By: Nina Bueno
What would you say if your friend came running up to you today, panting and nervous, and said, “We’re at war!” I bet you would immediately pull out your phone and check the latest news releases to see what new conflict we are engaged in. If you were really scared about it, you might start thinking about how you could get away, hide or defend yourself if the war came right to your front door.
Perhaps you reacted when recent global conflicts began. But after a while, the nervousness probably wore off. Unless you have family members that live in any of those countries, those wars seem far away. They usually have little to no bearing on how you live your day-to-day life.
However, for those who do live in war zones, or have family members or friends that do, these wars are close to home, scary and real. People really do spend their lives wondering if they will live to see another day. The wars they are in the midst of shape many facets of their lives.
So now what if I told you that we are at war right now. All of us. You and me and your best friend and your family. And we have been at war for as long as anyone can remember, since before you or I were born, and for centuries. Let’s take a look back in history.
The book of Ezekiel speaks about the angel who had the premier place in Heaven, God’s right-hand man.
“You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones.” The name of this angel may be familiar; he was called Lucifer. But then God said, “You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned” (Ezek. 28:14-16 NIV).
Revelation then reaches the climax of this issue.
“Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him” (Rev. 12:7-9 NIV, emphasis added).
We can see that the war, which began decades, centuries, millennia ago, continues. And it is a war that is not confined only to heaven, far away from us. It is here, on this earth—and we are in it. We have been caught up in a deadly war, and most of us don’t even notice.
That’s because this war we’re in isn’t always people fighting around us. There’s not necessarily any blood, visible weapons, or hand-to-hand combat. Paul talks about this battle in his letter to the Ephesians.
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 6:12 NIV).
If you’ve ever watched a war, action or apocalypse movie, you probably wondered what you would do, and how long you would survive if it were you there. Maybe you and your friends have debated on who would survive the longest.
But in our real-life war, we all have the same chances, which look something like this: try to survive by myself and lose or join the winning side and win.
There’s no survival skill of our own that’s going to help. There’s no chance of staying neutral. Either you’re on the winning side and you live or you’re on the losing side and you die.
The winning side is Jesus’s side. And the losing side is anything other than Jesus’s side. Most people aren’t going to outright declare themselves to be on Satan’s evil side. But in reality, if your loyalty isn’t fully to Jesus, if you’re not a fully committed soldier of His army, then you’re not on His side. Any noncommittal attitude only counts towards the losing side. Every action you make, every word you say, every thought you think displays where your loyalty truly lies.
Jesus knows we can’t survive without His help, that we cannot even maintain our loyalty to Him without His aid. He offers everything in His power, even His own life, to help us win the battle.
Satan’s side offers death. And Jesus’s side offers life. There’s no time to lose, the battle is on and it’s closing in around you and me. I choose Jesus. Which side do you choose? Where does your true loyalty lie?
