LOOK OUT FOR LANDMINES!
Landmines are explosive concealed military devices
which are designed to passively destroy or disable enemy targets without the
risk of directly engaging the warring adversary. Injury or death results,
either from the direct blast or from lethal fragments hurled with great force
from its epicenter. During past wars, landmines were detonated by direct
pressure, i.e. the weight of the person stepping on the landmine or the vehicle
driving over it.
The latest generation of landmines is deployed to destroy military
personnel and vehicles. These weapons are called “IEDs” or improvised
explosive devices. During the USA’s most recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,
numerous allied combatants lost both life and limb as the result of these
IEDs. The use of such landmines remains controversial because they were
originally condemned by “The Geneva Conventions,” seven treaties and protocols
that establish standards of humanitarian treatment during warfare [1949], and
later legally prohibited by “The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use,
Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines.” [1997]
It is important to recognize that landmines are typically deployed by cowards who seek to destroy their
enemies safely, from a safe distance. It occurs to me that the chief coward, Satan, plants
spiritual landmines in his desperate attempts to “kill and destroy” the people
of God. (John 10:10)
How so? The archenemy of the cross of christ and all it represents is fully aware
that he could never damage or destroy Almighty God. Recognizing this,
every satanic strategy of tactical destruction is aimed directly at the
“children of God,” whom he recognizes as “heirs of God and joint heirs with
Christ.” (Romans 8:17)
Satanic landmines are deployed by a variety of agents and in a
myriad of life circumstances. The
IEDs of Hell include all of the following, and many more: 1) Our
perceptions of hurt and abandonment when we are on the receiving end of
unwarranted criticism; 2) The temptation to become divided against our
spiritual siblings over transient and trivial matters; 3) The human tendency to
embrace anxiety, loneliness, isolation and depression during times of loss or
grief; 4) Our habit of holding on to stress, doubt and fear instead of trusting
in our God and His unfailing Word; 5) Etcetera, etcetera and etcetera.
We are warned by the Apostle Peter to constantly be on the lookout
for such cataclysmic landmines. “Be sober, be vigilant, because your
adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may
devour.” (I Peter 5:8)
Nevertheless, there is exciting news! GOD has endowed and
armed us with robust weapons of spiritual warfare that can obliterate every IED
deployment of our sworn enemy. (II Corinthians 10:4) Additionally, we are
privy to advance intelligence briefings which precisely identify the location
and potency of Satan’s destructive landmines. By what means are we
provided such life-saving information? Whenever we “pray without ceasing”
– whenever we “study to show ourselves approved unto God” – whenever we “walk
in the Spirit” – we are amenable and available for THE HOLY SPIRIT to teach and
reveal to us any potentially destructive “things to come.” (I Thessalonians
5:17 – Galatians 5:25 – II Timothy 2:15 – John 14:26-27 – John 16:13) Finally,
we are secured and safeguarded within the “whole armor of God,” through which
no satanic weapon can penetrate or prevail. (Ephesians 6:11-18 – Isaiah 54:17)
Does this mean that spiritual warriors are somehow exempt from
being watchful during our required stint of service in the Army of the Lord? Absolutely not! Jesus Christ commands that we “watch and pray”
in order to nullify the power of satanic IEDs. (Matthew 26:41) In fact,
prayerful watchfulness is the spiritual key to being “accounted worthy to escape
all things that shall soon come to pass.” (Luke 21:36) So, my spiritual
siblings, stay on the lookout for landmines.
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