THE STRUGGLE: INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL

 Greetings O Ye Strugglers, Wrestlers, Warriors, Followers of Jesus.  How's Da Battle?

In my job...as a Home Health Speech-Language Pathologist...the hardest part is NOT seeing my patients in their homes...it is coordinating five offices that spreads out between multiple counties.  One patient wants to be seen in the morning..the other afternoon...another only on Tuesday the next one on Wednesdays and Fridays only...after 11:00 before 12:00.  I call this pull...this juggling of people...THE STRUGGLE OF THE JUGGLE. Oh how many times...as I juggle these patients...I drop the ball.  The cause and effect of the EXTERNAL JUGGLE is frustrations, anxieties, depressions in an INTERNAL JUGGLE.

Combine that with juggling all of the various aspects of my life from being a husband, father, karate instructor, Sunday School teacher, elder at the church, and multiple other odds and ends of life in general...YIKES!!!

In our spiritual life...we tend to combat the SEEN..when we really should fight the UNSEEN..  How many times to we wear ourselves out...by fighting the flesh and blood of life?  Aunt Gertrude is constantly causing you trouble...and Uncle Harold lies about you.  Your boss is just so unfair while the President of the United States (whoever happens to be in office at the time)....is a liar, knucklehead, incompetent, the Anti-Christ.  Your wife just doesn't understand you...and your husband just doesn't understand you.  Your children were not raised to act like they do...and don't get me started on that Pastor...and oh my...that Sunday School teacher is just not spiritual enough.../too spiritual...or not funny. It can get confusing as you battle what is good or you battle what is bad.

I know that sometimes...when you get sick (which is the d-evil on the move...is merely an EXTERNAL INDICATOR of and INTERNAL PROBLEM.  The confusion is in what we see and feel.  Actually...our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made...and in spite of the curse of sickness, disease, pain and suffering...the EXTERNAL...OUTWARD signs of sickness is our fearfully and wonderfully made bodies...FIGHTING THE INTERNAL.  When you ingest too much booze on Saturday night (which at the time would seem like a good idea)...turns into worshiping at the porcelain altar offering a heave offering as your vomit your guts out.  On the surface...this looks like a curse (which it is)...but it is your fearfully and wonderfully made body...FIGHTING THE INTERNAL ENEMY...the booze...AND GETTING RID OF THE PROBLEM.  If someone overeats...and they get heartburn and feel nauseous...the EXTERNAL is dealt with...by PLOP PLOP, FIZZ FIZZ...OH WHAT A RELIEF IT IS...to neutralize the effect of your cause which was GLUTTONY.  Smoke a cigarette and see how quickly the mucosal lining begins to weep in defense of the inhaled smoke NOTE:  In-haling smoke does not get you in-HELL...but it may get you there quicker than you realize.  If the inhaled smoke continues for years and years...it may reveal cancer.  The body is again...merely combating something external by internal means.  We tend to throw all the money at THE EXTERNAL...while we need to be fighting not the symptom but the cause.  Instead of putting the detrimental into our bodies...(which I do all the time...but getting better)...we need to feed what will attack the unseen that is causing the external. 

NOTE:  This applies to the physical...but Oh how it applies to my spiritual life.  What do I allow in my mind and life...that is manifested in my external life.  Renewing my mind with the Word...feeding on the Word of the Bread of Life...drink from the well of Living Waters...drinking deep and flowing in the Spirit of the Rivers of Living Waters will deal with the root of the DEEDS OF FLESH that manifests in my EXTERNAL LIFE.  The old saying is..."starve a cold...feed a fever" may or may not be good advice...but if you starve your flesh...and don't put wood on the fire of your flesh...it will go out...while on the other hand...feed the embers of fever of passion for the Lord...and you zeal for the Lord will ignite.


"For we are NOT...WRESTLING or STRUGGLING with FLESH and BLOOD (the EXTERNAL)-- contending only with physical opponents--BUT against the despotism, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of THIS PRESENT DARKNESS, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere." (Ephesians 6:12)

Frank Peretti's book THIS PRESENT DARKNESS is a tale of  town that is going through EXTERNAL STRUGGLES...but it is the UNSEEN...that is the real enemy.  If you fight THIS PRESENT PHYSICAL enemy...that you can see...you will only be SHADOW BOXING...an will be constantly frustrated and worn out.

The band PETRA...on their album...THIS MEANS WAR...has a great song entitled GET ON YOUR KNEES AND FIGHT LIKE A MAN...that speaks of this struggle.

Get on your knees and fight like a man
You'll pull down strongholds if you just believe you can
Your enemy will tuck his tail and flee
Get on your knees and fight like a man

Phil Keaggy recorded a song on the self titled album PHIL KEAGGY...sang about this struggle in the song SIGN CAME THROUGH A WINDOW:

Sundays real honesty
Declarations of dependency
Confessions of an eternal struggle here.

It is futile to use carnal weapons against spiritual enemies.

