Ready to Deploy, Engage, and Enforce
The Christian life is not like a battle. It is a battle. In fact, it is a war zone with a very real, present, and active enemy. He prowls around, looking for those he can take down, take hostage, or take out (see John 8:44; 2 Timothy 2:26; 1 Peter 5:8; Revelation 2:10 ESV). And in these days of acceleration, where everything is ramping up toward the end of the age and the return of the Lord Jesus, the spiritual warfare we are experiencing from our adversary the devil is escalating. Unfortunately, it is only going to increase until our Lord comes again.
There is good news, however. The devil has limited authority and power. Jesus, through His death, resurrection, and ascension, destroyed “the works of the devil,” “disarmed principalities and powers,” conquered death and the grave, and “led captivity captive” (see 1 Corinthians 15:54–56 ESV;Ephesians 4:8 NKJV; Colossians 2:15 NKJV; 1 John 3:8 ESV).
Jesus secured our victory for us against our enemy! Our job is to stand ready to deploy, engage in battle, and enforce Jesus’ victory. This means we live in that victory. We walk in that victory. We “put on the whole armor of God” so that we can “stand against the schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11 ESV). We “fight the good fight of the faith” (1 Timothy 6:12 ESV). And soon, Jesus, our conquering King, will return, and the devil’s defeat will be complete. Until then, we live in the tension of the “in-between”—of the “already but not yet.” We live in what C. S. Lewis called “enemy-occupied territory.”
Enemy-Occupied Territory
You see, when Jesus came the first time, He inaugurated God’s Kingdom on earth. As Lewis wrote, “The rightful king . . . landed.” But when He comes back, His Kingdom will be fully manifested on the earth. In the meantime, we’re supposed to do what Jesus taught His disciples to do—to “occupy” until He comes (Luke 19:13 KJV). We’re to occupy in the occupied zone.
I’m reminded of the last several months of World War 2. As part of a last-ditch effort that would eventually win the war for the Allies, the Allied leadership orchestrated a top secret operation called Operation Overlord, the codename for the Battle of Normandy. Under the cover of darkness, they would launch an airborne and amphibious assault on the beaches of Normandy on what would become known as D-Day and later result in “the successful liberation of German-occupied Western Europe.”
On June 6, 1944, over 150,000 Allied troops landed on Normandy beaches. Over 18,000 of them were paratroopers, “dropped into the invasion area to provide tactical support for infantry divisions.” These troops engaged in some of the most intense battles over the next eleven months as they continued to drive deeper into the Axis-occupied zone.
A second invasion was launched “from the Mediterranean Sea of southern France (code-named Operation Dragoon)” in August of 1944, which liberated Paris. Eventually, the Allies’ continued push concluded on May 8, 1945. This day, Victory in Europe Day (VE-Day), marked “the formal acceptance by the Allies of . . . Germany’s unconditional surrender of its armed forces.” The victory that the Allies and the world celebrated in May of 1945 was won tactically in June of the previous year.
All Things Under Our Feet
Beloved, it is as if we’re living in a similar eleven-month period—a time between the D-Day of Jesus’ inauguration of His Kingdom on earth and the VE-Day (Victory on Earth Day) of His return and the full establishment of His Kingdom. Like the Allies of World War 2, the Church must fight from a position of victory. Tactically, the war has already been won. That’s the kind of mentality we must have in these last “in-between” days before Jesus comes again. It is the mentality shift that we need to have in the Body of Christ.
On the one hand, we must know, for example, that the enemy we face is real. Demons are real in this occupied territory. Spiritual warfare is real. The kingdom of darkness is real. But it has been disarmed! And it has been put under our feet. The psalmist David said,
What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet (Psalm 8:4–6 NKJV).
The writer of Hebrews further clarified David’s words for us when he wrote, “For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. But we see Jesus” (Hebrews 2:8–9 NKJV). Simply because we don’t see all things under our feet today, they are, nonetheless. And on “the great and magnificent day” of the Lord, on His day of victory, Jesus will split the eastern sky and ride upon the clouds—“and every eye will see him” (Acts 2:20; Revelation 1:7 ESV). We will see Him! So, we don’t have to fear the devil and his schemes, but we do need to be aware of them and ready to resist them.
Jesus’ first coming was D-Day, an invasion behind occupied enemy lines, but VE-Day is only around the corner. Heaven will execute a full-on counteroffensive as Jesus comes and makes all His enemies His “footstool” (Psalm 110:1 ESV). He will reclaim what He won at the cross, but for now, you and I are still fighting battles in the midst of waiting for His soon return.
So, yes, we live in the war zone in this “present evil age,” but we’re not fueled by this present age(Galatians 1:4 ESV). We’re fueled by the age to come—the Kingdom of God. You may not know it, dear saint, but you are from the future. You are a citizen of the Kingdom of God that is “already but not yet.” The power of the One “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty,” is within you because He dwells within you by His Holy Spirit (Revelation 1:8 ESV). And as John the beloved said, “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4 ESV). Christ in you is greater than the devil and his fellow occupiers.
