Are You Ready To Go To War?

It is not very often that in church I am asked a question like, "Are you ready to go to war?"  When I heard the question in our Sunday night study of Romans it really caught my attention.  Our Pastor is currently teaching verse by verse through Romans.  It is the most in depth study of this book I have ever done.  You can catch all the sessions here on our church website and there is also a link to download the notes.  In this session we were focusing on Paul's teaching about being led by the Spirit.

My hubby and I got there a little late so they had just begun to talk about what it means to be lead by the Spirit.  What initially caught my attention was this statement:

"A lot of times, we talk about being led by the Spirit almost as if the Spirit is a Magic 8-ball that tells us what to do - what college to attend, what job to take, who to marry, what house to buy, etc. It is true that the Spirit gives us wisdom and discernment and direction and "leads" us in those decisions.  However, in this text (Romans 8:13-14), being led by the Spirit means battling sin and killing sin.  We will best be able to discern the Spirit's leadership in all areas of our life when we are ruthlessly executing the sin in our life by the Spirit.  If we are casual about sin, we won't know the leading of the Spirit.  If we are killing sin, we're being led by the Spirit."

What caught my attention is that when I have thought about sin in my life and areas where I struggle I never thought of it as battling and killing the sin, but that is exactly what it is.  There are times in our lives where we see sin in our lives and all we need to do is acknowledge the sin, repent and turn away.  It ends up not necessarily being a huge emotional or big event, but the Spirit of the Lord has shown you an area that needs to be dealt with.  Then there are other areas in our lives where we struggle daily, even moment by moment.  Sin is something that can hide and slink around in our lives and if we are not paying attention we ignore it or worse yet are so desensitized we don't even notice it at all.

As I sat in church listening to this lesson I found myself asking the Lord what are the sins in my life that I am so desensitized to I don't even notice them any more.  What are the sins that I have struggled with and am so used to it being a struggle that I am not bringing it before the Lord, resting in the Spirit as a child of God and going to battle to rid my life of this sin.  As I began to pray and listen the Lord brought to mind several areas where I need to go to battle in my life.  At the same time I had such peace knowing that some of the changes our family has made has begun dealing with some of this sin.

When we ignore areas of sin in our lives, we are giving the enemy a foothold to come in and change our perceptions on the world, effect our choices, influence our personal ministry with those around us.  One of my personal prayers and desires has always been to have a deep, personal and intimate relationship with my Lord and when there is unaddressed sin in my life then I am limiting that relationship.  I don't want my life controlled by pride, fear, selfishness, unforgiveness, gossip or envy for example.  I want my life, my actions, my words, my influence on my girls to be driven and led by the Lord.  I don't want to be caught "with my pants down" by the enemy because I was not making sure my spiritual house was clean.

So my question to you today is, "Is your spiritual house clean?  Are there areas in your life that it is easier to ignore than deal with?"  As Christians the enemy wants us to get caught in in all the glitter of this world.  He wants us desensitized to where things that should bother us don't, for example I love the show Dancing with the Stars.  However, this past episode I really struggled with all the blatant sexuality that was on the show, encouraged on the show and how dancers were celebrated for getting out in underwear and calling it a costume. Yes, one of the dancer's costumes looked like it walked right off a Victoria Secret Catalog and it was acknowledged as that on the show.  I want these things to bother me.  I don't want to put it off as no big deal.  I don't want to reach a point where I don't even notice cussing anymore because I am so used to listening to it.

My prayer for you is the same as mine for myself, that the Lord would speak to our hearts and minds to help us pay attention to the sin in our lives.  That we would not ignore or dismiss it but go to battle with it.  Call upon the Spirit to help you get armed for battle and take back the ground in your life the enemy has claimed.  Are you ready?  Are you ready to take on the sin in your life?  Are you ready to go to war?  I know I am!