Battlefield

Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6, 12

.......another translation reads: We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

This O.o might be your face.. what. the heck?......I want to talk to you about darkness. About the cosmic powers of this present darkness (and whatever that is supposed to mean).. Do not panic. I'm not gonna hold a moral judgement preaching about alcohol and parties or abortion...... I want to go a whole level deeper. :) I want to talk to you about a battle that everyone of us is involved in. Something actually severe. Because so many choose to close their eyes to it and say "I don't believe in that." - even though everything around them is calling them to believe. Spiritual battle.

One tragic fact is that there is a big, big misunderstanding in this world. That is the belief that following Christ is boring. I mean, come on, let's be honest, reading that - on your inside - you'll already have made your statement. Either you're one who is convinced of this, whose inside screams (maybe only subtly) YES it is! You think you know what Christianity is about because you've seen enough of it to know you do NOT wanna be a part of that. That is actually....understandable. :/

On the other hand maybe you're bonded to Jesus yourself and you can smile big because you know exactly what I mean..... Perhaps you're vaguely interested in Christ...but either way, you've made an inevitable decision on where your heart is. Or you don't give a crap, but then you aren't reading this....:P You should take a moment to consider which side you're on cuz there's nothing like believing a bit or sort of being a Christian. There's nothing like being alive a bit, or kinda being dead...

Let me say something extremely provoking but I will tell you why I believe THIS to be the truth: There is NOTHING harder than being a Christian. There is no life more tempted, more attacked, more challenging and life-wrecking...and NOTHING is more exhilarating than Jesus. There is no life without Christ. But also, there is no way you can walk the easy road with him.....

I'm going to paint you a picture - an honest picture - of what all this is about.....

I said life-wrecking, yes. Because believe me, your life here on earth WILL be wrecked. And you'll end up with a pile of broken pieces, pieces that don't go together, frustration.. honestly, with enormous amounts of pain.... You'll end up wondering how the amount that you are surrendering can ever be repaid.... But that is not because of what GOD offers you, what HE does to your life.... This is not about working your butt off until you break and then getting the reward of bouncing on fluffy clouds, wearing a ridiculous angel's costume for the rest of eternity.... That would be MY hell.... x) And it is nothing like Buddha's teachings of killing your deepest desires to reach perfection, purity and then drifting off into some kind of relieving painlessness and eternal unconsciousness...

This is something entirely different.

An essential truth that I need to put as a basis here is that there is a GREAT interest in your soul. In you, who you really are, inside that marvelously functioning heap of bones and flesh.... That's what you actually wish for, to matter. And I can comfort you. You do matter. :) You matter a darn lot. You matter more than you deserve or more than you SHOULD - and I'll get back to that... Here's the thing, this battle is not between God and his oh so great and threatening rival Mr. Devil. Satan is not a RIVAL to God. He is a loser to God. And he knows that because THAT battle is DONE. The battle that matters now, the one that is still to be fought is between YOU and your Maker. Yes, God. Because God has the victory. But it's up to you to decide what side of eternity you put yourself on. If all of us were honest for just ONE moment of our existence, we'd admit that our best friend is not God, but Satan....

Satan obviously doesn't appear with horns and hooves, more like with beautiful, understanding eyes or simply as relief.....most of the time he'll appear as YOU. That voice in your head, the feeling in your stomach, the "go after your heart".... The This life is about ME!..... He's the one who offers us happiness, right? Freedom.... He promises us that we'll be filled.. He's the one who tells you that you have a RIGHT to live for your own good and that there's nothing wrong with that. Actually, he has told you that GOD is the one who wants to take your happiness and freedom away. He promises us prestige and he GIVES it to us. He gives us coke for our thirst, so he quenches it. Yes, he does. Temporarily, he DOES. And he knows your desires, deeper than you even WANT to know them yourself....

A little fact not to be forgotten is that SATAN has a problem. A big one. With you. As much as he may try to act your greatest friend, he has a problem with the fact that YOU are the object of God's affection. God wants to hug you, kiss you, heal you, take you away from here...and eventually shower you with dignity and GLORY......Satan kinda lost that role a few millennia ago.....You know, Satan was God's favourite at a point in time that doesn't seem long ago to him... So if you can do simple maths you'll have guessed it: this equals JEALOUSY.

God wants your soul. (I will get back to that too.... and it won't be as easy as yeah he kinda likes you). The devil wants your soul too. But not cuz he actually WANTS you. He tries to get you cuz he knows that YOU are God's weak spot. If he can toy with you, he is toying with God's spinal cord.... This, for Satan, is not even about you. He doesn't care about hurting petty little humans, that's not a lot of damage, objectively speaking. Deep down, he still wishes he could be doing all that to God himself - and he got the chance to - but he CAN'T hurt God anymore....What he can damage is sitting in front of the screen, reading....The beautiful little IMAGE of his biggest hatred.........You remind him of God way too much for him to not find you revolting....... and threatening. He hates you. With all that he's got. And he's done a marvelous job in destroying your life so far...... In making you hate the EVERYTHING you long for.... Wherever you are right now, he had a big part in bringing you there. Even though you made the decisions....

So this is what we've got... (and that's just the intro) - here's us, stuck between the War of the Titans as it seems...The war of YOU fighting against the relentless call of Love. Because you prefer to do things your way, because you think you know how to restore your hopelessly torn-apart inside....... Because Satan has placed his own greatest desire into your depths: I AM MY OWN GOD. It's the sound of your soul screaming and kicking for real freedom.....We are in the midst of a battlefield, so close that you can smell the corpses, so real that you will see it with your own eyes, if you just stop for one moment to perceive....