The famous French expression “Vive La Résistance” has embedded in it a rich history dating back over 80 years. Backstory, during World War II, a collection of small organizations, called ‘The Resistance’ fought the Nazi (German army) occupation of France. The Resistance cells were small groups of armed men and women who, in addition to their guerrilla warfare activities, were also publishers of underground newspapers, providers of first-hand intelligence information, and maintainers of escape networks that helped allied soldiers. These men and women straddled economic levels and political leanings of the French society and regardless stood for a united cause. And in 1944, after 4 long years, the French won and dismissed the Germans from French territory.
I love this narrative so much because it paints a good picture of what I am about to share with you today.
To win this war, they had to first be aware that there was a looming war, i.e., the gradual seeping of the Nazis into French territory, They also had to be aware of the identity of the enemy. Lastly, they had to identify and put together winning strategies to defeat the enemy and cause them to retreat from French territory. Each of these steps is important because a wrong diagnosis at any level can lead to fatalities.
Sometimes we put together victorious and fail proof strategies, but we are grossly unaware of our aim because we do not know who we are targeting or when to deploy the strategies. The simple truth is that no matter how powerful our battle strategies are, a soldier who’s not aware of the timing of an attack or the identity of the enemy has death hanging over his head just as much as the soldier without strategies. Why? Because he is not alert!
The Bible in no small way paints a clear picture about an imminent and ongoing war and the adversary/enemy. So thorough, the bible goes further to explain the stance we are to take in fighting this war and the strategies for victory.
We are at war. I believe one of the things plaguing our generation today is the laissez faire attitude we have. It’s how assaults on tenets of our beliefs are being normalized and justified under the false cloak of modernized cultural contexts. The veritable truth is we are at war, the ancient landmarks our fathers of faith laid are being desecrated on this false altar of progressiveness and dense desensitization. Are you aware of the ancient landmarks the enemy is shifting in your life or your environment? What we need to understand as the basis of the war is questioning what God has said, the same question he posited to Eve in the garden, is what he goes about asking today. That same ‘Has God said?’ question is the arrow he shoots into every generation to distract us and exchange our landmarks for rubbles and debris.
The enemy is the devil. Most people look to put a costume over the enemy by referencing familial relationships; family members, sister church denominations, friends, workplace colleagues, the list can go on. I believe this is a ploy of the enemy to distract us, The Bible is clear about the identity of the enemy, and he calls him the devil. He is our adversary, and he is the enemy (1 Peter 5:8). When Peter tried to dissuade Jesus from going to the cross under the cloak of love, Jesus spoke plainly, identifying who was speaking, He knew it was the devil in a costume. He rebuked the enemy but prayed for Peter. While we are busy fighting each other, breaking ranks and creating unneeded factions, the enemy is progressing in his advance. We need to focus and leverage our unified grounds to fight the real enemy, he is not just the enemy of Christian men and women, he is the enemy of every man! He just deploys different strategies.
You are the resistance. Scripture records that every time the enemy comes with a flood, the Spirit of God raises a standard against it (Isaiah 59:19). The standard the Spirit of God raises is the man and woman of God, glory to God! My life is a column of God’s advancement on the earth and the threat to the enemy to retreat and flee. The picture of that man is painted in Ephesians 6. The basis of this picture, as Paul gave to the Ephesian church, is you are strong! Dear friend, don’t be afraid of the world! The very life and current that runs through your spirit man has in itself the power to overcome the world, the world here is interpreted as changing and prevalent ideologies, dynamic cultural constructs, vast geographical spaces, sociological orders. Faith does not cower at a version of the world that is coming. No! The faith message may have hitherto been relegated to procuring things but in actuality, the grade of the faith we have received as premised on the Word of God has the capacity to upturn world systems.
God is looking to gather a critical mass of believers in their unique contexts, pulling together a mass of energy that will enthrone Jesus again in every generation and dispel the enemy. Friend, I ask you, will you join in?
Your contexts of resistance are the winning strategies. The first context of resistance is internal fortification for defense which is building up ourselves in this upturning and overcoming faith by praying in tongues, binding the truth of His Word in our hearts and around our waists furnishing our righteous walk.
The second context of resistance is external fortification for offence, allowing an invasion of the Spirit into our earthly spaces and advancing kingdom lines. Being publishers of the good news, being conveyors of the gospel, the Word of God and things consistent with it. Our faith is visible and so the quality of things we promote on our spaces speaks a lot to what we inherently believe. This second context also involves loving and praying for the saints and our immediate environment to invite the Holy Spirit to move!
Say with me I live the resistance; I allow the Holy Ghost to invade my life and my spaces; I publish and speak the good word of the Lord; I am furnished with spiritual discernment to expose the works of the enemy; I am that carrier of light bringing a message of hope, truth and transformation to all those around me.
In my space, the enemy is retreating, and his influence is diminishing because I give no place to him. My life is raised as an offering to God and in the same breadth as a resistance and threat to the kingdom of darkness! Hallelujah!
Have a blessed week
Olayinka Adebayo
@layinkadebayo