Fight the Good Fight in Fellowship

For our wrestling is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies. Ephesians 6:1

A proper Christian life involves fighting the good fight against Satan and his kingdom of darkness and for the interests of God’s kingdom—Eph. 6:10-19.  

Today I received a surprise email from one of the serving ones in the office. At the first glance, I thought he was not ready to take up a new assignment. But on a careful reading of the mail, he was sending an indirect intimation of leaving the service. This came as a shock to me. Before coming to any conclusion, I called up my brother who has been coordinating with me to check if he knew anything, perhaps, a serious reason for such a drastic decision. Then we both decided to call the brother concerned.

We had a long call that lasted over an hour and a half. As I listened to the brother and his concern that led up to make such a decision I came to realize that the enemy has been working behind the scene to frustrate the literature service that we are involved in. He was brought into the service initially to make the hymnal available in various Indian languages which he is very good at it and has a passion for it. Then because of the need, he was also assigned to take care of the IT works of the company, and then finally because of the need again, he was assigned a typesetting work of the Recovery Version of the Bible. The enemy surely hates this service very much. As he was narrating his side of the story and his feeling concerning the way things were communicated to him, there was an offense personally and a misunderstanding crept in between him and the other brother in the office. This is nothing new to me. This is the process we all have been going through in sour service. 

My brother who coordinates with me offered a wonderful fellowship on the need for our being blended, broken, and built up by the Lord in our respective areas of service. If one cannot be blended with the ones God has sovereignly placed with, escaping from that person is not the solution at all. The Lord wants all to be blended into the Body. To escape or avoid a brother just because one cannot adjust with him is to not be able to be blended in the Body.  Rather this should serve as an opportunity for learning the lesson of the cross by the Spirit and be built up as one.

Then, I offered my fellowship on how God's enemy hates the work we are doing as it is directly related to His eternal purpose. Bringing out the word of God with a proper translation and notes to help readers understand the word of God better is a real threat to the enemy. Surely the enemy hates this. Our fight is not against blood and flesh, not against our fellow believers but against Satan and his kingdom of darkness who has been opposing God's work or at least trying to frustrate, from the very beginning.  It is he who tries his best to thwart the work of God by bringing misunderstanding and confusion among the brothers. I offered a fellowship from the life of Nehemiah, how he was opposed vehemently when he decided to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. Yet he was not a coward, he fought against the opposition and was properly aggressive because he knew what God wants. In a very genuine way, I also told him my appreciation of his service, which I really meant, and let him know his service is needed and important in the Body for the Lord's purpose.

After such a fellowship, as brothers and as fellow serving ones, my brother changed his mind and gave up the idea of giving up his service. Then, we prayed together and the matter was resolved. Then we also called up the other brother through whom he was offended, and we clarified the matter in fellowship. We even encourage the latter to go fellowship with the former and pray together. The process was unexpected yet it taught a very precious lesson to me: we are fighting the good fight in fellowship. 

Satan is indeed the defeated foe. Whatever he does will end up proving the multifarious wisdom of God. No wonder, God still waited for the execution of the judgment He accomplished at the cross against Satan. In all his satanic activities, we are learning a precious lesson of the cross, fighting the good fight in fellowship for the building up of the Body of Christ!

Praise the Lord!