by Richard Pennystan
‘All in moderation. But to ignore the enemy is simply naïve’
This chapter is more about the ‘all’ than ‘moderation’, I love Jill’s rapid fire style, mixing deep Biblical truth, stories from history and her own life and placing Biblical teaching in context, there is so much here for us to chew on. Jan has already given us a wonderful blog on this chapter, but when I read it afresh certain things really struck me which I wanted to highlight for us and so I offer this bonus blog too.
The first thing to say is that I love the way Jill has positioned the subject of spiritual battle after a chapter about our own responsibility for our spiritual life, which began with the great line: ‘the bad news is that we are the main ones who quench the fire. It’s about us not externals. If we start blaming the spiritual forces of darkness for our problems, we will not grow into maturity and we’ll remain stuck as victims, an immature way to live’.
This week I read an excellent quote on this subject of victimhood from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks:
‘If the Israelites continued to resent the Egyptians for the way they had been treated, then Moses would have taken the Israelites out of Egypt, but would not have taken Egypt out of the Israelites… The would define themselves as victims, and victimhood is incompatible with freedom. Victimhood defines you as an object, not a subject, as someone other act upon, not someone who takes destiny into their own hands. Victims destroy, they do not build.’
As we approach spiritual battle, its key to remember that we are not victims, we are free, loved, empowered children of God, part of Jesus’ winning side. That starting point helps us to discern the battle we’re in, rather than be overwhelmed by it.
I love the approach Jill takes, to remove some of the superstitious intensity out of spiritual warfare and discern that often the tactic of the enemy is to ‘dissipate our energy’. The key danger she highlights is ‘we just get weary and give up.’
She then asks the question: ‘What is breaking your heart today? What makes you want to sit down and weep.
We fight spiritual battles because we care and we care because we are in a spiritual battle. There’s a powerful inspiration here to not just ‘put up with things’, but to be agents for change through prayer, love and justice.
I want to pick up on two features which particularly spoke to me. The first is ‘the opposite direction. Jill spends more time on this response than the others, taking us to the spiritual discipline of Ignatius Acte Contrare and taking us to responding with faith, hope and love. I have found in my own life to respond to spiritual battle with actively seeking to run towards not run away has been so powerful. It makes us vulnerable to pain, it takes conscious energy and courage. Some of the most significant experiences I have had had of God’s grace and power have come when I’ve stepped out in the opposite direction with faith, hope and love, instead of fear, dismay or anger.
Finally ‘don’t feed the crocodile’. This is a new phrase to me and I already love it. Digital communications have meant more communication than ever before and more criticism without relationship. This is toxic and painful, Jill’s examples of ‘open letters’ are a sad reality. I was filling up my car at the garage the other day and glanced at the toxic headlines on the tabloids. My heart sank as I saw someone go and buy one, my thought was ‘that’s another brain infected with divisive, critical slander of real people’. We stop feeding the crocodile when we wisely choose which media opinions we consume and who we listen to. I love Jill’s response ‘laugh’, there is so much foul slander and criticism out there, those who are most invested are most hurt, whilst those who write blogs, open letters or gossip will quickly move on to proudly attack another victim. It’s not easy to laugh, but the lighter we hold our ego and the more we recognise that unkindness which isn’t rooted in truth is ridiculous, the more we can make satanic lies powerless.
We are in a spiritual battle, the enemy is real, but the same power which raised Jesus from the dead lives in us and so we face that battle with prayer and courage and it’s faith, hope and love which win out in the end.
Daily Reflections on Scripture 