Spiritual Ninjas

When I was young my sister and I would often fight. I knew just what to do, to make her get irritated. If I got perturbed with her I would initiate it. Sometimes you hear this referred to as knowing how to push your buttons. I've realized in life we are in a constant war with our enemy the devil and other spiritual forces. It's not much fun to think about, but if we don't the danger is greater. Our enemy slowly carefully and strategically lives to push our buttons. Sometimes a gnat or fly will come and buzz in my ear. Generally, I shew it away with my hand and hope it doesn't come back. After a while I forget about it, but then it returns. If I leave it undealt with and just keep shewing it each time it comes. My anger rises exponentially each time! The solution is generally for me to put my mind to seeking out the location of the fly and then swatting it. Or if all else fails to just leave the room and go somewhere else. When you notice yourself getting angry mentally step back and examine why. Seek out the irritation and try to squash it flat before you errupt with anger. If all else fails get yourself away from the source of irritation. Something Carl Medley mentioned in one of his men's sessions I attended recently was that when we find ourselves offended and angry or on the verge of a sin we should say to ourselves, "something is wrong with my identity". You see we died to sin, we no longer live... "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Gal. 2:20 We died. In our flesh we are dead. But in our spirit we are alive. If you walk up to a corpse in the morgue and punch it in the face does it get offended? Does it get angry and curse or strike back at you in anger? No, it's dead. Neither should we if we are truly dead in our flesh. Dead men don't get offeneded. (This is another tidbit of wisdom from Carl.) When the Holy Spirit lives in me and when I am walking in that Spirit it is unnatural for me to respond as I would when following after the flesh. So, I am struck by the fact that we are constantly under assault. "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." 1 Peter 5:8 This seems to be my biggest problem. I am inconsistent in being alert. The devil left Jesus to come back and tempt him at an opportune time. Our enemy searches for points in time when our guards are down. He looks for points when we have grown weary because of pressures and may be more susceptible or vulnerable to a pushing of one of our buttons so to speak. He tempts me to not write on this blog, to not think about God each day, to not pray or read the Word and at the time my failure to do one of these things seems minor, but their cumulative effects are devastating. I must have a habit developed of actively focusing my mind on God daily. I must also practice and become accomplished in being aware of His presence in all things constantly. This is a skill to be developed that I believe is a gift from the Holy Spirit. There is a funny thing about gifts from God. It seems you aren't really able to receive them until you really want them. Preparing ourselves for defense and even offense against our enemy is no different than training in Taekwendo or some other martial art. We are called to be spiritual ninjas. This is not by our own strength but by the strength of the One living in us. I really liked the movie called the Matrix, because it has so many spiritual parallels. The second and third movies kind of dropped the ball in my opinion, but the first one is worth seeing. It reminds me of Pilgrim's Progress in many ways although not quite as obvious. Neo begins his journey realizing there has to be something more to life. This is not unlike a non-Christian searching for meaning. Then someone external to his world seeks him out because they believe in him. God chose us in a similar way. He is the author and perfecter of our faith. (Heb 12:2) He has a new name, Neo, symbolic of his liberated self. Mr. Anderson is the name of his enslaved self. In much the same way God is always giving people new names in the Bible when they make a transition. Later on in the movie Neo meets with an "Oracle" and he speaks with Morpheus about believing in fate he struggles with the idea of whether he is in control of his own destiny or not. The answer seems to be yes and no. The Oracle new just what to say to help him along his journey and ultimately it seems she knew his destiny. Did he break the vase or did she make him break the vase. Christians struggle with this same paradoxical conundrum in trying to comprehend the predestination and the free will that God has given us simultaneously. All through the movie he tries to determine if he is the "One". Now, I know you could see this as though the "One" is symbolic of Christ, but I like to look at this another way. He is the "first one" to really, truly wake up from the matrix and realize who he is (Just as Christians wake up and realize who they are in Christ). Granted others are awake, but he realizes the power he has from another realm like none other. I'm not claiming there are perfect parallels, but there are many cool symbolisms we can draw from this. The situation of Neo going to the Oracle because he wants her to tell him who he is resembles our own struggles with identity. The answer to that question tempers our entire lives. We will never be anything more than who we believe we are. This also reminds me of how believers begin to doubt themselves and if they are really who God says they are. Morpheus is symbolic of God to me in that he never stopped believing in Neo and who he believed Neo was. The Oracle told Neo he was waiting for something. Many times we as Christians have immense and incredible authority over our enemy through Christ, but we don't believe who God says we are. Or if we do, we feel like we have to grow into it or something. We are waiting for something. The truth is we are already seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. (Eph. 2:6) We are more than conquerers through him who loved us. (Rom. 8:37) "You know that road Neo, you know where it leads." Trinity encourages Neo to long for a new life, just as in Christ we have a new life. Another compelling part of the movie is when Neo is in a sparring room with Morpheus. Morpheus is encouraging him to see beyond the physical. All his power and strength and speed were predominantly grounded in another realm. In much the same way, all of ours is grounded in another realm. It is grounded in Christ and the Spirit in the Spiritual realm. A famous line from a small boy to Neo is, "Do not try to bend the spoon, that is impossible. But rather try to realize there is no spoon." In much the same way many times Christians try to "be good" or just focus really hard on getting better and not sinning to avoid condemnation from God. When really we should simply realize there is now no more condemnation for those who are in Christ and the bending of our behavior that takes place is rooted in another realm. Every miraculous power Neo had available to him was rooted in another realm, just as every miraculous power aka gift given to us from God is rooted in another realm. If we walk by the spirit we live in this spiritual realm and not in the world. Then toward the end of the movie Neo dies physically when trying to stand up to his enemy... and then he resurrects rooted in an entirely different realm awakened by love (a kiss from Trinity) just as we as Christians are beckoned and called to and ultimately awakened as new creations by the love of the Holy Trinity in our lives. He is dead in a way to the way of thinking and the life he once lived and alive in another way, more alive than he's ever been before. This is what it is like for Christians when they are baptized and then become a new creation. They die to the flesh and are raised with Christ in the Spirit. Neo isn't really the savior in this movie, he's the saved and his mission is to liberate all the other human beings in the world just as he has been liberated. He is symbolic of a Christian who has become a new creation in Christ Jesus. I feel like the most powerful assault our enemy can throw at us as Christians is the same as one Captain Picard sent to the Borg in a Star Trek episode... sleep. (If you're a Star Trek fan, maybe you'll remember that one. :) This is the same thing that happens to Prince Rillian in the Silver Chair... it's as though he's asleep to who he is during the day. Our enemy distracts us with daily activities and we lose sight of who we are. We must learn how to live as who we are in Christ throughout all the daily activities we face. And when a temptation comes to us, which will feel like our own idea or thought, that we might enjoy ourselves more if we did something in a way contrary to the spirit, we must step back and ask ourselves who are we? Is that who we are? Are we one that walks according to that nature that pleases itself and ultimately results in death, or are we one that walks according to the Spirit. John 8:32 (You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.) We will never find the power to conquer the temptation of the flesh in our own strength... for that is like trying to bend a spoon with your mind, but rather we must realize there is no condemnation for us, we are already seated in heavenly realms with Christ Jesus, we are not of this world, our home is in another place ... We are more than conquerers through him who loved us. Know it... Be it... Live it.