He Who FightsJ.A. Olver(This was an article I wrote a few months ago to a body of my fellow interns. I thought it appropriate to share here. )A few evenings ago, we at the Honor Academy gathered for an interactive movie; The Mission. We learned a lot about laying your life down for Christ, spiritually and literally. We learned about love. We learned that absolute power corrupts absolutely. We also learned a lot about the views and opinions and beliefs of our brothers and sisters around us.I am so thankful for the opportunity to gather together in such a way that I don’t have to worry about someone biting my head off for my opinion. I am thankful that I can share my thoughts with a group of people who will handle what is said with maturity and grace. I am thankful to be with a group of people who will speak their heart and mind and spirit with tact and guidance from God. I said something during one round of questions and opinions that I thought I should clarify further. Those of you who were there that night will understand what I am saying. Those of you who were not will not have any idea, but please read on, you may glean something from this. In the situation faced by the Jesuits* there were three choices to be made, not just two. 1.\tFight for the village. Fight for the rights of the tribe. Fight for the land and for the mission. Fight to defend the tribes- people from being enslaved by the Portuguese.2.\tPray. Do not take up arms. Depend on the Lord. Lift praises to God and exalt Him in the face of adversity. In the face of the enemy.3.\tRun. Escape into the jungle. Let the Portuguese burn the village and the mission, but get away with your life. Live another day to learn more about Jesus and possibly take the Gospel to others.Many people at the Interactive Movie Night defended one of these three points (but mainly the first two) for the most part, very logically. I enjoyed hearing the viewpoints of my brothers and sisters in Christ and was glad for the chance to get to know them en masse. I’ll cut to the chase and recap the point I defended, and then I will clarify it for you. (That night was not “stand-on-your-soap-box-and-harangue-the-class-night.” It was “briefly-share-your-opinion-night.”)I stood and made mention of the Moravian brothers who, upon hearing of a slave culture who would not accept anyone into their culture unless they were a slave, sold themselves into slavery so that they could be reached with the Gospel. I said that I need to remember that my house, my future wife, my child, my body is not my own; it belongs to God. I said that more often than not, the most powerful position is on your knees in prayer. And when submission makes you feel weak, good! Because it is in our weakness that the strength of Christ is made perfect. Now, to clarify:All that I said that night pertained to the specific situation of the movie. If I had been there in that time and place I would have stood with the Jesuit priest in prayer and worship. Now, let’s fast-forward several hundred years to the time period of the signing of the constitution and the Revolutionary War:My founding forefathers found it ingrained in their souls and heart that we, the people, are endowed with certain, inalienable rights by God the Creator of Heaven, Earth and of the men that walk upon it. We had the right to pursue those rights, and as many wars have gone to prove, defend it. Without making my point long and flowery, I’ll get right to it. Today, if I were faced with the fact that the God endowed, inalienable rights of my family, friends and brothers and sisters in Christ were to be violated and violently stripped away…I would do my utmost to see that every option other than fighting were completely exhausted. I would pray non-stop, I would worship all the time, I would petition, I would meet with officials when/if able, I would dig deep and find the heart issue behind the entire conflict, I would, work and pray and plan as if my life depended on it – because it does. I would take every precaution to see my family and friends are safe as can be. I would write, I would speak, I would make a stand and join with others so that our combined efforts would make an impact……And if after all that was through and fighting was still inevitable, and it was the absolute last option…Then I would pick up a weapon and fight to the death. If someone were to capture me, and persecute me for my faith and hold a gun to my head or the head of my friends, wife or children, and was demanded to deny Christ…then never would I deny Him. Never would I fight or go kicking and screaming when the better option were to live and be a witness in any and every situation. As already a slave to Christ, I have no rights. I am to esteem others as higher than myself while not making myself a doormat to be taken advantage of when it is obviously sinful. But if someone were to try to capture my friends and family, and try to forcibly strip their rights away and violate their God gifted ability to pursue that and His calling on their life…then I would fight. So…With that being said, let’s say the decision to fight has been made. Boom - All options have been totally exhausted. The threat is imminent, and the rights are being violated before my eyes and the people have been called to fights. To stand for the Revolution once more. To rally again, like the day John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg stripped of his Liturgical robes and called the men of his congregation to fight. I would have to fight. I would have to kill. Think about that. All those who would make the decision to fight; think about this as if you made the decision: I…\twould…\t\tkill.You would do well to never, ever SEEK the martyr’s crown or title. Fighting for the cause of Christ is a noble call, but do not ever seek the nobility. To do so would make you just like those you fight against. People would die at your hand. Although you are not the one who sends people to heaven or hell, you are faced with the fact that you helped that person’s body you just obliterated with a bullet go to hell. The man you just killed will never see his wife or children or friends ever again, and is now in eternal damnation. He will never, ever have another opportunity to hear that Jesus loves him and died for his sins. When you make the