For King and Kingdom!

I apologize for the lateness of this post...it has been a little busy

We are in a battle. This is not a time of peace, waiting for Christ to return. We are in the middle of an epic battle for ownership of the soul; one that has gone on since the Garden. A battle between two kingdoms: The Kingdom of Light, God's eternal Kingdom, and the kingdom of darkness.

Now I have to admit that as a guy, this is exciting. I guess, as a guy, I have this deep, innate desire to stand up and fight for my King and Kingdom. While it is "exciting" for me, it is also serious stuff. The truth is, all of us, guys and girls, need to take a stand in this battle.

To take a stand means you need to be fully on one side or another. Either your all in or you are not in at all. We need to decide.

Our self fights against us. Historically, our self, our flesh, our sin nature, fights against the things of God. Our self doesn't want us to be all in, placing our all on the line for our King and His Kingdom. It resists a life of submitting everything to Christ, because it knows that giving our all for Christ, going completely on His side, means to deny self and its desires.

Our self, or flesh, will do any thing to stop us from giving our all to Christ. It will try and distract us, attack we least expect. It enjoys being comfortable, coddled. We need to realize that in order to be all in for our King, to be a servant of His Kingdom fully means to deny self, showing no quarter to the flesh, putting to death our sin nature.

The problem is that it is easier to say than to do it. Humanly speaking, we are stuck under sin's control, under the thumb of self. It seems that when we try to throw off the old self or deepen our relationship with Christ, our self goes into overdrive. It fights even harder, it seems. It is time to dig in our boots and decide to fight for our King and Kingdom.

There is a line in the sand. We have to decide to either be king of our lives and consequently be an ally of the kingdom of darkness, or to submit to the King, and His rule and ultimately let Him be in charge, making us a citizen of the Kingdom of Light.

Our self doesn't want to submit. It enjoys calling the shots. Even when we start to cede more to our King, it tries to sneak back onto the thrones of our lives. I know from experience. This past month, I have been wrestling with my self, and more times than not, it has come on top. We are in a battle. A battle of ownership.

It seems that when the harder we try, the harder it fights. It gets so frustrating...you try your hardest, commit your self to His Kingdom.....and you fall on your face. Your flesh manages to squeeze itself in, trips you up, pushes you back to that line in the sand...trying to get you on the other side, let it rule you.

But, through Christ, we are "more than conquerors through him who loved us" (Romans 8:37)We need to rely on Him, His strength, His grace. It's when we realize that we can't kick our flesh out on our own, and yield to His power, and Authority. Only He can fully, by His grace, give a holy kick to the pants of our self, booting it out of our soul, and allowing Him to fully establish His Kingship in our soul.

Now this isn't as easy as it sounds. It hurts. It is almost as if the flesh digs in its claws as Christ removes it. But, it is only through Christ that we can throw off our old self, and fully commit ourselves for our King, and Kingdom!


For King and Kingdom!