There Are Times When We Must Declare War
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Jack Hayford preached a sermon at Church on the Way in 1982. He chose Ephesians 6 for his scripture from which he described the armor of God, and how we were to embrace and wear that armor to ward off attacks of the enemy of our souls. I was 51, single, lonely and living in Los Angeles at that time. I owned a major part of a successful construction consulting engineering firm that was growing nicely. I had become a Christian in 1961.
Toward the end of the sermon, Pastor Jack advised there were times when the devil was out to steal our future and when that was the case, we had to more than put on the armor; we had to declare war on the devil, and refuse to surrender our future.
I played golf later that Sunday. I got to the club late in the afternoon and played alone. I got to the fourth hole and hit the ball well. I drove down the cart path and stopped where the cart path to the eighth tee intersected the path I was using.
I got out of the cart and looked around. No one was close by or about to come my way, so I took that moment to declare war on the devil. By then, I had decided that he was not going to steal any more of my future, and I challenged him at the top of my voice. No one heard me and when I was done, I got back in the cart and played on.
I got home that evening and instead of going across the street to my customary restaurant for supper, I got busy and never bothered to eat. I got up the next morning and felt checked about breakfast, settling for a cup of coffee.
I did not know much about spiritual warfare at that point in my life. Oh, I had heard about it, but somehow it was beyond my level of experience or interest. My two skipped meals lead to a third, a fourth and soon I knew I was fasting. My recollection is that I sort of fell into this fast; at least, I have no recollection of making a decision not to eat.
I went over to my friend’s home on Thursday. His name was Chuck Shoemake, and at that time he pastored the Canoga Park Foursquare church. His wife Ruby joined us, and we sat around their living room talking. Our custom to close one of my visits was to kneel around their coffee table and have a prayer.
Category: Living the Faith, Winter 2010
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