(Formerly in Israel, if a man went to inquire of God, he would say, “Come, let us go to the seer,” because the prophet of today used to be called a Seer. I Samuel 9: 9)
I didn’t have to say anything. I’m sure that my countenance said it all. The Seer once told me that my face telegraphed quite clearly what was in my heart. And yet he asked, “What is troubling you?”
I said, “I’m not sure. I think some doubts are creeping in about God and things.”
“Doubtful thoughts are a formidable weapon that our enemy uses. They are like mortars hurled at us during those long blackouts that we must endure.”
“It is worse at night.”
“Yes, under the cover of darkness, the doubtful thoughts charge onto the battlefield of our mind. And the battle insufferably rages on. Two opposing armies of thought are clashing. Each is establishing a beachhead in our mind. Both are digging in for the long haul. Both are vying for the spoils of our souls. They do it, first, by controlling our thoughts. And then our thoughts grow wings and fly past our lips as utterances. And finally, our words materialize into actions that either justify us or condemn us [1] . You must know that there is a battle raging. Make no mistake about it,” the Seer said.
“It’s good to know about the particulars of a war. When I was in Vietnam, I asked many fellow soldiers and officers, ‘Why are we here?’ And, you know, not one of them could tell me why we were killing and being killed in that hot, muggy hellhole. Not one.”
“Of course, that is a different kind of battle. This battle in your mind that I speak of, however, is over our very existence, both present and future. The outcome of our own personal battle will answer one of two questions. Will we finally realize that we are created by God, who has a definite will and purpose guiding every human being, which culminates in our surrender to Him? Or, will we remain adamant, ruled by a secular humanistic delusion, and persist in pretending that we are our own god, serving our own selves, and thereby forgetting the ‘Rock from whence we are hewn’?”
“No wonder I feel torn up inside. Thoughts and doubts are whirling and churning inside of me.” I heard a rooster crow and looked out the window at the golden red mist of light in the east. I hadn’t slept all night and had waited until his lights had come on to come over and get some help.
The Seer continued. “Yes. A war is being fought inside of you. It is the War of the Wills. God’s will is fighting your own will. And your own will for your life is being fed and reinforced by the enemy of God. The “prince and power of the air” [2] supports your determination to hang on to your own purpose for your life. And our old man’s purpose looks at everything through this prism–what’s in it for me? You see, God’s thoughts for His creation is opposed to man’s thoughts about himself and his purpose on earth.”
“What are man’s thoughts about himself?”
“In general, the prevailing wind blowing in the politically correct arena is that we are just animals with higher intelligence, that there really is no personal Creator who has a will and purpose for us. God’s thoughts toward us are that mankind is a special creation, formed and shaped in every way by the Creator for a highly specialized purpose: to be the dwelling place, the temple for God to reside in. He grants to some eternal life, so that they can house the Eternal One.”
“How does this tie in with the battle?”
“This great destiny of eternal life will be given to those who win the battle staged in the theater of our minds. For the Creator does not just go, Poof!, and we all are miraculously transposed into gentle, smiling, sweet little humanoid robots who go about saying, ‘Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!’ Oh, no.”
“How does He do it then?”
“First, God has given us everything needed for victory–weapons, armor, food. Yet He has allowed a sly and cunning spiritual enemy to be able to speak to us anonymously by injecting thoughts right into our own brains. It is so deceptive that humans think that these thoughts are coming out of the ether of their own minds. Because, after all, they reason, I don’t believe in a world of spirits, where a diabolical spirit would do that to me! And, anyway, if a God of love existed, He would not put those He loved through all this mental anguish and suffering.”
The Seer stopped to emphasize the point. “That right there. That thought is an example of the ‘cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive’ [3]. And yet, there is a great paradox at work in this battle. In the world of man’s wisdom, when you surrender, you lose. But in this battle, when we surrender to God and His plan, we win! And through our victory, we realize that when we surrender to Him and His will and purpose for us, then we enlist in His army and begin to march forward helping others in the battle they are fighting for their very souls.”
The truth is that, although of course we lead normal human lives, the battle we are fighting is on the spiritual level. The very weapons we use are not those of human warfare but powerful in God’s warfare for the destruction of the enemy’s strongholds. Our battle is to bring down every deceptive fantasy and every imposing defense that men erect against the true knowledge of God. We even fight to capture every thought until it acknowledges the authority of Christ [4]. Kenneth Wayne Hancock
- Matthew 12: 37
- Ephesians 2: 2
- Eph. 4: 14
- II Corinthians 10: 4, Phillips
Immortality Road 