all the baloney that’s going on around. I’m on that.
(Martha) Well, this is what the Lord gave me years ago, and always the enemy wants to make me forget it. The Lord gave me this mandate and this statement, and He had me write it down, and He said, “This is your battle orders: ‘I am not involved in any human conflicts. They have no reality. I’m not committed to any human goals. They have no reality. I’m not bound to any human institution. They have no reality. I’m not enmeshed in any human relationships. They have no reality. Only God’s will, God’s purpose and God’s thoughts have supreme reality for my life.”‘
(John) I love that quote.
(Martha) Do you?
(John) Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
(Martha) Well, it’s from Him.
(John) I could wave it over my head like a banner
(Martha) (chuckles) Ahhh…
(John) That’s my hope, and that’s my commitment. It may not be my reality all the time, but that’s…
(Martha) And you know, John, that comes across sometimes to people who live in this messy, gushy, human connection as… That makes me appear to some people as hard, because I’m on a mission. I’m on a goal. I’m at war. I’ve said to people, “This is where I’m going. Don’t get in my way.” I’ve said it in conferences. “This is where I’m going. Don’t bother me.” And yet, if you’ll go with me, the zeal of the Lord, I think, can capture you, others into this, to this same very, almost severe according to a complacent, decadent life. Even in Christianity, this is severe. And the training is severe. The training in warfare is very severe. We’re in it right now.
(John) It needs to be.
(Martha) It has to be, because the war is real. And really the only war is to identify the enemy and stop him. We don’t have to fight. The fight is over. The fight was won on the cross, and that’s the theme of my book, when the Holy Spirit will finish it after much prayer.
This reminded me of the principles that were shared when you introduced “Surviving the Cut” (which I would never have known about without you sharing it).
And, John, I second the “banner-waiving;” that is a powerful statement, which is definitely reality as it is His voice. I’m going to print that out and put it in the front of my bible (with a note: from God to Martha), because this is something I forget as well. Why is it so easy to get complacent about such a vital command?
I’m thankful, Martha, that you made the statement that we don’t have to fight, just identify and stop the enemy, since the fight was won at the Cross. I just can’t honestly say that I know how to apply that ‘correctly.’
Whenever there are family or health or national burdens, we get asked, in a well-intended way: “Well, did you bind and loose? Anoint with oil? Declare the Word of God over? Fast and pray? Command Satan to flee? Ask God to search your heart for sin?”, etc. All of which are important; I just want to know what God’s heart is, in a given situation, and receive His grace to do whatever.
No pressure, Martha, but I’m hoping the Holy Spirit finishes that book soon!
As a (military) solider – you are no longer your own. You do NOTHING absolutely NOTHING apart from the direction or permission of your authority. You don’t eat, sleep, talk, move, look to the left or right…NOTHING, with out possibility of great consequence, if not first commanded by your authority. Your authority becomes your mother, father, husband, wife, and is supposed to become even your god. Your thoughts, your actions, your heart, are no longer your own. You are totally dependent on your authority for everything. This is drilled into you day and night non-stop upon your enlistment until you are so conditioned that you never question your assigned authority. All of this is done for the purpose to protect and defend…
The similarities of military service training and spiritual warfare never occurred until these past few podcasts. Even when I had no idea who He was, God was preparing me for a life with Him. Every moment, every breath, has purpose.
Love.