Taking a Beating

Taking a Beating
Wednesday, November 11, 2020 by Zachary J. Hunter

Taking a Beating

By: Zachary Hunter

What a season this has been. We’ve been warring for the future of the nation and the world, to bring His kingdom to Earth. That has been exhausting enough for many but now we have the Aftermath. If we thought that the warring part had prepared us for the Aftermath, then I believe we now stand mistaken. During the warring we were calling forth God’s plan and desire and fighting against the enemy’s plans to stop God’s plan from happening.

Now God has already declared victory and is ready to loose his armies from heaven, complete with decree from His courts. Warring now is agreeing with the victory and the enemy’s plans have changed. Instead of trying to stop God’s plans before they could come to fruition, he is now trying to steal God’s victory. He (Satan) is using the most underhanded tactics available and all of them illegal.

Another change and the one I want to focus on is that now Satan is coming after us directly. We feel unease, fear, pain, confusion, and even strife. Gone seems to be the peace and conviction we had during the previous session of warfare. At least this has been my experience during this time. I didn’t feel personally attacked by the enemy during the war for the nation, but I certainly do now. At times I felt like I was watching my entire family crumble and dissolve. It seemed no matter what I did it meant nothing. We are to keep our eyes on God and to speak life yet all I can seem to do is fail at those things. If I am honest, I was ready to give up because I felt so beaten.

I would wager many of you feel much the same though part of me hopes I am wrong. The fact that we are feeling so attacked is in some ways a good thing. Winston Churchill is quoted as having said, “You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” We cannot stand for something, such as God’s kingdom on Earth without making enemies; spiritually and physically.

Beatings are also part of any fight. Unless you are a black belt, and your opponents are all untrained trash if you get in a fight you will get hit. At least some martial arts even make this part of the training. Skill without endurance is useless. Don’t be discourage and don’t feel shame over it; Jesus took such a beating before carrying the cross to the hill that he collapsed. A man from the crowd had to be ordered into carrying it for him.

Instead the fact that the enemy is now attacking us so directly is a good thing (yes, I just said that). This is one of those curious cases where the more something (Satan) comes against us the more we know we are doing the right thing. Satan also knows that one of his only hopes of winning is if God’s people, in their entirety, give up. Since this is war I will use a war analogy; in the last season we were commanders at various levels getting the strategies and tactics from our commander in chief (God) and giving them to the troops who went into battle and claimed the victory.

With victory secured the now defeated Satan went into guerilla warfare, striking and fading into the background. His new objective is to try and take us out so we cannot relay the orders or pass the messages. In this way he hopes to disrupt the chain of command, causing chaos and confusion and leaving an army directionless. If he can do that his spies can literally steal our objective right from underneath us because we will not be in position to stop him.

During this time, our relationship with the Father is even more important as he is the only refuge we will have. He is the only one who can grant us peace and rest from this assault. Like any army we need to have rest from battle to recover and prepare for the next fight. Often this is done by rotating troops, giving those who were on the frontlines some time away while fresh or rested troops take their place. Eventually those troops will be sent back to the front, but they will be in a better state to go there.

What I am saying with this is know when to take the time to rest in Him. Resting is not giving up; it is rotating from the front to recuperate than going back into the fight. God is in control and knows what we need. More than that He wants us to come to him, to get rest and shelter just as much as he wants us to war for His kingdom. If you find yourself in the same place I was (watching everything close to me falling down around me) please take some time to rest, get His peace back and put what is important (such as family) in order than head back to the frontlines.