Your Place in the Spiritual BattleSample

Your Place in the Spiritual Battle Day 4 – Discover Your Branch/Learn Your Mission (Part 2)

We all have our own missions. Unlike a soldier in today’s military who is trained in what their commanders think they will be best at, we are to train in what we were CREATED to do. We have been designed and built to do our specific mission. No one else can accomplish what you are to accomplish. You cannot accomplish what someone else is to accomplish. If you are like me, this is both a relief and horribly scary. I’m so glad I don’t have to do what you are supposed to do. At the same time, what if I don’t do what I’m supposed to do? What if I don’t do it well enough? Those thoughts are terrifying.

I don’t think we will ever know the full scope of our individual missions. I think we would all be so overwhelmed that we would simply freeze. But I think we can know pieces as we need them. I also think we can know the general category of our mission. We can even know a specific focus for our efforts, at least for a time. Our missions can change over time. Just because we are supposed to do something now doesn’t mean we aren’t supposed to do something different later.

Some categories of missions are evangelism, apologetics, teaching, preaching, praying, etc. Is one of these categories yours? Evangelists can’t help but present the gospel to those they encounter. Apologists are defenders of the faith to believers and non-believers alike. Teachers work to make those around them better in various areas. Pray-ers are particularly gifted in the art of speaking to and hearing from God. Preachers tend to dabble in all the above and then present their experiences in front of a group of people. These are very broad descriptions and hardly all inclusive, but hopefully they give you ideas as to where you may find yourself. I want to reiterate, we are to be cross-trained in several areas. Everyone should be willing and able to present the gospel when the opportunity arises. We are also told we are to be able to give a reason for our hope (1 Peter 3:15). That sounds like an apologetical mission for everyone. Remember the blurring lines of today’s military? Same thing here. Just because you find yourself very rooted in one category doesn’t mean you get to ignore the others. And it should go without saying, we should all be talking with God all the time.

These categories will hopefully give some direction as to your more specific mission. Do you have something you are passionate about? Some injustice that causes you to see red? A holy discontent? Some aspect of life you see is wrong and want fixed? Maybe you see something really good but not prevalent enough. Something coming to mind? What sets you on fire? What wets your dry bones? My guess is whatever you are thinking of right now is a very big aspect of your mission. Not thinking of anything? Ask God to reveal your passion. I believe we all have at least one, so if you aren’t thinking of something right now, I think it is more an aspect of God revealing it, rather than giving it to you. Once you know your passion you can find others with similar interests and get together to begin making that difference.

All of this should be done with great amounts of prayer. Try and surround yourself with people you can talk about this process with. Even if they are in different branches, they will be valuable for training and protection. Remember a couple of days ago I discussed the only way to avoid spiritual warfare is to stay off the enemy’s radar. Let me tell you something, you start running military exercises and drills, preparing your weapons, and expectantly awaiting your marching orders – you will find yourself a big, bright dot on his green circular screen. Beep, beep, beep. Once you take up your mission, it's going to get real. Hang on though, remember we win because He has already won. I will discuss the victory in a couple of days. Tomorrow we will get to know our enemy a bit better.