PROXY WAR

The recent invasion of Yemen by Houthi rebels bent on overthrowing that country’s government provides a revealing analogy of spiritual warfare. In particular, the war in Yemen is described as a “proxy war” between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Houthi rebels are supplied weapons and ammunition and supplies by largely Shiite Iran. Sunni Saudi Arabia has provided air strikes and ground forces to assist the weak and tottering Yemen government and its military forces in pushing back against the Houthis. The real battle, whatever is happening in Yemen, is between Saudi Arabia and Iran—Sunni and Shiite. As a believer, it is always consternating and confusing when a real, live, flesh and blood human is the biggest problem in your life, an apparent impediment in your walk with God, and then someone quotes, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities…, against spiritual wickedness.” The truth is, people—flesh and blood--are often our problem, our enemy, our battle. This isn’t a contradiction of Scripture. It is only an admission we often miss the point of the Scripture. The point of the Scripture is that there is a spiritual battle going on behind the visible, physical, human strata with which we interact. People are just the proxy for the spiritual forces at work. (This is not to say that people are involuntary puppets of spiritual forces or that people cannot generate their own evil without any assistance of evil spirits.). Often, evil spirits find willing accomplices in people. Many people have selfish, sinful, evil, hateful designs, and the evil spiritual realm needs only to support, encourage, and congratulate such people in their attacks on others. The sad thing is, often even good people unwittingly allow evil forces to use them . Deacon Bob is a good man. He thinks he is only insisting on his preference of carpet color. Yet, Satan uses the faction that coalesces around his dissenting drumbeat to cause real division in a church. There is a positive side to this proxy war: As certainly as some people are but proxies for evil forces and schemes, some people are proxies for good forces and designs. The Holy Spirit uses people for good as certainly as evil spirits use people for bad. I must realize, if I am not vigilant, evil can use me. But, the good news is, the Holy Spirit can use me as well. Thinking about proxy war, we can truly rest assured that the battle is not ours but the Lord’s.

PROXY WAR

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