"For though we walk [live] in the FLESH (physical external world)...we are NOT carrying on our WARFARE according to the FLESH and using MERE HUMAN WEAPONS." (II Corinthians 10:3)

We don't deny the REALITY of the FLESH...but we do deny the REALITY'S RIGHT TO RULE our lives.  We do not shadow box...and wear ourselves out by fighting FLESH and BLOOD.  We do not use MERE HUMAN WEAPONS...but go to our SPIRITUAL ARSENAL. and deploy SPIRITUAL WEAPONRY.

"For the WEAPONS of our WARFARE are NOT PHYSICAL (weapons of flesh and blood), BUT they are MIGHTY BEFORE GOD...for the OVERTHROW and DESTRUCTION of STRONGHOLDS." (II Corinthians 10:5)

The enemy has been targeted...the weapons have been identified...and the purpose of the warfare is stated.  OVERTHROW and DESTRUCTION...THE PULLING DOWN OF THE UNSEEN.  This UNSEEN WAR will at some point be manifested in the seen....but you must neutralized the enemy (or the carriers of the enemy message...ie humans)...in the spiritual. 

In Joyce Meyer's book...BATTLEFIELD OF THE MIND...she reveals where things really take place in the UNSEEN...in the INTERNAL...that is manifested in the EXTERNAL.

"[Inasmuch as we] REFUTE ARGUMENTS and THEORIES and REASONINGS and EVERY PROUD and LOFTY THING that sets itself up against the (true) knowledge of God; and we LEAD EVERY THOUGHT CAPTIVE into the OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST, the Messiah, the Anointed One." (II Corinthians 10:5)

There it is...THOUGHTS...setting themselves up AGAINST THE TRUE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD.

We are called to (1) refute arguments (2) refute theories (3) refute reasoning (4) refute every proud and lofty thing (5) lead captive thoughts INTO OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST.  Read Philippians 4:6-9 to see how to win the war in the mind.


In 1999, Paul McCartney released an album of "familiar and obscure" rock and roll from the 1950's.  He also added three new songs...an a DVD of these songs recorded live at THE CAVERN (early place that the Beatles played).  Check out this link to see Sir Paul rehearsing the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oae_otCrDQA

RUN DEVIL RUN LYRICS
(PaulMcCartney)

 Run devil run, the angels having fun
Making winners out of sinners better leave before it's done
When he gets through, he'll be coming after you,
Listen what I'm saying to you Run . . . Run Devil Run

By a swamp in Alabama in the cold in the damp
Sittin reading by the light of a kerosene lamp
Lives a holly roller with a mission on her mind
Got to spread the word to anybody she can find
You can hear her screaming any time in night or day
This is what she says to keep the demons away

Run devil run, the angels having fun
Making winners out of sinners better leave before it's done
When he gets through, he'll be coming after you,
Listen what I'm saying to you Run . . . Run Devil Run

Her brother and her sister said that she brought them down
Steppin on the bus that was heading to town
There they started drinking, they got into a fight
The sheriff introduced them to the jailhouse for a night
When the holy roller came to town to pay the bail
This is what she sang as she was leaving the jail

Run devil run, the angels having fun

Making winners out of sinners better leave before it's done
When he gets through, he'll be coming after you,
Listen what I'm saying to you Run . . . Run Devil Run

Lead solo (8 bars)

Piano (8 bars)

Well by the middle of the summer they were back in the shack
Picking cotton for a livin keep 'em on the right track
Visiting the nieghbours trying to spread the good news
Singing gospel music with a hint of the blues
All of them determined to deliver the goods
Now you you hear the music comin out on the woods

Run devil run, the angel having fun
Making winners out of sinners better leave before it's done
When he gets through, he'll be coming after you,
Listen what I'm saying to you Run . . . Run Devil Run

Ah you'ld better Run . . . Run Devil Run
You better Run . . . Run Devil Run

Of course...you MUST be spiritually prepared as you FIGHT IN THE STRUGGLE/WARFARE.

"Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God and He will lift you up at the proper time." (I Peter 5:6)

 "Withstand him (the d-evil)...be firm in faith [against his onset]--rooted, established, strong, immovable and determined...knowing that the same [identical] sufferings are appointed to your brotherhood (the whole body of Christians) throughout the world." (I Peter 5:9)

 "Submit therefore to God. Resist the d-evil and he will flee from you." (James 4:7-8)

FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY

Read the end of the book...we win.  We are MORE than conquerors...ONLY BECAUSE JESUS DID IT ALL IN THE D.B.R....in the DEATH...BURIAL...and RESURRECTION.  It is not based on what we do...but based on WHAT HE DID.  Armor up (Ephesians 6:13-18)...arm yourself with the SWORD OF THE SPIRIT...THE WORD OF GOD (Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 4:12) and let the Holy Spirit...the HELPER...HELP (John 14:16)...and in the face of WAR/TEMPTATION...utilize everything that Jesus utilized...(1) The Spirit (2) The Word (3) Authority (Matthew 41-11; Luke 4:1-13)

Love and Non-Struggling Kisses
Rodney "Come Jesus Come...Run Devil Run" Boyd