decision to fight, you better kill with a Godly sorrow. While in the heat of battle, you can’t possibly lose control of your emotions and break down – to do so would mean death – but you better grieve for the souls that for the final time, turned away from God. And after you WIN, you had better be giving God all the glory. As you see the corpse littered streets, running with blood that you spilled you must look to Heaven and give thanks to God for sparing your life, and giving you the victory. You better praise Him and worship Him with all of your heart and soul for finding it pleasing that you should live to praise Him another day. And you had better make sure that you do your part with everything inside you to make sure such horror never has to happen again!If you LOSE and are taken captive…You still have to serve God. If your rights are stripped away to the bone, and you are shackled and enslaved, you are still a slave of God first. You are faced with the opportunity to minister to the devastated souls chained next to you and to those who have imprisoned you and beat you for their pleasure. It is not an excuse to avoid continual growth in God. It is not an open door to backbite and blame your leaders and brother and sisters, nor your captors. Your slavery is not your chance to give up on God. You may remember that God lead the Israelites out of captivity...But remember He also delivered them into captivity many times as well. When you find yourself devoid of distractions: no TV, no movies, no car, no newspaper, no books, no Bible, no fellowship, no freedom, no rights you better take advantage of every single second to meditate, seek God, pray for your brothers and sisters in chains, worship God…and let not one word of bitterness or complaint escape your lips – because then you truly would have been better off dead. If you chose to fight ON YOUR KNEES you best not slander your brothers and sisters who decided to fight on their feet. You better not pick up one picket sign, nor join in any protest against their sacrifice for you. You better not slander their bravery, or ignore efforts to support those noble people. Instead of taking advantage of your rights while they last, you had better lay them at the feet of Jesus and spend your time in petition and prayer before His throne. Instead of chasing after mindless pursuits which have nothing to do with advancing the Kingdom, you would do well to lock yourself in your prayer closet for hours and days at a time. Instead of indulging, you would do well to reject your flesh and fast whatever you could, and do so often and at length. And never show off your sore knees. Never brag about your hours on your face. Never let people see the tear stained floor of your secret place before the throne of God. Do not let others see your shrunken stomach or messy hair from your fasting and weeping. Don’t just survive in an attitude of prayer, thanksgiving and worship, but THRIVE there. Encourage your brothers and sisters. Pray with them. If you chose to RUN…Do not be like Jonah and flee from where God is sending you. Do not escape to comfort. Do not escape to idleness. Do not escape to easiness.To those who would feel the urge to flee, so that you may live and spread the gospel...Make certain you are joined in heart and spirit with those who are remaining and staying in prayer. You best be pouring forth their same efforts as you run. Be prepared to never stop running, because you may never have the chance to stop as long as you live…You may face being pursued for the rest of your life. A fugitive. Make sure that this is never far from your mind either: God may call you to run to the homeland of those who are coming to take your rights away. He may tell you to flee to the country of those who are killing your family, murdering you friends, and enslaving your children. What then? Do you flee from Nineveh? May I remind of the words of Jesus in Matthew 12:30 “Those who are not with Me, are against Me. And those who do not help to gather scatter abroad.” With all this being said, keep your heart attuned to the Holy Spirit. Is He calling you to fight? Pray? Run?We are not faced with this decision here in America today, because of bold men and women who have fought on the front lines and gave their lives for complete strangers and killed complete strangers, because of steadfast men and women who have spent weeks, months and years on their faces before God and cried themselves dry on the behalf of the dying and the lost, and because of those who have gone to other countries to make sure that similar events do not happen there, or even go to the hostile nation’s governments. BUT our rights are steadily being whittled away like balsa wood... Even TODAY! Quickly and without remorse the lithe, green limb of our rights is being twisted and bent until it eventually snaps free. One day the decision will be yours to make…But before you have to make to choice to stand, kneel or run during the fight, are you fighting now? What are you doing to defend against it? What are you doing to take the fight to the gates of the Enemy? What are you doing to rescue those who are in slavery and know it not? Many of you, at one time or another heard the speech from HA Graduation 2004, which dealt with God’s call to raise the standard, and God’s call to arms. So to those who would be uncertain about the kind of God that would make a call to arms to fight. Who would call us to wage war on our knees, or to defend the defenseless; because there are many who would like to think our God is the kind of God who pats the lost on the head and says “I understand. It’s OK. You’ll make it one day.” To those who make themselves believe that God was only at one time a God of wrath and Holy jealousy. To those who think God’s justice is lax. To those who think God has hung up his sword and has placed bead around His righteous neck and is drawing peace signs in the clouds…While God is forever a God of love, and of mercy and grace; hear the declaration:“The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is His name.” Exodus 15:3Will you fight for Him? Think about it…Will\t\tYou\t\tFight?\t\tDo you hear the call to arms from the mouth of God?“And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.” Ezekiel 22:30Pray. History belongs to the intercessors.
