Warrior or Lamb?

Warrior or Lamb?

Some of my greatest inspirations come from dreams. I will typically awaken from a dream or have a thought enter my head as the first thought of the day. After my morning study period, they either take root or get discarded. The idea to begin writing this blog has taken root several times and began in several stages, but let me tell you of two of the most decisive ones that truly got a hold of me.

Please understand that I don’t believe that these are great visions with any meaning to anyone outside of the Lord working inside of me, so please don’t read anything into these. I have awakened on several occasions with the image of a mother wolf, a mother bear or a mother lion in my dream right before awakening. Two of these, the wolf and the bear, are images that have been used to describe parts of my nature, I even wrote a novel called MacGregor’s Wolf: Lessons of Time, which is, in many ways, an allegory of my struggles. So, these images were there to specifically communicate to me something of my nature.

I am a warrior. It has always been a part of my personality and who I am. I was made without fear, or at least a lessoned sense of fear. Needless to say, when not kept in check, my fearlessness has gotten me into to trouble and caused a lot of problems in my life. Seeing the images of those animals, who are known for their ferocity in my dreams, initially, made me even bolder and more eager for the fight.

What I discovered, however, was that I was beginning to cast pearls before swine. What do I mean by that? Basically, I was attacking and enjoining battles that were a waste of my time and energy. Those battles were not only leaving me weary, but they were making me walk away harboring anger. That anger would lead me to rebellion and hardness. And then God started to open something up to me through His word, which began to bring me back under control again.

For thirty years, I have studied humanistic philosophies and the damage that they have been doing to our world for more than half a century. In reality, they have been doing damage since the beginning of time, however, since the 1960s they seemed to have begun to accelerate in intensity. Along with those studies, I have studied the scriptures and a very select few teachers who divide the entire word of God in a way that is consistent with the scriptures. So, I have been thoroughly prepared for battle. However, consider the following scripture:

 

“God hath chosen, not many noble, not many mighty in the world, but those who are weak, that he might make ashamed such as are strong.” - 1 Corinthians 1:25

Does a lion, a wolf or a bear fit into that passage? You’d have to manipulate things a great deal to force them to fit within it. Consider this passage as well, the one, which I used to begin this blog series:

“And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals.  Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?’ And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it… And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.” – Revelation 5:1-3; 6 & 7

The first blog that I wrote was purposely focused on demonstrating how the slain Lamb of God is the most worthy and most powerful heir of God’s kingdom, because that has to be the beginning point of a warrior’s charge. You see, I am only a fool with a big mouth and lots of aggression apart from the power of the Holy Spirit of the slain Lamb of God. I’m just a noisy, snarling and snapping wolf, a grunting and growling bear or a roaring lion. But in those characteristics, I will only “be made ashamed.”

The key of the great warriors of the Old Testament, was not their own strength, but the strength of the Lord living and working within them, because ultimately, the battle belongs to the Lord. Hebrews 11:32-34 says:

“For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.”

Scripture also tells us that "we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." – Ephesians 6:12. In the context of this passage, we are told to put on the full armor of God in order to engage in this heavenly battle. We begin with knowing that the power to be the warrior that God wants us to be can only be found in the Lamb of God.

Moving forward for the next several weeks, we are going to have a look at the great warriors of the Old Testament, not as Sunday School Bible Stories, but in order to examine where the true power for those warriors to do battle had come from, how they allowed themselves to be used and, in some cases, how they failed to use the power given to them to do the Lord’s work. It is my sincere hope that these posts will strengthen us toward the great work that lies ahead and help us to focus our battle in the right direction and for the right reasons.