Prisoners of War - or Fighting Blind Enemies

There is a little known story of Elisha blinding the enemy in 2 Kings 6:8-22. In the Bible, we read about how he knows of the enemies location and each time the enemy wants to attack, the men of Israel are ready for the King of Aram. Then the King of Aram seeks out Elisha and surrounds his town with chariots and a great army. The servant of Elisha is afraid until his eyes are opened to see the surrounding Armies of the Lord and they have chariots of FIRE! However, they aren't even needed because Elisha prays for blindness in the enemy army and then leads them (for 13 miles) deep into Israeli territory (into the city of Samaria).

He then prays for their sight to be restored and instead of surrounding the enemy army and killing them, they prepared a great feast for them - with food and drink - and then sent them back to their king. It worked. God got the glory and the fighting from that enemy ceased.

What a great illustration and picture of The Salvation Army. We are aware of the strongholds of the enemy - for example - alcohol - yes, the Bible says drink a little wine and is not exclusively against the consumption of it. Many cultures take a little beer with their meal. Is this a sin? The Bible does not say it is. But it certainly can be - and often is - a stronghold for the enemy. In the Army, we become aware of many of the pitfalls and strongholds that can capture us and make us "prisoners of war." We teach our people to be aware of the location of the enemy - his wily ways . . .

When we become surrounded by seemingly insurmountable odds, we need to remember the flag that encircles us - the Blood and the Fire.

I love the next part, too - the enemy is brought into the city - and then treated with kindness and love. Are they converted? Sadly, no. Did they stay? No, they returned home. But were they enemies any longer? The Bible says no. It's the people who were treated kindly but they took reports back home to the king.

I see The Salvation Army here so clearly. The world sees us how they want to see us - a social services organization, a good rehab organizatin, people who do lots of good. When they are brought inside the city, they realize we are a church - a religious group of fanatics who are doing nice things for people for an ulterior motive - to convert them. They begin to see us as we really are - people of God (which can sometimes be very offensive in a tolerant world that is not tolerant of Christianity). And yet, just about the time, they reach for their weapons to throw at us (cries of discrimination, threats of funding losses, etc.), we do the same thing to them that we do to everyone else (hopefully) - we treat them with love and kindness and respect (I hope!).

Now the enemy KING in our world is not going to be happy if we are nice to people who are in his kingdom and he is not willing to call a cease-fire just because we feed drug addicts and alcoholics. But we can expect less direct fire - because after all, people are people - and when you treat an enemy (who is within your power) kindly, they often respond with embarassed retreat.

And lest you want the argue the idea, remember who is encamped outside the city - the Army of God - ready to fight at the command of the Lord - for us.

If God is for us, who can be against us?

Pastor Darren

Pastor Darren went to Detox yesterday. He's not really a pastor but he wants to be. . .unfortunately he struggles with his other friend, the bottle. He loves the Word of God and he loves Jesus but when addiction grips you, it is hard to escape. . .

Here's a miracle God did for him. As we grew closer to Detox, he became more and more nervous . . .I finally caught on and asked, "Darren, is there any reason they WON'T let you in?" He finally admitted that four years earlier, he had been 86'd out of detox and told he couldn't ever come back. Great! I immediately started praying while we continue to drive. When we got there, we prayed about God providing the healing and Darren providing the surrender . . .and went in.

The woman at the desk looked hard and stern - "he'll never make it in," I thought. She looked up his name and, sure enough, she came out carrying a card. I could feel Darren tense up next to me - and I felt sorry for him - this had been his last hope. The camp by the river was not providing him with any means to change his ways . . and he had let all his friends down with this return to the bottle. The people that he had spoken to Jesus about didn't see the truth in his testimony.

She finally spoke. "Well, it looks like you haven't been here since 2002 - so you're good to go. Come on. Get a move on. I haven't got all day." Just like that. No record of his past -no mention of the event in 2004.

God does that for us - wipes the slate clean. He is good - and he loves Darren.