Drop The Muscle!

The Kiniun Blog: Entry 6 – Drop The Muscle!

Physique is so overrated, especially when it comes to spiritual warfare. Wouldn’t it be something if we could just skip on down to the gym and spin-class our way to financial victory? Or maybe hop over to the athletics field, hurl a javelin into the air and pinpoint the future we had always dreamt for ourselves.

If you’ve been following my posts you would have noticed my Kiniun Blog (as opposed to the Topic Room) is dedicated to encouraging Christians to walk as superheroes on earth. Check out my post, Followers of Christ, Assemble! A typical Superhero’s calling card could be colossal strength or maybe infrared vision. But as Christians, we should not fixate on physical strengths but rather spiritual ones.

We all go through difficult and sometimes daunting periods in life. If it isn’t financial constraints, it’s health issues. If it isn’t relationship problems, it’s the pressure of navigating life-changing decisions through shifting political stages. And the more prevalent these issues become, the more we focus on dealing with them impulsively, instead of efficiently. When we seek to deal with issues on impulse, we automatically dig into our personal arsenal of solutions. Furthermore, our senses often deceive us into assuming that our physical make-up is inherently enough to achieve financial, physical, material, and even spiritual accomplishments. We cannot stamp out the importance of hard work and perseverance, but there’s only so much we can achieve in our own strength.

When Zerubbabel returned from Babylonian captivity, he set out to rebuild the Jewish Temple. It was at this time that Zechariah, the prophet, received the poster creating, fridge magnet worthy, sermon inducing word from God:

Zechariah 4 v 6 – ‘Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit says the Lord of armies.’’    

We all know this scripture as well as we know John 3 v 16, but I feel it’s important to remind ourselves of the avenue through which ultimate power can be harnessed. Building a temple obviously requires strength, but the rebuilding of the temple where the Lord Himself would be worshipped required something far greater.

There are certain matters we come across that require more than our measly fleshy contributions. After Jesus Christ healed a possessed boy in Galilee, He was questioned by His disciples on why they were not able to heal the boy. What was Christ’s reply?

Matthew 17 v 21 – “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer and fasting.”

Jesus Christ noted two spiritual activities that clearly outmuscled whatever the disciples attempted to do. This should be a blueprint for our own lives. Spiritual power will get you so much further than we could ever imagine, further than getting two extra jobs, further than buying yet another weight-loss pill, and further than hoisting placards in the air in government protests. Fighting your battle in the spirit will provide you with divine wisdom, divine direction, and divine strength, all of which supersedes any wisdom the world could offer. Fighting your battles in the flesh may cause some change, but not lasting change. It may provide you with solutions, but not lasting solutions. It may boost your strength but there’s no strength that can compare to the power you can attain ‘by His Spirit.’

As superheroes for Christ, we can achieve so much more in our lives and in our communities if we fight our battles by the spirit of God. Let us search the Bible for Godly wisdom, let us place our trust in the Lord and not our own strength, let us align our principles and prayers with the Lord’s precepts. And let us immerse ourselves so deep in spiritual exercises like prayer and fasting, as well as praise and worship, in order to strengthen our spiritual muscles and confound the devil by operating on a level higher than his elemental and earthly domain. If you would rather blow up your mountains with Marvel Universe panache, instead of painstakingly carving them away with a spoon, then drop the muscle and pick up the Lord’s spiritual power!

Live TKL (The Kiniun Life)

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