Articles
Reclaiming Surrendered Ground
"Enemy occupied territory. That's what this world is." These words penned by C.S. Lewis are on target. If you read your Bible, you can't miss seeing that we are at war in this world. There has been a takeover of this world that God made.
It all began in the garden of Eden. Satan came after God's children, made an insurgence onto territory God had staked out, and moved them to give ground. Then and there God declared war!! Eden was our "ground zero." God immediately set out to take back the ground Satan had taken in Adam and Eve's life. He declared the day would come when Jesus, the seed of woman, would deliver a crushing blow to the head of the devil (Gen. 3:15).
This war is still going on. It will go on in your life. God wants to give you abundant life. Satan makes good promises but they are all a camoflage to hide his real intent to destroy your soul.
God casts one vote for you. The devil casts one vote for you. But you cast the deciding vote. Satan knows you are prized by God. He hates God and wants to hurt Him. The greatest way to hurt God is to hurt you. The crosshairs are on you!!
This means YOU have everything to do with how this war goes. You will go head to head with Satan on this battlefield every day. God wants you to take ground, to make progress. Satan wants you to lose territory God once held.
Consider passages from God's word. In Philippians 1:12, Paul has been placed in prison for preaching the gospel, yet he says that "the things that have happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel." The word "furtherance" is a military term. It is the idea of an army advancing onto enemy territory. This is what Paul was doing. He was making advances for the gospel.
However, our advances can easily go back the other way. Hebrews 2:1 warns against us drifting away. This is the way the devil likes it. Let them slip and hardly even realize it is happening!! He is not in a hurry. The story of the prodigal son shows the same. He drifted into degradation and into the slop of the pig pen before he "came to himself" (Luke 15:17). This implies that he had not been himself. Little by little the devil moved him.
It is here that we must learn something crucial. As Christian soldiers we must not give the devil a place, a foothold, a place to stand. Don't give ground!! He cannot take any ground unless we give it to him. We must resist the devil (James 4:7). Somehow in the church resist has been changed to ignore. If we ignore him we are dead meat!!
God has given us His help, His strength, and His armor (Ephesians 6:10-20). Have you ever noticed in the Christian armor, there is no armor for the back. Maybe that's because we don't retreat! We don't turn our backs. We take it to the devil. It's war! We must know it. A good brother in Christ that I spend some time with has a canvass Bible cover and penned on it is B-I-B-L-E - Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. I like that. He knows we are in a war.
Is there ground in your life you once held, that was under your control, that Satan has not taken. If there is, you need to take it back? How? Repent, submit to God and resist the devil (James 4:7).
Are you as "on fire" for the Lord as you once were? How are your habits of praying, reading, and meditating on your life? Has Satan taken much of that ground? Take it back! What about your relationship with your spouse? Was there a time when you were so much in love and spending good time with each other? Has Satan crept on to that territory. Take it back!
In areas of morality has there been any slippage? Was there a time when you would not have touched alcohol? Are you still there or would you defend social drinking nowadays? Take it back! What about pornography and pre-marital sex? Do cigarettes still control you? What about prescription meds? Have they been allowed to become addictions? Take it back! What about modesty? Would you wear things today that you would not have worn some time ago? How's your language? Or maybe you don't do these things but you express things that sound like you approve. Have you become desensitized to sin? Does your Facebook status reveal a person who is godly? Take it back!
Is there a relationship with a brother or sister in Christ that needs be restored (Mt. 18:15)? Are you letting the devil hold that ground? Take it back.
We can. We must. Because the task ahead of us is never as great as the power behind us. Be strong in the Lord (Eph. 6:10). The One who is in us is greater than he who is in the world (1st John 4:4). Reclaim surrendered ground!
